RaceMedic Posted September 24, 2010 Posted September 24, 2010 Ok .....So I am working on my first part of my house for christmas and cut into my 1'000 ft rool of C9 sockets spaced 6" apart.Cut some to custom length and add my vampire plugs.Almost EVERY string that I have made has a bad socket on it .... is this normal for bulk strands of sockets ?!I have 100 extra C9 sockets .... is it that simple to pop off the bad one and add a new one at the same spot ?!Does the ribbed side of the wire go to the middle contact or the side ?!Thanks,Dave
Cray Augsburg Posted September 24, 2010 Posted September 24, 2010 The "bad" sockets may simply not have the teeth fully imbedded into the copper portion of the wire. Try reseating them, if you can get the back off. Other wise replace them.Also, the ribbed side of the wire is the common, so it should be connected to the side contact on the socket, not the central contact. The central, or "hot", contact goes to the non-ribbed conductor of the SPT.
RaceMedic Posted September 24, 2010 Author Posted September 24, 2010 Cray Augsburg wrote: The "bad" sockets may simply not have the teeth fully imbedded into the copper portion of the wire. Try reseating them, if you can get the back off. Other wise replace them.Also, the ribbed side of the wire is the common, so it should be connected to the side contact on the socket, not the central contact. The central, or "hot", contact goes to the non-ribbed conductor of the SPT.OOPS ....I replaced a few sockets the opposite way .... odd though ... all the bulbs still worked ... they are LEDs ..... obviously I will be replacing them but .... how did they work then ?!Thanks,Dave
gizmomkr Posted September 24, 2010 Posted September 24, 2010 AC Power (what comes out of the outlet in the USA and many other countries) Has no positive or negative. Many electronic devices convert the AC power into DC power inside the device.The socketed part of the LED bulb is not polarity sensitive - they have been designed to replace standard C9 AC Powered lights. A standard AC bulb will light up no matter what way you connect hot and netural (as long as you get one to each conductor)Polarity sensitive AC Devices do exsist, but its not as common.Ceiling fans are polarity sensitive as manny have a switch that allows reversing the fan - just an example.This is intended to be BASIC information, I dont think anyone needs the long winded engineer version
lightzilla Posted September 24, 2010 Posted September 24, 2010 RaceMedic wrote: Ok .....So I am working on my first part of my house for christmas and cut into my 1'000 ft rool of C9 sockets spaced 6" apart.Cut some to custom length and add my vampire plugs.Almost EVERY string that I have made has a bad socket on it .... is this normal for bulk strands of sockets ?!I have 100 extra C9 sockets .... is it that simple to pop off the bad one and add a new one at the same spot ?!Does the ribbed side of the wire go to the middle contact or the side ?!Thanks,DaveDid you buy wire with the sockets on it or did add the sockets yourself.I bought 200 C7 sockets from a place and so far they all work. I am certainly glad for that.I may however used the remainder sockets for the new C7 strings I have so like you each bulb is spaced 6 inches apart. Good for the front face of the house.Should be nice & bright...........maybe to bright. Perhaps the sides only since LED icicle lights are going up on the front as well. Anyhow we shall see.I am glad things got worked out for you.
RaceMedic Posted September 25, 2010 Author Posted September 25, 2010 lightzilla wrote: Did you buy wire with the sockets on it or did add the sockets yourself.Yes ..... I bought the spool from Action Lighting ..... I had to throw out the strings I had done d/t the reversed sockets I had replaced and still I did not have a string without a bad socket. I even tried tapping the bottom of it with a hammer just to make sure the spikes where all the way in the wire but no luck.I kid you not ... I have replace close to 20 sockets on only 100 sockets being used, after replacing my first strands.I have sent Action Lighting an email and will follow up with a call Monday. At the very least I am going to need another bag of replacement sockets, hopefully at no cost, as the shipping is what will be pricey.I am not blaming them as I know they buy it in bulk but they need to know that they are selling a less than expected quality product.Dave
Cray Augsburg Posted September 25, 2010 Posted September 25, 2010 As giz said, a long-winded explanation isn't necessary. But I would add:Mini LED strings and non-replaceable "C9" and "C7" LED strings use a rectifier device in the light string to convert AC to "DC" for the whole string. Replacement LED bulbs handle the conversion individually.More importantly, about the C9 sockets:All the sockets on the wire SHOULD have the side contact connected to the common (ribbed) side of the wire. Otherwise, if one is connected to the hot side, someone could get shocked if they were to touch the exposed threads on a loose bulb. So, for safety's sake, DO change the socket orientation on those few sockets.
RaceMedic Posted September 25, 2010 Author Posted September 25, 2010 Cray Augsburg wrote: All the sockets on the wire SHOULD have the side contact connected to the common (ribbed) side of the wire. Otherwise, if one is connected to the hot side, someone could get shocked if they were to touch the exposed threads on a loose bulb. So, for safety's sake, DO change the socket orientation on those few sockets.What I ended up doing, as it may be difficult to see which ones were all replaced ... I learned after the fact that adding up plugs to the end made them too close to the track system that I had built for the lights.With extra C9 string this year I just threw them all out ... and redid them all with extra length on the ends.Being a paramedic .... safety is my FIRST priority !Thanks everyone !Dave
Recommended Posts