Resin dipped, fairy lights, starry lights, dewdrop lights, there doesn't seem to be a consensus on what these lights are called. Here is a set I ordered off of Amazon.
The problem with LEDs in general have always been their severe colors. The industry hasn't seemed to address this yet. However, this particular set comes with a remote to control the brightness. It uses tiny RGB LED chips to expand the number of colors to choose from.
The remote lets you pick from about 16 preset colors. Of these, there are about two that I like. Since these are RGB, I'd assume there's a way to circumvent the controller with my Arduino Uno and give them any color I want to using PWM. I just don't know where to start with this. Do I even need to identify the LED chips?
You can circumvent the controller, but how depends on the exact strips you have. I'd post a picture of the controller.
If they are just rgb leds, then you just need to know if they are common anode or common cathode, then get three logic level mosfets and you can pwm them to control the leds.
By the look of it, there aren't any FETs in the controller from the views we have.
Maybe a small regulator (or is that the IR receiver?), crystal and micro.
This suggests logic levels from the micro to the first LED, which regenerates the data line for the next LED and so-on down the chain. Curious about the current delivered by that small regulator to feed all the LEDs. Perhaps only a few are on at any given time (plus the PWM off-time)
Unless you know what the LEDs are - you're going to need an oscilloscope to see what's happening on those wires!
If you keep current low - I see 14 LEDs in one of the images, don't know if that's all - that would be some 140 mA assuming 10 mA per LED. That's a current such small components can easily handle. Even if that has to be tripled for the three colours, so 420 mA, that's still within reason.
4 wires could either mean standard RGB (one wire for each color and one for gnd or Vcc) or APA102 style addressable LEDs (data, clock, Vcc, gnd). Since it looks like you only have the option of controlling all the LEDs at one time I'm guessing the former. APA102 are much more expensive than standard RGB so it's unlikely they would be used for a product that didn't need their addressable nature.
So I bought some from Amazon and cut off one of the LEDs for testing...
Standard RGB configuration - common anode, with the anode being by the obvious green dot. You should be able to drive them from Arduino PWM to all sorts of color combinations. (All the LEDs are in parallel, so total current consumption is likely to exceed that allowed on an Arduino pin. You'll need some sort of driver.)
Thank you westfw, and everybody who has helped me so far. That's exactly the info I was looking for. I wasn't brave enough to take apart my own string. Now, I'm off to find a driver.
Sharp, overly bright, piercing colors. I get that they were designed to be a wavelength that could be used for tv screens, but as christmas lights the colors are too primary. Like the colors of legos. They give off an eerie glow like a television that's the only source of light in the room.
The incandescent Christmas bulbs that were made before LEDs tried to achieve these colors but the painted glass naturally filtered them into more passive hues. The blue has a touch of teal. The red has a tough of pink. The orange is amber. And so on. I'm trying to recreate those colors as well as the traditional differences in brightness. As well as new colors.
Rumblegram:
Sharp, overly bright, piercing colors. I get that they were designed to be a wavelength that could be used for tv screens, but as christmas lights the colors are too primary. Like the colors of legos. They give off an eerie glow like a television that's the only source of light in the room.
The incandescent Christmas bulbs that were made before LEDs tried to achieve these colors but the painted glass naturally filtered them into more passive hues. The blue has a touch of teal. The red has a tough of pink. The orange is amber. And so on. I'm trying to recreate those colors as well as the traditional differences in brightness. As well as new colors.
Well diffused RGB LEDs can give you any color you like. Otherwise you could try shining white LEDs through a transparent colored material such as lighting gels (which are available in a huge array of colors) or transparent paint (you'll have to test to determine if it's suitable for applying to LEDs).
Not sure what you mean by 'severe colors'. I didn't know that there was a problem with LEDs having 'severe colors'.
All a matter of Artistic Interpretation. He (?) doesn't like the colors provided by the original product, and wants to experiment with additional options...
pert:
Well diffused RGB LEDs can give you any color you like. Otherwise you could try shining white LEDs through a transparent colored material such as lighting gels (which are available in a huge array of colors) or transparent paint (you'll have to test to determine if it's suitable for applying to LEDs).
I've tried a few transparent paints, but it wasn't working for me. Too messy and difficult to mix colors. I chose to go the arduino route so I could learn some code.
Thanks, but I want to stay away from the bulky stuff. I have an RGB LED strip I experiment with but it doesn't have the low profile of the mini string lights I'm looking for. I also have a 100 strand of GE Color Effects I want to use but that's probably a question for another thread.
westfw:
So I bought some from Amazon and cut off one of the LEDs for testing...
Standard RGB configuration - common anode, with the anode being by the obvious green dot. You should be able to drive them from Arduino PWM to all sorts of color combinations. (All the LEDs are in parallel, so total current consumption is likely to exceed that allowed on an Arduino pin. You'll need some sort of driver.)
I'm sooo glad I found this thread and I'm not the only person wondering about this. I'm in a similar situation, with wanting to mod possibly the exact same string of RGB LEDs (it sure looks identical), so this info gives me a good starting point.
Does anybody know of any good guides online for how to wire it to get the extra power, thought? I'm planning on powering 14-16 of the LEDs, so the board's total power probably isn't going to be enough. I've seen guides for powering 12V strips (usually common anode, as westfw on here figured out this string uses), using transistors and what-not, but none using a setup to power LEDS like this, which I assume are running on 5V? (I can't quite tell if each LED has a built-in resistor or if the voltage is reduced before going down the string).
You would use FETs to switch the external 5V supply just as you would with a 12V supply.
You might get away with smaller lower power FETs than those normally used to drive 12V strips, which as often To-220 size. But I don't know any part numbers to recommend. All the small (TO-92 size) FETs I have seen that are available as thru-hole components would not have enough current capacity.
Series resistors will be required, and they will need to be high-wattage. It is always recommended to use series resistors for each led in parallel, but in this case you won't be able to do that. I guess the design of these strings relies on the leds being manufactured in the same batch from the same factory, so being as close to identical as is possible, and also they won't be designed to have a very long (many years) life.
