Nice lights. They look so wonderfully old school - speaking of which, I've got two sets of vintage '80s/90s lights at my mom's, with fond memories attached to them.
I enjoy that we appear to have gone almost full circle with Xmas string lights, to coloured LED then back to filament bulbs with coloured plastic shrouds, only different. These look gorgeous, I particularly like the use of solid plastic to magnify the light.
I had a near/return from death experience in a hospital when I was a kid, and I went "Somewhere" (no religion explains it afaik) else. During the trip to this other place, I passed thru the most beautiful colors you could imagine, humans eyes could not perceive them, but they were tangible (You could see/taste/smell/hear/feel them) Lights, like these, remind me of that experience =) A very positive experience, so thank you =)
That is so cool they are using those tiny bridge rectifiers inline with the filaments. I love this new direction with AC driven LED filaments. Why wouldn't they use resistors on that tiny board? For voltage compatibility with the USA? Or, is it a size/heat dissipation thing?
The give-away for a resistor current limiter was the rather good power factor. Surprisingly decent construction too! That "Super LED Tester" is a really useful bit of kit as you have previously mentioned. Also, note that those E15 cable IDC sockets are available loose from AliExpress too (in case you ever need spares).
But so expensive! I have several strings of C7 And C9 on my front wall of my underground house around clipped to the burglar bars and pharpet and wing walls would set me back about 1K to replace them all .
You should build a dubi testing box, basically rotary switch to select between cap values. You could then quickly switch between them and better compare the brightness change. Basically a cap decade box with suitable connections specific for the task.
Very thorough review! Thank you! Who would ever have imagined that an experienced electrician would thoroughly and safety mindedly review Christmas lights for our mere mortals! I used the same type of housing with the spikes that go through the insulation of the wire for 220 volt lights, and they all made good contact (the flat electrical cable I used years ago was real copper and heavy duty (were BC 220 volt coloured bulbs). Complete overkill. This tested LED version is simply light years ahead, and would have served exactly the same purpose!
I see these being sold these days and I think can be used in standard sets, otherwise, they likely had the circuits inline with the strings. An online site for lights and socket strings sell both LED and incandescent style bulbs that you strew into bulk sockets that you add the plugs to so you can make custom lengths and are typically for commercial use. Yesterday, had to stop by a small hardware store for some true fuel for my weed eater and saw some C7 LED screw in bulbs. The first I've seen in a retail outlet as most places sell the actual sets with bulbs. Still will keep using incandescent bulbs, and a mixture of transparent/ceramic, steady and twinkling. I'm that old school about the holidays.
I liked these, so I bought two sets of plain white ones. Two sets of 16 lamps each plus a spare lamp with each set. Power consumption is about 4.5Watts for each string of 16 lamps. Very nice. I'll definitely 'dooby' them.
While that's dandy and all... Nah, think I'll stick with the actual C7's filaments. If you don't overload the strings, they will last you over 25+ years with some bulb changes here and there. Sure they use more _energy,_ but the warm and pleasant light output makes up for it. LED's have always had that cold, sterile (and sometimes flickering) look to them.
Completely agree. I have both vintage and older/newer sets - bulbs to match, again a mixture of various ages from vintage ceramics, transparent color and a few twinkles (flasher) types. In fact, ordered 2, 25 bulb boxes of multicolor twinkles a box each of C7.5, and C9. the smaller lights for the tree, bigger C9's for outside. Yes, every year when I put them away, several bulbs get replaced so much of my truly vintage bulbs are on the rare side as I've had them about 20+ years, using them yearly since 2003 when my last apartment had a balcony.
have a look at Tru-Tone C7 bulbs; they're pricey but use high-CRI warm white LEDs. I've bought a set every year for the last couple years to replace all my incandescents.
Once again. Thanks Big Clive. Very interesting. Sort of like the these or the others you mentioned? I ordered like 60 of the globe ones at different colors and then six of some non similar spotlight ones that are probably ones with tiny little power supplies inside. Kind of dig the E12 versions. Also, thanks to you I got an LED tester thing Mine seems to have a milliamp showing with a second display. Still haven't worked out the difference with the one you showed us. We'll see how that works. Wild! I'm beginning to relate to the avalanche thing. Avalanche Later is an always thing on my desk. SHEESH. This is why I don't have company!!!
I've always hated the look of LED Christmas lights until now (especially the awful blue ones that actually seem tomake things look dark and miserable when hung through wintery trees!) but these look quite like the 'chili pepper' tungsten ones that we had to ritually untangle and test every year as kids, and that all went out each time one blew. :) The covers do look like sherbet sweets too, though... Amazing to see how much is inside nowadays!
I can tell you liked those lights Clive. I tried keeping count of the number of times you said 'very nice' but eventually lost count. Also 'very nice' that they can be 'Doobied'. Very nice indeed.
I've been using C9 versions of these bulbs for years, though this is the first time i've seen them use LED filaments rather than a few 3mm LEDs or a single SMD LED in the base shooting up into the bulb.
For Aliexpress these are actually pretty decent. Reminds me of the commercial grade ones I just ordered. I like that you can change the bulbs, and even the sockets are serviable. The hardware store ones are crap now as they are all in series so if one goes bad the whole set is out. Some of them you can't even change the bulbs anymore. These at least are standard socket sizes and not in series either.
The socket construction is the same as used for low voltage landscape lighting, two prongs poking through the cable insulation making contact with the wires. I think it's supposed to help in weatherproofing the power connection as most landscape lighting cable is buried in the ground. I have my parents Christmas lights from the 1940's, cloth insulated 14ga wiring and all glass bulbs 4" long..some are elongated with water inside that bubbles when turned on...they still work.
I “made” some red and white ones last year by buying an empty 50 light strand. 25 red bulbs. And 25 white ones. I was able to find some nice warm white LED ones with colored glass coating, it looks awesome. Like light strands of old but not a fire hazard.
I have been observing colored light chains for 60 years. I would say that safety has actually increased by a small gain against electrocution but large gain against fire danger. In 120V countries death risk from electrocution is almost nil.
There is a much higher number of electrocutions in America on 120V compared to the UK on 240V by percentage of population. Maybe people get complacent with 120V.
@@bigclivedotcom I grew up on 220V 50Hz and got zapped dozens of time. Then I went to the UK to study English, got zapped once on my home made P/S and oh boy it was the worst shock that I never wanted to experience again. Spent a full year in the US as a technician, getting zapped there felt like a little cribble. But Western Australia had 254V nominated and that got me a few times too many. Japan is still crippled by having half the country on 50, the other half on 60Hz.
you mentioned that you can see some light through the socket and speculated that its not water proof, but to the contrary you want water to flow through the socket or otherwise they will collect water and it will short. Earlier socket designs were made of Bakelite with brass socket shell and you had to use rubber washers to keep the water out else it would short in the socket. The first generations of the zip wire clamp on sockets did not have vents and it was found that when water collected it would short out the socket, vents were added and the problems went away. Interesting to see them used for 240 v supply though!
The advantage of adding a capacitor in series with the string of lights, is that if something short-circuits, nothing will melt or catch fire. The capacitor will provide current limiting and protect the thin Chinese "copper wire"
Check wires with a magnet too, not sure if you've seen it but Matthias Wandel had many ferrous wires unexpectedly.. Copper plated for the full fraudulent experience.. bloody terrible! Might make for interesting content if you come unstuck, though prolific creators like you rarely run out of video worthy material. Top job as always.
@muxerbaker4638 just a point of curiosity so for low current probably not. But losses are still losses. If it was modified and that resulted in additional current draw I could see it causing problems.
@@ianphilip6281 I'm asking because CCA gets a bad rap (for good reason) here. However I was working on a project recently and using CCA saved us half the budget. Now the cables where twice the area thick, but it was a massive saving and even after the saving the CCA stuff was rated for like 20% more current than the pure copper stuff. It's not bad cable when it's spec'd properly.
@muxerbaker4638 first I'd better declare I'm not a pro but here's my two penneth: I agree to some extent and I see your point. Though I'm still not a fan and wouldn't use it for anything personally or professionally. I'd stick with copper (solid or stranded) myself. I spec my wiring both professionally and personally above it's "pay grade" so to speak to keep my options open for future. Like your 20% overhead for example. For me that's built in. Where I'm from some (many) years ago there was a big issue with CCA and creep that happened in high torque, high current terminals as I understand it. Could be wrong though.. I've mis-remembered stuff before. Now there's a global shortage (hoarding by metal merchants) of copper I understand your frustration at prices completely however. Long story short you do you and I won't judge you for it. Go nuts. Can't promise the rest of the world will be so forgiving however. Status quo said "you pay your money you take your choice" something that will stand true for a good while yet I'm afraid. Sorry I've got nothing concrete to go on mate. Wish I could be more helpful at this time.
LEDs not being pushed to their limits?! What a concept! Sure, I'm being a bit dramatic, but it really is nice to see a manufacturer not pushing LEDs into a premature failure simply to save a few cents in production cost. Looks like they'll last a good long while, which is better both for the consumer and the environment. I agree with you that I wouldn't trust the string outdoors, and to be honest I don't even trust the stab-through connections (that remind me of low-voltage landscape lighting connections), so maybe the best option is to buy a set or two, and swap these bulbs into a higher-quality string?
Those IDC connectors do fail with quite a pop, and a very distinct "electric brown" stink. I've got two on the bench just now. One with a neat little hole in the side from which the smoke escaped. The other one was a bit more energetic and blew the cap off and let out even more smoke and pretty blue sparks for a couple of seconds.
I've found that to release the caps from crimped bulbs like those, levering them off with a kniff blade gets them off, usually intact, with a bit of patience, did that a few times to convert some Philips LED bulbs from E27 to B22, using the B22 caps removed in the same way from the adaptors that came with them Sansi ceramic-heatsinked LED bulbs... :) (of course if they're the type that's screwed on then crimped, or in this case glued in place too, forget what I said!!)
13:20 Properly referred to as Insulation Displacement Connectors (or IDC). I don't recall having seen them used in high-voltage applications. Similar connectors in the past were known as vampire taps (though they required manual drilling of the cable, specifically coax).
These are nice. They remind me of the old 12 strings of 20v olive bulbs. In fact, I can’t see any reason why these couldn’t be used in those old strings- I may have to get some!
At 10:48, I see 162 over one resistor, but there are 2 of them in series. Supply is 22-240V, LED is 162V, Voltage as stated by you over one R is 62V, so does the other resistor drops no voltage at all? I do miss something...
this was interesting. of late i have found LEDs less and less deserving of my fascination. i remember being thrilled by the appearance of blue ones around 1992. they were amazing. all the predictions i had read of blue ones changing things for the better! now they seem not only commonplace, but often worse than the alternative. last week i bought an old uk HPS streetlight, and it was lovely to bathe in its ethereal light, the quality of which i had almost forgotten. they weren't that inefficient, the light made no awful harsh shadows, it didn't ruin my night vision, it didn't bother nearby animals, and the phosphors won't die making an odd purple light as they age. bah! and whilst i am moaning about LEDs they always, despite claims to the contrary on the box, have awful CRI and look nothing like daylight, even the 'daylight simulation' bulbs have hideous spikes in the spectrum, so look nothing like daylight. the thousands of hours of life we were told to expect are nonsense, they are over driven, under cooled, and made with the least de-rating possible. when one considers the rarity of components, and the cost of manufacture and recycling, is a 90% saving of electricity really worth it? a bit of glass, tungsten wire, and a steel stamping is very recyclable. no doubt i am probably entirely wrong. Friday is boozing day.
The versions of these sold over here in the USA (generic big box brands), I've noticed the contacts in the bases tend to be made from a metal that corrodes and oxidizes easily when exposed to water. My assumption is that this is designed to fail purposely in that manner. I've actually got a C7 cord that's over 20 years old (outside 24/7) and still working; but you can definitely see the corrosion where water gets into the bases. We've had these style of bases/cords on cheap lights forever; pre-LED. With holiday decorations, it's usually the cord & bases that go bad long before the bulbs or your decoration does; which is a pain when you have to replace an otherwise still-working product.
I bet that slight heat dissipation would be nice with these when it snows to help melt the snow just around each bulb. Maybe even help them evaporate some water that gets into the socket? But the capacitor in series reduces the power so much that it's hard to ignore that much savings in energy.
We got asked to add a heater to our ADAS RADAR modules on cars. Not sure if it worked as even old fashioned headlights only melt a thin layer of snow (like an igloo), but leave a load snow on top.
Here in The States, I retrofitted an Exit sign with (6) C7 white LED lamps when the original LED driver crapped out. The C7s lasted about a year and a half then I noticed several had gone dim. I’ll be trying another set hopefully they last.
From my American POV those sockets are bog standard except that yours are missing the weep holes on the bottom. Supposedly the holes are the reason the sockets are approved for seasonal outdoor use. My annual displays use hundreds of these sockets with no issues. Also your stringer is made with the wrong wire. As you surmised, the sockets want to be crimped to "figure-8" aka "lamp cord" aka "18-2 zipcord" aka "SPT-1 cable".
Very nice video, Clive, with useful info. Personally, I run a magnet over that wire and see if there's any attraction. It seems there is quite a bit of 'fake' wire about that is actually copper-coated iron.
I've had several orders of Chinese LED C7s from domestic vendors show up with LED filaments this year. Nothing in the listings suggested filaments, they just sent filaments in lieu of the usual 3 X SMD LED bulbs. They are insanely bright, but the colors are a bit washed out / desaturated to the point that you can see the outline of the filaments in some colors.
about the waterproofing for 120v im on the west coast of the US (like almost on the beach) and we get all sorts of issues with our tungsten C9 lights on 120v. ive had them ground out and pop breakers, short and catch fire, and all sorts of corrosion. surprising from strings that as I recall (not getting them out till december) are UL listed and marked for outdoor use
LED string of 54 = 162V which is about right for direct drive of 120VAC rectified and filtered. The 240VAC version just adds the 46K resistors. If a filter [capacitor] is not used then they will still light, just more dimly instead of full brightness.
I love all the 21st century construction techniques, ending in a 100+ year-old MES connector. Also, I trust a man with small nicks and cuts on his hands and knuckles.
These simple resistive led lights are really awesome. My question is what advantages led lights with switching power supplies and all that chips and circuitry do compared to this simple led bulbs? Can someone explain it to me?
That power cord seems to be the standard Europlug-cord. 2 x 0.75mm² double insulated flat cord with brown and blue lead, for "live" and "neutral" (actually meaningless since the plug is not polarised). Frequently used for other things too since it's so ubiquitous and dirt-cheap.
I’d love to see a WS2811 lamp in a fixture that was replaceable, the 3 connections would make it a challenge and the integrity of the data signal. But it would be nice not to have to worry about replacing a single pixel in a 50 pixel strand, especially when it’s in a chain of 500 pixels.
I'm just trying to get into electronics ... again. If the two unmarked resistors were in series with the LEDs, could that have been done with a single resistor? If so, did they use two simply for the mechanical aspect of holding the LED in place?
Bought some of these from the link in the description, also accidentally bought some blue only ones. In a string of 50 I added some of the blue only ones, these however would not illuminate with 100nf in series, the blue ones from the multicoloured pack illuminated just fine. You might think they would have been the same. Anyway further investigation required. Many thanks for the many interesting tear downs. Don't suppose you fancy reverse engineering a Dyson dc30 hand held hoover?
Bought some Ceramic painted glass LED Christmas bulbs a few years back from an ebay seller. They look wonderful. Not a fan of the faceted plastic lenses.
I remember when Blue LEDs were £3 each. The product designer on the first series of the Apprentice wanted to use one but Alan sugar said they were too expensive.
When I was a teenager, working my first electronics job at Celebration Station, my mentor would tell me; “strip that wire like you're stripping a hooker.” True story.
I can see you 3d printing simular covers and maybe even the bushings the resistors go in and makink a project video based on that before the end of the week.
Hi CLIVE .. Have you ever done a video about the 12v led strips that are on a pcb and slotted in an aluminium channel.. about a foot long. There are many types of LEDs used from warm to cold white to various colours and UV etc... They are really bright.. 👀 What resistor/capacitor to actually reduce power consumption (not burn it in the resistor) with 12v dc... and also dim them! Could you do a video about 12v types and reducing power consumption 😻
Random thought. LED lights are not usually suitable for use with a dimmer switch. So could a variable capacitor be used as a simplistic dimmer switch for these type of lights? If so what would the issues be in using one?
with the series capacitor added, I saw the Power Factor dropped from about 1 to about 0.5. I realize that the power draw of these lights is tiny, but if I hugely extrapolate, your power company might not appreciate customers presenting a reactive load to them.
I made the same mistake. Bought the item from the link expecting the holders as well. Wasn't made clear in the video that you only get the bulbs, wiring loom NOT included 😕
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Technology Connections MUST be watching this 😁
I was hoping the filament would be warm white... 😮💨
Came here to say this. Alec's dreams come true :)
Where are you Alec?
The problem will be the blue is still direct led blue.
I thought the same thing too
This seems like something Technology Connections would like.
Shh, don't tell him until after this year's attempt at painting them pretty colors.
@@MrModTwelveFoot I promise I won't after all it's no effort november. 🤣
I can already hear the "and by the magic of buying 2 of them'
Only these have The Specific Tones Of The Colours he only likes ;)
They have no smoothing and flicker, so probably not the holy grail of Christmas lights.
This will have to do if Alec decides not to do the traditional xmas light video this year, those videos are essential in my holidays
I'm sure Alec will do at least one Christmas lighting video.
Tru-Tone does this with their C7/C9 lights, and i believe Alec has done a video about them.
Alec *_has_* to; it's *_Christmas Tradition!!!_* _LOL_ 🤎
These look neat! They should make these with warm white LED filaments in them to get the proper retro glow.
Nice lights. They look so wonderfully old school - speaking of which, I've got two sets of vintage '80s/90s lights at my mom's, with fond memories attached to them.
The globe LED filament bulbs from the same supplier brought vintage Christmas memories flooding back for me too.
I miss those bulbs. Incandescent lights are awful power wise, but their warm glow is hard to beat
They also sell ones they're actually made out of glass but they have a LED and inside
yes
I enjoy that we appear to have gone almost full circle with Xmas string lights, to coloured LED then back to filament bulbs with coloured plastic shrouds, only different.
These look gorgeous, I particularly like the use of solid plastic to magnify the light.
I had a near/return from death experience in a hospital when I was a kid, and I went "Somewhere" (no religion explains it afaik) else. During the trip to this other place, I passed thru the most beautiful colors you could imagine, humans eyes could not perceive them, but they were tangible (You could see/taste/smell/hear/feel them) Lights, like these, remind me of that experience =) A very positive experience, so thank you =)
That is so cool they are using those tiny bridge rectifiers inline with the filaments. I love this new direction with AC driven LED filaments. Why wouldn't they use resistors on that tiny board? For voltage compatibility with the USA? Or, is it a size/heat dissipation thing?
Remarkable
0:54 gotta love that you essentially gave that bulb a kiss… “warm on the lips“. It’s part of what I love about this channel. 👄💡
@@five-toedslothbear4051 I like how Clive warns us before turning the main light back on and, of course, any appearance of the kink palculator.
@@johnm2012 And the precisely-annunciated "One Moment Please".
@@alexhajnal107I love saying that on Teams calls when I’m trying to pull something up to share. No one has recognized it yet 😢
Yep, I appreciate it too. The lips are FAR more sensitive to temperature (and touch btw) than the fingers.
Alec, where are you?😁I guarantee he must be watching!!
The give-away for a resistor current limiter was the rather good power factor. Surprisingly decent construction too! That "Super LED Tester" is a really useful bit of kit as you have previously mentioned. Also, note that those E15 cable IDC sockets are available loose from AliExpress too (in case you ever need spares).
I'm really liking these new filaments, they've come a long way.
Tru-Tone makes the best Christmas lights
But so expensive! I have several strings of C7 And C9 on my front wall of my underground house around clipped to the burglar bars and pharpet and wing walls would set me back about 1K to replace them all .
@jhonsiders6077 wow
You should build a dubi testing box, basically rotary switch to select between cap values.
You could then quickly switch between them and better compare the brightness change.
Basically a cap decade box with suitable connections specific for the task.
These lights have a similar look to the ones I remember on Christmas trees in the 60's.
Very thorough review! Thank you!
Who would ever have imagined that an experienced electrician would thoroughly and safety mindedly review Christmas lights for our mere mortals!
I used the same type of housing with the spikes that go through the insulation of the wire for 220 volt lights, and they all made good contact (the flat electrical cable I used years ago was real copper and heavy duty (were BC 220 volt coloured bulbs). Complete overkill. This tested LED version is simply light years ahead, and would have served exactly the same purpose!
Been binge watching your videos. Ordered a power supply, breadboard and a assorted components kit. Gonna learn something!
Love working with parks and recreation this time of year. Time to put up the sparkling lights.
I see these being sold these days and I think can be used in standard sets, otherwise, they likely had the circuits inline with the strings. An online site for lights and socket strings sell both LED and incandescent style bulbs that you strew into bulk sockets that you add the plugs to so you can make custom lengths and are typically for commercial use.
Yesterday, had to stop by a small hardware store for some true fuel for my weed eater and saw some C7 LED screw in bulbs. The first I've seen in a retail outlet as most places sell the actual sets with bulbs.
Still will keep using incandescent bulbs, and a mixture of transparent/ceramic, steady and twinkling. I'm that old school about the holidays.
I liked these, so I bought two sets of plain white ones. Two sets of 16 lamps each plus a spare lamp with each set. Power consumption is about 4.5Watts for each string of 16 lamps. Very nice. I'll definitely 'dooby' them.
this is so so cool. what an amaizing time to be alive!
While that's dandy and all...
Nah, think I'll stick with the actual C7's filaments. If you don't overload the strings, they will last you over 25+ years with some bulb changes here and there. Sure they use more _energy,_ but the warm and pleasant light output makes up for it. LED's have always had that cold, sterile (and sometimes flickering) look to them.
Completely agree. I have both vintage and older/newer sets - bulbs to match, again a mixture of various ages from vintage ceramics, transparent color and a few twinkles (flasher) types. In fact, ordered 2, 25 bulb boxes of multicolor twinkles a box each of C7.5, and C9. the smaller lights for the tree, bigger C9's for outside.
Yes, every year when I put them away, several bulbs get replaced so much of my truly vintage bulbs are on the rare side as I've had them about 20+ years, using them yearly since 2003 when my last apartment had a balcony.
have a look at Tru-Tone C7 bulbs; they're pricey but use high-CRI warm white LEDs. I've bought a set every year for the last couple years to replace all my incandescents.
I have been in awe lately of your knowledge of electronics and their components, and electricity in general!!! 🤯🤯🤯
They seem quite well made, and the dual resistors and low current are a nice touch. I'd imagine they'd last a very long time.
Once again. Thanks Big Clive. Very interesting. Sort of like the these or the others you mentioned? I ordered like 60 of the globe ones at different colors and then six of some non similar spotlight ones that are probably ones with tiny little power supplies inside. Kind of dig the E12 versions. Also, thanks to you I got an LED tester thing Mine seems to have a milliamp showing with a second display. Still haven't worked out the difference with the one you showed us. We'll see how that works. Wild! I'm beginning to relate to the avalanche thing. Avalanche Later is an always thing on my desk. SHEESH. This is why I don't have company!!!
I guess if I had company with weirdness like me, they would see it as normal.
Also, ordered a 15M version of the cabling which I intend to hang under the eves of my house.
With a bench full of stuff that is all the company you need.
I've always hated the look of LED Christmas lights until now (especially the awful blue ones that actually seem tomake things look dark and miserable when hung through wintery trees!) but these look quite like the 'chili pepper' tungsten ones that we had to ritually untangle and test every year as kids, and that all went out each time one blew. :) The covers do look like sherbet sweets too, though... Amazing to see how much is inside nowadays!
Yes
Very good set of lights. Thanks Clive 👍
I can tell you liked those lights Clive. I tried keeping count of the number of times you said 'very nice' but eventually lost count. Also 'very nice' that they can be 'Doobied'. Very nice indeed.
I've been using C9 versions of these bulbs for years, though this is the first time i've seen them use LED filaments rather than a few 3mm LEDs or a single SMD LED in the base shooting up into the bulb.
For Aliexpress these are actually pretty decent. Reminds me of the commercial grade ones I just ordered. I like that you can change the bulbs, and even the sockets are serviable. The hardware store ones are crap now as they are all in series so if one goes bad the whole set is out. Some of them you can't even change the bulbs anymore. These at least are standard socket sizes and not in series either.
This is nice. Time to get out the old set and replace the lights with these.
The socket construction is the same as used for low voltage landscape lighting, two prongs poking through the cable insulation making contact with the wires. I think it's supposed to help in weatherproofing the power connection as most landscape lighting cable is buried in the ground. I have my parents Christmas lights from the 1940's, cloth insulated 14ga wiring and all glass bulbs 4" long..some are elongated with water inside that bubbles when turned on...they still work.
That ain't water. It's methylene chloride.
I “made” some red and white ones last year by buying an empty 50 light strand. 25 red bulbs. And 25 white ones. I was able to find some nice warm white LED ones with colored glass coating, it looks awesome. Like light strands of old but not a fire hazard.
Pretty colour led lights!
I have been observing colored light chains for 60 years. I would say that safety has actually increased by a small gain against electrocution but large gain against fire danger. In 120V countries death risk from electrocution is almost nil.
There is a much higher number of electrocutions in America on 120V compared to the UK on 240V by percentage of population. Maybe people get complacent with 120V.
@@bigclivedotcom I grew up on 220V 50Hz and got zapped dozens of time. Then I went to the UK to study English, got zapped once on my home made P/S and oh boy it was the worst shock that I never wanted to experience again. Spent a full year in the US as a technician, getting zapped there felt like a little cribble. But Western Australia had 254V nominated and that got me a few times too many. Japan is still crippled by having half the country on 50, the other half on 60Hz.
@@LawpickingLocksmithhave you tried *not* getting repeated electric shocks from mains power?
Just in time for the holidays! Yeah!
They are rather nice :)
I have these in clear smooth plastic and colored. I live them the led filament looks like old school
you mentioned that you can see some light through the socket and speculated that its not water proof, but to the contrary you want water to flow through the socket or otherwise they will collect water and it will short. Earlier socket designs were made of Bakelite with brass socket shell and you had to use rubber washers to keep the water out else it would short in the socket. The first generations of the zip wire clamp on sockets did not have vents and it was found that when water collected it would short out the socket, vents were added and the problems went away. Interesting to see them used for 240 v supply though!
Did you test if the cabling is copper or copper-coated aluminium?
It failed the flame test. I think it's CCA.
That's one cool looking meter :)
The advantage of adding a capacitor in series with the string of lights, is that if something short-circuits, nothing will melt or catch fire. The capacitor will provide current limiting and protect the thin Chinese "copper wire"
Check wires with a magnet too, not sure if you've seen it but Matthias Wandel had many ferrous wires unexpectedly.. Copper plated for the full fraudulent experience.. bloody terrible!
Might make for interesting content if you come unstuck, though prolific creators like you rarely run out of video worthy material.
Top job as always.
Does it really matter if is CCA at this current?
@muxerbaker4638 just a point of curiosity so for low current probably not. But losses are still losses. If it was modified and that resulted in additional current draw I could see it causing problems.
@@ianphilip6281 I'm asking because CCA gets a bad rap (for good reason) here. However I was working on a project recently and using CCA saved us half the budget. Now the cables where twice the area thick, but it was a massive saving and even after the saving the CCA stuff was rated for like 20% more current than the pure copper stuff. It's not bad cable when it's spec'd properly.
@muxerbaker4638 first I'd better declare I'm not a pro but here's my two penneth:
I agree to some extent and I see your point. Though I'm still not a fan and wouldn't use it for anything personally or professionally. I'd stick with copper (solid or stranded) myself. I spec my wiring both professionally and personally above it's "pay grade" so to speak to keep my options open for future. Like your 20% overhead for example. For me that's built in.
Where I'm from some (many) years ago there was a big issue with CCA and creep that happened in high torque, high current terminals as I understand it. Could be wrong though.. I've mis-remembered stuff before.
Now there's a global shortage (hoarding by metal merchants) of copper I understand your frustration at prices completely however.
Long story short you do you and I won't judge you for it. Go nuts. Can't promise the rest of the world will be so forgiving however.
Status quo said "you pay your money you take your choice" something that will stand true for a good while yet I'm afraid.
Sorry I've got nothing concrete to go on mate. Wish I could be more helpful at this time.
Eh, if it's not TruTone, it's still cold and dead. You want white emitters with a color filter for the warm glow. Alec will likely agree.
Love my true tune bulbs, can’t wait to put them up!
Interesting! Thank you.
LEDs not being pushed to their limits?! What a concept! Sure, I'm being a bit dramatic, but it really is nice to see a manufacturer not pushing LEDs into a premature failure simply to save a few cents in production cost.
Looks like they'll last a good long while, which is better both for the consumer and the environment. I agree with you that I wouldn't trust the string outdoors, and to be honest I don't even trust the stab-through connections (that remind me of low-voltage landscape lighting connections), so maybe the best option is to buy a set or two, and swap these bulbs into a higher-quality string?
Those IDC connectors do fail with quite a pop, and a very distinct "electric brown" stink. I've got two on the bench just now. One with a neat little hole in the side from which the smoke escaped. The other one was a bit more energetic and blew the cap off and let out even more smoke and pretty blue sparks for a couple of seconds.
Thank you, keep working.
Very nice indeed. 2x👍
I've found that to release the caps from crimped bulbs like those, levering them off with a kniff blade gets them off, usually intact, with a bit of patience, did that a few times to convert some Philips LED bulbs from E27 to B22, using the B22 caps removed in the same way from the adaptors that came with them Sansi ceramic-heatsinked LED bulbs... :)
(of course if they're the type that's screwed on then crimped, or in this case glued in place too, forget what I said!!)
13:20 Properly referred to as Insulation Displacement Connectors (or IDC). I don't recall having seen them used in high-voltage applications. Similar connectors in the past were known as vampire taps (though they required manual drilling of the cable, specifically coax).
another good video. thank you
Maybe the heating of the resistors is intended to dry the moisture which may come into the socket?
These are nice. They remind me of the old 12 strings of 20v olive bulbs. In fact, I can’t see any reason why these couldn’t be used in those old strings- I may have to get some!
In the old olive bulb strings in the UK, the bulbs were in series. These are for parallel strings. But the modern strings are cheap too.
At 10:48, I see 162 over one resistor, but there are 2 of them in series. Supply is 22-240V, LED is 162V, Voltage as stated by you over one R is 62V, so does the other resistor drops no voltage at all? I do miss something...
this was interesting. of late i have found LEDs less and less deserving of my fascination. i remember being thrilled by the appearance of blue ones around 1992. they were amazing. all the predictions i had read of blue ones changing things for the better! now they seem not only commonplace, but often worse than the alternative. last week i bought an old uk HPS streetlight, and it was lovely to bathe in its ethereal light, the quality of which i had almost forgotten. they weren't that inefficient, the light made no awful harsh shadows, it didn't ruin my night vision, it didn't bother nearby animals, and the phosphors won't die making an odd purple light as they age. bah! and whilst i am moaning about LEDs they always, despite claims to the contrary on the box, have awful CRI and look nothing like daylight, even the 'daylight simulation' bulbs have hideous spikes in the spectrum, so look nothing like daylight. the thousands of hours of life we were told to expect are nonsense, they are over driven, under cooled, and made with the least de-rating possible. when one considers the rarity of components, and the cost of manufacture and recycling, is a 90% saving of electricity really worth it? a bit of glass, tungsten wire, and a steel stamping is very recyclable. no doubt i am probably entirely wrong. Friday is boozing day.
They came in a kit with 25 bulbs and 10 sockets?
The string was pre-loaded with ten different bulbs. I bought a box of 25 bulbs on their own.
Had a look at the listing, I quite fancy the White ones.
_"The base is warm on the lips"_
😉
The versions of these sold over here in the USA (generic big box brands), I've noticed the contacts in the bases tend to be made from a metal that corrodes and oxidizes easily when exposed to water. My assumption is that this is designed to fail purposely in that manner. I've actually got a C7 cord that's over 20 years old (outside 24/7) and still working; but you can definitely see the corrosion where water gets into the bases. We've had these style of bases/cords on cheap lights forever; pre-LED. With holiday decorations, it's usually the cord & bases that go bad long before the bulbs or your decoration does; which is a pain when you have to replace an otherwise still-working product.
I bet that slight heat dissipation would be nice with these when it snows to help melt the snow just around each bulb. Maybe even help them evaporate some water that gets into the socket? But the capacitor in series reduces the power so much that it's hard to ignore that much savings in energy.
We got asked to add a heater to our ADAS RADAR modules on cars. Not sure if it worked as even old fashioned headlights only melt a thin layer of snow (like an igloo), but leave a load snow on top.
Here in The States, I retrofitted an Exit sign with (6) C7 white LED lamps when the original LED driver crapped out. The C7s lasted about a year and a half then I noticed several had gone dim. I’ll be trying another set hopefully they last.
From my American POV those sockets are bog standard except that yours are missing the weep holes on the bottom. Supposedly the holes are the reason the sockets are approved for seasonal outdoor use. My annual displays use hundreds of these sockets with no issues. Also your stringer is made with the wrong wire. As you surmised, the sockets want to be crimped to "figure-8" aka "lamp cord" aka "18-2 zipcord" aka "SPT-1 cable".
It's probably to fulfill the requirement for double insulation here.
Very nice video, Clive, with useful info. Personally, I run a magnet over that wire and see if there's any attraction. It seems there is quite a bit of 'fake' wire about that is actually copper-coated iron.
I think it's aluminium.
I've had several orders of Chinese LED C7s from domestic vendors show up with LED filaments this year. Nothing in the listings suggested filaments, they just sent filaments in lieu of the usual 3 X SMD LED bulbs. They are insanely bright, but the colors are a bit washed out / desaturated to the point that you can see the outline of the filaments in some colors.
I've not long bought two strings of G40 lights from TEMU. These bulb boxes would be handy to give the strings themselves multiple seasonal uses.
The USA c9 type connectors usually glued or melted together to weather resistant them up.
pretty sure the warmth from the resistors is needed for outdoor use to combat freezing temperatures.
about the waterproofing for 120v
im on the west coast of the US (like almost on the beach) and we get all sorts of issues with our tungsten C9 lights on 120v.
ive had them ground out and pop breakers, short and catch fire, and all sorts of corrosion.
surprising from strings that as I recall (not getting them out till december) are UL listed and marked for outdoor use
That explains why my one of my solar festoon lights work, when I jiggle the cable entering the socket. I must be wearing away some oxide. Cheers.
The lower voltage doesn't help. With higher voltage it breaks down the oxides.
LED string of 54 = 162V which is about right for direct drive of 120VAC rectified and filtered. The 240VAC version just adds the 46K resistors. If a filter [capacitor] is not used then they will still light, just more dimly instead of full brightness.
I love all the 21st century construction techniques, ending in a 100+ year-old MES connector. Also, I trust a man with small nicks and cuts on his hands and knuckles.
These simple resistive led lights are really awesome.
My question is what advantages led lights with switching power supplies and all that chips and circuitry do compared to this simple led bulbs?
Can someone explain it to me?
Each has their own application.
Amazingly they under drive leds that will be used for probably a month a year, yet those that are used all year long are driven stupidly hard.
Could the thickness of the colored plastic cover be an effort to provide a deeper color in addition to being simpler to mold?
That power cord seems to be the standard Europlug-cord. 2 x 0.75mm² double insulated flat cord with brown and blue lead, for "live" and "neutral" (actually meaningless since the plug is not polarised). Frequently used for other things too since it's so ubiquitous and dirt-cheap.
Very nice lights Clive thanks shame there’s no IP rating, I’d be nervous having them outside on 240v 😊
I’d love to see a WS2811 lamp in a fixture that was replaceable, the 3 connections would make it a challenge and the integrity of the data signal. But it would be nice not to have to worry about replacing a single pixel in a 50 pixel strand, especially when it’s in a chain of 500 pixels.
While we're citing other wonderful UA-cam channels, that does not appear to be a FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!
I'm just trying to get into electronics ... again. If the two unmarked resistors were in series with the LEDs, could that have been done with a single resistor? If so, did they use two simply for the mechanical aspect of holding the LED in place?
Using two resistors spreads the heat dissipation and halves the voltage across them.
感謝你對於裝飾燈具像細的講解 謝謝
The AliExpress link seems to show bulbs, but there's no mention of wiring & sockets?
You’d use them in your own string.
You can get strings of bulbs that these fit in. Often with G40 globes pre-installed.
Bought some of these from the link in the description, also accidentally bought some blue only ones. In a string of 50 I added some of the blue only ones, these however would not illuminate with 100nf in series, the blue ones from the multicoloured pack illuminated just fine. You might think they would have been the same. Anyway further investigation required.
Many thanks for the many interesting tear downs.
Don't suppose you fancy reverse engineering a Dyson dc30 hand held hoover?
To use the capacitive current limiting, the filaments have to be matched. It sounds like the blue ones were a higher voltage.
great but were do you get the actual wiring loom ?
Very common on eBay, amazon and AliExpress as e12 christmas light string. Usually supplied with a random style of bulb.
Many thanks 👍🏻
I bought some of these from your link but they only sent the bulbs not the string holders, did you get the full light set Mr Big C?
The link is just for the bulbs. I used an existing cheap set of lights as the string of holders.
Bought some Ceramic painted glass LED Christmas bulbs a few years back from an ebay seller. They look wonderful. Not a fan of the faceted plastic lenses.
I remember when Blue LEDs were £3 each. The product designer on the first series of the Apprentice wanted to use one but Alan sugar said they were too expensive.
This listing is for the bulbs only. Is there a recommended string with UK plug (+/- bulbs)?
See the sellers other listings, or search for e12 LED christmas string.
When I was a teenager, working my first electronics job at Celebration Station, my mentor would tell me; “strip that wire like you're stripping a hooker.” True story.
i can flat out BUY royal blue leds but i like obtaining them from other things, these filaments look useful for projects!
Bought these bulbs and they are fantastic. I didn't understand how the capacitor / resistor works 🤔
I can see you 3d printing simular covers and maybe even the bushings the resistors go in and makink a project video based on that before the end of the week.
Hmm. I hadn't thought about printing new covers.
Hi CLIVE .. Have you ever done a video about the 12v led strips that are on a pcb and slotted in an aluminium channel.. about a foot long.
There are many types of LEDs used from warm to cold white to various colours and UV etc...
They are really bright.. 👀
What resistor/capacitor to actually reduce power consumption (not burn it in the resistor) with 12v dc... and also dim them!
Could you do a video about 12v types and reducing power consumption 😻
Random thought. LED lights are not usually suitable for use with a dimmer switch. So could a variable capacitor be used as a simplistic dimmer switch for these type of lights? If so what would the issues be in using one?
This type can work with a dimmer due to the simple circuitry. A variable capacitor would have to be huge for the value required.
The LED ones have never looked as good as the old filament C7 or C9 ones except one but they are crazy expensive!
These cannot be intermixed with old fashioned filament bulbs in all cases. Some early light sets use all the lamps in series.
The real fantastic is Tru-Tone, but you'd have to run those either on a building site transformer.
Did the set of bulbs include the sockets and cable or did you order them separately?
Clive said in an answer elsewhere in the comments that the string + 10 bulbs was one unit, the pack w/ 25 separate bulbs another.
@michaeltempsch5282 Thanks. I didn't notice that comment - there are a lot of them.
with the series capacitor added, I saw the Power Factor dropped from about 1 to about 0.5. I realize that the power draw of these lights is tiny, but if I hugely extrapolate, your power company might not appreciate customers presenting a reactive load to them.
That's called a vampire plug, very popular in Christmas lighting.
Bought via the link but there is no wire or holders - bulbs only??? Am I missing something? Can you put a link to the wiring harness, please?
They fit in any standard E12 string. Usually sold quite cheaply with a set of different bulbs.
I made the same mistake. Bought the item from the link expecting the holders as well. Wasn't made clear in the video that you only get the bulbs, wiring loom NOT included 😕