Splitting 24' Christmas Light strands into 2 12's

Splitting 24\' Christmas Light strands into 2 12\'s

Howdy,

I have a whole bunch of new Forever Bright "blue strawberry" lights sets in the 24 foot length. The wiring looks a bit strange - two wires from the plug, splitting into three wires, and then back to two wires near the far end. Is it possible to split some of these 24' strands into two 12' strands ? The place I bought from only had 24' strands, and I have a couple 36' runs on my house. If someone can explain how to tell which wires need to be cut, where, and which ones get wired to the new plug, I'd appreciate the help. As I indicate a need for 36' runs, I don't necessarily need a plug at the end of the run - it could just terminate at the last light if that is easier. Thanks for any help!

Dave

Re: Splitting 24\' Christmas Light strands into 2 12\'s

I do not have THE answer for you, however if i recall my basic electrical formulas, if you split them, both strings will need a load or resistor to meet that of the 12 you removed from the string. Thats assuming you know how to add the load. Ive see the newer strings of lights with multiple wires, but never gave it any though as to how they work.

Re: Splitting 24\' Christmas Light strands into 2 1

Most USA decoration lights have an end-to-end chaining capability, part of the reason I prefer them over British sets, makes decorating so much easier. From male-plug to first lamp the two wires are hot and neutral, then after the first lamp you have hot, neutral and the series link wire from one lamp to the next. After the last lamp at the female end it goes back to hot and neutral again.

Depending on how your lights are wired, you may be lucky and find the set is split into two or more series chains. Follow the wiring from male to female plug end and see of the wiring drops down to just two cores between two bulbs. If it does, you can cut it there and add a new female/male plug as necessary. I have some 70-lamp blue ForeverBright light sets and they are wired in two sections of 35, theoretically they can be cut in half. Also some 35-lamp sets, they are only one series chain and cannot be shortened.

Oddly enough out of four brand new 70-lamp blue FB sets I bought this year, three of them had the first 35 LEDs in dark blue and the last 35 in a lighter blue. I want my lights display to be color-coordinated this year so cut and joined the three sets to make two 105-lamp sets of all-dark and all-light blue. The fourth was all dark-blue. I still have no idea why different colour shades were to be found in that way, in the same set.

I don`t recommend cutting *any* mains-powered lights for safety reasons, but it can be done. Just be careful only to cut the section(s) where there are only two wires, and don`t put a male plug on the other end of a string already fed from a male plug /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif . Assuming the rest of the time there are three wires and the ights are end-to-end connectable. For non end-to-end lights, assume you cannot cut them at all.


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