LED Christmas lights and small inverter [RE-wrenches]

[sunwise]

I have used foreverbright lights in 24 and 12 VDC direct applications,
and in rewiring them for DC I can say that there is no timer circuit in
the light strings.  Just a bunch of LEDs all wired in series.  That is
why there are more "bulbs" in a string of red, green or yellow than the
blue strings (blues operate at higher voltage).  

I think the "turns on and off quickly" is just referring to the 60 cycle
ac, as the LEDs in this configuration are only on half time.  

I'd be interested in how this works for you.  A little 50 watt inverter
would run LOTS of strings as they are very efficient indeed.  I have had
a couple failures of strings running on a mod-square inverter (bigger
Trace).  I think for the most part one LED can go out and still allow
the rest of the string to operate, but sometimes a different type of LED
failure takes out the whole string?  One string went dead when I moved
it which probably means it now has a loose connection of an LED.  Also
note that there is a small fuse in each string located in the plug and
if you plug something other than another LED string into the other end
(allows you to plug more strings together), you'd probably blow it.

Kurt Nelson
SOLutions



-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Roush [mailto:solarguide at everestkc.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 8:26 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: LED Christmas lights and small inverter [RE-wrenches]

Anyone have any luck running strings of Foreverbright LED Christmas 
lights with a small (Portawatts type) inverter? They say it has a 
cirsuit that turns it on and off quickly. It saves energy and the eye 
can't detect it, but I am worried that any kind of timing circuit will 
get confused with the square wave of the inverter.

Bill Roush
Solar Electric Systems/KC
13700 W. 108th St. 
Lenexa, KS 66215
www.solarguide.com

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