LED Christmas lights (was ac/DC cheer) [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

I brought home a set of the red/green ForeverBrights to try. I plugged them
into an AC receptacle next to our Tri-Met (set on amps display) and nothing
changed. The draw is smaller than will register on a .1A increment. My wife
(not technical, but lives well offgrid with a TM2020 on the kitchen wall)
got a kick out of that.
The first set failed shortly after startup, so I suspected an
incompatibility with mod-square (1991 Heart) inverter power. Being a good
American, I exchanged them for a second set at Albertson's supermarket. The
replacement set has worked fine since, so apparently a random failure; they
seem to be fine on inverter power. Great product at ten bucks a set!
Allan at +E

----- Original Message -----
From: "sunwise" <sunwise at cheqnet.net>
The ForeverBright LED Christmas lights that we were discussing some time
> back are wonderful and it turns out they are easily converted over to
> DC.  Anyone wanting some tips that makes it easy, contact me off-list.
>
> For your off-grid customers, another cool feature is that depending on
> the inverter sleep sensitivity, at least a couple strings of lights will
> allow your Trace to drop into search mode and the lights blink as the
> inverter sends out the search pulse.  They then come on steady when
> something fires the inverter.
>
> My Fluke 87 measured a string of 70 red lights at 25mA at 12.5 VDC (.31
> watts).  I didn't have a second set of reds, but a 75 bulb string of
> white (yellow) draws about 19mA at 120vac (2.28 watts).  My Brand meter
> also showed it to be around 2 watts but it jumps around of the Brand
> sometimes reading 4 watts.  A string of 35 blues runs at about 1.8 watts
> at 120ac.

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================