I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

John wrote:

I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Quite!

Another design gotcha, which resulted in my returning a B&Q set
some years ago, is to have no retained memory of the mode chosen,
so that if on a timer, it is impossible to arrange matters so
that it stays static next time it is switched on. :-(

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

On 16/12/2019 17:01, John wrote:
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??


To keep the chavs happy or course:-)

--
Adam

On 16/12/2019 17:11, Chris J Dixon wrote:
Another design gotcha, which resulted in my returning a B&Q set
some years ago, is to have no retained memory of the mode chosen,
so that if on a timer, it is impossible to arrange matters so
that it stays static next time it is switched on

#firstworldproblems

"John" wrote in message
2.222...
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Cheaper to do and with luck you might kill some epileletics

On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 05:43:03 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Cheaper to do and with luck you might kill some epileletics

Or, with more luck, even a cheap troll like you, senile Rodent!

--
Richard addressing Rot Speed:
"**** you're thick/pathetic excuse for a troll."
MID:

On 16/12/2019 17:11, Chris J Dixon wrote:
John wrote:

I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Quite!

Another design gotcha, which resulted in my returning a B&Q set
some years ago, is to have no retained memory of the mode chosen,
so that if on a timer, it is impossible to arrange matters so
that it stays static next time it is switched on. :-(

Chris

I am glad to say that the three sets of lights outside do retain their
mode - not that it matters too much outside. Unfortunately the lights on
the Christmas tree don't

SteveW

Maybe hey get a thrill out of it, oh sorry my AI got the wrong end of the
branch there.
If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in series
across the mains, we had a flashing bulb in the chain. This device had a bi
metal strip which crudely cut of and connected the lights to make them
flash. Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure resulting in a blown fuse
and a set of lights with no good bulbs at all. I'm sure we all remember
those halcyon days of trying to find the duff bulb or bulbs before you ended
up blowing them again. What I used to do is buy two sets and put them in
series, that way they were a bit dimmer, but actually the redder light
looked more festive, but of course, flashing bulbs no longer worked.
Brian

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"John" wrote in message
2.222...
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Have you heard some of the RFI generated by Christmas lights these days?
From gently gurgling to whining noises. I suppose they all have dirt cheap
switch mode supplies with a convenient aerial to radiate the crap built in.

Brian

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"ARW" wrote in message
...
On 16/12/2019 17:01, John wrote:
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??


To keep the chavs happy or course:-)

--
Adam

I've never found the latter, the best way to do that is with a 1970s strobe
light.
Which brings us to the apparent epidemic of outside animated illuminated
inflatable xmas decorations.
I can't see them these days except from the hue or auras from the lights.
For one thing, if these people want to save the planet is all this
electronic gadgetry really the way to proceed? Then there is my pet hate.
Animated Little Drummer boys.
Where in the Christmas Story is there a drummer boy? Not that Santa his
reindeer and flashing icicles have a lot to do with it either!

Brian

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"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...


"John" wrote in message
2.222...
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Cheaper to do and with luck you might kill some epileletics

Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote

Have you heard some of the RFI generated by Christmas lights these days?
From gently gurgling to whining noises.

That’s the dwarves being minced by Santa, stupid.

Done you now where those fruit mince tarts come from ?

Leaves Girl Guide cookies for dead bestiality wise.

And Baby Oil.


"ARW" wrote in message
...
On 16/12/2019 17:01, John wrote:
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??


To keep the chavs happy or course:-)

--
Adam

"Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)" wrote in message
...
I've never found the latter, the best way to do that is with a 1970s
strobe light.
Which brings us to the apparent epidemic of outside animated illuminated
inflatable xmas decorations.
I can't see them these days except from the hue or auras from the lights.
For one thing, if these people want to save the planet is all this
electronic gadgetry really the way to proceed? Then there is my pet hate.
Animated Little Drummer boys.
Where in the Christmas Story is there a drummer boy?

Where in the Xmas story is santa, elves, reindeer,
xmas trees, holly, mistletoe, turkeys, ****ing at the
work xmas party etc etc etc ?

Not that Santa his reindeer and flashing icicles have a lot to do with it
either!

Neither has that fool that later got nailed up by the romans.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...


"John" wrote in message
2.222...
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Cheaper to do and with luck you might kill some epileletics

rOn Tue, 17 Dec 2019 19:32:40 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH more senile bull****

--
Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp addressing Rodent Speed:
"You really are a clueless pillock."
MID:

On Tuesday, 17 December 2019 07:54:16 UTC, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
I've never found the latter, the best way to do that is with a 1970s strobe
light.
Which brings us to the apparent epidemic of outside animated illuminated
inflatable xmas decorations.
I can't see them these days except from the hue or auras from the lights.
For one thing, if these people want to save the planet is all this
electronic gadgetry really the way to proceed? Then there is my pet hate.
Animated Little Drummer boys.
Where in the Christmas Story is there a drummer boy? Not that Santa his
reindeer and flashing icicles have a lot to do with it either!

Brian

They all come from Christmas traditions from various countries.

Drummerboy - Czechoslovakia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Drummer_Boy

All seized upon for commercial reasons.

On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 19:38:33 +1100, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:

FLUSH more of the trolling senile asshole's troll****

--
about senile Rot Speed:
"This is like having a conversation with someone with brain damage."
MID:

"Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\)" wrote in
:

I've never found the latter, the best way to do that is with a 1970s
strobe light.
Which brings us to the apparent epidemic of outside animated
illuminated
inflatable xmas decorations.
I can't see them these days except from the hue or auras from the
lights. For one thing, if these people want to save the planet is all
this
electronic gadgetry really the way to proceed? Then there is my pet
hate. Animated Little Drummer boys.
Where in the Christmas Story is there a drummer boy? Not that Santa
his
reindeer and flashing icicles have a lot to do with it either!

Brian


Hence I feel we should be more honest and celebrate Winter Festival. During
the Winter Festival the Christians can celebrate Christmas (a relatively
minor festival)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Drummer_Boy

All seized upon for commercial reasons.



And now the Elf on the shelf. All for the gulible with money to burn.

On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 17/12/2019 20:20, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

All the lights I had failed open


--
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for
the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the
truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

Joseph Goebbels

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 17/12/2019 20:20, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

All the lights I had failed open
The ones i remember all but one of the bulbs had internal wire resistors
in parallel with the filaments so that they failed at about twice the
reslstance of a normal bulb. This had little effect on brightness
until quite a few bulbs had failed. But one the bulbs was a designated
fuse bulb which failed open circuit as the filament (a thicker one?)
carried the whole current. These were usually painted white rather than
coloured and were not as bright when lit as the others.


--

Roger Hayter

On 17/12/2019 21:52, Roger Hayter wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 17/12/2019 20:20, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

All the lights I had failed open
The ones i remember all but one of the bulbs had internal wire resistors
in parallel with the filaments so that they failed at about twice the
reslstance of a normal bulb. This had little effect on brightness
until quite a few bulbs had failed. But one the bulbs was a designated
fuse bulb which failed open circuit as the filament (a thicker one?)
carried the whole current. These were usually painted white rather than
coloured and were not as bright when lit as the others.


Nope. All the bulbs were simply fail open, Bought a 9V bulb tester to
plug em all in before plugging em into the tree.
Thank Clapton for LEDS...


--
"It is an established fact to 97% confidence limits that left wing
conspirators see right wing conspiracies everywhere"

On Tuesday, December 17, 2019 at 9:52:43 PM UTC, Roger Hayter wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 17/12/2019 20:20, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

All the lights I had failed open
The ones i remember all but one of the bulbs had internal wire resistors
in parallel with the filaments so that they failed at about twice the
reslstance of a normal bulb. This had little effect on brightness
until quite a few bulbs had failed. But one the bulbs was a designated
fuse bulb which failed open circuit as the filament (a thicker one?)
carried the whole current. These were usually painted white rather than
coloured and were not as bright when lit as the others.


We've got a couple of sets of these but IIRC the other bulbs could still fail and it was a bugger tracing the faulty one.

I do remember one time going to Homebase to try and find some spare bulbs, optimistic fool that I am, didn't get any of course but they were already selling off the Christmas decorations at a massive discount so I got two boxes of 100 lights for five quid.

--
Halmyre

Well, that I suppose is whether you take it literally or symbolically as an
icon of all that is bad about our race I guess.

Brian

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"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...


"Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)" wrote in message
...
I've never found the latter, the best way to do that is with a 1970s
strobe light.
Which brings us to the apparent epidemic of outside animated illuminated
inflatable xmas decorations.
I can't see them these days except from the hue or auras from the lights.
For one thing, if these people want to save the planet is all this
electronic gadgetry really the way to proceed? Then there is my pet hate.
Animated Little Drummer boys.
Where in the Christmas Story is there a drummer boy?

Where in the Xmas story is santa, elves, reindeer,
xmas trees, holly, mistletoe, turkeys, ****ing at the
work xmas party etc etc etc ?

Not that Santa his reindeer and flashing icicles have a lot to do with it
either!

Neither has that fool that later got nailed up by the romans.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...


"John" wrote in message
2.222...
I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??

Cheaper to do and with luck you might kill some epileletics

Well the danger was that the fuse bulb blew and people put in an ordinary
bulb, that was how you got runaway failure. In my experience the magic
number was around 6, at that point the next one to blow vaporised
internally, saving the rest!
However the rest were then weakened and for the rest of the Christmas you
were eternally replacing bulbs.
Brian

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"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
idual.net...
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

--
Cheers
Dave.

The les 24 volt ones usually did, these were big bulbs, not the weedy push
in crap we got later on. How having single insulated twisted wire live to
full mains in crap little plastic sockets was ever safe in the first place
eluded me.
My series ploy at least made them pretty fail safe until the cat tried to
pull them off the tree, that is.
Brian

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"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
On 17/12/2019 20:20, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

All the lights I had failed open


--
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually
come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the
State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military
consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State
to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal
enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy
of the State.

Joseph Goebbels

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Nope. All the bulbs were simply fail open, Bought a 9V bulb tester to
plug em all in before plugging em into the tree.
Thank Clapton for LEDS...

Indeed! A couple of sets that I had even came complete with a
bulb tester. What a pain to get them all working each year.

If it wasn't failed bulbs, it was poor contact in the primitive
wedge bulb holders.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

High tech, I never found any resistors in my old bulbs or holders.

Brian

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"Roger Hayter" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 17/12/2019 20:20, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:46:39 -0000, Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\) wrote:

If you will recall back in the days of filament bulbs all wired in
series across the mains,

Not a lot different now, have chains of LEDS across a supply of a few
tens of volts.

Of course the danger here was that if a bulb blew short circuit then
you could get a wonderful catastrophic failure ...

Tree light bulbs are designed to fail short circuit. I've never known
a set run away blowing bulbs or the fuse bulb. Failing short makes
finding the duff one fairly easy, it's the one that isn't lit. Fail
open and you have to test each bulb individually.

All the lights I had failed open
The ones i remember all but one of the bulbs had internal wire resistors
in parallel with the filaments so that they failed at about twice the
reslstance of a normal bulb. This had little effect on brightness
until quite a few bulbs had failed. But one the bulbs was a designated
fuse bulb which failed open circuit as the filament (a thicker one?)
carried the whole current. These were usually painted white rather than
coloured and were not as bright when lit as the others.


--

Roger Hayter

In message , "Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)"
writes
Have you heard some of the RFI generated by Christmas lights these days?
From gently gurgling to whining noises. I suppose they all have dirt cheap
switch mode supplies with a convenient aerial to radiate the crap built in.

'Twas ever thus. It was around 1950 that we got our first 12-bulb set of
Christmas lights. I think they were originally 'always on', but you
could buy a flasher bulb that contained bi-metal make-break contacts.
The regular wideband RF splat as the lights innocently turned on and off
carried a considerable distance, and when listening to the radio (no TV
in those days) the flasher bulb had to be temporarily replaced with a
normal type. [I still have the set, but about half of the bulbs are
blown. The only way to run them now is to put some silver paper in the
dead bulb sockets, screw in the dead bulbs, and run the remainers from a
reduced voltage.]
--
Ian

are blown. The only way to run them now is to put some silver paper in
the dead bulb sockets, screw in the dead bulbs, and run the remainers
from a reduced voltage.]

I think you are now supposed to buy a couple of new sets every Xmas.

On 18/12/2019 08:46, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , "Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)"
writes
Have you heard some of the RFI generated by Christmas lights these days?
FromÂ* gently gurgling to whining noises. I suppose they all have dirt
cheap
switch mode supplies with a convenient aerial to radiate the crap
built in.

'Twas ever thus. It was around 1950 that we got our first 12-bulb set of
Christmas lights. I think they were originally 'always on', but you
could buy a flasher bulb that contained bi-metal make-break contacts.
The regular wideband RF splat as the lights innocently turned on and off
carried a considerable distance, and when listening to the radio (no TV
in those days) the flasher bulb had to be temporarily replaced with a
normal type. [I still have the set, but about half of the bulbs are
blown. The only way to run them now is to put some silver paper in the
dead bulb sockets, screw in the dead bulbs, and run the remainers from a
reduced voltage.]

Rewire them to parallel and use a 12V power supply.

--
Adam

In message , ARW
writes
On 18/12/2019 08:46, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , "Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)"
writes
Have you heard some of the RFI generated by Christmas lights these days?
From* gently gurgling to whining noises. I suppose they all have
dirt cheap
switch mode supplies with a convenient aerial to radiate the crap
built in.

'Twas ever thus. It was around 1950 that we got our first 12-bulb set
of Christmas lights. I think they were originally 'always on', but
you could buy a flasher bulb that contained bi-metal make-break
contacts. The regular wideband RF splat as the lights innocently
turned on and off carried a considerable distance, and when listening
to the radio (no TV in those days) the flasher bulb had to be
temporarily replaced with a normal type. [I still have the set, but
about half of the bulbs are blown. The only way to run them now is to
put some silver paper in the dead bulb sockets, screw in the dead
bulbs, and run the remainers from a reduced voltage.]

Rewire them to parallel and use a 12V power supply.

They would be a bit dim. 12 bulbs across a 240V mains means that they
are each 20V. Also, running even six in parallel would mean a lot of
bulky wire. Instead, I use a variac (variable output mains transformer).

Note that modern incandescent bulbs (if they haven't all by now been
succeeded by LEDs!) have a fail-safe loop of wire around the filament
supports. If a filament fails, the supports spring apart, and the wire
loop provides a S/C across the bulb - so the remaining bulbs in the
string stay lit (albeit a little brighter).
--
Ian

On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:01:05 GMT, John
wrote:

I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??
Have a look at:
https://www.society19.com/ridiculous...istmas-lights/
Number 4 wins it for me.
pfj

You are D i m aicmfp


"Brian Gaff \(Sofa 2\)" Wrote in message:
Well, that I suppose is whether you take it literally or symbolically as an
icon of all that is bad about our race I guess.

Brian



--
Jimk


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://usenet.sinaapp.com/

pfj Wrote in message:
On Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:01:05 GMT, John
wrote:

I can understand slowly twinkling Xmas lights and the ones that gently
undulate. But why Flashing ones??
Have a look at:
https://www.society19.com/ridiculous...istmas-lights/
Number 4 wins it for me.
pfj


What's the prize? updated Photoshop?
--
Jimk


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