LED CHristmas trees

Less Than Super Ostrich · Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:42 am

Anyone know how easy it is to take apart a LED Christmas tree to light a star wars star destroyer?

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:18 pm

Wouldn't it be simpler (and less wasteful, and quite possibly no more expensive) to just buy LEDs?

Less Than Super Ostrich · Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:37 pm

I don't know ANYTHING about wiring LEDs. Don't you need to solder things and know something about circuitry to do stuff like that?

tetsujin · Post by **tetsujin** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:01 pm

Less Than Super Ostrich wrote:I don't know ANYTHING about wiring LEDs. Don't you need to solder things and know something about circuitry to do stuff like that?

A little. But the solution there is to learn a little and rely on outside help for the rest...

But since electronics knowledge is the problem I guess it might make some sense to rely on a pre-wired solution. One of the main things with LED Christmas Lights, though, is usually they're strung up in series so that they can be used on wall voltage (110 Volts AC) with no rectifier or transformer or any kind of bulky, expensive power supply. What does this mean for you?

Well, first off it means that either you run this thing off of wall voltage, or you're back to the original problem of having to know something about wiring and electronics. Also, because of the way LEDs work (they pass current in one direction only, and need a certain voltage level in order to emit light at all), the LEDs running off an AC supply will flicker. Somebody did the math, I think they're actually "on" just 20% of the time. Speaking from experience, the flicker is very noticeable when using LEDs as Christmas lights. Finally, if you're using a pre-wired solution and relying on it as-is in order to avoid having to deal with electronics: that basically means you have to fit the original light set, intact, completely into your model. Christmas light wire is fairly bulky - I don't think this would be a good option unless your model is very large - or unless you're planning to rewire the LEDs which, again, brings you back to the problems of wiring and electronics knowledge... (If you did want to work with Christmas lights, though, you could get just the lights rather than the whole tree...)

There are alternatives to soldering: wire wrap, for instance. And there are products you can buy to simplify some of the problems you'll face when lighting a kit (for instance, the constant current supply by Madman Lighting - connecting it to some LEDs is pretty much a no-brainer, just get the polarity right and you're good to go...)

For something like a Star Destroyer I imagine you'd want to use fiber optics combined with flood lighting in the interior of the model: I'd recommend a couple 360 degree white LEDs to light the interior of the model - I'm not the one to ask about fiber, though.

Less Than Super Ostrich · Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:43 pm

I ordered a couple of these. I let you know how it goes...

http://www.nationalartcraft.com/subcate ... &scid=1446

Mr. Engineer · Post by **Mr. Engineer** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:43 am

For the Star Destroyer, that is the best solution with the fibre optics. If you used the LEDs in there, it would have created more problems instead of solving them.

DLMatthys · Post by **DLMatthys** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:23 pm

Less Than Super Ostrich wrote:I ordered a couple of these. I let you know how it goes...

http://www.nationalartcraft.com/subcate ... &scid=1446

LOL...My first exposure to Fiber Optics was somthing like that was a Lamp I bought at a German Head Shop back in the 80's. I used it in the first issue of the TMP Enterprise...the "ol' smoothie"...to some effect.