Lights, lights and MOAR lights!

[towtruck]

I had a quick trip to Home Depot this morning to pick up some bits and pieces and I though I would wander through the Christmas section.  Oh dear.  They had just started the markdowns.

I tried to resist.  I didn't do too badly ... 9 strings of 50 count warm white leds @ $4.50 each and 8 boxes of 8 led icicles called Lightshow LED Shooting Star Multi-color @ $8.50 each.  Good prices for this end of Canada, probably not so good compared to US prices.  Oh well, have to work with what I can get.

So, I have some questions about the icicles ... pictures are linked below.

Google cache gave me some info from doityourselfchristmas.com which said they were made my Gemmy and are 5v. doityourselfchristmas.com kept redirecting me and trying to load unpleasant things.  Hopefully when they are back I can find out more.  In the meantime I though I would ask here.

I would like to hang the icicles in trees ... so I would like to lengthen the lines so I can have more distance between the icicles (they come spaced 10") or separate them and run them individually. 

If I can get away lengthening the lines I can use the included power supply and run via a LE.  Is there a way to figure out how long I can extend the cables or just trial and error?  As you can see in one of the pictures, just 2 wires (18awg) run into each icicle.

If I separate them, I guess I would need to find some 5v dmx controllers.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/info.

Steve

[arw01]

AT $8.50 Canadian you should buy more!  They are still $30.00 down here!

I've been toying with the idea of trying to source the the acrylic tubes and seeing about some roll your own diy compatible led strips in them.  Would like about 50 for the big pine tree underneath.  If a way to re-purpose them could be discovered I might go across the whole house about 57' feet with garage.

[tbone321]

That is not just a power supply, it is also the controller.  I'm not sure exactly how they work but if you attempt to connect them directly to an LE, you will fry them.  You should be able to extend the wires but as soon as you make that first cut, the warranty is history.  Then again, being made by Gemmi, they probably don't have much of one anyway.

[Rich Renn]

I have cut and extended mine to fit the window spacing on the front of my house and run them off of a LOR channel. I used lamp cord for the splice just make sure you connect the wires back the same way they where before cutting them. the longest splice was from the icicle controller to the first icicle was 15 feet or so with a 3 foot splice between icicles and of course 6 ft splice to the next window and so on so I added roughly 36 feet of the lamp cord for my splices . and do not remove the controller the LE should run them just fine.



Richard

[Sparky96]

As far as running off the LE. You will be fine just using the LE to turn on and off the lights, but that little controller probably won't like dimming very much so don't try and fade them.

DJ

[towtruck]

I've been toying with the idea of trying to source the the acrylic tubes and seeing about some roll your own diy compatible led strips in them.  Would like about 50 for the big pine tree underneath.  If a way to re-purpose them could be discovered I might go across the whole house about 57' feet with garage.

I suppose if nothing else, the tubes could be reused and upgraded with some of the standard DLA controller and strips.  Depending upon what sort of cable run lengths a Zeus supports I could set up a mega icicle tree.

That is not just a power supply, it is also the controller.  I'm not sure exactly how they work but if you attempt to connect them directly to an LE, you will fry them.  You should be able to extend the wires but as soon as you make that first cut, the warranty is history.  Then again, being made by Gemmi, they probably don't have much of one anyway.

I'll keep digging for info on these.  I thought I had read online that they would run on their own with 5v applied. Hmmm ... potential magic smoke in my future me thinks. 

I have cut and extended mine to fit the window spacing on the front of my house and run them off of a LOR channel. I used lamp cord for the splice just make sure you connect the wires back the same way they where before cutting them. the longest splice was from the icicle controller to the first icicle was 15 feet or so with a 3 foot splice between icicles and of course 6 ft splice to the next window and so on so I added roughly 36 feet of the lamp cord for my splices . and do not remove the controller the LE should run them just fine.

Perfect Richard, thank you.  I think that will be the quickest, easiest for me to get them hung out on branches.

I also read that with the syncro-color version of these, which has 4 wires to each icicle the power supply is also the controller.  Unfortunately/fortunately the syncro color version went on sale today for $8.50.  May be another trip to Home Depot today.

[arw01]

Well, I certainly did not find them for $8.50 Canadian (basically they pay you to buy then in US  )

Paid $16.00 a set at Ace hardware for 3 sets of the multicolor because they only had 2 of the white and blue, but I would like a few sets of the white and blue also, like those.

I took the dome off one tonight, pulled it out of the tube they are in.  You could definitely re-purpose the tubes with diyla compatible gear, it's like a silicon plug.

I put a multi-meter on them and they run a bit below 5v, I noticed when they run they drop down to 4.2 momentarily maybe lower. So I think perhaps they are triggered by the controller just dropping the voltage low.  There is a fair number of resistors on a smd board (not great soldering either), which I suppose are set to delay when they trigger down the circuit board.  I didn't happen to have a 5v supply out in the shop, will pack one into there in the morning and hook up a single unit to 5v and see what happens. 

I am hopping that just pulling them low, may allow a MR16 with a mod or two to be able to control them as at least a strand, and with some extra wires, perhaps individually as well.

[towtruck]

Thanks for posting your findings.

I hope have success hooking it up to a 5v power supply ... I'll be interested to hear the results either way.

Well, I certainly did not find them for $8.50 Canadian (basically they pay you to buy then in US  )

Paid $16.00 a set at Ace hardware for 3 sets of the multicolor because they only had 2 of the white and blue, but I would like a few sets of the white and blue also, like those.

I took the dome off one tonight, pulled it out of the tube they are in.  You could definitely re-purpose the tubes with diyla compatible gear, it's like a silicon plug.

I put a multi-meter on them and they run a bit below 5v, I noticed when they run they drop down to 4.2 momentarily maybe lower. So I think perhaps they are triggered by the controller just dropping the voltage low.  There is a fair number of resistors on a smd board (not great soldering either), which I suppose are set to delay when they trigger down the circuit board.  I didn't happen to have a 5v supply out in the shop, will pack one into there in the morning and hook up a single unit to 5v and see what happens. 

I am hopping that just pulling them low, may allow a MR16 with a mod or two to be able to control them as at least a strand, and with some extra wires, perhaps individually as well.