George Simmons Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Your use of lights will dictate whether you need them. Their usual purpose is to provide smooth fades for people using full-wave rectified LED strings. I've never heard of anyone who needed them using store-bought half-wave LEDs. Nor have I heard of anyone having issues if using only one string of lights per channel, regardless of type. When using multiple strings of full-wave LEDs on the same channel, many people have noticed issues with fades not being smooth, or not occurring at all, or having unexpected flashes of bright while fading down. Those peculiarities can be overcome with a "snubber". To the best of my knowledge, they serve no other purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowpoke Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Great explanation. Thanks. Wouldn't even have jumped into this hobby if it wasn't for this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Sarge Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 ok so i guess it is because if you run LED lights they do not pull enough power to make the controller work right.. Maybe just use MORE LIGHTS to make up the difference and get enough lights on it it will work better... just go pout and BUY MORE and MORE lights until it works without having to make a snubber...lol after all isnt that what its really all about... more lights, more lights more lights...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 (edited) ok so i guess it is because if you run LED lights they do not pull enough power to make the controller work right.. Maybe just use MORE LIGHTS to make up the difference and get enough lights on it it will work better... just go pout and BUY MORE and MORE lights until it works without having to make a snubber...lol after all isnt that what its really all about... more lights, more lights more lights...lol Chuck, No, that's not what they are saying. Re-read George's post. 1 strand of full wave is ok - more is bad.. I personally have only had big box half wave and never had a problem. This years HLE presale, well in case wife sees this not going to say exact amount, but I bought a lot. I'm so glad SparkDr made this post. I better understand it now. My plans for 128 strands are 1 channel each, so with George's info I should only need a hand-full. Edited June 4, 2015 by Mega Arch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkDr Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 I should probably jump back in here and offer a clarification. I am a relative newbie myself and read several accounts of fade and/or failure to fully turn off issues with LED's here on the forums and the solution that snubbers could offer. I was so paranoid over the whole concept that I ordered 2 dozen Glade plug-ins as a solution. Even in my most redneck moments I just couldn't bring myself to hang the plug-ins all over my display, so I ran year one without snubbers of any type before finding the thread on how to make my own over on the Planet Christmas forum. I didn't have any problems the 1st year but went ahead and added snubbers to every LED element for year two just to be safe rather than sorry. I was under the impression (apparently mistaken) that the trouble occurs with short strings rather than longer series of strings, so I'm getting a little bit of an education here myself as this thread plays out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryDrumAZ Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I preheated mine to 140 in the oven and they got about as loose as Lindsey Lohan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 ok so i guess it is because if you run LED lights they do not pull enough power to make the controller work right.. Maybe just use MORE LIGHTS to make up the difference and get enough lights on it it will work better... just go pout and BUY MORE and MORE lights until it works without having to make a snubber...lol after all isnt that what its really all about... more lights, more lights more lights...lol It's a bit more technical than that, but try adding a simple C9 incandescent light to your string(s) and see if there's a difference.If it looks better, then think about adding a snubber or Glade or other artificial (ghost) load to smooth things out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Sarge Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 i am just gonna read and learn... maybe because I use all mini lights so far I havent had a problem that I know of... But that may change in the future... Live, Read and Learn.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Sarge, The actual issue is the capacative charge that the wire for the strings stores. The LEDs only turn on after a certain voltage threshold... so when that voltage is not high enough to turn on the LEDs, there is no LEDs load to dissipate that charge. The longer the wire, the more capacitance you will have. That will not allow the triacs to turn off properly.. (not getting too deep into this AGAIN)... but, suffice to say, the "dummy load" or "snubber" helps disapate that charge when there is either capacitance built into the LED circuit as manufactured, or the capacitance which is created by having long twisted wires is high enough to keep the triacs from working correctly, ie... lots of LED strings. Example: I have a tree that takes about 2500 LEDs. When I connect up 2000 LEDs it works fine with the Gen2 or Gen3 controller. When I connect the last 5 strings (500 LEDs), it won't shut off. As a matter of fact it stays on at about half power. Adding a dummy load fixed the problem. That problem was actually the wire and NOT the LEDs themselves. (Again, not going into the technical depths we have before)... but I thnk you get the picture if you have any background in electronics and know about capacitance.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darryl Lambert Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Even in my most redneck moments I just couldn't bring myself to hang the plug-ins all over my display, But you would of had the best smelling display around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Sarge Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I thought a snubber was that cheerleader in high school that during band camp.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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