I have some C6 Holiday Creations LED strings that I've been using since 2003 that I know are half wave. (There is no in-line dongle anywhere in the string which could hold diodes.) They dim perfectly. For 2011, I'm going to try splicing in a bridge rectifier after the power plug just to see if I get an increase in brightness.
Happy New Year!
Yes.adding a bridge rectifier inline with the string will make them brighter. HOWEVER, you need to know a couple of other things that will happen.
1. The female receptacle will now be Full wave DC, more on this later.
2. The White, Green, Blue strings will have two individual strings, when adding the bridge inline one string will light, reverse the wires on the + & - connections and the other half of the string will light, so how do you get by that? Easy, just find the center of the string where the wires go from 3 wires to 2 wires and back again to 3 wires, at the 2 wire point cut both wires and reveves the connections. Now both strings are on the same polarity.
3. Yellow, Orange, and Red may be 1 series string up to 70 LED's, connect the bridge and try the lights, if they do not light reverse the + & - wires.
4. Now adding more strings this way will not be a problem unless you are adding more than around 10 strings. The problem is each bridge rectifier will drop 1.4 volts per string added. That's a 14 volt drop to the last LED's. I do use some strings this way but keep the total string count low.
5. Another option is do not add the bridge rectifiers to all strings, just the first one on each channel, Just mark this string with a color tape band around the Plug housing. The other strings for White, Green, and Blue only need the second string reverse wire mod done.
Now plugging in the strings will not harm them if you do plug them into AC, If plugging them in to the modified DC string you need to observe polarity, I just run power to the first string and if the next string does not light, pull the plug and turn it 180 degree and plug it back in, do that for all additional strings. You are done.
6. Another way to convert Half wave strings is add 1/2 of a bridge rectifier to each end of both led strings, the middle 2 diodes will be shared between both strings. The Female receptacle will remain AC this way. Have converted many string this way also. There is a polarity issue here to know if the first LED wire is the positive or negative lead.
The Diodes I use are the 1n4xxx series but would not go lower than the 1N4004's, Yes they are only 1 amp rated diodes, but you will only be operating them around 20 ma.
The bridge rectifier I use is the DF-06, bend the ~ pins over on one side of the body and the + & - pins over on the other side of the body, solder your wires to the leads and after testing, add a little low temp hot melt glue and slide a pieces of heat shrink over the assembly and apply heat till the hot melt starts oozing out.
BTW: PLEASE do not do make these changes while the strings are plugged into AC. You will have maximum smoke release.
BTW: I now have a LED light string tester, started work on it 2 years ago, have tested many failed strings of LED's and have not found one that I could not trouble shoot in less than 2 minutes. Typical is less than 1 minute.
Works on Full or Half Wave, AC or DC strings, GE constant ON strings. Commercial or professional lights. Sealed or unsealed.
Looking for someone to help produce and market it.
If anyone wants strings converted or repaired, please PM me. Will consider Lynx equipment for work done.
