LED's From Big Lots

[PMC]

Like everyone else I'm converting to LED's and Big Lots has a sale on the 70 count C6, for $6.50 each, I bought all they had in Blue's and Red's, as I was driving home thinking what a thrifty shopper I am, it hit me.....do you get what you pay for?

So if anybody reads this and has a horror story to tell about LED's from Big Lots I am curious, and I did take one strand plugged it in outside and I'm going to leave it on 24 hours a day for a few days

I'm heading to Home Depot in the morning they have a trade in sale and the price isn't bad for LED's and you get $3.00 off if you bring in a old set of lights, I might have a few laying around

[JBullard]

PMC wrote:

Like everyone else I'm converting to LED's and Big Lots has a sale on the 70 count C6, for $6.50 each, I bought all they had in Blue's and Red's, as I was driving home thinking what a thrifty shopper I am, it hit me.....do you get what you pay for?

So if anybody reads this and has a horror story to tell about LED's from Big Lots I am curious, and I did take one strand plugged it in outside and I'm going to leave it on 24 hours a day for a few days

I'm heading to Home Depot in the morning they have a trade in sale and the price isn't bad for LED's and you get $3.00 off if you bring in a old set of lights, I might have a few laying around

I don't think you would have to worry about the Big Lots LEDs if you just plug them in and let them burn.

However, they are a half wave rectified string, I would suggest hooking them up to a controller and see how they dim, same for the ones from Home Depot.

I have tried the LEDs from both Big Lots and Home Depot in the past and ended up just throwing them away. I just cannot stand the flicker from a 1/2 wave LED.

You may have to adjust your sequences since some half wave LEDs may dim differently then incadenscents.

[kzaas]

I don't have any LED's yet, half or full wave rectified but instead of throwing them away couldn't you replace the the half wave rectifier with a full wave one, diodes are very cheap.

[JBullard]

kzaas wrote:

I don't have any LED's yet, half or full wave rectified but instead of throwing them away couldn't you replace the the half wave rectifier with a full wave one, diodes are very cheap.

More trouble then it's worth, for a strand of cheap lights.

The LEDs themselves are the half-wave rectifier part of the circuit. Would have to cut off the current droping resistor, recalculate a new value of dropping resistor(s), add the bridge rectifiers, then water proof all the connections

Went through this in 2008 with almost a hundred strands of LEDs from a vendor that included a capacitor in the rectifier circuit. Worked fine static, but burst into flames when you tried to dim them. Had to build new fullwave rectifier packs for every strand, (and the component values were different for different colors) install them and water proof them.

So, no thanks. I have over 40,000 quality full wave rectified LEDs from Paul at CDI

[kzaas]

Like I said I don't have any LED strings yet so I didn't know how they were built. When I do start replacing with LED's I will be sure to buy quality full wave type.

Thanks JBULLARD.

[Max-Paul]

kzass,

Be sure to go over to Planet Christmas and read the threads in the LED section. It will be an eye opener. Be sure to stay away from the one vendor. Dont know if he will be back in 2011, but if he is, stay clear.

[PMC]

Some excellent points were brought up in this thread, I checked the boxes and read the all paperwork and nothing states if these are full or half wave, so I did what JB suggested I took 8 of these LED light sets and 8 standard mini-incandescent light sets and connected them to a controller next to my computer and using the LOR hardware utility did some testing, and I have to say all looks good, excellent smooth fade (no flicker or voltage jumping) I tested this in a dark room and the twinkle and shimmers looked good even the fading twinkle and fade, love the full intensity of these LED's,

So I did a 2nd test using a sequence, and I am satisfied with the results

Since the box does not state if full or half wave and by the way these lights passed the bench test,I would have to say they resolved the issues

Thanks Everybody

[Steven]

JBullard wrote:

Would have to cut off the current droping resistor, recalculate a new value of dropping resistor(s), add the bridge rectifiers, then water proof all the connections

That would be a lot of trouble. Two years ago, I put semi-permanent white LEDs on my roof, and I used a much easier method. I had LED strings from different manufacturers. One was half-wave.

The other (from Christmas Depot, if I remember correctly), had a bridge rectifier on the plug end of the string, and the other end of the string had a socket that had rectified voltage on it. So I plugged the half-wave strings into the full-wave strings and presto! It was now a full-wave (and brighter!) string. (Unless I turned the plug around, in which case it wouldn't light at all.)

I was worried the extra brightness would affect the life of the string, so I left it plugged in for 30 hours in my warm(er) garage first. No problem! Half of them are still on the roof for their third year. The others rusted out where the steel LED leads met the copper sockets, which is why I stopped buying strings with removable bulbs.

[Surfing4Dough]

PMC wrote:

Some excellent points were brought up in this thread, I checked the boxes and read the all paperwork and nothing states if these are full or half wave, so I did what JB suggested I took 8 of these LED light sets and 8 standard mini-incandescent light sets and connected them to a controller next to my computer and using the LOR hardware utility did some testing, and I have to say all looks good, excellent smooth fade (no flicker or voltage jumping) I tested this in a dark room and the twinkle and shimmers looked good even the fading twinkle and fade, love the full intensity of these LED's,

So I did a 2nd test using a sequence, and I am satisfied with the results

Since the box does not state if full or half wave and by the way these lights passed the bench test,I would have to say they resolved the issues

Thanks Everybody

Make sure you do the same tests with 5-6 strings plugged into the channel end to end. You might get different results. Most work just fine with 1 string, but once you connect multiple strings on a single channel, sometimes you will experience some fading problems--not as smooth. (This is different than the "wave" flicker issue.)

If you notice un-smooth fading, then here is a easy fix: http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php/37562-Easiest-Terminators-Snubbers-to-make
I have also read of people using Glade Plug-ins, or a single C9 bulb plugged in the the channel with the LEDs.

[jerryb721]

PMC wrote:

Like everyone else I'm converting to LED's and Big Lots has a sale on the 70 count C6, for $6.50 each, I bought all they had in Blue's and Red's, as I was driving home thinking what a thrifty shopper I am, it hit me.....do you get what you pay for/

I've been using the Big Lots LEDs for 3 years now and have 0 problems with them. Being in L.A. not much of weather issues, but these have done very well compared to the other big box LEDs I've bought.
Fades do not seem to be much different than the other LED I have bought (I have never bought any from the vendors on PC)

[wmilkie]

Another opinion:

First LOR year, 99% LED;

I have used Big Lots LED's last year(not LOR) and this year(LOR); although they're half wave, they work for me, they're very bright and fade ok. Green led selection is poor though.

Stay away from Home Depot's Martha Stewart brand; awful.

I have had very good luck with ChristmaLights Etc led's this year; very, very happy with them.

I also like some of Target’s led’s but pricy.



best of luck

[robert seguin, jr.]

i'm sorry i don't understand half wave and full wave, would the be advertised as such, would a commerical vendor know if i were to start buying led, which would i buy thanks rob

[JBullard]

Normally, if LEDs are the higher priced Full Wave, they almost will always be advertised as such. It is rare that retail stores ever carry Full Wave LEDs, and almost always are Half-Wave. To me the Half-Wave LEDs have a very pronounced flicker that drives me #^$$^.

Most commercial vendors, such as Creative Displays always carry the better Full Wave LED products.

One commercial vendor both last year and this year took pre-orders for Full Wave, but some people have reported receiving half wave LEDs, if they were able to get any product at all.

[Steven]

robert seguin, jr. wrote:

i'm sorry i don't understand half wave and full wave

A half wave string will flicker 60 times per second. It will actually be off over half the time. This flicker bothers some people, especially if viewed out of the corner of their eyes.

One way to tell if a string is half wave or full wave is to plug it in (there are often demo strings plugged in at the store), and wave it rapidly back and forth. You can then see if the lights are off most of the time, which means half wave.

[robert seguin, jr.]

thanks for the explanation, rob

[PMC]

Lots of great suggestions, I tested all and I have to say these Big Lot's LEDS passed my tests and for the price I will be buying more.

I connected 8 LED strands in tandem in channel 1 of the controller and did a hardware/sequence test, no flicker and its fade margin aligned almost perfect with the mini-incandescents plugged into channel 2

I looked at these LED's plugged directly into normal 120v and I didn't see a flicker or a drop out when I waved them around back and forth. by the way my son said...you finally did it you are insane, when he was watching me do this test

I looked at these things (LED's) through the corner of my eye and still no flicker. but I have to admit my eyesight isn't 20/20 I do wear glasses. if that makes a difference

And I have a LED set still plugged in on my backporch for 4 days now, still going strong

-Paul

[TomD]

I've used LEDs from Big Lots for two years now. There are a couple of problems. The bulbs are replaceable meaning that they are not water tight. Was checking my sets out from last year and found a couple that had rust in them. I did have a couple of sets go out last year, but most have worked for two years no problem. I have LEDs from Home Depot from a couple of years ago as well. I did a fade test in my garage for a week. I set up a couple of fade sequences and just let them run 24 hours a day for a week with no problems. I think my biggest problem is corrosion. We get a lot or rain in December in North Carolina. I think you'll be ok with those LEDs, but they won't last "20,000 hours" or whatever if you get much rain.

TomD