why are some lights bright and some dim on a mini strand.

[rickharp]

havent had a chance to totally trouble shoot the strands in question, but on my mega tree, controlled by a LOR, in static always on mode, i see that numerous strands that worked fine last year now have complete mixture of dim and super bright bulbs, with no real pattern to them. i've never seen anything like it.

replacing them would be a pain as the tree is up now.

[Tim Fischer]

Unless some of the bulbs have been changed with the wrong type, I've never heard of this.

I'm guessing that it has nothing to do with LOR. You could confirm by plugging the lights directly into a normal extension cord plugged into a standard outlet...

-Tim

[rickharp]

yep, i didnt think it was lor. from what i can figure, it was an old set, and for some reason, bulbs dimming, were sending more power to others. i've replaced the strands.

I wonder if LED's will last much longer and pay off in the long run.

[rossg]

It sounds like the filaments are going in some bulbs.

[Richard Hamilton]

rickharp wrote:

I wonder if LED's will last much longer and pay off in the long run.

I switched to LEDs last year on my mega-tree and I prefer them over incandescent lights for a lot of reasons, but the main two reasons for the switch to LED is that I wanted them to be more reliable, and better color. My tree is mounted on top of a shed and I don't want to be replacing bulbs during the season. I like the brilliant color of LEDs far better than incandescent bulbs.

[fire_paramedic]

If you start loosing bulbs in a strand (section) the power supply to the others goes up and thus the brightness. Ususally takes about 5-10 bulbs to really see a difference.

[Richard Hamilton]

fire_paramedic wrote:

If you start loosing bulbs in a strand (section) the power supply to the others goes up and thus the brightness. Ususally takes about 5-10 bulbs to really see a difference.

Out of curiosity, isn't that only true with incandescent bulbs?
As I recall, the current through a string of LEDs will not change much at all of an LED fails, so the other bulbs stay at about the same brightness. I forget the details about that.

[fire_paramedic]

Yes that should b try. a led string uses much less power and the rquirements for an individual led depending on which one used is almost nothing. I dont know for sure but they are also probably wired parallel instead of series since they usually have a rectifier for voltage control.

Im sure there is someone else here who could explain it better than i have.

[KenMays]

I've seen a situation where a bulb that has been dropped doesn't burn out or crack, but the filament gets tangled. The result is that the filament is now making contact in multiple places, thus presenting a lower resistance and burning brighter. It then affects others by reducing the overall resistance of the series circuit. It usually didn't last too long because the troubled bulb burned out about a minute or two later.