Super String Shortner and Full Wave Converter 2015 Group Buy
- Thread starter kmalsom
- Start date
Did you get a notice yet?
***************Moved to new topic***********
I got my boards and soldered a few together. I have a question on usage. I used some SPT-1 and put the FWC board in a short extension cord with M/F Vampire Plugs so I did not have to cut the lights yet. I plugged in the FWC extension then plugged in my light set and the flicker is gone.
The lights I am plugging in are 120 LED Icicle lights from Rite Aid. I get the first segment lit then an unlit section then another lit section and a final unlit section. I understand I will have to swap the + and - on the second half of a 2 section string so it fully lights but what do I need to do on a string with 4 segments? Do I cut/swap/splice in between both lit and unlit sections? If I flip the + and - between the first and second segments what will happen to the next 2 sections?
Thanks
I got my boards and soldered a few together. I have a question on usage. I used some SPT-1 and put the FWC board in a short extension cord with M/F Vampire Plugs so I did not have to cut the lights yet. I plugged in the FWC extension then plugged in my light set and the flicker is gone.
The lights I am plugging in are 120 LED Icicle lights from Rite Aid. I get the first segment lit then an unlit section then another lit section and a final unlit section. I understand I will have to swap the + and - on the second half of a 2 section string so it fully lights but what do I need to do on a string with 4 segments? Do I cut/swap/splice in between both lit and unlit sections? If I flip the + and - between the first and second segments what will happen to the next 2 sections?
Thanks
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Hello !! Most likely, when you reverse the first section, your light will display the opposite of what you have now. The unlit sections will be lit and the lit sections
will now be unlit !!! I had some four section strings and I had to reverse the wires at each section, unfortunately.
THurrle
New member
Never got the notice but the boards showed up this week.
No Problem !!! I had the same questions, the first time I converted some !!! Glad I finally got to "pay it back" by helping someone else.
There are so many great members that will go way out of their way to help us newbies !!! I feel fortunate to be a part of this great group
of people !!!
rayhjr
Supporting Member
Am I correct in thinking that these could be installed in the pigtail off the controller and not on the cord itself? I understand the swapping polarity in the 2 wire section but why not install these at the pigtail and not the light strand? Any problem doing it that way? Thanks, Ray.
jwamsley07
Member
I am having a problem with the FWC. This is my first year doing anything other then a static display, so I am a newb to this. I have soldered two of them so far and every time I plug them in, I am blowing the small fuses in the plug. I don't think it is my soldering as I have put together six EsPixelsticks together with no problems. Could still be my soldering I guess. Mine look just like the ones in the pictures The only thing I can figure is I am putting the power plug on the wrong end?
Does anybody have a picture of a string without shrink on it? I am curious what side the power plug goes on? I have looked in the forum for detailed instructions, but haven't found them.
Thanks!
Does anybody have a picture of a string without shrink on it? I am curious what side the power plug goes on? I have looked in the forum for detailed instructions, but haven't found them.
Thanks!
I put mine into a small pigtail with SPT-1 wire cut in the middle and the board attached. Then I put male and female vampire plugs on the wire. It is basically a small extension cord with the FWC in the middle. Then I just plugged my LED string into the extension cord and it works great.
This way is good because you only need 1 FWC pigtail in the beginning and you can plug multiple LED strings into one another and they all get the FWC capabilities. You will need to splice the strings to account for the polarity but you can run 5 or 6 or more LED strings with the single FWC board at the beginning.
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Are you making sure to align the stripe on the diode with the silkscreen? That is the only thing I can think of as they were pretty simple to build and mine worked first time out.
I'm not sure on which end should get the plug as I just put mine together and it worked. I didn't even think to look if there was an in / out side on the board. Maybe I just got lucky with mine.
You can try building pigtails like in my prior post so you don't have to cut your strings except to reverse polarity. Then you can plung in multiple light strings to the single pigtail.
Hope that helps. Maybe someone else can jump in on whether there is an input output side.
Mark
Yes, you will have to swap it between each section. A bit of a pain, but not terrible.
Great, glad they showed up. Guess that is more important than the email.
That's how I did mine. Only problem would be if you had a lot of LEDs. The diodes in the FWC are rated at 1 amp, each section of LEDs is generally .02 amps. I wouldn't want to go above about .5 amps - This means a limit of about 25 sections on an FWC (or SSS) board.
Instruction documentation for the FWC is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-fr2JIevYGmbEFrOUZxa0l0LTg/view?usp=sharing. I intend to get this uploaded into the Wiki as well as updating for the SSS board.