OTS Christmas Kingdom lights

Christmas on Clarafield

Christmas on Clarafield

Full time elf
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Nov 9, 2011
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395
Location
Melbourne
Does anyone have any experience with lights from Christmas Kingdom in Melbourne? They have a Christmas Cave logo on the box. I have a set of 6 75cm LED Candy Canes (Adaptor shown below), LED Fence http://www.christmaskingdom.com.au/product/3142/41945/ and 480 LED 2.4m x 2m light curtain that I have from last year that I would like to connect to my DC48.

The output from the adaptor for the fence say 24VAC 850mA 20.4VA and it runs on 4 channels, 1 for each colour out of the multifunction controller.

Am I going to be able to simply cut of the controllers and connect them up?

Thanks
 

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I'd say you *should* be ok to use them on 30V with the DC48. Maybe wind the power supply down to 26V or so first and then wind up to where they are the same brightness as with the old controller and PSU.

You'll need to identify the common wire and the 4 channel wires. That's pretty easy to do with low voltage multifunction outputs. With the unit running so you can see the lights, carefully cut one of the five wires.

One of two things will happen. Either one section will stop working (it's a channel wire) or the whole lot will stop working (it was the common wire). Mark the wires as you cut them in turn. Make sense?

Once you get down to the last two wires, either will stop that last section, so it's a good idea to reconnect the common once you've found it so you can continue to find all channel wires.
 
My experience with removing controllers from low voltage lights shows that when the outputs are separated as they emerge from the controller box, the wire colsest to the AC input wires is the common (at least 8-9 times out of 10). There are rare sets where the common is fartherest from the AC input. I have never found a set with the common in an intermediate location unless the assembly was botched.

If the output wires emerge as a bunch, often times, the common will have a little extra length, or even a knot or loop.

I also check by cutting as suggested.

Regards Geoff
 
Oh, that reminds me. A few of the sets with MF controllers I've hacked lately have had a piece of clear sticky tape on the common wire near where it goes into the MF box.
 
Hi Pipersmall, we bought some present boxes from Christmas kingdom on Sunday near Vic Market with 24VAC lights. Some were LED and some conventional lights. Most we changed to 24V LED's of our but we kept a couple and they work fine. Saw the candy canes and the fence and they look great. i'm thinking of putting them ariound our box hedges in the front.

Let me know how you go.
 
Hi Tuppetsdad
Haven't had a chance to play yet as been working to much (why did I choose hospitality again?) but I do have to take the fence back as the is a small section of red that has gone out (they do give a 12 month warranty.) I think the overall effect they give is great and provides an easy set up which is why I bought them but Im looking forward to being able to control it in individual colours. I do also have a couple of sets of (4 channel) icicles from the same place but I already had them on the roof so may not alter them until next year.
 
Finally had a day off and a chance to work on things. Yes, the common +ve was the closest to the AC input wire which made it easy to identify each channel. It's now all connected up to the DC48. Hopefully Ill try to get a video taken and posted soon so everyone can see how it looks.
The icicles and candy canes will probably have to wait for 2012 to be computerised as trying to sequence them is going to take time I do not have at the moment.
 
Pipersmall I have the same LED curtain, bought it 2 years ago from Mentone store but have only run it off an AC controller, so what power supply did you end up using and how many channels did you split the curtain into?


I also have the set of 6 candy canes running off AC controller but wanting to run them off DC next year but make each cane a seperate channel.....is this possible, how does one know what power rating power supply to use ie 12v, 24v, 36v???
 
Hi Robbo
I only ended up with the fence hooked up to the DC controller this year. I was planning on using the curtain on 2 channels next year, just as it comes rather than hacking it. As for the candy canes I'm still trying to decide whether to split them individually or run all 6 on the 2 channels as standard.
I'm just trying to work out my channels and placement for 2012 now then I can start playing.


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-37.845995,144.678595
 
yeah after running the curtain as steady on ( controller has memory) it's a bit boring as a curtain, last year I used blu tack on the brick wall to add some shape to the curtain but this year i had it on the garage doors, and not entirely impressed with it as 1 channel, I havent had a good look at it yet, but am hoping I can cut it into the 20 strings it is and make a small tree out of it.....
 
o.k some discussion took place in the chat with fasteddy, but turns out his experience with traditional strings is limited so if anyone else could shed some light on this please feel free:


the LED curtain that both pipersmall and I have is a 2 channel curtain, I still use mine on an AC board with the 8 function controller attached, the curtain has 20 strings to it and in each string has 24 leds, what i have discovered from close inspection is that from the 8 function controller we have 3 wires to the first string so a +ve and 2 channels then at the start of the first string is 4 wires to the first LED, then after the first LED and the next 7 we have 3 wires between them, the next set of 8 have 3 2 wires between them then the last set of 8 back to 3 wires between them.


I am assuming this means 3 circuits?


the last string however starts with 2 wires for the first 8, 3 wires for 2nd 8 and 2 wires for last 8


what I want to do with this curtain is cut the 20 strings into seperate channels, so I guess each strand/string is 1 channel, and I would need to make every strand/string like the last ie, 2 wires to the first led, but I am at a loss as to how to find the 2 wires in the strings that start with 4? would 2 be +ve and 2 be -ve? meaning i would have to twist each together? or do i need to find 2 wires that are not needed and turf them, as they are now redundant?
 
hi, you have answered a few of your own questions.


The controller is two channels, so all of the leds will be in groups.


Removing the controller is the first place to start. you should find there is one (+) wire, and two (-) wires.


the LEDs will be in groups, ten is the general rule of thumb.


Identify the groups by powering the LED channels separately. count the leds and look for a section of the wires drop from 4 to 3.
 
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