As per my welcome post I'm here to get some help and advice on finding a useful solution for a bunch of cheap Chinese Christmas lights that I confiscated from my neighbour to avoid him burning down both our houses. I replaced the three sets of 180 LED strings with a set of 600 from Bunnings and he is happy enough.
Now to find a use for the cheap Chinese ones as the LED’s seem fine although the wiring is not waterproof and the resistors might need to be removed.[/size] [/size]I’m more than happy to invest time and some money in this as a project so before anyone tells me to throw them away, that won’t be happening, even if I have to desolder all the LED’s I’ll find a use for them.[/size]
[/size]The lights use the PSU/controller as per this post so have been cut off and discarded.
[/size]http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,8057.0.html
[/size]So basically I have 3 sets of 3 strings of 60 white LEDs wired in series with a couple of low watt resistors to match the voltage of the PSU. I’ve ruled out replacing the PSU as-is because the voltage is simply too high to use safely so was thinking something along the line of converting them into a standard set of string LED running at around 24v. I figure I could run approx 9 LED’s comfortably at 24v using a regulated PSU and if I string 3 or more sets together with a common 24v rail and GND I could get sufficient length of cable to maybe make them into a free standing Christmas tree something like this. http://www.innovaled.pe/admin/images/img_db/arbol%20navidad%20regatas_6314.jpg but much smaller. Then I could use an Arduino with a multi channel relay board to switch the strings on and off to a programmable pattern.
The other idea is wire them all up to a common 24v rail and GND and make some sort of LED netting, although the overall current draw of this solution might be a tad high.
[/size]Thoughts?[/size] [/size]Any other ideas?[/size]
Now to find a use for the cheap Chinese ones as the LED’s seem fine although the wiring is not waterproof and the resistors might need to be removed.[/size] [/size]I’m more than happy to invest time and some money in this as a project so before anyone tells me to throw them away, that won’t be happening, even if I have to desolder all the LED’s I’ll find a use for them.[/size]
[/size]The lights use the PSU/controller as per this post so have been cut off and discarded.
[/size]http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,8057.0.html
[/size]So basically I have 3 sets of 3 strings of 60 white LEDs wired in series with a couple of low watt resistors to match the voltage of the PSU. I’ve ruled out replacing the PSU as-is because the voltage is simply too high to use safely so was thinking something along the line of converting them into a standard set of string LED running at around 24v. I figure I could run approx 9 LED’s comfortably at 24v using a regulated PSU and if I string 3 or more sets together with a common 24v rail and GND I could get sufficient length of cable to maybe make them into a free standing Christmas tree something like this. http://www.innovaled.pe/admin/images/img_db/arbol%20navidad%20regatas_6314.jpg but much smaller. Then I could use an Arduino with a multi channel relay board to switch the strings on and off to a programmable pattern.
The other idea is wire them all up to a common 24v rail and GND and make some sort of LED netting, although the overall current draw of this solution might be a tad high.
[/size]Thoughts?[/size] [/size]Any other ideas?[/size]
