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One section of prelit tree not working11/21/2023 Even if I did get the plug open and find the fuse, I'm wondering if the fuse is even some standard size or type that can be readily replaced. The plug at the end with the problem looks like it has a small catch you could push in with a small screwdriver, but it appears almost impossible to pry open the plug without damaging it. Has anybody ever tried repairing this kind of LED Christmas light string? Is it worth it to try replacing the fuse? (Of course, it would only make sense doing so if there wasn't some other more serious fault in the circuit-but how would you debug the cause of the failure?) There must be a fault in the 2nd half of the string, or the fuse in that half must have blown. So, this idea that there are actually two independent circuits seems to make sense to me. I notice that most of the way through the string there are three wires-but at the middle-point of the string, there are only two wires joining the 2 halves. My understanding is that Christmas light strings like these are often two independent circuits, with fuses built into the plugs at either end. The whole string used to work, and it's only about a year or two old. With one string, exactly half of the LEDs don't light up when plugged into the AC. I have a bunch of Noma LED Christmas light strings, each with 70 LEDs. We just bought our own here.A bit of a low-tech, although seasonal, question for you: Are we the last ones to know about this thing? Save yourself the yearly headache. So now our tree is all lit, and Greta is happy. Those are the ones which have been burnt out from the start, but at least one of whose shunts had not melted through. Then, you scan for the bulb (or two) which is/are still burnt out, and replace just those. It provides a low-current, high-voltage difference across the bulbs, which is sufficient to melt the shunts in any burnt-out bulb while not affecting functioning bulbs. That’s when not just one lgith goes out (which you might often not even notice), but the entire section of lights turns off. However, every once in a while the shunt doesn’t melt through given the “normal” voltage difference across the bulb, and so the circuit (for the 50 lights in that set or portion of the set) is lost. Every bulb in the light set you own has a “shunt” which is supposed to “melt through” when the filament burns out. This DOES work, though, and it’s because Christmas light bulbs have long been designed to work this way. Surely, you can’t fix a lightbulb by passing more electricity through it, no matter the “shape” of the pulse! Okay, admit it: you read the package, mix in even a basic understanding of electricity, and wonder why anyone would fall for such an outlandish claim. This review of it on Amazon explained it pretty well: It’s crazy and weird and it works and I tried to pretend I didn’t care how, but I just had to know. All you do is use the built in scanner to determine which light is not getting power, remove the light, insert the plastic housing into the tool, click the trigger (we had to click it a few times) and all the lights turned on. My parents came over for dinner and noticed (even with our attempt to hang an extra string of larger lights in the dark places–haha!) and my dad let us borrow this tool that fixes mini lights instantly. Like, the whole top of our dang tree this year. But, this post is about how every year our pre-lit tree sends us into a fury of frustration because we have dark spots where lights aren’t working when we plug it. I think most people did, right? It’s not really even “blog worthy.” We used silver and gold bulbs we had sprinkled with sentimental ornaments we’ve collected over the years. We put up our Christmas tree over the weekend, which isn’t really news.
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