snubbers needed

[Rush_Family_Lights]

Can someone point me to a how-to page for making a snubber for LED strings. I've come to the realization i need them.

Thank you,

[George Simmons]

A snubber can be something as simple as plugging in a set of incandescent lights on the same circuit as the LED's. I do this with my red/green trees and bushes in the yard. Or it can be one C7 or C9 bulb cut from a string and plugged into the circuit.

[chuckd]

Here's a thread I did on PC about exactly this. These take no soldering and can be made pretty quickly.

http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php?t=37562

[Salts]

Hey Chuck. In your PC thread u said to use 1 watt resistors. What is the downfall of using 1/2 watt resistors. That is all I could find in 47k at radio shack. They seem to be working fine but was wondering what the downfall was.

[chuckd]

They'll still work, but they'll run a little warmer. The resistor will dissipate around .31 watts of power when you have the lights full-on, which is still less than a half watt.

Don't try anything smaller than a half watt, though. They'll burn up.

Radio Shack is expensive if you need a bunch of resistors. The Mouser link I gave in the PC post has them for far less.

[Salts]

Thanks Chuck. The three blue mini trees in my picture are the only led's I had this year, so I only need three of them. I went to radio shack as a quick fix b/c for some reason when I built the trees they did a good job of fading in my office during a test but when setup in the yard that wasn't the case. I installed the snubbers and so far they seem to be fading fine so far. I will try to order from mouser in the off season b/c hopefully I will have more led's next year.





Attached files

[tsarlitto]

Hi

I have a dumb question, I am new to all of this...I dont have any controllers or lights, but planning on purchasing next year for a 2010 display.

I want to use LED's and regular lights as well, so my question is what is a snubber? and where do you get them?

Tom

[chuckd]

Basically, LED strings don't work exactly like regular incandescent light strands. The more strings you add to one circuit, the more capacitance they build up. If you try to dim one of these long LED strands, it won't actually work. As you get to the end of the dimming, they seem to flash erratically before going off.

All of the stored energy in the LED's has nowhere to go, so it kind of stays on instead of turning off. So we simply add a resistor to the line, and this ends up making our LED's dimmable, even long strands.

Of course, this is only if you're going to dim the strands with a controller like LOR. If you're just plugging LED's in for a static display, you don't need them.

The link I mentioned above shows you how to make them. I'll list it againn here:

http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php?t=37562





I do know some people have tried to sell them, but it's always some person in their garage making them for you. They're quite easy to make, so I'd recommend just cranking them out yourself. I can build one a minute all by myself, and if I get my family to help, we built about 6 a minute.

[iresq]

I am going this route myself. Total cost comes out to about a buck a piece.

[George Simmons]

Me too. Seems like a perfect solution.

[Salts]

Chuck,


In my case they did one of two things. They flashed erratically or just stayed bright until the end of the fade then completely turn off. The snubbers are working great but for me 1/minute didn't work out too well. I got the same plugs but how in the world did you get the insides out easily. I would pry one side open then try the other while the first side went right back to where it was. Then when I did get both sides wide enough the inside was still tight and took some working to get them out. This is fine with me but I was just curious if there is an easier way to get the inside of the plug out?



chuckd wrote:

Basically, LED strings don't work exactly like regular incandescent light strands. The more strings you add to one circuit, the more capacitance they build up. If you try to dim one of these long LED strands, it won't actually work. As you get to the end of the dimming, they seem to flash erratically before going off.

[Salts]

Also I know some people don't like LED's... ahem... Jeff... but i think those blue mini trees came out pretty good. They are pretty bright when at 100% so I am going to have to go back and change intensities in the off season. If you are right in front of them it can be a bit overwhelming.

[chuckd]

First, try to open them in a warm area. Since they're cheap plugs, that rubber turns pretty hard when it's a little cold.

Also, don't be afraid to jam a screwdriver in and pry harder. The rubber cover will stretch out pretty good, but it'll quickly return to normal shape. I got to where it took one quick pry per side and it was open. Making 500 at a time gives you good practice (and makes your hands sore)!