Electrical hepl

Rob

Rob

House Cat
It's for my Holiday lights.

EDIT: Figured it out (Thanks JimE)... look to post 15 for the final answer.

I had a great idea... or so I thought.

I put up my lights but neither end would reach the plug which is in the middle of the lights.

The great idea was splice an old plug from the same type of lights into the middle of the string.

When I plugged it in... a few of the lights pop. The rest of the string on both sides light up but not the few on one side of my splice.

I'm no electrical engineer or engineer at all... so...


Why won't these lights light up? Each time I plug in a new light... they pop... but the lights downstream still light. Now I have a small pile of popped lights to admire.

I could ask my holiday light forum but I don't belong to a holiday light forum.

Next year I'll just use fire... that'll learn'em good!

What's going on? Do I need a flux capacitor or some blinking fluid?
 

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channelcat

channelcat

Banned
I dunno...maybe you switched polarity with your splice? try it the other way, and if your house doesn't burn down, jk, maybe all the lights will work.
 
stangmx13

stangmx13

not Stan
LED xmas lights come wired a 1000 diff ways. If u could draw up a wiring diagram, we could prob find the issue. But undoing the splice and buying an extension cord would prob b easier.
 
Rob

Rob

House Cat
stangmx13 said:
LED xmas lights come wired a 1000 diff ways. If u could draw up a wiring diagram, we could prob find the issue. But undoing the splice and buying an extension cord would prob b easier.
Click to expand...

You just don't get me, man.
 
Rob

Rob

House Cat
Imma draw you a picture.

All the lights fit into a cup and they, the lights, are either "unlit" or "Enlightened". (The dark ones are unlit)

Let's call the last unlit cup moving away from my splice "FnB" (fuckinbastard) and the first enlightened cup "HS" (holyshit).

So... the lead from the little prong runs, presumably, to the other receptacle on the end so that another string can plug in... you know what I mean?

All three wires are twisted and there's no way I'm working my way through that bullshit.
So keep that in mind.

The lead from the big prong goes into the first cup and comes out split.
One leg goes to the next cup and the next cup and so on and so forth.
The second leg ends, from the splice, to FnB.
One leg comes out of FnB into HS.
Two legs come out of HS and repeats the pattern... presumably.

So FnB is kinda like a big prong... hehe

Maybe I should have spliced just 2 wires between a FnB and HS rather than all three (which are the cups not between FnB and HS...duh!)
 
J

JimE

Rider
It's 2 wire AC polarity doesn't matter.

The lights are sets of parallels. You've cut the first set in the middle screwing up the resistance and increasing the current so all the lights burn right out due to overcurrent. The far set is untouched so lights normally because it has the right resistance, and therefore the right current, and lights normally.

Look here E=IR any day of the week (and twice on Sunday AFAIK). Now W=EI (at PF=1.0 which can be assumed for your home sweet home) and also W=(I^2)R. For series Rt=R1+R2+R3.... but for parallel 1/Rt=(1/R1)+(1/R2)+(1/R3)... Savvy?

Now off you go and cut one of them parallel sets in half (or thirds or whatever). Well Rt drops like a rock and then what? Well I goes through the roof dont'cha know and them tiny little bulbs only rated for so much juice and POP goes the weasel off to the hardware store we go. So don't do that mmmmkay? Put the effin' thing back on the end to keep R where it belongs, or stick higher wattage (more resistance didn't we just go over E=IR?) bulbs in there or fer Pete's sake (nice guy met him once) get out yer DVM and a handful of resistors (don't forget the old rhyme to remember the values "Bad boys rape our young girls but violet gives willingly") and a good old soldering iron with some flux core silver bearing.

Clear as mud?

That magic smoke. You let it out of the system and you can't put it back in.

How about some new lights and don't fuck with them this time?
 
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Rob

Rob

House Cat
JimE said:
It's 2 wire AC polarity doesn't matter.

The lights are sets of parallels. You've cut the first set in the middle screwing up the resistance and increasing the current so all the lights burn right out due to overcurrent. The far set is untouched so lights normally because it has the right resistance, and therefore the right current, and lights normally.

Look here E=IR any day of the week (and twice on Sunday AFAIK). Now W=EI (at PF=1.0 which can be assumed for your home sweet home) and also W=(I^2)R. For series Rt=R1+R2+R3.... but for parallel 1/Rt=(1/R1)+(1/R2)+(1/R3)... Savvy?

Now off you go and cut one of them parallel sets in half (or thirds or whatever). Well Rt drops like a rock and then what? Well I goes through the roof dont'cha know and them tiny little bulbs only rated for so much juice and POP goes the weasel off to the hardware store we go. So don't do that mmmmkay? Put the effin' thing back on the end to keep R where it belongs, or stick higher wattage (more resistance didn't we just go over E=IR?) bulbs in there or fer Pete's sake (nice guy met him once) get out yer DVM and a handful of resistors (don't forget the old rhyme to remember the values "Bad boys rape our young girls but violet gives willingly") and a good old soldering iron with some flux core silver bearing.

Clear as mud?

That magic smoke. You let it out of the system and you can't put it back in.

How about some new lights and don't fuck with them this time?
Click to expand...

YES!

So. What I'm hearing is that I need some flux resistors... not capacitors... and here I am with a bottle of blinker fluid. But, the DVM has such long lines... F-that.

Now. Where's violet?

Bah! I'll buy a new set AFTER the holidays.
 
channelcat

channelcat

Banned
I get the paractical gist of it, but which b's are blue and which b's are black?

and would wiring a 100w bulb in first in series from the outlet act as a resistor and allow the hack to work?
 
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Rob

Rob

House Cat
Rob said:
Imma draw you a picture.

All the lights fit into a cup and they, the lights, are either "unlit" or "Enlightened". (The dark ones are unlit)

Let's call the last unlit cup moving away from my splice "FnB" (fuckinbastard) and the first enlightened cup "HS" (holyshit).

So... the lead from the little prong runs, presumably, to the other receptacle on the end so that another string can plug in... you know what I mean?

All three wires are twisted and there's no way I'm working my way through that bullshit.
So keep that in mind.

The lead from the big prong goes into the first cup and comes out split.
One leg goes to the next cup and the next cup and so on and so forth.
The second leg ends, from the splice, to FnB.
One leg comes out of FnB into HS.
Two legs come out of HS and repeats the pattern... presumably.

So FnB is kinda like a big prong... hehe

Maybe I should have spliced just 2 wires between a FnB and HS rather than all three (which are the cups not between FnB and HS...duh!)
Click to expand...

So. This worked.

All my cups are lit (HS) and I have no more fuckinbastards (FnBs) that won't light.

To recap... I moved my spliced-in plug from parallel to series and everything works.

:party
 

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channelcat

channelcat

Banned
hack mastah! wack connectah! lights not poppin', so everything bettah!:laughing:laughing:laughing
 
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Rob

Rob

House Cat
I've tested it over and over again. I even took a shit with the lights on. You'd figure that's when it'd burn, right?

If it starts burning, I'll be the first to blame JimE.
 
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