Help needed converting LED snowflakes

**cnbales** · 06-09-2012, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by P. Short

BTW, do those white blobs connected to the stars get hot when the star is lit up?

If they are just dropping resistors, then it might be as simple as just cutting off the controller and hooking up a RenSS in its place. But it's too early to make that decision yet.

They do get hot. After about five minutes they were pretty warm.

**P. Short** · 06-09-2012, 02:29 PM

OK. My conjecture is that you could just cut off the controller and use a Renard (or similar controller) to control those stars, although I would want to look at some waveforms with an isolation transformer and oscilloscope before making any final decision. Also, let's see what others suggest.

**P. Short** · 06-10-2012, 06:03 PM

Do you have an AC voltmeter?

I'm thinking that if we can determine the voltages present on the wires as they leave the controller , that it may be possible to say that it is OK (or not OK) to just wire the strings up to a Renard board.

Is it possible to easily place voltmeter leads on the wires as they exit the controller? If so, determine which wires are the common ones that go to all of the stars, and also select the wire that goes to just one of the stars. The first thing to do (being careful not to touch any of the wires or the metal part of the voltmeter leads with your fingers) measure the voltages between each of the selected controller wires that lead to the stars with the controller plugged into power but none of the stars turned on (if this is possible), then do the same thing with that selected star turned on. You should report six numbers (the voltages between wires AB, AC and BC with the lights off and the lights on).

Do you think that this is something that you could do (safely)?

**gdyrdave** · 06-10-2012, 07:05 PM

May I ask where did you get those?

**cnbales** · 06-10-2012, 08:40 PM

P. Short,

Here is what I came up with. Each one of the snowflakes are receiving 120v coming out of the controller. As I was reading the first one I shorted five of six snowflakes out when the multimeter lead slipped off one of the contact points and rested in between two contact points (they all still work on 2 of the functions and when they are on steady on the strobe...it was actually a pretty cool mess up to make). Since I messed it up I ended up taking one of the snowflakes and hooking it directly to an extension cord and it works great. After letting it stay on for about 3 minutes the large in line resistor (or whatever that thing is) warmed up as it did when it was hooked up to the controller.

Do you have any suggestions?

Originally Posted by P. Short

Do you have an AC voltmeter?

I'm thinking that if we can determine the voltages present on the wires as they leave the controller , that it may be possible to say that it is OK (or not OK) to just wire the strings up to a Renard board.

Is it possible to easily place voltmeter leads on the wires as they exit the controller? If so, determine which wires are the common ones that go to all of the stars, and also select the wire that goes to just one of the stars. The first thing to do (being careful not to touch any of the wires or the metal part of the voltmeter leads with your fingers) measure the voltages between each of the selected controller wires that lead to the stars with the controller plugged into power but none of the stars turned on (if this is possible), then do the same thing with that selected star turned on. You should report six numbers (the voltages between wires AB, AC and BC with the lights off and the lights on).

Do you think that this is something that you could do (safely)?

**cnbales** · 06-10-2012, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by gdyrdave

May I ask where did you get those?

I found them on craigslist.

**P. Short** · 06-10-2012, 10:04 PM

If you've hooked a star across the power line, and it worked without releasing any magic smoke, I think that the next step is connecting it to a Renard (or similar) controller to see how it dims. It will probably dim OK, at least it should operate as well as any full-length LED string does. I think that the white blob going to each star is simply a dropping resistor, to allow a 15-light LED string to work with 110VAC.

**cnbales** · 06-12-2012, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by P. Short

If you've hooked a star across the power line, and it worked without releasing any magic smoke, I think that the next step is connecting it to a Renard (or similar) controller to see how it dims. It will probably dim OK, at least it should operate as well as any full-length LED string does. I think that the white blob going to each star is simply a dropping resistor, to allow a 15-light LED string to work with 110VAC.

Believe it or not, these dim great! There is no flicker at all and they dim down to 16% before shutting off. I'm really impressed with the quality of these. If anyone is interested, I know that Costco sold these last year.