This is one of those projects that is not only fun and therapeutic to do, but gives you a really versatile set of lights for life.
You can support this channel at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
I've covered this style of project before, but it's a great one, so worth covering again.
This project is really intended for the short 20 lamp tungsten strings common in the UK and some other countries. It can be upscaled slightly depending on your mains voltage with a change of resistor value and increasing 100/120Hz flicker with higher numbers of LEDs. 20 is the simplest though.
The LEDs are deliberately run at very low current (around 3mA) for use as subtle background decoration. You can mix and match LEDs to your hearts content.
Keep in mind that the LEDs are still operating at mains voltage just like the tungsten lamps they replaced, and also note that while the power supply is super simple it is also at mains voltage and should be enclosed for safety.
The whole string of lights will draw half a watt in use and can be left running 24/7 with a negligible running cost of something like 50 pence/cents a year.
It's actually worth getting two sets just for the spare lamp holders in the other set. They can then be loaded up with LEDs of your choice for swapping in and out for fun.
You can support this channel at https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
I've covered this style of project before, but it's a great one, so worth covering again.
This project is really intended for the short 20 lamp tungsten strings common in the UK and some other countries. It can be upscaled slightly depending on your mains voltage with a change of resistor value and increasing 100/120Hz flicker with higher numbers of LEDs. 20 is the simplest though.
The LEDs are deliberately run at very low current (around 3mA) for use as subtle background decoration. You can mix and match LEDs to your hearts content.
Keep in mind that the LEDs are still operating at mains voltage just like the tungsten lamps they replaced, and also note that while the power supply is super simple it is also at mains voltage and should be enclosed for safety.
The whole string of lights will draw half a watt in use and can be left running 24/7 with a negligible running cost of something like 50 pence/cents a year.
It's actually worth getting two sets just for the spare lamp holders in the other set. They can then be loaded up with LEDs of your choice for swapping in and out for fun.
I have a set of tungstens…which may become LED now. Thanks.
We have done this with some of our old pifco christmas lights
U used 1/4w resistors. I used some online resistor calculators with 3mA, 170v voltage (20x3v led) and landed recommendation to use 1w resistors. What is most secure resistor wattage here
Thanks Clive, for a brilliant instruction video.. Been looking, in hope, for something like this and you have filled the bill.
Still a great video+saga as newcomers come across it – as I did recently,
Can I repeat a technical question that Tapojyoti Acharya asked about 4 years ago, but missed a reply?
– I've replayed the video several times and can't figure it out either:
""What adjustment did you make to lit [sic] up the leds properly at the end?
Hi wee question I have 18 maybe 20 sets of old style screw in 20 1watt bulbs made in the 1980s.. Would it be possible to use this system to convert them
What a great project! What value of resistors would I need for more lamps (like 30)? How is that calculated? And what if I want to, say, double the brightness?
Not sure what was better, the project or story!! Good stuff indeed!
FFFFuuuuLLL Bridge RRReecttiFFFeeeRRR
Just converted a set of to warmwhite leds looks damn good
Great video. I’d like to try it in the US. If I use 40 3 volt leds – that comes to 120 volts. Wouldn’t that be more efficient than 20? My assumption is that the closer the voltage need is to the source voltage, the more efficient. Am I thinking correctly?
Would I still need resistors?
I would have used sleeving on the mains wires just to be sure it does not short to the LED wires.
thermal glue tape on every load wire in that connector would be the best choice to fill the void.
This is a GREAT video! Came to find out how I can get rid of my last surviving tungsten fairy lights and go LED all the way, and I leave with that info plus a very interesting story of how you developed in your trade! Great stuff! I come from a country where apprenticeship never really existed, I'm afraid; I would've so much liked to be able to learn so many different things apart from what I was learning in school and uni! Now, thanks to YouTube and good content channels like yours, I'm sort of being able to fulfill that desire. So cheers for that!
how do you make Christmas light blinked
Interesting info about the apprenticeship situation in the UK. Here in Germany, basically, you can either do a state-approved apprenticeship or go to university. Outside of that fixed system of after-school education, it's really difficult to find your way through life. Quite different from you guys…