How to take this plug apart?

[stanward]

I have a bunch of these plugs lying around, and need to make some terminators for my cheapy LED sets. I want to take this plug apart to install a resistor inside of it.

[Virtus]

Why not install the resistor before the plastic plug on the wire?

[BillAd]

below is what I did. clip one wire shorter than the other, solder the resistor in, slip a piece of hear shrink tubing, heat, crimp the open end of the tubing while still hot to fuse the ends together, done.

http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=35&pictureid=133

[Aurbo99]

I cannot tell for sure, but it appears there is an access area near that arrow on the plug, if I am correct there will be a very small fuse in there. you can use that spot for a resistor instead of the fuse.

Inside that area you should be able to see the clips that hold the top female plate and wire terminals.

CAREFULLY bend the tabs to release the top. You may snap them as they are not meant to be removed after initial installation.

[Sky-Lights]

Yep , there is a little fuse access area , BUT , it does NOT get you to the other terminal so you can make a snubber . ( need to connect both sides , not one )

[stanward]

If I could open up this connector, what I can do is:

1. Install the resistor in existing LED light strings.
2. Remove the excess wire and install the resistor inside and use that as a snubber at the end of line on any string I choose.

I only have 25 of those clipped ends, and didn't want to destroy one to see how it was assembled.

[RPM]

I have a bunch of these plugs lying around, and need to make some terminators for my cheapy LED sets. I want to take this plug apart to install a resistor inside of it.

Use a big hammer?

IMO, you would probably be better off soldering the resistor to the leads external to the plug, because if you mounted it inside it may melt the plastic or start a fire.

Just my .02

Robert

[Aurbo99]

Ya know.. those little fuses look very SSR friendly.. too bad they are not 5Amps...

[stanward]

I'm not sure how the resistors could start a fire, as they only will sink 0.3W when they are rated for 1W each. That is over a 3 times safety factor.

[stanward]

Success!

I was also able to take apart the female end as well.

I think I will install the resistors on the female end on the existing LED light strings to give it a clean look.

[Aurbo99]

Super!

Got some details on how you pulled them apart?

I'd still like to find the 5amp version of those little fuses.. and then you can completely remove the fuse assembly off the SSRoz's and into the male plug.

One less reason to open a weatherproof SSR module in the freezing cold..

[budude]

Yep - would like to know also -- got some 1/2 wavers today and this looks like one of my first projects for 2010! Can they be put back together is a good question also?

[stanward]

You guys can go to this thread to see how I took them apart.
http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php?t=39193

I put them back together with zero problems. So far, I have taken apart the female ends on my existing 200ct LED sets to install the resistor on each receptacle. Also, I have taken apart a bunch of the plug/sockets (had fuses inside). All of them went back together flawlessly.

[budude]

Cool - - I wanted to do an experiment with the following:

Channel 1 - half wave - no resistor (straight out of the box)
Channel 2 - half wave - resistor (33-39k)
Channel 3 - full wave - no resistor
Channel 4 - full wave - resistor (33-39k)

And then run a long fade at the same time on all 4 channels to really see if there is a major difference before whacking apart the other 46 strings...

[stanward]

That would be a great test! I only noticed the flicker in my light strings when 4 of them were together. If I had only 3, I did not notice any flicker.

So I decided not to do any other tests with them.

Maybe you can take video of your tests and report back here?

[Sharkey]

I need to see those :P Come-on Planet Christmas moderators, activate my account!