My response to someone's query in a UK national newspaper
-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
In message , N_Cook writes
When the festivities are over, our 30 year old set of 40 small lights gets carefully wound onto a copy of the Christmas edition of the Radio Times from around 1980. They are then put away carefully.
The following Christmas, before unwinding them, I always plug them in first to test them. And guess what? They NEVER work until I check the tightness of all 40 of them - and it IS always number 40 which is the slack one. Only then do I unwind them, and put them up. Finally, I spend a few minutes nostalgically looking at the old Radio Times, and realise that most of the performers are now dead.
However, this year, I couldn't find them. I've obviously put them away too carefully. So I treated myself to a new set. These are high-tech, with 8 programmable modes of flashing. Christmas will never be the same.
And there's no way the new ones will last 30 years.
Oh, they will... if you don't take them out of the box.
In message , Graz writes
They will if you use the same maintenance procedure as the council road-sweeper who had the same broom as he had when he started the job 30 years ago!
Actually, that's not completely true. I've also had to do the occasional bit of re-soldering where the flex has broken off from the sockets.
I've actually got a set of lights (20 largish bulbs) which my parents tried to surprise me with around 1950. It's short of a few working bulbs, but I think you can still get them. Unfortunately, they are in the same place as the set which I have lost.
1) I have found the best way to find something that is missing is to buy a replacement. 2) Then carefully decide where you will store the replacement to be sure you can find it later. 3) You will then put the new stuff right beside the one you couldn't find.
4) Next year you will either have found all of them thus having more than what you want
or
You will be unable to find any of them. In that case
Go to step 1 and repeat.
DAMHIKT.
Charlie
**Indeed. They will last longer. MUCH longer. Most sane people buy LED Christmas lights. These have an almost indefinite life, better colour rendition (particularly blue) and consume far less energy. My most recently purchased set (unfortunately purchased at the post-Christmas sale, last year - I will be checking any future purchases immediately) had the last four green ones out. Some genius in China had installed one of the LEDs 'round the wrong way. A quick fix and the lights will last longer than I will. I have absolute confidence that the lights will last many hundreds of years. Incandescent Christmas lights are so last century.
I haven't had a Christmas tree light burn out in 35 years.
In message , Trevor Wilson writes
I'm sure that you are correct. LEDs are less likely to fail, The problem is that their introduction seems to have coincided with a different 'fashion' in the colours of the lights. Instead of having a good variety of red, green, blue. orange. purple, white etc, a lot of the new sets of lights are all one colour (usually garish blue or white). They have made up for the lack of colours by having providing a lot of programmable modes for making the lights flash (most of them in a most un-Christmassy manor).
I have always loved Christmas lights. Although I was barely more than a toddler, I can still remember arriving with my mother by bus in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, and finding lots of Christmas lights festooning the trees. It was the first time that they had been allowed after WW2.
In message , Ian Jackson writes
Oops! I meant 'manner'!
Sure you did. All you 'Brits' are just alike! ;-)
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There are two kinds of people on this earth: The crazy, and the insane. The first sign of insanity is denying that you're crazy.
In message , Michael A. Terrell writes
My goddamned spoil chalker was ploying oops.
On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:03:49 +1100, "Trevor Wilson" put finger to keyboard and composed:
IME most problems have been due to poor connections rather than bulb failures. Of the bulbs that do fail, many are crushed due to mishandling.
I agree that LEDs are the way to go, but I'd want them hard-wired for maximum reliability. Of course that would then stop you from customising your own colour arrangements.
- Franc Zabkar
It was over egg nogged. ;-)
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There are two kinds of people on this earth: The crazy, and the insane. The first sign of insanity is denying that you're crazy.
**ME? I doubt that. I have a soldering iron, a heat gun and a good supply of heatshrink. The average punter may be flummoxed though.
The LEDs have a longer lifetime than incandescents, but I've heard numerous reports of high failure rates on LED-based Christmas light strings.
It sounded as if cheap socketing/wiring was the cause... corrosion would end up disconnecting the LED leads from the wiring.
This was a couple of years ago, and (I think) may have involved the cheap-end-of-the-market products. I imagine there are high-quality LED light strings available today, as well as bottom-of-the-barrel junk.
On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 11:50:21 +1100, "Trevor Wilson" put finger to keyboard and composed:
Sorry, I didn't mean to impugn your ability. I was speaking generally.
- Franc Zabkar
New ones are LEDs, they last longer and aren't usually screwed in, so won't come loose like the OP described.
And who let you out of uk.rec.driving? Are you following me?
I used to have a set which was decades old. The voltage of the bulbs had changed slightly (mains from 250 to 230 volts?), and I never planned ahead enough to buy a whole set of bulbs, but just replaced the burnt out ones. As the new ones were slightly lower voltage, they always went first. Replaced about 7 or 8 a year.
I can see some houses in my street from a few miles away.
But surely you have more than just one set of lights? Then you have plenty colours, colour coded with what they're on (I'm thinking more of the entire garden, not just a tree).
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