Info AC LED string lights flickering

[Biocellguy]

I am converting white LED Christmas lights into over head outdoor lighting. The box says I can connect up to 45 strings. I will only need about 10.

Since they flicker, I made a functional rectifier using 4 x 1N4007 (2 x 2 series and 2 x 2 parallel). During the test, I used a capacitor rated 4.7uF and 400 V. [All 5 components I desoldered from old phone chargers.] All of the lights turn on and stopped flickering.

Each full wire (70 LEDS) is 4.8 W and 0.04 A, and each LED is 3.4 V 68 mA. Each string consists of 2 x 35 series LEDs. My home is standard US 120 V.

Once I create this bridge, how much should I decrease the DC to allow for 10 strings (700 LEDs) and be safe?

Is there a better off the shelf device I could buy?

When I finish, all will be encased in weatherproof housing.

Thank you for your feedback.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've done this too but without the capacitor as I did not want to chance blowing them due to them getting more voltage and 100% duty cycle when they were designed for under 50%. But with the bridge you get 120hz instead of 60hz flicker so at least it's slightly better.

I would imagine a voltage around say, 120vdc would probably be safe but it's hard to tell for sure. AC actually goes up to 170v peak to peak so when you rectify it and add a capacitor it comes up to 170vdc or so.

I hate that off the shelf Christmas lights are so crappy though. One of my sets died this year and it was only a few years old. I need to troubleshoot it at some point, I suspect something is loose somewhere as they would sorta turn on but not at full brightness, and every now and then they would be full brightness.