DIYbanter - bad Christmas tree lights

On Nov 21, 8:45 am, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
Did someone in this group have a problem with a tree full o' bad bulbs?

I just found this gadget in a local Black Friday newspaper ad.

http://lightkeeperpro.com

The list is $30. Most stores sell it for $15, and the ad I saw had it for
$10.

I don't know if it really works, but I spoke to the company's owner, and he
seemed a rat-nice feller.

The device shown will work as shown in the attached step-by-step
slides only if the light string does not have a always hot lead going
down the string so that there is an outlet at the end of the string to
be used to attach further strings of lights. For $5.00 you can get a
tester that has the continuity function. I don't know about the
Piezzo-electric idea of triggering the shunt across the lamp when the
shunt fails to activate. In my exoperience,m with outdoor lights, it
is often a bad socket connection after several years of use that
causes problems. I also use a series negative resistance thermistor
on my lights, so that when they are first turned on, they are only at
about 75% of full brightness, and as the series thermistor gets hot,
the lights go to almost full brightness. Works very well. I have the
thermmistor in a little utility box with a plug - cord and socket and
keep it next to the light timer I have in the garage. The unit always
starts out quite cool and I save a lot of surge at tuen-on problems
using it.

H. R. (Bob) Hofmann