Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days, at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?



--
John Stumbles

Praying is talking to yourself and pretending someone intelligent is
listening.

On 21 Dec 2012 17:45:03 GMT, John Stumbles
wrote:

Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days, at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?


I would be skeptical If I saw that in the spec for fairy lights.
Can we have a link to the item so we can examine the wording?

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

The B&Q set we have does remember, if the button is held pressed for 10
secs when on the selected mode - no mention of this in the
"instructions" of course.

Lee

In article ,
Lee writes:
The B&Q set we have does remember, if the button is held pressed for 10
secs when on the selected mode - no mention of this in the
"instructions" of course.

There's almost certainly some type of delay before saving
to non-volatile memory, because the NVRAM in many of the tiny
cheap microcontrollers can only be written a relatively few
times, and if it saved it on every button press, it would
quickly wear out.

The scheme above would achieve this. Another is that such
configuration is only saved about a minute after it's set,
so if you power-cycle it too quickly, it won't be saved.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 21 Dec 2012 17:45:03 GMT, John Stumbles wrote:

Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode.

Both sets of LED lights here remember the last mode used... Both Homebase
multicolour one set 240 LEDs the other 80. Also the filament bulb set
remembers which I think was B&Q.

--
Cheers
Dave.

John Stumbles wrote:

Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days, at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?

I've got some multimode LED lights which have a dial selector on their
control box. The dial's set at the least annoying light pattern, but the
string as a whole is on a separate external timer. About one activation in
six so far, the lights come on in a wild frenzy and need the dial turned
away from the right setting and back to it again. It doesn't altogether
inspire confidence in whatever is inside the control box - a drunken elf
perhaps?

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to replacing "aaa" by "284".

On 21/12/2012 17:45, John Stumbles wrote:
Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days, at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?

http://www.bigclive.com/noflash.htm


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Well if its anything like some a friend bought, yes they memorise all
modes...... except always on.
Who was the bright spark who thought that up, or is there some reason they
don't like them to be on all the time. I gather that after a time they also
go back to flashing.

Weird.

Not that it worries me any more .. grin

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"John Stumbles" wrote in message
...
Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days, at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?



--
John Stumbles

Praying is talking to yourself and pretending someone intelligent is
listening.

John Stumbles writes:

Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay,

Which reminds me:

http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledg...REIN-and-SHINE

If your ADSL is giving you problems:

| Christmas tree lights (especially on €˜flash setting).

--
Alan J. Wylie http://www.wylie.me.uk/

It happens that Lee formulated :
The B&Q set we have does remember, if the button is held pressed for 10 secs
when on the selected mode - no mention of this in the "instructions" of
course.

Lee

Thanks for that, I have just discovered that our set of the more
annoying ones responds to keeping the button pressed for 10 seconds.
You have to count it round to the display you want, then when you get
to the one just before the one you want, instead of a short press you
press and keep it pressed for 10 seconds. Now on a steady drift from
colour to colour, rather than an annoying and distracting flash.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

On Sat, 22 Dec 2012 09:53:06 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Well if its anything like some a friend bought, yes they memorise all
modes...... except always on.
Who was the bright spark who thought that up, or is there some reason they
don't like them to be on all the time. I gather that after a time they also
go back to flashing.

Weird.

Not that it worries me any more .. grin

Brian

There could well be a reason for not having them all running at the
same time: To reduce the duty cycle.

This is from the link John Rumm posted

Spectacular. This is a cheap set of Chinese LED lights bought on ebay.
Aside from the fact that the tiny inline resistors are a mix of
values, they are grossly under-rated for the job they are doing, even
if the controller is flashing them on and off. I'd say the resistors
are rated at 0.125 Watts, and in the string that has already smoked
there were three 3000 Ohm resistors in series with about 33 red LEDs.
Given that a typical red LED has a forward voltage of about 2V that
would give a total LED voltage of about 66V leaving 174V to be dropped
across the resistors on a 240V supply. The total resistance of all
three 3000 Ohm resistors is 9000 Ohms, so the average current will be
roughly 19.33mA (which is good) but the dissipation across the
resistors will be 3.36 Watts meaning that even with the current split
over three resistors they are dissipating ten times their rated value!
No wonder they went up in smoke.
This happened while the original controller was still in use and set
at static. I was playing with the LED string while it was on (highly
dubious thing to do given the quality) when I noticed a hot smell and
then felt a burning sensation from one of the resistors. For all it
would have taken to add a few more resistors in series along the
string, I really don't know why China puts stuff like this out.
I also spotted defective wire in the string which actually had wire
strands emerging from the plastic insulation. That's definitely a
serious shock risk. Definitely one for the Chinese deathtrap
collection.




--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

On Sat, 22 Dec 2012 11:20:16 +0000, (Alan J. Wylie)
wrote:

Which reminds me:

http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledg...REIN-and-SHINE

Bit of a stretch to get SHINE out of SIIN.

On Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:17:31 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Lee writes:
The B&Q set we have does remember, if the button is held pressed for 10
secs when on the selected mode - no mention of this in the
"instructions" of course.

There's almost certainly some type of delay before saving to
non-volatile memory, because the NVRAM in many of the tiny cheap
microcontrollers can only be written a relatively few times, and if it
saved it on every button press, it would quickly wear out.

The scheme above would achieve this. Another is that such configuration
is only saved about a minute after it's set, so if you power-cycle it
too quickly, it won't be saved.

Thanks for that everyone. Tried holding button down on the press needed
to get it to steady, and leaving them on for several minutes before power
cycling them, and they still go back to manic annoying mode. Plus, having
perused Big Clive's site that John Rumm linked to and looked at the size
of the dropper resistors I don't think I'd want to share a living space
with them that was the least bit combustible!

--
John Stumbles

Question Authority

In message , John Stumbles
writes
Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days

Wilkinsons here sell them, a couple of quid for 20 with two spares

at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?




--
geoff

On Dec 22, 6:50*pm, John Stumbles wrote:
Thanks for that everyone. Tried holding button down on the press needed
to get it to steady, and leaving them on for several minutes before power
cycling them, and they still go back to manic annoying mode.

Almost certainly faulty - return them. Our warm-white LED string
remembers all the modes - including steady on - without any special
measures. In fact, it remembered from last Christmas!

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

On Sat, 22 Dec 2012 21:50:49 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message , John Stumbles
writes
Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days

Wilkinsons here sell them, a couple of quid for 20 with two spares

at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?


Can you still get sets of fairy lights using either 12 or 20 MES
bulbs simply connected in series - none of this fancy flashing stuff,
unless you bought a "flashing bulb" which naturally flashed all the
bulbs in the string?

--
Frank Erskine

On Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:25:00 +0000, Frank Erskine
wrote:

On Sat, 22 Dec 2012 21:50:49 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message , John Stumbles
writes
Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay, described as multimode (i.e.
various more-or-less irritating flashing modes and one steady on) but
able to remember the last setting (simply 'static' sets seem to be like
hens' teeth these days

Wilkinsons here sell them, a couple of quid for 20 with two spares

at least in warm white, so this was next best.)
Needless to say when the ******* things arrived they don't seem to have
the memory function - if I press the button however many times to put
them in steady mode then turn them off and on again they're back to
annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?


Can you still get sets of fairy lights using either 12 or 20 MES
bulbs simply connected in series - none of this fancy flashing stuff,
unless you bought a "flashing bulb" which naturally flashed all the
bulbs in the string?

Tesco do a "value" product consisting of 20 colours bulbs in series
and a non reusable 13A plug.

The bulbs are the traditional push in fairy light type. If really
meant MES torch bulbs I would suggest they were unsuitable on safety
grounds.

I was surprised that these chains were still available, I thought
everything had to have an isolating LV wall-wart these days.

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

In article ,
Frank Erskine writes:
Can you still get sets of fairy lights using either 12 or 20 MES
bulbs simply connected in series - none of this fancy flashing stuff,

Yes, but not MES - they are all push-fit filament lamps now.

unless you bought a "flashing bulb" which naturally flashed all the
bulbs in the string?

Haven't seen those for a while.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Frank Erskine wrote:

Can you still get sets of fairy lights using either 12 or 20 MES
bulbs simply connected in series - none of this fancy flashing stuff,
unless you bought a "flashing bulb" which naturally flashed all the
bulbs in the string?

You mean LES (E5) - MES (E10) is the bigger of the two.

I have not seen those for many years - but you can still get what you
describe in push in bulb format.

--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

"It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent
moral busybodies."

On Dec 23, 10:19*am, Tim Watts wrote:
You mean LES (E5) - MES (E10) is the bigger of the two.

I can't speak for the OP, but the twelve-in-series Christmas lights we
had years ago - with a flashing bulb - were definitely MES (miniature)
not LES (lilliputian).

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

In article
,
Richard Russell wrote:
On Dec 23, 10:19 am, Tim Watts wrote:
You mean LES (E5) - MES (E10) is the bigger of the two.

I can't speak for the OP, but the twelve-in-series Christmas lights we
had years ago - with a flashing bulb - were definitely MES (miniature)
not LES (lilliputian).

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

I've still got some MES outdoor lights.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

On Friday, December 21, 2012 10:14:59 PM UTC, John Rumm wrote:
On 21/12/2012 17:45, John Stumbles wrote:

Bought a set of LED fairy lights of eBay,

annoying flashing mode. Is there some cunning way to make them memorise
the last setting that I haven't sussed or are they useless?

http://www.bigclive.com/noflash.htm

FWIW its also possible to put resistors across the control transistors so the lights just twinkle slightly.


NT

On Sun, 23 Dec 2012 09:12:47 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

In article ,
Frank Erskine writes:
Can you still get sets of fairy lights using either 12 or 20 MES
bulbs simply connected in series - none of this fancy flashing stuff,

Yes, but not MES - they are all push-fit filament lamps now.

unless you bought a "flashing bulb" which naturally flashed all the
bulbs in the string?

Haven't seen those for a while.

That takes me back to a Christmas a long time ago, Got a plastic kit
of a VC10. Cannot remember what make it was now. Some of the nav
lights had primitive plastic light guides that terminated by one of
those flashing bulbs. Like all most electrical toys in the 60's it
depended on plain old batteries and ate them rapidly.
Thinking back some of the things I had would probably work well now
with modern batteries and led lights.
A big disappointment was an amphibious car which looked a bit like a
range rover but couldn't have been because it predated them.
Bloody thing only ran about 30 mins on a set of batteries and couldn't
pull itself up a ramp out of the water.

G.Harman

Richard Russell wrote:

On Dec 23, 10:19 am, Tim Watts wrote:
You mean LES (E5) - MES (E10) is the bigger of the two.

I can't speak for the OP, but the twelve-in-series Christmas lights we
had years ago - with a flashing bulb - were definitely MES (miniature)
not LES (lilliputian).

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

Were they the ones with long (30mm ish) coloured ovoid lamps?


--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon."

In article ,
Richard Russell writes:
On Dec 23, 10:19*am, Tim Watts wrote:
You mean LES (E5) - MES (E10) is the bigger of the two.
I can't speak for the OP, but the twelve-in-series Christmas lights we
had years ago - with a flashing bulb - were definitely MES (miniature)
not LES (lilliputian).

The 20V 3W MES sets are older, and I remember my parents having them,
and I got the set and remaining bulbs to play with when they were
decommissioned.

The original bulbs had a half-spherical base, and a conical tip
with rounded point, e.g.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-x-20v-3...-/221162643729
Back in their day, you could also buy compatible special shaped painted
bulbs, e.g. a father Christmas, and other things.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

none of this fancy flashing stuff,
unless you bought a "flashing bulb" which naturally flashed all the
bulbs in the string?


There was definatly another sort of flashing xmas light that only
flashed itself by shorting its filliment with the bimetal strip.
I had a chain with two or three of these in it. The rest of the chain
would brighten slightly of course, and this rather enhanced the
effect.
Something I used to do with all mains energised chains whether
flashing or not, is to put a series diode in the plug to dim them.
They looked better like this, and lasted much longer.






--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

On Dec 23, 12:42*pm, Tim Watts wrote:
Were they the ones with long (30mm ish) coloured ovoid lamps?

As Andrew said, they came in several different shapes (we had one set
with them all shaped like bells) but the approximately conical ones
were the most common as I recollect.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

On Sun, 23 Dec 2012 02:39:40 -0800 (PST), Richard Russell
wrote:

On Dec 23, 10:19*am, Tim Watts wrote:
You mean LES (E5) - MES (E10) is the bigger of the two.

I can't speak for the OP, but the twelve-in-series Christmas lights we
had years ago - with a flashing bulb - were definitely MES (miniature)
not LES (lilliputian).

Yes - I did mean MES :-)

--
Frank Erskine

Graham. wrote:

Tesco do a "value" product consisting of 20 colours bulbs in series
and a non reusable 13A plug.

The bulbs are the traditional push in fairy light type. If really
meant MES torch bulbs I would suggest they were unsuitable on safety
grounds.

I was surprised that these chains were still available, I thought
everything had to have an isolating LV wall-wart these days.

I have some of the more expensive LED sets, which are extendible
(up to a point), and simply plug in. I certainly hope to get a
good few years from them.

This sort of thing
http://www.twinkle-lights.com/100-co...-on-black.html

But I managed to get them cheaper at B&Q, on a pensioners' day
last year.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

Hi just bought a set of 300 LED lights, that when you switch them on they don't remember the setting you left them on!!! Yep the 10 second rule worked on this set. We just count through the setting we wanted and left our finger on it for a good 10 seconds on the the one we wanted , it work a treat, cheers !!!!!

Hi we ve just purchased a set of multi function LED fairy lights for the garden. We have them on a timer so want them to remember the last setting. As a previous post the only way we can get them to stay on the setting we want and not start from the beginning is to count though from the start and when you reach the setting you want, do not release your finger, keep it pushed down for a good , 10 seconds , it works a treat, thank you