Help...LED's not fading...do I need a snubber?

[Tom Clapper]

I have a tree full of led's. 9 strings of 25ct c9's per channel. One channel Red, one green, and one white. They all worked fine last year, but 3 strings of white went bad over the summer. I replaced those 3 strings with the same brand of lights (from Ace Hardware) but now instead of fading they blink a few times on the fade down or up. I've heard of people using snubbers. Would that fix my problem or would it help if I used a c7 style night lite. If that would work can I plug it into the piggyback of the first string or do I have to put it at the end of the strings (16' up to the top of the tree). Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[james campbell]

sorry missread your post

Edited November 22, 2012 by james campbell

[Dennis Cherry]

Quick fix, throw 1 strand of incandescent bulbs on each channel. Long term, yeah you need to snub with like 47 OHM, 1 watt resistor across hot and neutral. I made 6 inch extension cords that have the resistor inside the socket.

Drew

NOT a 47 OHM resistor but a 47,000 OHM resistor.

You will start a fire with a 47 Ohm resistor.

[Tom Clapper]

Ok, so I have a pack of resistors from Radio Shack. They are 47k - Ohm Resistors, 1/2 watt, 5% tolerance. If I take a 2 prong male cord end, and run the resistor, from one screw to the other(Hot to Neutral) that would make a correct snubber right? Then do I have to plug it into the end of the series of strings(hopefully not cause it's 16' up a tree) or can I just plug it into the first string(piggybacked into the light cord where the lights plug into the extension cord?

I just reread your post. You said a "1" watt resistor, the ones i have are "1/2" watt. does that matter?

[james morris]

what the post from last year said the resistors 1 watt 47k 5% you can plug it in the end he did a test did not see any differents at eather end I have 12 of them plug in the ends of each my 2 or more strings

Edited November 23, 2012 by james morris

[Surfing4Dough]

Sounds like a snubber issue to me. Have read of people using Glade plug-ins (and therefore not creating a light source).

Easy snubbers to make:

[Tom Clapper]

So will the 1/2 watt work? or do I need to get 1 watt

[james morris]

he say 1 watt in his article mousser electric have then 8.00 per 100

[frozentundra52]

I use 2 100k 1/2watt 5% resistors from Radio Shack on each snubber.

[David Rise]

I had a couple of issues last year with fading. So I bought some 47k resistors from Mouser, and the plugs from ACE. I wanted to see if they actually worked, so I left them off one of my trees. That tree would flicker when it was supposed to fade. After I installed the resistor, it faded normally. So I have more stock piled in case I need them. But I will only use them if I have fading issues.

[doug petschke]

looks like i have to make a snubber for my LEDS too......

[Aaron Maue]

So will the 1/2 watt work? or do I need to get 1 watt

I use a 47kOhm, 1/2-watt resistor. Works great.

[KStatefan]

I use a 47kOhm, 1/2-watt resistor. Works great.

A 47K Ohm load on a 120 volt circuit is .3 watts.

[Aaron Maue]

A 47K Ohm load on a 120 volt circuit is .3 watts.

I agree that it seems small, but it's made the difference for me on LED strands that would only flicker when attempting to fade them before I applied the "snubber". YMMV.

[rmturner54]

Only use a snubber if needed. I am 100% LED. Never needed a snubber, guess I am one of the lucky ones. All LED's from CDI.

[jstorms]

The other thing that helps get the flicker out is to have shorter extension cords. I was able to keep all my glade plugins in their box this year by doing 30' or less runs of extension cords.