LED light issue/question

C

ctmal

Supporting Member
So, I changed everything over to LED's this year and everything was going great(and looked great), but yesterday I noticed a strand of Green LED's wasn't coming on. Of course it's the one place that is almost impossible for me to get to without having to take down other parts of the display(and because of the way we mount our lights).
After some testing, it turns out that as soon as I plug in the lights now, the fuse in the strand blows.

My question is, is there any quick fixes for this? I have a feeling I already know the answer but I figured I'd ask.
 
ctmal said:
So, I changed everything over to LED's this year and everything was going great(and looked great), but yesterday I noticed a strand of Green LED's wasn't coming on. Of course it's the one place that is almost impossible for me to get to without having to take down other parts of the display(and because of the way we mount our lights).
After some testing, it turns out that as soon as I plug in the lights now, the fuse in the strand blows.

My question is, is there any quick fixes for this? I have a feeling I already know the answer but I figured I'd ask.
Click to expand...
What type of LEDs did you get? (Ie.. are they commercial grade or are they store bought?)

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Unfortunately I don't believe there is any easy way to fix those. Obviously there is a short somewhere , but where, an LED, or a diode or in a diode blob/rectifier circuit, I too have 4 or 5 strands that do this same thing. If you just bought them they should have a warranty depending on where you got them ? I know that don't help solve your problem now but unfortunately I have yet to know of a way to resolve this type of issue besides cutting wires until the fuse no longer blows.

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Unfortunately no. If an led fails, 99.9% of the time they fail open. You probably have a bad 'blob'. Sorry.
 
My neighbour staples his lights to his house every year. I’ve looked at his lights and he has staples running right through the insulation of the wires in some spots. Makes me cringe every time I think about it but he’s old and set in his way.

The reason I bring that up is because you had a crack in the insulation, or something shorting to ground, or shorting to neutral, then it may cause an issue like you are experiencing.

I use the store grade lights in my show so I’m not familiar with the commercial quality strings. Do they have removable bulbs or are they sealed? If they are removable then you can check for corrosion in the sockets. It’s a very common problem with them. If they are sealed then you might be out of luck for a repair that does nothing involve soldering and a sacrificial strand.
 
If you stapled the lights you might have put a staple through both wires. Look closely at all staples and pull any out that might be specious.

You should only use a T25 stapler.

Yes the full wave modules can go bad also.
 
Thanks for all the input. It's all as I expected. I don't staple the lights, I use tie wraps, so that's not the issue. I'll return them after the season when I can get them down.
 
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