LED String Lights - Cool or Warm White - 5 Meters - Maker Friendly

Details

LED string lights with an attached switched battery box for 3 AA batteries (not included).

While of course these are commonly used as-is for christmas decoration or whatever I really got these for electronics hobbiests and crafty type people who would want to cut the strings up and wire them into projects.  They are a simple string of leds all in parallel, nothing fancy at all, so I call these “maker friendly” because it’s easy (if you know how to wield a soldering iron) to adapt these into your own projects.

I believe there are 10 leds per meter.  The string (wire) is quite stiff so is more “forming” rather than “draping” if you know what I mean. 

For those who want to use as-is:

Put 3 AA batteries in the box, flat end on the springs, turn on the switch, enjoy. 

For those who want to use with batteries but shorten the string:

You can cut anywhere, spread the cut ends apart so they don’t touch and put a bit of tape over them. I would not cut your string to less than 2 meters when using the supplied battery box, certainly not less than 1 meter.

For those intending to cut-up and re-wire entirely:

The “blob” type leds on the strings are all wired in parallel, they have a forward voltage of about 3v, so if you wanted you could cut a section of the string, strip and solder on some wires and a suitable current limiting resistor, and away you go using a handy string of pretty LEDs into your projects.  What resistor you use to limit the current depends on your preference for brightness, the number of LEDs, and your power supply voltage.  These LEDs seem to work well at very low currents, so I would just experiment and find a nice balance, start with a 1k resistor, and halve it until the current and brightness are to your liking.  The battery box seems to have a 10 Ohm resistor in it (for both the 10m and 5m variants).