jimswinder Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Quick question for you electricians out there...My icicle lights are not fading quite right (very jerky). At first I thought it was a load problem, but I have 15 strands end to end.Then I thought perhaps it was a polarization problem because to use my SPT2 alligator clips, I had to file down the fat prong in order for it to fit into the end of the icicle light female end (as the slots were both the same size).Could this be causing my lights not to fade correctly...because the polarization is crossed somewhere?Because when I first received my LOR units and was testing them, I had the same icicle lights (though just one stand) plugged in, and they faded just fine.EDIT: Sheesh...sometimes I ask the DUMBEST questions!! Just realized it would be no different using my homemade ext cords than using the strand of lights and turning the plug 180 degrees and plugging it back in.
George Simmons Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Are the lights incandescents or LED's?
George Simmons Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Did switching the plugs solve the problem?
chuckd Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 You have the normal LED built up capacitance problem, and a terminator/snubber will help greatly. The more strings you add, the worse it gets until you won't be able to fade at all.
coasterbp Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Yup. He's absolutely correct. The more LEDS you have on a circuit, the worse the fading becomes. You'd think that it would be the other way around but it isn't.I had the same problem you were having. Single strings on my trees were fine. But the 6 strings together on the house eaves weren't fading at all. So I had to plug in a single strand of regular incandescants to each LED circuit and it works like a charm.-=coasterbp
George Simmons Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 Thanks guys - I learned something also. I, too, thought the more LED's on a circuit the better - not the other way around. But that definitely explains some of the peculiar things I've seen in the yard. Apparently reds are more affected than greens for some reason, because I have some trees with the exact same number of red and green LED's each all on two circuits - one for red and one for green. The reds were fading horribly and the greens were okay before I added snubbers to each circuit.
eldoradoboy Posted December 3, 2009 Posted December 3, 2009 does a single C9 on the same channel as a lot of LED's still fix this issue? im making new mini trees for next yeat that are LED.. and I plan on putting a single C-9 incandescent light at the top of each tree to help this issue..-Christopher
Jerry Budelman Posted December 10, 2009 Posted December 10, 2009 A single C9 should be more than enough. I use a single C7 as a load and fading works fine. Some folks say that a resistor as small as 20K or so will also work.Jerry Budelman
Recommended Posts