This video is awesome and a great way for people who aren’t big into tinkering! I’m personally a big fan of tinkering and a suggestion I would like to make to people who comfortable soldering would be to solder the positive and negative wires directly to the control board, the positive and negative should both be labeled on the board itself. Doing this I was able to screw the cover for the control board back into place with just a small hole cut out in the casing for the cable to pass through so that batteries still can be used if you really wanted and it just feels a little more tidy for me. After doing this I’m also considering making a new little case for it that’s just the size of the control board itself. Sorry I’ve been rambling too long I’m just really into tinkering and talking about it, this was an awesome video thank you so much
@@ednercarle7837 I just did this and the switch that goes from Off-On-Dimmer-Timed is no longer working. I have to plug in/out to turn it on /off. Any ideas why?
I've been trying to McGuyver my battery operated lights for YEARS without help, but I finally broke down and did a search...brought me right here! Thank you SOOO much for making this so easy!
Dude this amazing! I bought a little led light to decorate this plant pot but the light was battery powered. I watched your tutorial and immediately found a 5V converter cable and hooked my light up Thanks!❤
So it's safe to use something a little under or over powered? 4.2v like the video or 5v in your case? Is it the same kind of process, with more wiring, if you're doing two battery packs in tandem.
@@shatgamer80 I once worked at an industrial plant doing IT, and I had a couple of random power supplies and devices floating around. The electrical supervisor at the plant gave me this advice to match them up: 1. The voltage of the power supply needs to be within 1 volt of the device it's powering. Most devices have a tolerance they will operate within, so if you're 1 volt over or 1 volt under, it should be fine. 2. The amperage of the power supply needs to be equal to or greater than what the device draws.
@@shatgamer80 when you use rechargeable batteries you have 1.2 volt instead of 1.5, so 3.6 and not 4.5 when you need 3 AAA or AA batteries. Still works fine. After a while the batteries run out and you see the lights less bright. I bought battery replacing adapteos in a shop for Christmas decorations. You place one wired cell in the device with 1 or 2 dummies. One of the dummies is a resistant so you can use the same 4.5 volt adaptor with resistant in a '2-batteries-operated-device' (so 3 volt). Works fine, I like the lights dimmed much more. Last December I saw many Christmas trees with nicely dimmed lights. Curious as I am on how they did this, I always saw battery operated strings. Lower voltage only dims the lights as if the batteries have been used a while. Lower voltage may not work on all sort of devices but so far I've experienced with the battery lights it works fine. Using more power may result in damage, shorter lifetime or dangerous situations, I would personally not risk that. This post is no technical advice, only my own experience and opinion.
I wondered for years if this was possible. I hate buying batteries and adding them to landfills. I'm going to be trying this real soon! Thank You Thank You Thank You So Much!!
Battery packs are really handy sometimes, but sometimes you want something more permanent. Thanks for the video - real easy to follow, and hope to give this a try soon. cheers
Took apart a small glittery star tree topper I bought from Dollar Tree and put a strand of white LED lights in it for my 3ft Xmas tree. Looks amazing but constantly changing the batteries sucks. This is just what the doctor ordered! Thank you! 😁👍🎄
I've done the same thing. But the amps have to be calculated. Usb chargers have a amp range of .7 to 2.0. If replacing 2AAA use a low amp charger. If replacing 3AA use a higher amp charger. Too much amp can damage the current.
So far, I found that the .7 amp chargers work well replacing both 2AA and 3AA batteries. No resistors needed. 5V × 2amp = 10 watts 5V × 1.5amp = 7.5 watts 5V × 1amp = 5 watts 5V × .7amp = 3.5 watts 5v × .5amp = 2.5 watts
Can you take Christmas lights apart and hook them up to a small battery pack containing very tiny lights? I only want to illuminate 2 very small pictures.
@@Jamalaaait's called a figure of speech = creative language to generate an effect. Think of a child with a bag of candy, usually they eat it up quickly but a bag of carrots, not so fast or at all.
I love fairy lights but my father always complain for wasting battery since it needs to be replace few times so he suggested to convert the battery to a plug. Thanks for this I'll try this soon
I did not think of that, with the battery coils. That is perfect and seen a few videos, and gosh. this one is the right one I would say.. Thank you and simple and have many of the transformer plugs.. so , will be using this way for sure.. Cheers mate.. Perfect like another said, ''MacGyver', the battery pack to plug in.. !!! Also, found on Aliexpress.. a device that uses usb, to convert any battery powered to use, for $6 / Free ship, and will be getting that also, but this idea, you still keep the battery post but just ad to it.. That is smart..!!👌🏆
you jsut saved me so much money on batteries! been wanting to do this for ages but never looked into it. Got about 50 old transformers in the cable box lol got 0 batteries ahah. time to fix up all those xmas lights finally! 1 down about 10 more to go! Just bought a soldering iron, and a reel of 2 core LED wire. gonna be able to do so much with this!
Awesomeeeeeee! Thanks for sharing! Will do this diy this holiday! By the way, what if I have 4 of these light strings and want to connect them all together and run them off AC? Can you make a video on that too? That would be awesomeeeeeee too!
Thank you so Much! Youʻre the absolute Best! Now I don’t have to go through batteries like crazy. Got my lights set up in my room and it’s looking great. Thank you again!!
If you have a bad charging cable, you can cut/strip wires and use a phone charger. It is 5 volts DC and I've used it as a 4.5 volt replacement with zero issues. A USB cable has 5 volt + and the ground. However you should use a multi meter to determine the two wires.
Nice a 2018 upload and still usefull. I have a Battery Powered Head light with the same battery config and wanted to make it direct powered. This help out a lot, thanks for that.
I've replace the batteries from a Dollar General Christmas tree topper with a usb phone charger. Usb chargers have an amp range from .7 to 2.0. If replacing 2AAA batteries use the lowest amp charger. If replacing 3AA batteries use the higher amp charger. Using a charger with too much amp can damage the circuit. Low amp chargers I find at the dollar store or thrift stores. You do need a multimeter to check the charger wires polarity. Also, you can bypass the whole switch if the switch doesn't effect the lights and are use only for timing. So far, I found that the .7 amp chargers work well replacing both 2AA and 3AA batteries. No resistors needed. 5V × 2amp = 10 watts 5V × 1.5amp = 7.5 watts 5V × 1amp = 5 watts 5V × .7amp = 3.5 watts 5V × .5amp = 2.6 watts
I have similar lights but they spread into a "chandelier ' type thing,, I buy boxes of expensive batteries on Amazon or I did, not any more,, thank you for saving me money 😊❤️
This is very helpful I’m trying to figure out how to spec, and buy the small motherboard inside the chassis (with on/off and adjustments), so I can build these light strings from scratch (to drive lights for train set landscape). How would someone go about trying to search for and buy these parts?
How many could you theoretically do in series? I don't really understand enough of how this works and would love someone to help me understand it. I've got 4 lights that are battery powered and would love to chain them all together. They all take 3 aaa batteries. So how would that work?
I want to do the same! I assume you would just add the Voltage of the batteries if they are in series... and if in parellel add a transformer for each string?
You have to figure out the amount of current each set or string of lights uses. So if one set uses 50mA and you want to use 3 sets. you would require a power supply of 150mA. This should keep the voltage from dropping too low over each light. As for the voltage the lights in this demonstration requires 3 batteries at 1.5V each connected in series, A 4.5V transformer is not common, A standard 5V usb plug should work. There should be enough tolerance within the circuit to handle the extra half a volt. I would not mix and match string lights that use 2 battery with 3 battery strings.
Could wire in series. Buy a DC-DC Bost converter and run it off 18650 battery/batteries. Stuff all that inside pvc project box and run connection from boost converter to outside of box
I'm ashamed to say this but I do not know how th solder. Is there a way to get this done without the soldering? If no, can you show us how to solder? Thanks for figuring a way to do away with the AAA batteries!!! Instructions are Awesome!
I go to resale shops and purchase all my converters used. You can read what the output is and figure what works best for your applications. I have been doing this since LED's became a thing.
Just what i was looking for. Been trying to convert led lights to usb hence i recharge powerbanks from solar to use those lights when theres a black out
I know that's not what this videos about but can I power a strip exactly like this with 2 D batteries instead? I'm asking because I have a project where space is extremely limited and I can comfortably fit 2 D batteries in series. Think like a Maglite or something. That's the amount of space I have and these little compartments are just too wide and bulky for what I need. Thanks a lot. I hope you answer .
Anyone with no electrical experience or tools: a "battery to usb converter" is a thing you can buy. Make sure you have the right number of batteries anbd voltages or you fry your devices,
I believe it's fine, alkaline AA or AAA will have about 1,65v when brand new. So that works out to 4,95v with new batteries, voltage will drop over time and that's why they say 1,5v. So if it can handle new batteries, it'll probably handle 5v USB :)
Nice, but I still don't understand why it's okay to use a DC adapter with lower output voltage than required, yet people say it's not okay to use one with higher voltage than required.
So I've got two strands that take take 2 AA batteries each. Obviously I can connect each one to a 3V transformer but what if I want to connect the stands together? Would i still use a 3V or would I need a 6V?
I have 4 of these lights and I would like to connect all of them together so that would add up to 18V power required. Can i connect a plug that is 18v DC out?
No. That is not how that works. 4.5VDC devices will always require 4.5VDC(or something very close). 18VDC will be way too much. When you add multiple loads to a single power source the voltage needs to stay the same, what will increase is the current (amps). So you’ll need to make sure that the power supply and all the conductors are able to handle the increased current. More than likely, if we’re just talking about low power LEDs, this shouldn’t be a problem and you can probably get away with doing it just as this video showed and then wire the other lights to the first one. It might be a good idea, though probably not necessary, to add an in-line fuse between the power supply and the first light, as a safety measure to prevent potential overcurrent from damaging your power supply or wires. For the plug shown in this video, you’ll need to be sure not to exceed 1.5A. Remember that your breaker (in a USA household) will not trip until it exceeds 15 or 20 amps, which could burn out that little plug and its wires. Four little LED lights honestly will not likely draw more than the 1.5A limit, but you should be aware of it and double check. Hopefully the power supply plug has some kind of built in protection but I would not count on it.
I have a set of these lights, it says on the package that hooking them up to a different power source will void the warranty. Hooking up a three battery power supply to mains power is generally not considered a good idea. Bad things can happen, fire being one of them, electric shock could be another. Aside from the previous serious problems, another problem is that you can easily overdrive the LED's. Three batteries lose voltage over time and supply a much more limited current. The power supply continues to provide maximum voltage and current. My rechargeable batteries usually sit at 1.2 volts, unless I just charged them. None rechargeable batteries might start out at something like 1.5 or thereabouts, but they drop quickly. The best way would be to get the specifications on the individual LED's and then design the power supply. It would be nice if there was a follow up to the video on how long the lights lasted. USB lights would probably be a better alternative, the lights are designed for the power from a USB and the little power cubes are cheap.
all valid points you have, which is why he went with a specific AC adapter (4.5v) that wouldn't overload the current capacity. Any higher and then yes, you could have electrical, heat or fire issues.
can't I just connect the AC wires to the lights and delete the battery pack in the middle? what role does the empty battery pack play if my AC output is the correct voltage through the converter?
Could I do this with a USB-C cable that is usually used as a phone charge to do this and then cut off the side of the cable that supposed to go into the phone and expose the wires? Then use the USB part and plug it into a USB plug that goes into the outlet.
Any chance you could explain how to make the lights work off of battery if they are installed and working, but also allow it to connect to power if the batteries are dead?
Excellent! Thank you sweetheart, I really needed to learn how to do this, is it possible that sometimes for whatever reason, it don't work? cause it happen to me before (btw, please forgive my bad English, I am French, thank you) can you tell me what I did wrong? thanx again, take care & God bless xoxoxox
It matters. As he explained in the video, you can do trial and error. However most electrical devices and their power sources are usually color coded. Red is positive and black is negative. I have noticed however that sometimes red isn't part of the color scheme and is substituted for gray. Usually I find black is negative. I recently did this mod on three sets of these types of battery powered lights, but I used old USB phone wall chargers and old USB cables I had lying around since micro USB is being phased out and have no other use for those chargers and cables. This also enables me to use portable battery banks if I wanted to make these portable still. For the USB cable mod you just need to be aware you'll have 4 wires instead of 2 when you strip open the cable. The usually white and green are for data transfer and you can ignore these and just tuck them out of the way or cut them shorter so they don't have a chance of any sort to cause short, otherwise the black and red are the pair you're looking for, or black and gray. Hope this helped.
Hi. I wanted to do a similar project for fun. Question is that I have multiple units of battery operated string lights. I want to connect all first and then convert to plug-in lights. How do I figure the size of the transformer?
My question as well. It appears he's adding up the output of the batteries to match them to the transformer. I haven't looked into this personally, but it would be nice for him to add that to the comments, otherwise face certain death due to an electrical fire. :-)
Will this work on my girlfriends battery powered "vibrating back massager" ? It's always running out of batteries just when she needs it most & her back gets really sore 😉
How much attention needs to be paid to the amperage of the transformer you pick? Like, with the light set used in the video, how do you know what transformer amperages would be too high or low? Thanks!
Google how many amps the batteries that the devices uses are rated. I.e. C batteries are typically 500mA. Then add up the amount of batteries (4) and the amps (500mA). 4 x 500mA = 2A. Therefore a device that uses 4 C batteries needs a 5VDC 2A transformer.
This is easy when you're just dealing with positive and minus, but how do I convert rechargeable batteries that are using "B+ , D- and BAT in a device?
This video is awesome and a great way for people who aren’t big into tinkering! I’m personally a big fan of tinkering and a suggestion I would like to make to people who comfortable soldering would be to solder the positive and negative wires directly to the control board, the positive and negative should both be labeled on the board itself. Doing this I was able to screw the cover for the control board back into place with just a small hole cut out in the casing for the cable to pass through so that batteries still can be used if you really wanted and it just feels a little more tidy for me. After doing this I’m also considering making a new little case for it that’s just the size of the control board itself. Sorry I’ve been rambling too long I’m just really into tinkering and talking about it, this was an awesome video thank you so much
Can you please show us a video clip on that, for me who is not really good at it, visual will really help a lot. Thanks in advance :)
@@ednercarle7837 I just did this and the switch that goes from Off-On-Dimmer-Timed is no longer working. I have to plug in/out to turn it on /off. Any ideas why?
Something tells me you should make a video! 😊 I would definitely watch 😊
you are an absolute gem, and thank heaven for chatty, INFORMATIVE people, for real! 😊
A great way for some amateur to set their house on fire. Most people are able to do this on their own.
I've been trying to McGuyver my battery operated lights for YEARS without help, but I finally broke down and did a search...brought me right here! Thank you SOOO much for making this so easy!
Dude this amazing!
I bought a little led light to decorate this plant pot but the light was battery powered.
I watched your tutorial and immediately found a 5V converter cable and hooked my light up
Thanks!❤
So it's safe to use something a little under or over powered? 4.2v like the video or 5v in your case? Is it the same kind of process, with more wiring, if you're doing two battery packs in tandem.
@@shatgamer80 I once worked at an industrial plant doing IT, and I had a couple of random power supplies and devices floating around. The electrical supervisor at the plant gave me this advice to match them up:
1. The voltage of the power supply needs to be within 1 volt of the device it's powering. Most devices have a tolerance they will operate within, so if you're 1 volt over or 1 volt under, it should be fine.
2. The amperage of the power supply needs to be equal to or greater than what the device draws.
@@shatgamer80 when you use rechargeable batteries you have 1.2 volt instead of 1.5, so 3.6 and not 4.5 when you need 3 AAA or AA batteries. Still works fine. After a while the batteries run out and you see the lights less bright.
I bought battery replacing adapteos in a shop for Christmas decorations. You place one wired cell in the device with 1 or 2 dummies. One of the dummies is a resistant so you can use the same 4.5 volt adaptor with resistant in a '2-batteries-operated-device' (so 3 volt). Works fine, I like the lights dimmed much more.
Last December I saw many Christmas trees with nicely dimmed lights. Curious as I am on how they did this, I always saw battery operated strings. Lower voltage only dims the lights as if the batteries have been used a while.
Lower voltage may not work on all sort of devices but so far I've experienced with the battery lights it works fine.
Using more power may result in damage, shorter lifetime or dangerous situations, I would personally not risk that.
This post is no technical advice, only my own experience and opinion.
Very helpful and not a lot of needless chatter 😉 great job! Thanks again! I really appreciate “youtubers” who value other people’s
time!
I wondered for years if this was possible. I hate buying batteries and adding them to landfills. I'm going to be trying this real soon! Thank You Thank You Thank You So Much!!
Battery packs are really handy sometimes, but sometimes you want something more permanent. Thanks for the video - real easy to follow, and hope to give this a try soon. cheers
Took apart a small glittery star tree topper I bought from Dollar Tree and put a strand of white LED lights in it for my 3ft Xmas tree. Looks amazing but constantly changing the batteries sucks. This is just what the doctor ordered! Thank you! 😁👍🎄
I've done the same thing. But the amps have to be calculated. Usb chargers have a amp range of .7 to 2.0. If replacing 2AAA use a low amp charger. If replacing 3AA use a higher amp charger. Too much amp can damage the current.
So far, I found that the .7 amp chargers work well replacing both 2AA and 3AA batteries. No resistors needed.
5V × 2amp = 10 watts
5V × 1.5amp = 7.5 watts
5V × 1amp = 5 watts
5V × .7amp = 3.5 watts
5v × .5amp = 2.5 watts
Thank you so much my mother loves her lights but hates the fact she has to replace batteries and you just helped me fix her problem
This was a pleasure to see and hear....so many "how to" videos are done so poorly...I thank you so much !
I searched up a bunch of keywords with hopes and my prayers were answered! I will try this soon
Can you take Christmas lights apart and hook them up to a small battery pack containing very tiny lights? I only want to illuminate 2 very small pictures.
Same
Thanks a bunch! I have a few lights that I love, but they eat batteries like candy!!😂🤣 This tutorial was perfect!
I’m thinking that you are saying that it’s drains the battery too fast OK because who is the batteries like Candies tell me who because why do you say
@@Jamalaaa
Are you serious, your kidding right? Right?
@@Jamalaaait's called a figure of speech = creative language to generate an effect.
Think of a child with a bag of candy, usually they eat it up quickly but a bag of carrots, not so fast or at all.
I love fairy lights but my father always complain for wasting battery since it needs to be replace few times so he suggested to convert the battery to a plug. Thanks for this I'll try this soon
I did not think of that, with the battery coils. That is perfect and seen a few videos, and gosh. this one is the right one I would say.. Thank you and simple and have many of the transformer plugs.. so , will be using this way for sure.. Cheers mate.. Perfect like another said, ''MacGyver', the battery pack to plug in.. !!! Also, found on Aliexpress.. a device that uses usb, to convert any battery powered to use, for $6 / Free ship, and will be getting that also, but this idea, you still keep the battery post but just ad to it.. That is smart..!!👌🏆
This was extremely helpful, thanks so much!
you jsut saved me so much money on batteries! been wanting to do this for ages but never looked into it. Got about 50 old transformers in the cable box lol got 0 batteries ahah. time to fix up all those xmas lights finally! 1 down about 10 more to go! Just bought a soldering iron, and a reel of 2 core LED wire. gonna be able to do so much with this!
Awesomeeeeeee! Thanks for sharing! Will do this diy this holiday! By the way, what if I have 4 of these light strings and want to connect them all together and run them off AC? Can you make a video on that too? That would be awesomeeeeeee too!
Nice one bud. Now I can put my caravan mood lights
In on a USB port. Cheers 🥂great little video 👍🇬🇧☮️
Thank you so Much! Youʻre the absolute Best! Now I don’t have to go through batteries like crazy. Got my lights set up in my room and it’s looking great. Thank you again!!
how many volts did u use for the transformer???
If you have a bad charging cable, you can cut/strip wires and use a phone charger. It is 5 volts DC and I've used it as a 4.5 volt replacement with zero issues. A USB cable has 5 volt + and the ground. However you should use a multi meter to determine the two wires.
Nice a 2018 upload and still usefull. I have a Battery Powered Head light with the same battery config and wanted to make it direct powered. This help out a lot, thanks for that.
I like the way you didn't remove the inner construction of the original product. Just worked with it.
I've replace the batteries from a Dollar General Christmas tree topper with a usb phone charger. Usb chargers have an amp range from .7 to 2.0. If replacing 2AAA batteries use the lowest amp charger. If replacing 3AA batteries use the higher amp charger. Using a charger with too much amp can damage the circuit. Low amp chargers I find at the dollar store or thrift stores. You do need a multimeter to check the charger wires polarity.
Also, you can bypass the whole switch if the switch doesn't effect the lights and are use only for timing.
So far, I found that the .7 amp chargers work well replacing both 2AA and 3AA batteries. No resistors needed.
5V × 2amp = 10 watts
5V × 1.5amp = 7.5 watts
5V × 1amp = 5 watts
5V × .7amp = 3.5 watts
5V × .5amp = 2.6 watts
Thanks so much. And I could hear you just fine. Nothing wrong with your voice.
Great video and information. Thanks! 👍😊
I have similar lights but they spread into a "chandelier ' type thing,, I buy boxes of expensive batteries on Amazon or I did, not any more,, thank you for saving me money 😊❤️
That 4.2V power supply is a good find to use for this kind of conversion.
Thank you! No dummy batteries needed.. Seriously man, thank you.
Just found your site.
Very helpfully and clearly explained with no Music.
Have subscribed.
Hope you and yours are doing well.
Oh how I've been trying to find this video. Thank you!
God bless you for sharing this info
This what I’ve been wondering about. Thank you!
So great reading comments from people who love tinkering like me. Merry Xmas yall
This is very helpful
I’m trying to figure out how to spec, and buy the small motherboard inside the chassis (with on/off and adjustments), so I can build these light strings from scratch (to drive lights for train set landscape). How would someone go about trying to search for and buy these parts?
How many could you theoretically do in series? I don't really understand enough of how this works and would love someone to help me understand it. I've got 4 lights that are battery powered and would love to chain them all together. They all take 3 aaa batteries. So how would that work?
I’m looking for this answer too- also, series or parallel?
I want to do the same! I assume you would just add the Voltage of the batteries if they are in series... and if in parellel add a transformer for each string?
You have to figure out the amount of current each set or string of lights uses. So if one set uses 50mA and you want to use 3 sets. you would require a power supply of 150mA. This should keep the voltage from dropping too low over each light. As for the voltage the lights in this demonstration requires 3 batteries at 1.5V each connected in series, A 4.5V transformer is not common, A standard 5V usb plug should work. There should be enough tolerance within the circuit to handle the extra half a volt. I would not mix and match string lights that use 2 battery with 3 battery strings.
If you had 4 of these lights, how would you connect it with one plug?
U cant
You can
In parallel. But you'll need to make the wires the same length & short as possible. 5v 2.1 amp phone charger should work
Could wire in series. Buy a DC-DC Bost converter and run it off 18650 battery/batteries. Stuff all that inside pvc project box and run connection from boost converter to outside of box
Finally I found the video I need! Thank you!
just what I needed to see. thank you.
I'm ashamed to say this but I do not know how th solder. Is there a way to get this done without the soldering? If no, can you show us how to solder?
Thanks for figuring a way to do away with the AAA batteries!!! Instructions are Awesome!
Cool. I'm going to do this to a string of fairy lights on a mini Christmas tree.
Great video thank you very much very helpful
thank you, dude - short and sweet
*oh, and it worked - and I didn't start a fire or blow anything up
Good job, very easy to follow even without the audio.
I go to resale shops and purchase all my converters used. You can read what the output is and figure what works best for your applications. I have been doing this since LED's became a thing.
I just converted my LED tree. I made dummy batteries. So cool. Thank you!
Just what i was looking for. Been trying to convert led lights to usb hence i recharge powerbanks from solar to use those lights when theres a black out
I know that's not what this videos about but can I power a strip exactly like this with 2 D batteries instead? I'm asking because I have a project where space is extremely limited and I can comfortably fit 2 D batteries in series. Think like a Maglite or something. That's the amount of space I have and these little compartments are just too wide and bulky for what I need. Thanks a lot. I hope you answer .
Do you happen to have a video showing the other way around 😅 i want to convert my plug in lights to battery powered lights
Thanks. This will come in handy with the lighting im planning.
Anyone with no electrical experience or tools: a "battery to usb converter" is a thing you can buy. Make sure you have the right number of batteries anbd voltages or you fry your devices,
Hi. Would a 5v power USB cable work with LED strips that require 4.5v? Is there a risk of overpowering it? I'm a noob so excuse my stupidness. Thanks.
I believe it's fine, alkaline AA or AAA will have about 1,65v when brand new. So that works out to 4,95v with new batteries, voltage will drop over time and that's why they say 1,5v. So if it can handle new batteries, it'll probably handle 5v USB :)
@@trygveevensen8664 I have tried 5v power adapter 1.5a, at first the lights worked fine but after some time the lights stopped working.
I can also confirm, 5v will work for few days then the lights are dead.
@@Bricamy do you find a solution? I think the circuits burn-up beacause of over voltage.
@@M.W.H. do you find a solution? I think the circuits burn-up beacause of over voltage.
Nice, but I still don't understand why it's okay to use a DC adapter with lower output voltage than required, yet people say it's not okay to use one with higher voltage than required.
great video!
I'll try this later 🥰🥰😘 thank you so much
Thank you !! It worked perfectly !!
Im thinking most of these touchless sensor taps neeed this upgrade
2 thumbs up on this! Thanks man!
This was so helpful thank you!
So I've got two strands that take take 2 AA batteries each. Obviously I can connect each one to a 3V transformer but what if I want to connect the stands together? Would i still use a 3V or would I need a 6V?
This was really cool thank you
Thanks Boss worked great for me
I'm having the hardest time to wield the nikel to stick to the metal plate, even if I scratched it good before. any tips ?
Can I use a 5v output for the same battery box that needs 4.5v?
Thank you for this video!
So how important it the motherboard? I removed it and hardwired the wires straight together. The lights flash when I plus them into an outlet.
I have been needing an answer for this same question .
i pulled them off the motherboard now I cannot tell which is positive/negative
so my light is on using 2 batteries so 3v so can I hook it up to the 4.5 v plug or is that way to much juice ?
Is there any potential for fire doing it this way?
I have 3 battery packs how would i run them altogether with one piwer source?
Good video, I wanna convert my porcelain Christmas tree from battery to a plug in.
Thanks, this helped a lot!
Just the video I needed!
I have 4 of these lights and I would like to connect all of them together so that would add up to 18V power required. Can i connect a plug that is 18v DC out?
No. That is not how that works. 4.5VDC devices will always require 4.5VDC(or something very close). 18VDC will be way too much.
When you add multiple loads to a single power source the voltage needs to stay the same, what will increase is the current (amps). So you’ll need to make sure that the power supply and all the conductors are able to handle the increased current. More than likely, if we’re just talking about low power LEDs, this shouldn’t be a problem and you can probably get away with doing it just as this video showed and then wire the other lights to the first one.
It might be a good idea, though probably not necessary, to add an in-line fuse between the power supply and the first light, as a safety measure to prevent potential overcurrent from damaging your power supply or wires. For the plug shown in this video, you’ll need to be sure not to exceed 1.5A. Remember that your breaker (in a USA household) will not trip until it exceeds 15 or 20 amps, which could burn out that little plug and its wires. Four little LED lights honestly will not likely draw more than the 1.5A limit, but you should be aware of it and double check. Hopefully the power supply plug has some kind of built in protection but I would not count on it.
Thank you great video. 💕
I have a set of these lights, it says on the package that hooking them up to a different power source will void the warranty. Hooking up a three battery power supply to mains power is generally not considered a good idea. Bad things can happen, fire being one of them, electric shock could be another. Aside from the previous serious problems, another problem is that you can easily overdrive the LED's. Three batteries lose voltage over time and supply a much more limited current. The power supply continues to provide maximum voltage and current. My rechargeable batteries usually sit at 1.2 volts, unless I just charged them. None rechargeable batteries might start out at something like 1.5 or thereabouts, but they drop quickly. The best way would be to get the specifications on the individual LED's and then design the power supply. It would be nice if there was a follow up to the video on how long the lights lasted. USB lights would probably be a better alternative, the lights are designed for the power from a USB and the little power cubes are cheap.
all valid points you have, which is why he went with a specific AC adapter (4.5v) that wouldn't overload the current capacity. Any higher and then yes, you could have electrical, heat or fire issues.
Dopeee thanksss lol can fix my makeup lights
Why can't I wrap the wires around the springs? Where the batteries touch?
can't I just connect the AC wires to the lights and delete the battery pack in the middle? what role does the empty battery pack play if my AC output is the correct voltage through the converter?
C❄️❄️l!! I’m going to try this!!!🤞🏻
how to add an usb plug instead?
Fantastic! Thanks David
Could I do this with a USB-C cable that is usually used as a phone charge to do this and then cut off the side of the cable that supposed to go into the phone and expose the wires? Then use the USB part and plug it into a USB plug that goes into the outlet.
Did you find an answer?
Can you post a video of this but backwards? How do I make plug in lights battery operated?
What if the metal parts are so rusted they are taking apart?
Will a 5 volt plug in work?
Any chance you could explain how to make the lights work off of battery if they are installed and working, but also allow it to connect to power if the batteries are dead?
What do you call that white thing, the thing that used to insert the battery? Someone tell me please...
Excellent! Thank you sweetheart, I really needed to learn how to do this, is it possible that sometimes for whatever reason, it don't work? cause it happen to me before (btw, please forgive my bad English, I am French, thank you) can you tell me what I did wrong? thanx again, take care & God bless xoxoxox
Would it be a problem if I used a 5v power adapter
Even i have the same doubt
Abha Mathur I ended up using a 5v adapter and it didn’t cause an issue
@@nikolaskapsalis7968 does it work?
I have 5v 0,7A is it enought or i must have 4,5v?
stefan djordjevic yes it does work with my lights
Can you do the same thing with a battery pack with a timer?
Very helpful thanks!!
How to know which is positive and negative on the power adapter? Or it doesn't matter? Thanks
It matters. As he explained in the video, you can do trial and error. However most electrical devices and their power sources are usually color coded. Red is positive and black is negative. I have noticed however that sometimes red isn't part of the color scheme and is substituted for gray. Usually I find black is negative. I recently did this mod on three sets of these types of battery powered lights, but I used old USB phone wall chargers and old USB cables I had lying around since micro USB is being phased out and have no other use for those chargers and cables. This also enables me to use portable battery banks if I wanted to make these portable still. For the USB cable mod you just need to be aware you'll have 4 wires instead of 2 when you strip open the cable. The usually white and green are for data transfer and you can ignore these and just tuck them out of the way or cut them shorter so they don't have a chance of any sort to cause short, otherwise the black and red are the pair you're looking for, or black and gray. Hope this helped.
Depends on the power adapter you have. For example, the one used at thebatsub.com has a plus (+) symbol on the plug tip.
Clever! Thank you.
Hi. I wanted to do a similar project for fun. Question is that I have multiple units of battery operated string lights. I want to connect all first and then convert to plug-in lights. How do I figure the size of the transformer?
My question as well. It appears he's adding up the output of the batteries to match them to the transformer. I haven't looked into this personally, but it would be nice for him to add that to the comments, otherwise face certain death due to an electrical fire. :-)
I wanted to know as well
Will this work on my girlfriends battery powered "vibrating back massager" ? It's always running out of batteries just when she needs it most & her back gets really sore 😉
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for doing this!
How much attention needs to be paid to the amperage of the transformer you pick? Like, with the light set used in the video, how do you know what transformer amperages would be too high or low? Thanks!
Google how many amps the batteries that the devices uses are rated. I.e. C batteries are typically 500mA. Then add up the amount of batteries (4) and the amps (500mA). 4 x 500mA = 2A. Therefore a device that uses 4 C batteries needs a 5VDC 2A transformer.
This is easy when you're just dealing with positive and minus, but how do I convert rechargeable batteries that are using "B+ , D- and BAT in a device?
any fire hazard this comes with?
Going to try this with my lightsaber. Wish me luck
I found a plug with a 4.5-9.5v output. Most other ones I have around the house are 5v. How important is it that I have a 4.5v plug?
Very important so that you do not generate excess heat. The device may work but without a proper match your devices or the transformer could overheat.
Can I use a usb cord instead ?