What kind of Christmas lights do you have ?

[William Gaatjes]

I do have great Christmas lights. my lights have a control box with a button that allow me to select for different settings. I always use the slow fading effect from one color to another. It goes from red to blue to orange to green and repeat. It gives a relaxing ambiance.
I bought it from a Chinese lady who was selling them for 10 euro a piece by entering bars and selling them to customers. The design however was not save, no fuse, no on and off switch and no strain relief on any of the cables including the 230V power cable. So i took a plastic box and made it properly safe according to electrical standards. It works great ever since. The lights are tiny bulbs and not leds.

 

[lxskllr]

How does it change color without being LED?

No lights this year, but I usually use the little traditional white lights. Not too many so it doesn't look like a used car lot. I also like those big colored lights. I grew up with them, and will use them again some time. The painted glass ones look best, but are kind of dangerous to use. They get hot as hell, and use a lot of electricity.

 

[William Gaatjes]

The light string is made up of four individual strands and one common. Each strand is a color. red , green , blue and yellow. From the control box these four strands emerge and one strand used as common.
The small control pcb has a button on it and a tiny IC on it which controls four small (TO-92 case) triacs or thyristors. I could not find the type number on the internet. What i find amazing is that everything is integrated into the IC. It is directly connected to the 230V.

 

[Fritzo]

I finally switched to 100% LED this year. SO MUCH better. I was about 75% last year and you don't have to worry about lights not working, not to mention a huge reduction in the electric bill. Previously it would be $30-$50 more expensive, but with the LED's in place I didn't notice much of an increase at all.

 

[IronWing]

I have the kind that sit in storage until I feel inspired to put them up. Some years, inspiration doesn't come. Some years, I've put them up after Christmas because that was when the snow came. As a rule, they come down with the last snow melt or April 1st, which ever comes later. Except for the front door lights; I leave those up all year because I like them. Maybe "Christmas lights" is a misnomer. I had a new outdoor outlet installed this year (a side job to replacing the cat piss burned out outlet) and so should be more inspired than I am. Maybe I should watch some Bollywood dance movies to get me in the mood for bling. I would like to find the strings of big frosted bulbs (C7) except with LEDs so they don't burn out all the time.

Edit: Found the lights. Maybe I'll be inspired.

 

[WilliamM2]

Old, haven't seen them in decades, not even sure I still have them.

 

[z1ggy]

None because I have better things to do with my time.

 

[acheron]

multicolored C9 incandescent bulbs that use 7 watts each, the way God intended Christmas lights. Fuck LEDs.

Any electricity I save throughout the year by various means is probably undone by putting up a bunch of C9 bulbs in December, but oh well.

 

[disappoint]

Neopixels, aka WS2812B addressable RGB LEDs
180 LEDs long about 6 meters in length

 

[Fritzo]

I have the kind that sit in storage until I feel inspired to put them up. Some years, inspiration doesn't come. Some years, I've put them up after Christmas because that was when the snow came. As a rule, they come down with the last snow melt or April 1st, which ever comes later. Except for the front door lights; I leave those up all year because I like them. Maybe "Christmas lights" is a misnomer. I had a new outdoor outlet installed this year (a side job to replacing the cat piss burned out outlet) and so should be more inspired than I am. Maybe I should watch some Bollywood dance movies to get me in the mood for bling. I would like to find the strings of big frosted bulbs (C7) except with LEDs so they don't burn out all the time.

Edit: Found the lights. Maybe I'll be inspired.

You're the guy my neighbors would hate

 

[dphantom]

C7 colored LEDs and LED miniatures white for outside. Miniature LED colored for the tree. Never have enough lights