Lights Repair

[bajantechie]

Newbie Asking: Is there anyway to repair LED Icicles or LED Net Lights. I already have the LED Keeper for LED strings.

Thanks

[dgrant]

Yes you can. Actually I find it easier to repair LEDs than incans. If you have the LED Keeper already (Yellow one) simply follow the instructions carefully. Net Lights require you to understand how they are strung. There are videos online(Youtube) that will assist you there. but I'll try to tell you...please bare with me. If you lay it out, top edge above you or in front of you, power plug on the right. The bottom edge, in front of you, closest to you and lastly, the power recepticle for more strings, to your left. Power comes in from the plug to the first light/LED connection. From there, it immediately turns left, towards you and goes all the way to the bottom edge. It then turns to your left or its right and goes over just one column of lights, then turns right and goes back up to the top. Then turns left, goes one column and goes back down to the bottom. This repeats all the way across. Now the matrix of lights is broken up into groups. Testing is actually easy. Plug in the string into the LED Keeper then squeeze the trigger. If you see some lights come on, following the pattern as I explained. Go to where it stopped or use one of the provided clips to mark it. Unplug the LED Keeper from the string. DO NOT plug the string into power. Note on the front lower edge of the LED Keeper there is a pinch point with two clamp type probes for piercing the wire. Find the wire that enters that next non-operating LED then clamp onto it with the LED Keeper. It might take you a few attempts to learn how to proceed. If you see more lights come on, keep moving forward till you find one that does not work no matter. With a supply of new or known good LEDs laying there with you, pull the one out, note if both leads are still attached (one usually breaks off easily), extract the LED and make sure you notice that one lead is longer than the other and which way it was in the base. Separate the LED from the base, replace it in the same position with the longer lead going into the base with the longer side pin coming out from the base. The leads are polarized and unlike incans, these cannot be reversed. Test again. Keep going till the entire string works. When you disconnect the LED Keeper, you can then plug the string into the wall and see if you won the battle or not.

Edited October 22, 2021 by dgrant

[bajantechie]

Thanks D Grant,

Appreciate your in-depth suggestions. I sure will try them, wouldn't want to loose my strings since they are relatively new.

One question though; most of the LED today are sealed into the base so how do you go about dealing with them? On a normal light string I can replace the LED with the POD, can I do that on NETs or ICICLES?

Thanks

R Grant.

[dgrant]

If they are "Sealed", those are usually the more expensive ones. The only way to repair those, probably, identify the bad one(s) then cut, replace and solder in a new one, being VERY careful to insure the polarity is exactly right. I don't have any icicles so I can't give advice on those. I've got a single string of sealed multi's, AC, that failed and burned the fuse. The cause was the mini-power supply at the beginning of the string and even it too is sealed. Much easier to just replace the string with a new one than trying to get it all opened up. lol, I might still but when it failed, I ran out to Walmart and bought a non-sealed replacement string and was good to go. Nothing lasts forever, so I suggest spares!

[DLH lites]

DGRANT,

Many thanks for your post and excellent instructions.   I was able to save three sets of LED nets using my LED lite keeper and your info.  Nets have always been a problem , but now I GOT IT  !!  I have had great success with the keeper repairing lite strings which saved me a lot of money.  I never throw any away. The ones that are sealed are easy to cut and replace, solider in a new one and heat shrink. A neighbor gave me a box with five sets of LED strings 100 lites each , he said they don't work and maybe I could use for parts. I repaired each one in about two hours.  Thank you Lite keeper  !!

Thanks again for your directions, they were spot on.

David   

[bajantechie]

DLH lites,

Very good for you glad for your success. I have always thought of the soldering method but when I consider the work involved I never did so I use the PODs. Maybe you should start a Light Repair Service in your neighborhood 😂

 

Ronald.

[Orville]

One suggestion I'd add to using heat shrink, either use silicone or get a can of liquid Flex Seal and coat each end of the heat shrink, this will assure NO moisture can find its way into your heat shrink at the ends/  Or, if you can find it, heat shrink that has a self sealing glue inside them, more expensive, but when shrunk, it melts the glue inside and seals the heat shrink, but I still coat any repairs I make like that with a little Flex Seal over the heat shrink ends and actually coat the entire section of the heat shrink individually, then once dry, I coat the entire area that was repaired. 

Being the Flex Seal liquid I use is black, and sometimes I've had to use white heat shrink, it helps to "hide" the repairs after dark, might be visible in the daytime where the repair was made, but after dark it's well hidden.  I also use the liquid Flex Seal to seal up the end of an RGB strand that doesn't have a connector on it or had to splice in an RGB node, like the original LOR 5v Bullet Nodes and C9 style bulbs.   Works great to make things even more weatherproof. 

Just don't buy the Flex Seal paste, that stuff seems to dry out after you open the can and turn into a useless hunk of hard rubber, rendering it completely useless and a waste of money!   BTW: Flex Seal tape will also work, it's waterproof as well, but you'll get more mileage out of the Flex Seal liquid.