There seems to have been a sudden bias towards using phosphor based LED colours in Xmas lights this year. Not only in the battery sets, but the mains sets too. This gives a much better pastel yellow and red than using the traditional gallium arsenide versions of those LEDs, but also allows them to be run in parallel on the battery versions, as the forward voltages are fairly closely matched.
This video is a comparison of some of these sets from various sources, with only one clear loser. A set from BM homestores (in the UK) which had the phosphor based yellow and red to match the blue chip, but cheaped out on the green and went for green chips with a lower forward voltage that means that the lights don't all fade out in a controlled manner together as the batteries discharge, but quickly drop to a point where just the green LEDs are lit.
A real oddity were the Tiger lights with their red insulated wire and unusual choice of phosphor colours.
This video is a comparison of some of these sets from various sources, with only one clear loser. A set from BM homestores (in the UK) which had the phosphor based yellow and red to match the blue chip, but cheaped out on the green and went for green chips with a lower forward voltage that means that the lights don't all fade out in a controlled manner together as the batteries discharge, but quickly drop to a point where just the green LEDs are lit.
A real oddity were the Tiger lights with their red insulated wire and unusual choice of phosphor colours.
I also have the white verson of the asda set
I've got the asda set to
IT'S POUNDLAND CLIVE NOT A DOLLAR STORE!!!!!
So ASDA was bought up by Walmart? Is Walmart trying to by out and take over all the smaller retail chain stores and smaller grocery stores over there like they have here in the United States? Personally, I hate Walmart because they started out here in the U.S. selling "some" American made products and they even advertised that they sold some American made products in there newspaper sales ads. They made it well known by featuring those products with small "American flags" and "Made in America" next to those items too! But as Walmart grew larger, the American made products that they sold dwindled down to hardly anything at all.
I didn´t realice Tiger was in UK. Tiger is a Danish brand, that (as i recall it) started out by the name of "Ti'er" which means 10,- DKr. roughly the aquivalent of a pound 20.
All things in the store was 10,- DKr at firste, then they started to get stuff costing 20,- or 30,- and later 40,- or 50,-.
Then the company got rearranged, sold and changed name to "Tiger" as we know it. And now i know why they print anything in English on their packages besides Danish. 🙂
Hos did you get the Danish version of the Tiger lights? Is it just a common thing in the uk that they don't bother to translate the writing on the pakage ?
I the dollar store near me had interesting things like these and the LED lamps that you take apart.
I use 2500mah rechargeable on mine (I have those ones in the blue box) and they last quite a while. I'm thinking of making an adjustable voltage regulator that can go down to 3v. Any thoughts?
I have some Ikea RAMSTA 30 led strips, they are totally voltage dependent for brightness, Freshly charged NiMhs are much less bright than Alkalines, and they dim all the way down to barely perceptible levels. Any suggested hacks Clive?
I have a similar string with 3pcs of AA battery. I cut the string and put a 6V 100mA solar panel and an old phone battery with a charging/protection circuit. In total about 3.5 pounds. Works fine, but still needs an LDR 🙂
some great LED battery xmas lights in b and m got myself 2 sets string of 50 LED's 2 AA batterys they work great
Thanks for the informative video!
My non replaceable led lamps have gone away this year, Burnt out or dim, weird they were working fine last year
In my local Asda they've apparently got light strings that have spinning ends on them. Sounds interesting!
Anywhere to buy these colored phosphor LEDs, new stock? autemaelektronik on ebay sells some pastel colours, but no bright red or yellow.