Extend Christmas lights.

bryanb

I have a low voltage set of outdoor led lights that I wish to extend. They consist of indoor transformer, control box, string of 160 leds in that order. I want to extend between control box and leds.
I am competent to correctly insulate my (solder) joints and to observe correct polarity.
My problem is that I am unsure if the various programmes of the lights depend on the cable length?
So can I extend between controls and leds or must I extend between transformer and controls?
I realise that an extension lead before the transformer is easier but it is impractical in this case as that would place the indoor transformer outside.
Thanks for any input although it's not urgent (Needed Christmas 2015)

savemoney

I put my outside lights with one of these B&Q sell them in some stores. Oh and Argos do too I had problems getting one locally so ended up with amazon but i did see them in another B&Q a few weeks back and my argos were OOS

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0062GTL42?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

Argos On offer at mo

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9094653.htm

You can put transformers inside and they protected as long as you are using lights designed for outside usage. It comes with 4 socket extension lead I plugged that inside a outside socket

bryanb

savemoney wrote: »

I put my outside lights with one of these B&Q sell them in some stores. Oh and Argos do too I had problems getting one locally so ended up with amazon but i did see them in another B&Q a few weeks back and my argos were OOS

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0062GTL42?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

Argos On offer at mo

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9094653.htm

You can put transformers inside and they protected as long as you are using lights designed for outside usage. It comes with 4 socket extension lead I plugged that inside a outside socket

Thanks for your reply, That is one solution of course but I would prefer to have the transformer and control box inside.

If anyone can answer my basic question I would be grateful.

Can I extend between the control box and the leds?

muckybutt

The voltage drop between the controller and the LED's will have been factored into the design of the lighting set, altering the length may well render the voltage drop to large and render some or all of the lights useless.

bryanb

muckybutt wrote: »

The voltage drop between the controller and the LED's will have been factored into the design of the lighting set, altering the length may well render the voltage drop to large and render some or all of the lights useless.

Thanks, I wondered if that might be the case.

paddyrg

Controller to bulbs, for the patterns to be even slightly interesting, will have several conductors and so require more cable and quite possibly have greater resistance and so less likely to be fully effective. Can you try extending between transformer and controller instead? May be better.

bryanb

paddyrg wrote: »

Controller to bulbs, for the patterns to be even slightly interesting, will have several conductors and so require more cable and quite possibly have greater resistance and so less likely to be fully effective. Can you try extending between transformer and controller instead? May be better.

Thanks for your reply. From controller to leds the first 5 m (where I'd like to extend) is 2 conductors, the thin green stuff. I haven't taken the rest out of the box but presumably those 2 split further up. Transformer to control box is a possibility but would put the controller in the open, which I'd like to avoid.
If I give things a go and fail will I be likely to damage the controller? There's nothing to stop me removing the extension of course.

Owain_Moneysaver

The set might be only 2 wires with the leds oppositely polarised for the effects, like these

If you extend the wires you might lose a bit of brightness but I think you'd have to go quite a long way before it was noticeable. Very unlikely to blow anything up.

bryanb

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

The set might be only 2 wires with the leds oppositely polarised for the effects, like these

If you extend the wires you might lose a bit of brightness but I think you'd have to go quite a long way before it was noticeable. Very unlikely to blow anything up.

Thanks for that, the link was a bit above my pay grade though. My electrical training was on simple 24v aircraft systems in the 1950s. Even things like transistors were new then!

Owain_Moneysaver

How much would the lights cost to replace if you did kill them? Bearing in mind they'll probably be half price in the January sales you could just get some spares.

bryanb

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

How much would the lights cost to replace if you did kill them? Bearing in mind they'll probably be half price in the January sales you could just get some spares.

Just bought them at half price, so not end of world if I fail.