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Tim Mitchell
 
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Default autochaser decorative lights

In article ,
writes
On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:08:46 +0100, Tim Mitchell
wrote:

In article ,
writes
I have a non working set of xmas lights, the wallwart seems to work
and the light strings have continuity but they don't switch on. I
guess the controller is broken, any suggestions for a diy method to
make some use of them?

The wallwart is 24V 14VA, 120 2.4V, .29W lights in 4 strings.

Something doesn't add up there, 4 strings of 30x2.4V would need 72 volts
to light up.


Sorry I cannot explain this, there are 5 wires leaving the controller
and I assumed it to be 4 live and a neutral. I don't even know if the
controller outputs dc or ac. Thanks for looking though.

They normally are 4 circuits and one return, some are mains fed but I
presume yours is low voltage from the "wallwart". It will be AC because
they use triacs to turn the lamps on and off, and triacs don't work on
DC.

You could try powering up one string of lights direct from the wall wart
and see what happens. 14VA is not enough power to light them all up
though if they are .29W each.
--
Tim Mitchell