Cutting Christmas led lights?

[jdmgriffin]

Hi there. Have a nice set of coloured LED Christmas lights and wanted to frame around the house....and the windows....but to put them around the windows I would like to not have this section with lights...was hoping to cut the lights....bring wire to the window frame and then reattach to lights to bring around windows.....is this ok to do ?

And if so using perhaps speaker cable or such ? Keeping the cables linked after cutting.....

https://www.screwfix.ie/p/time-black-red-24-strand-speaker-cable-25m-coil/483jy

Anyone see any issues or have other suggestions

 

[Spoon]

What voltage is the light?
What type of light are they? LED?
Only issue I can think of is voltage drop.

 

[jdmgriffin]

What voltage is the light?
What type of light are they? LED?
Only issue I can think of is voltage drop.

Attached is label off then and the strands....this help

Thanks

 

[DPG]

Is the wiring 2 core all the way from start to finish, or is it 3 way for part of the run?

 

[jdmgriffin]

Two from the adaptor plug. On left side of pic.
Then at the first bulb. One line goes into the bulb and two lines out....while the first of the original lines continues o

 

[DPG]

The LEDs may well be split across two separate circuits then.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Your power supply is 32v and that cable is rated for 30v, close enough for me (assuming the PSU provides isolation)
If you add lots of cable you might introduce some voltage drop (but only 200mA anyway) - try it and see.

I confess to having done similar - when cutting the original flex between lights, I stagger the cuts by more than the length of a crimp, so (a) you can see which wire goes to which even if you haven't marked them, and (b) if you put a bit of heat shrink sleeving on the flex before you join the extension wire, you end up with 2 or 3 crimps in a row that you can slide the sleeve over easily - looks neater than a big bulge in the cable!

and agree with DPG's comment - lights I own have groups of LED's wired in series (the 3 wire sections) and then every so often there is a two wire link to the next group of series lights. So if you are lucky you can extend at the twin flex section - remembering to keep the connections the right way round!

 

[jdmgriffin]

Appreciate the help there.

So basically keep the wires as they are when extending. Will go with crimps and hwarshrink as noted.

Would the speaker wire be sufficient to carry the voltage

 

[DPG]

Appreciate the help there.

So basically keep the wires as they are when extending. Will go with crimps and hwarshrink as noted.

Would the speaker wire be sufficient to carry the voltage

The wire itself should be fine.

 

[jdmgriffin]

The wire itself should be fine.

Would a more powerful plug assist

 

[Spoon]

How long are you extending it by?

 

[Avo Mk8]

Would a more powerful plug assist

No need.

 

[jdmgriffin]

How long are you extending it by?

It's sort of extending about a 600mm in 4places and then 7m in another place. It's just where there is a distances from the side of the house to a window....I didn't want to trail the lights across the house....to use the speaker(or another) wire across with no lights on it to connect to lights that will go around the window then.

 

[DPG]

It's one of those things where you may just have to try it. At those distances you may get volt drop issues.

 

[Avo Mk8]

JDM - suggest you buy a pack of the speaker wire (25m?) and connect the whole length of it between the power unit and the lights, and check they work (and are bright enough!). It would mean cutting the lighting flex and making temporary joins, but would give confidence the cable won't cause a problem.
If that doesn't work, try reducing the speaker wire length to the length you will be using, say 10m, and test again. If not OK you will need a beefier flex for extending!
My feeling is you should be fine with the speaker wire.