massarosareloud Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Hi everyone,My icicle light strands say that no more than 3 should be daisy chained together. Does this hold any merit or do people ignore them and run 6, 7, 10 together. I'm trying to consolidate my use of the extension cords I already own and wasting 3 extension cords so I don't supposedly overload my icicle lights seems unnecessary to me. I just can't fathom that each strand could use an amp (each strand has 3 amp fuses, thus 3 strands x each using 1 amp = 3 amp limit). I'd like to use as few extension cords as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 The fuse in the first string will blow if its current rating is exceeded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 massarosareloud wrote: Hi everyone,My icicle light strands say that no more than 3 should be daisy chained together. Does this hold any merit or do people ignore them and run 6, 7, 10 together. I'm trying to consolidate my use of the extension cords I already own and wasting 3 extension cords so I don't supposedly overload my icicle lights seems unnecessary to me. I just can't fathom that each strand could use an amp (each strand has 3 amp fuses, thus 3 strands x each using 1 amp = 3 amp limit). I'd like to use as few extension cords as possible.switch to LED icicle lights, you can daisy chain up to 25 on some of them. I think it also depends on how you will use them (may have something to do with amperage draw). if you are tying them into a LOR controller and they will not be continually on then it might be ok to do incandescent that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 The fuse in the first string will blow if its current rating is exceeded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massarosareloud Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Can you dim an LED strand? If so then that would be perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Some LED cannot All the ones I use can. Verify with the vendor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massarosareloud Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Ok, I remember seeing that they do not dim linearly, is that correct? Do they have a drop off at 50% or so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Not all led strings behave the same depends on how they were made mine are good down to about 15% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Hopefully the next firmware update will allow custom dimming curves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massarosareloud Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 That would be pretty awesome!! I'll look into LED icicle lights, as well as LED lights in general. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nurples Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 If you run the ext cord to the middle, you can run 3 strands end-to-end to the right and three strands end-to-end to the left (and 3 up the middle if your layout has a spot where three areas come together) by pluging the male ends into the back of each other at the ext. You can prolly get away with running 4 strands end-to-end with no issues... giving you 8 strands on one ext cord.Hope that makes sense... If not, I could draw you a diagram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massarosareloud Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 That is a brilliant idea. I am amazed I didn't come up with that before. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubado Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Be careful not to overload your channel on the controller. You may need to use more than one channel. You didn't mention how many strands or bulb count you intend to hook up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massarosareloud Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 What is the limit for one channel? I know its 15 amps per bank of 8 channels, but is the individual channel 8 amps?Also, I'm going to try to get a kill-a-watt on eBay if I can.EDIT: I don't know the bulb count for each strand. So I couldn't tell you that one.EDIT 2: Looks like this is the setup for the icicle light strands:1qty: 8ft1: 8.5ft4: 9ft1: 9.5ft1: 11ftSo in theory I could potentially run 4 strands on either side which then join together into 1 extension cord. I can't imagine that using much more than a few amps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubado Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 My icicles are 300 per strand. If I were to use 8 of them on a channel, I would blow the channel. I can't get to the boxes to find out the specs. I added my own heatsinks to my board and don't go above 6 amps to be safe which is I believe about 1400 bulbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massarosareloud Posted August 6, 2011 Author Share Posted August 6, 2011 Ok, I am fairly sure I am switching to LED this year. So that should not be a problem. But thank you for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryebred Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 One thing I noticed last year in my commercial grade LED's is that the number of strands you have connected together could effect the dimming on that channel. For instance, the majority of my display is 2-3 strands of LED's connected together on a single channel. However, my roof is 9 strands of 100 count LED's connected end to end on one channel. I am way under the amp limit on that channel however. the roof would always fade up/down slightly different than the rest of the display. Likewise, if I had a fast on/off effect going it appeared to be at a slightly different rate than the rest of the display.Granted it was not off by much and I am the only one who probably noticed. I took two strands off to see if it was the strands themselves but when having the same effects applied they were in phase with the rest of the display.So, I think the voltage drop over the greater distance might have been what effected the LED's. Next year I was going to add a few more strings up there so was going to split the whole lot into two channels to see if it gets rid of that issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Rye,You might want to try on your roof lights adding a resistive load. Something as simple as a single C-9 bulb. I would venture to day your roof lights will act normal then.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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