Fixing low voltage copper wire LED strings.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- This video is about repairing the very common low voltage (3 to 12V) LED strings based on insulated copper wire with LEDs soldered across them and dipped in resin. The guide is not suitable for traditional mains voltage LED strings.
I like the copper-wire LED strings. It's a simple parallel circuit of voltage matched LEDs that are quite rugged and water resistant by virtue of the LED and wire connection points being dipped in resin forming a strong bead on the wire. It is possible to snap the wire though, and I often get asked if it's possible to repair or shorten them.
The simple two wire parallel strings are also ideal for chopping into shorter sections for other applications.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Just letting you know this video is still helping people thank you!
Still helping 😃👍
Ditto, still helping!
Ditto, ditto, ditto… STILL helping as of Mar-2022 😝!
I’ve spent sooo much $/time replacing and re-wrapping my trees with these damn things every time they go bad (~1x/yr), when I could have fixed them in place with a freaking nail file, Wtf! 🤯
Still going
Still helping
was really hoping there was a part in the video for “How to re-wire/solder/connect the end of strings back into the ‘3 AA Battery Pack with the On/Off switch”
snapped off the Negative/Positive from inside the Battery Pack.
Wish there was a tutorial or anything on the Internet showing how to fix. shame :/
I accidentally snipped our light up Snow man lights when trimming the zip ties and watched in horror as my kids got the saddest look on their face thinking it was completely ruined. You saved our snowman! Thank you!!!!
A method I've had some success with for the lacquer coated wire, is dip the wire into flux, pick up a large blop of solder on the tip of the iron, and run the hot solder onto it.
It melts off the (non heat resistant) lacquer, and tins it at the same time, whilst the flux turns the melted lacquer into gloop.
I broke a 10m 3 wire strand of copper fairy lights 5 months ago and couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Had been meaning to ask my dad.
He passed away 4 months ago and that strand of lights, like many many many things in my life and workshop were little heartbreak reminders.
I decided to learn how to fix them and came across your channel. Thank you SO SO much!
Also, my dad used to snag things in his beard too. 🤗
I used to be involved in the manufacture of transformers. As a general rule of thumb, if the insulation is a 'golden' or 'red' colour, then it is 'self fluxing' and can be removed by applying a tinned soldering iron to the wire, thus removing the insulation and tinning the wire in one operation.
We didn't even think to strip the wires, because as you pointed out, they just look like metal! Once we did that, my husband was able to save our lights from the landfill! Thank you for sharing these great tips!
Urgent product recall... Meanwhile Big Clive has searched high and low to find one :D
I really do want a faulty one. It's always fun seeing what went wrong.
One of the great joys of your channel is seeing what went wrong. Unfortunately I haven't got one to donate, if I did though I'd sooner donate it to you than return it to B&Q.
I was wondering if yours also is eligible for the recall. Maybe if so give it a good work out and it might fail in the wished for manner :)
Yeah, I know right, I hope you can get your hands on one of those.
I had 3 of them adapters but none went faulty as yet, I only used them for easily turning on and off the xmas lights, currently on loan to a friend for the same purpose, i suppose i should warn him about the danger asap but never had any issues myself
The beard snag!!! LOL!!
LakeNipissing like I said SantaClive. Lol
My beard is much shorter and I still manage to snag it. It's just a beard thing I guess.
i get mine trapped in my laptop when i close the lid
don't forget to dab after you snagged your beard. (づ￣ ³￣)づ
I just did the two wire repair and the end of our string is lit again! I sanded off the coating to expose the copper wires and twisted them together.
Omg this worked. Thank you. I just sanded the wires down a little like he shows in the video and ba boom it worked. I feel like an electrical engineer 😅
Nearly threw away 20m of lights after trimming my christmas tree while my dad was out and cutting the wire! You have saved me and my christmas thanks so much!
This was so helpful! My sister and I got tea lights for Christmas but my cats attacked them and they got ripped in half but I just fixed them in under ten mins! Thank you!
Looking forward to Ralphy and Clive's annual Christmas walk, where we are told to FuckOff :)
''Tis the season!
Clive-- Thank you for your wonderful, clear instructions. I did the two wire repair with my emery board and was back to lit-up business in 15 minutes. The only thing I didn't do on the first try was realize that I had to pair the wires to the correct polarity, so my first try didn't work.... Second time was a charm! Happy Holidays.....
Merry Christmas, Clive.
I realize I only know you by your TH-cam presence, but it feels rather cosy, and like a friend I know for all my life.
So, have a drink with your brother, and make the world ( well, the isle of Man) a better place.
OMG THANKS YOU HELPED ME FIX MY FAVOURITE COPPER WIRE LIGHTS I LOVE YOU i used the method with the lighter and it worked
Coolio P can You please tell how you did I cants understand it would Really Helpfull
Did someone else recognize the smiling house with the chinese-style beard @2:42 ??
Shhhhhhhhhh, that rice cooker design is patented
Thanks for the enlightening video.
Raymond Mucklow I see what you did there 👍
Nice glowing reference.
Hello Clive,all the best to you and Ralph in this time of year! Ah sod it -Merry Chrismas and a happy new year to you and all who view ya!
Bob Airhart thanks Bob same to you!
Thank you. I had a broken string of battery powered fairy lights and i cut off the ends in between lights, lit them on fire to burn away coating and spliced them back together. :)
Where do you keep all these fairy lights?
In huge boxes.
I was wondering how can they run 100 leds from a usb without a single resistor. Pretty clever
Omg!!!!! Thank you !! I was about to take everything down and I decided to google it and voila !!! Your video !!!
You have saved me from killing the kitten that chewed the wire!!!! LOL LOL Thank you and merry Xmas!
LED Barb Wire!
You would not happen to know if the wire is covered in Shellac anymore?
Thank you soooo much for this info, i could not believe there was a video on repairing these cheap LEDs! amazing!
Put it in your beard for Christmas
Had a 12v set catch on my ceiling fan. As the fan wound them up and broke the line, the lights started going on and off. It was hilarious, and terrifying at the same time--spool of LEDs flying around the living room flashing erratically, and slowing the ceiling fan to a halt. I figured I was better off just trashing them and getting a new set after that.
Well documented and explained! I used this video to cut a string of 5v, 3-wire down and add it to another string I had, and then sew up the first string after cutting it. To avoid increasing the resistance of the longer string too much, I connected all 4 of the positive wires together in parallel at the splice. Original string was 33 feet long; new strings are 36 foot and 30 foot.
Thanks, Big Clive!!! I successfully added a string of these lights to another thanks to you! I put these little lights in my stone wall around a patio -- tucking the wire into every nook and cranny. Takes FOREVER and I have to redo it every few years. This year I ran out 2/3 of the way through, so I bought more but then realized I had only one power supply out there, and it was at the other end. So I connected them!! woohoo! Thanks!!!!
Brilliant! I kept wondering why mine wouldn't work after I twisted the broken wire together. I had no idea the wires were coated. A little rubbing with a nail file on both ends, then twisted together again, and voila, worked like a charm and saved me the cost of another string. Thank you!!! This is the thing I love most about TH-cam...you can learn how to do almost anything yourself, from the comfort of your home. I've learned how to change my windshield wipers, fix my toilet and now, fix a string of LED lights. What next?
Swapping out your power steering pump on your car.
I love TH-cam too :)
Very good video and many thanks for the heads up on the B&Q recall.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Joe
Thank you is not enough for you MISTER. you make this video 5 years ago and stil this video is helping. Thank you thank you Very much. You make me happy with this. 😊
Thank you- fixed my dorm room lights today!
A nice finale showing what happens when you connect the string straight into the mains would have been very nice.
Probably just fail in a controlled and unexciting manner. Stuff is too safe these days.
you have discounted (C)hinese (E)xport stuff then
The wire is so thin, it would just blow like a fuse.
You never know until you know. There is still hope! :-)
probably the most helpful video ive ever seen before thank you! I just broke my brand new lights and was afraid i was going to have to buy new ones, but thanks to this video, I was able to fix the wire.
So happy I found this video! Our local dollar store has been selling "rice lights" (micro-leds), some solar, some battery powered. I wanted to take some from a battery set and add them to the solar set (solar set had 5 lights, battery had 20 lights). We convert traditional string lights to solar all the time and was just thrown for a loop about these micro-led ones. I easily added the additional lights quickly after watching this simple how-to.
Thank you!
Have you got a tip on how to put them up without,, them sticking together ,there impossible to put up you find you spend most of the time unravelling them?
When you take them down wind them gently around a piece of cardboard like a reel.
Soldering enameled copper wire is quite easy if it's the right kind of wire. There are basically two types of enamel. The type that's heat resistant and will not allow you to solder through the enamel (this type is used for transformers and coils that will get hot, then there is the type that's designed to let you solder through the enamel (this type is found in things like headphone cables, low temperature coils like relays etc.)
Generally but not always, the solderable enamel is light in color and the heat resistant enamel is much darker.
To tin coat the ends of one of the solderable enameled wires set the soldering iron to at least 370 degrees celsius, put a bead of solder on the tip, heat the end of the enameled wire while slowly feeding more solder to keep the solder surface coated in fresh flux. You should see the enamel darkening and rolling back.
Cannot thank you enough. GF got us some of these for our camping trips and they've been out of commission for years. I didn't want to let them go because of the memories and today gave it a shot and they work again. Appreciate your approach and looking forward to watching more of your videos.
Just managed to fix a string of light I had given up on. Thanks. Worked.
Merry Christmas Clive. I watch your every video. Thank you for doing great work.
Thank you... I've always wondered how the wiring works on these, now I have a good understanding :)
we have lots of these coated copper wire light sets....we find the power supply's break easily.....can you replace the power supply?
If they are simple parallel circuits you can use batteries or with the addition of a resistor you can run them from USB power supplies. For 12V sets you can get new 12V plug in adapters online.
I feel like an electrician 🫡
Still helping people in 2021 😃
You are a lifesaver. I JUST finished hanging a bunch of these in my room and the second I was finished they all went dim. Your tutorial worked like a charm!!!
This morning I was weed whacking and wasn't paying attention and accidentally cut one of my strings of solar power LEDs that go around my front garden. If it wasn't for this video I could cry because it would have ruined the entire strand it took me over an hour to set up. Thank you for making this video! Now fingers crossed and hope that I can get it to work!
I did that 2 days ago.
Hi. Great video. I have two sets of (USB plug) fairy lights. They’re 6 meters each. Can this method be used to connect them together for one long string? I put a set of lights up on the walls near the ceiling, so having to plug them in shortens the string quite a bit. I’m in the US. Not sure if that matters. I wanted to make sure it’s safe and that I don’t break them.
Thanks.
It's the "crappy chinese light" season we all love ! Merry christmas, Big Clive!
I had to dig deep on Google to find this solution to the problem. For all the time I wasted, this is the BEST answer to the problem. The diagrams were less important to me than the final segment showing how to fix the problem. There I learned that the wires after being cut must be filed/sanded to remove a clear resin coating so that when you connect the CORRECT two wires, the strand will light. I don't understand why this video doesn't come up higher in the search results. Thanks Big Clive for posting this. You are muy worthy. :)
I need advice: I have a Holiday Time Twinkling willow tree and I am pretty sure the same day my golf card got messed with the same person came inside my screened in porch and cut or did something to my tree because it won't work. When I plug it in it won't work so how can I make it work again?
This year me and my father were decorating our church with lights... And we noticed that a whole row of lights didnt light... We were thinking what the problem was and my father suggested to cut the connector off that goes to the power supply. After cutting it off and soldering the wires directly to the power supply the lights worked :) The fucking connector had a cable that was cut (But you couldnt see that...) Apparently someone was force pulling on the cables and that must have messed it up... If nothing else works try this technique :)
so if i buy a 100 meter led set to divide into 20 pieces of 5 meters(to save money). it will not work. right? it needs to be cut as 25 meter pieces. am i right? and is it possible to buy the one with battery and connect it directly to a 5v usb output?
Can you chain link them and make them longer?
To get rid of the enamel/lacquer on copper wires, there's actually a specific tool available: www.reichelt.de/?ARTICLE=207246&PROVID=2788
Thank you! Appreciate the explanation. I was confused by the enamel, and was worried I wouldn't be able to solder it together after I needed to cut a strip down to size.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So helpful! I have a 3 wire led fairy light set and after watching this video, I was able to fix them! Thank you ever so much for this video!
Don't know why I love watching this but I'm gonna keep watching.
A squirrel bit through mine, I had them in a tree, solar powered. Im going to try this, thanks.
Thank you Clive....you are the man...Excellent Video.
Clive, the best way to strip those wires is a lighter!
Thanks for making this video,it was really useful. I was able to fix my broken fairy lights 👍. Merry Christmas & a happy New year!
Wonderful clearly explained video! Saved my light display after I snipped it by accident.
Thank you!!
Ever since I found your channel, I can't get into the Christmas spirit until you put up some holiday related LED videos. Glad you're keeping up the tradition. Merry Christmas from the states!
Great , This video helped me with some salvaged led strings , Thank you so much.😊
Haha I stopped at the using sandpaper part on the small gauge battery powered set (which I was looking to fix) and still had the light stuttering probably because there was a small amount of clear coating here and here and thought "it's only a small amount of lacquer, I'll just burn it off" and voila! Then I continued the vid and 5 seconds later you said "or you can burn it off" GMTA 😜
Great tutorial!
Thanks so much for making and posting this video Clive. Helped me fix my lights after hours of trying! Delighted thank you.
Little tip - You know the unused USB 2.0 ports on the back of the Tivo 6, Tivo 500 or Youview DN370 DN371 and DN372T and SKY+ PVR boxes or I guess any other ones - you can use them to reliably power these I have my whole lounge front window lighting up without batteries or any PSU all driven from the usb ports - The youviews have two usb ports which give even more scope!
USB overheating....🤔
My tiny led 3meter by 3 meter is not working. It has a usb which i connect to my phone charger, but light stops after an hour ,I tried different phone chargers, some chargers gets heated.
Shall i buy some different voltage phone charger. 110 v -240v is all usb led lights they should work on phone chargers.
Thank you so much for making this video. It’s brilliant! Hoping I can fix the LEDs on our outside home wall now xxx
Perfect thanks 👍🏻 just broke my beloved copper wire lights and couldnt work out why criss crossing the wire didnt work, now i understand there is a lacquer coating on them. Will try filing then twisting 👍🏻
I have 4 of these...
2 warm white 'gold' USB sets which work fine at about 0.07A on 5V
and 2 multicolored ones, also USB, these get very hot, and very bright, but then they also draw about 2.1A from the power bank (that's the maximum it can deliver). I guess they 'forgot' the resistor in series with the LEDs? - it's this set : www.dx.com/p/usb-5m-waterproof-flexible-3w-50-0603-smd-five-colored-led-string-light-silver-dc-12v-425825
what kind of resistor would be best to fix these? I don't mind a bit of soldering but I'm not too knowledgeable about these things :D
Clive, I just found your video and have a question. I have the fairly lights with a cork( the battery pack) to go in wine bottles. I know it’s 6’ long with 20 LED lights, powered by 3 AG 13 batteries. My question is, can I connect another sting of 20 to just one battery source? Thanks!
Hi - I was hoping to ask you an electrical question related to copper wiring (fairy lights): I'm looking to manually connect the LED wiring of three 200LED fairy lights (5V) I bought. Would you possibly be able to walk me through how I can do that? If I'm able to I'm happy to send more detailed photos of the actual cables so you can see if that helps. Thank you!
I have gifted my gf these fairy lights which has 2 AA battery pack in it (or 3 don't know).She used them as decorative lights. However it's batteries die too soon. I want to upgrade it with 18650 lithium ion batteries. I thought it was 5meter or sth. Due to I cannot measure their ampere and voltage (because of cant get them from her), what values should I assume? What voltage and ampere they needed? Should I add parallel or series resistor and what value? I can build 18650 and charger side but I cant find any informations about these fairy leds.
thank you so much , i had a project were i use this and they broke and i was in panic , your video saved my day.
This video was very helpful. We have an outdoor (plug in not USB or battery operated) cone shaped tree for Christmas with 18 strands of two wired lights that all connect somewhere somehow and we already put it up, but had not lit it up yet. Well an animal had chewed on the wires. We thought we were going to have to throw the whole thing away. I cut the bad ends that were chewed on and sanded the ends and connected them and got them working. We thought for a better connection we would try to solder the wires, but it didn't work well as the wires are so thin. Somewhere as I was working on the wires there was a bad connection in another part of the wires near one of the lights. I ended up cutting the wires off right up next to the lights and got them working again. We fed about a foot of the end of the wires through some clear tubing so the animals can't chew on them again. Still feel a little uneasy to put the tree back outside till we know it is going to stay lit and not cause any electrical issues as shorting out and causing a fire. As of right now we have it plugged in indoors (it is for indoor or outdoor use) and it is working well.
Ahhh, I just broke one by stapling and I was wondering why/how these things work by not shorting out the bare wires. Not bare wires, brilliant, lacquer coating, ahhhh.
Best explanation I found great job, simple but now I know why I didn't fix my wifes 3 wire system when reconnecting the wires she cut. Didn't remove the insulation and didn't test for the correct wires to reconnect.
Great video but I have a question/issue please - I found a break in one of the two cables right before/against the first non-lit LED, nipped the cable the other side of the LED, stripped the lacquer off and touched the ends together. However, rather than them all lighting up again, the 'good' ones up to that point also go out. Tried removing that LED completely on the other cable too but the same result. Any ideas please?
The dude who installed my underglow leds, the wire snapped, he reconnected them and now their dim and they won’t change colors now. Thinking if I should jus rip em off, over $200 down the drain smh
Oh shit me, I got those exact recalled plugs, just for a Norwegian socket.
Thank you! A Question: connected to a three-wire string additional pieces of three -wire and then two-wire strings successfully.
Then wanted to connects a forth three-wire string piece to those three pieces. So it was three-wire, three -white, two-wire and another three-wire pieces. It all worked for a bit while I was arranging the strings.
Then it all started blinking as I was working on it and then it all went off.
So I disconnected all the wires and I’m trying to find what happened. It appears the last piece is not working anymore at all .
However now I couldn’t connect the first three back. When I touch the wires of the fist piece together that first section works.
When I try to connect the second piece (three-wire) it lights up but only when opposite wires connected, and then the first section goes off. I’m confused.
In other words: It all worked, then stopped, I took the connections apart, in case the connection went loose(unlikely) and now I can’t put it back for some reason, as pieces are working only separately. The last one is not working.
Any comments?
Thanks a lot. It helped me out today, getting a very good understanding of these fairy wiring techniques. 😅 It has enabled me to fix the damaged wiring.
Thank you for this video, still not so much information on how fairy lights work. I have a question regarding two wire versions of lights (usually 2AA or 3AA bateries, no resistor, the one you cut and they still work ;) if you can help. Can I cut this one wire on smaller peaces and connect them in parallel to one power source? Let's say a wire of 25 leds using 3AA battery I want to cut on lenghts of 7, 10, 5 and 3 leds and connect this smaller wires together in parallel to same buttery source? My logic says they have the same voltage cos they are already connected in parallel and amount of power is not going to change so it shoud work?
Other question: is it possible to cut the second set of wires (three wires) in half and reuse the part that is not link with the USB, but adding one ? If so, how do you that ? Can you make. Video on that? Thank you! 🙏
Many years ago1961 I worked in a electronics workshop. One job was winding transformers. We cleared the varnish by heating with bunson burner and dipping in methylated spirit.
Does your repair work for 110v? I have 100ft 300 led. Think its the 3 wire kind. Your second example, but I don’t want to get electrocuted. Plugged to the wall directly
hello there awesome video, just wondering the one that I have is 2 wire copper led light with USB input, was using it for 2 years it just stopped working completely, is it the resistor & can I fix it myself
Thank you ! Can it mess up the resistance / voltage / current to shorten the second set of wires (the one with three strings)? You show how to cut it but I didn’t catch you saying expressly that it was ok to shorten it. Thank you!
I think the solder that pulls off the lacquer is flux-core solder, and it's because of the flux.
Here too. Not sure why I didn’t just buy some new ones, but I like a challenge. Just isolate the ground and splice the positive and negative! Good to go! Thanks :)
Deer ate thru my fairy lights and I fixed them! Certainly wasn’t the $3.50 I had invested in them, it was the principle of it. Covered the joints with clear nail polish.
one second under a naked lighter flame and that lacquer just disappears. And a few seconds after I post this, he goes and uses a lighter lol...
Note to self: watch the full video before commenting.
thank you!!!! I fixed our lights exactly as you instructed...whew!!
2022... I just fixed my 40m String light thanks to you. Hubby weedeated it right at the start.. urghh
Here's how they're made.
P.S. use nail varnish to reseal the stripped lacquer. Any colour at all.👍🏻
th-cam.com/video/wCKlCUBsaT4/w-d-xo.html
What if I wanted to extend the length by connecting a 5m fairy light to a 10m fairy light? Is it possible? Both fairy lights are powered by three AA batteries.