Battery Powered LED Christmas Lights

Christmas lights are good for more than just decorating your tree. You could make a sparkleball with them. But what if you want to hang it from your ceiling? You would have to plug the lights into an outlet and I don't know about you but I don't have outlets in my ceiling. So why not make them battery powered?
I've only tried this with one type of Christmas lights so if you try it with other types and it doesn't work... Well then that sucks.
Anyway this is really simple and won't take long at all. Maybe like ten minutes tops if you include searching through drawers for stuff like batteries and cleaning up a broken lightbulb.

Step 1: Stuff

There aren't many things you need for this. Just a set of LED Christmas lights, two AA batteries, and a battery case that you can connect to the Christmas lights. A pair of scissors might help too, as well as duct tape or heat shrink tubing.

Step 2: What to Do

Cut off the plug and strip about an inch or less of the insulation stuff off the wire. Then connect the wires to the battery case by either soldering them or twisting them together. If you twist them together use duct tape to put tape around both of the wires separately and then put tape around both of them. And there you have it! Battery powered LED Christmas lights!

Step 3: All Done :D

Think of all the possibilities for these lights! :D
Just a word of warning, once you cut off the plug do not connect the lights to it again and try plugging it in. My mom told me that

Comments

[Chui Lerhern]

Whats the AC voltage of the christmas lights before it has changed to DC?

[alkhil]

Thanks for easy and informative post!)
Halloween, Thanksgiving' Day and Christmas are coming and I decided
prepare for them more carefully than previous years. So, firstly I started searching
any information how to choose Christmas lights. After some time of my searching
I found an interesting review here http://topchoice.best/main-review/best-christmas-lights with detail information
and description. As they recommend, I decided to buy LED lights, because these
lights are far more efficient than incandescent lights and have a much longer
life-span.

But I haven't chosen yet which I want to buy for sure, it's hard to make
a decision, especially for me, as I have never decorate with lights and know
nothing about them. May be somebody can recommend good lights?

Any suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

[rsaltrelli]

Hi,

I'm trying this with a 35 count strand of Holiday Living C3 LEDs and a 4 AA battery pack. It's not working and my suspicion is that the LEDs actually run on AC power. I lopped off the male plug, inserted it into an AC outlet and read 120 ACV on the wires that were feeding the strand with my multimeter. Is this a thing? Are there AC LEDs out there?

[rsaltrelli]

A little more research indicated that the type of current doesn't matter (AC vs DC) it's the voltage. The string of lights I was using was wired in series to take advantage of a 120 ACV power outlet. To get the lights to run off my 6 DCV battery pack, I had to cut them up and rewire them to be in parallel. This did the trick. I'm only doing a dozen lights on a wreath so it wasn't too bad. Much more than that and it wouldn't be worth the effort. It's pretty tedious work.

[GabrielE3]

HELLO...

I was hoping to get some advice.. I was trying to power some xmas lights... converting them from the ac adapter to a dc battery holder. The lights are 2.5v.

I bought battery packs that hold 6 AA. Will this work? Is there a point where there would be too much battery power? OR more battery just means it will run longer?

[TravisH1]

Even with 6AA batteries you should still have 2.5 Volts of power just more capacity. Good Luck!

[DIY Dave]

That looks great. Thanks for the inspiration! I'm planning to make a wreath with battery powered lights for my front door. I'll update you with pictures if I end up making it.

[Barrettkg]

Is there any way to do this with regular "old timey" Christmas lights?

[Sunbanks]

I'm not sure, I was going to try it once but then I didn't

[djcj98]

you can just be careful of the lead in the wires

[PCfreak]

there is no lead in copper wire only in lead rosin solder

[Robert Powell]

Your project will only work if the LEDs are is parallel if in series it won't work, also if you solder everything it will be stronger.

[enchantedweakness]

I got the lights, I got the battery pack, I got the batteries. Then I tried to wire them together and it got hot, really hot, and nothing happened. I tried 2 AA, 3 AA, and even a D... I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?

[djcj98]

you have to make sure that you have enough volts. normal Christmas light are 2.4v a bulb. (an ac outlet puts out 120v. so a strand of 50 lights would be 2.4v a bulb). you want to have more volts then needed to make the bulbs burn brighter. (a 2.4v bulb wants 2.5v)

[nodoubtman]

you can replace AC power supply with 2 AA ??

what is the battery power supply voltage?

thank you!
marC:)

[wakupo]

you can connect it to AC via a power supply, which generates DC..

voltage is 3v i think.. :D

[sujun0205]

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Free sample will be sent if needed. Any questions will be appreciated. Thanks.

[albhednomad]

Just would like drop a thanx off. this really helps with the little project I'm doing. I'm going to the midnight premier of Tron: Legacy and wanted to get in the mood with a lighted vest. well....partially lighted. I'm a big heartless fan and almost all my stuff has the symbol. so I'm making a light up heartless insignia on the back of my lucky/favorite vest. this will surely help. so, again, thanx.

[walklands]

Thanks for the instructable. Hope your still about, noticed I'm 2 years out of date!

Never thought of using a mains powered pre made string. Any chance this would work on a set bought in the UK? What about resisters to protect the Leds?

Thanks

[Sunbanks]

I really have no idea if it would work with lights bought in the UK. It's sometimes kind of a hit and miss when you're choosing the lights.