Christmas Light Upgrade

by inventor1488

16K156

Intro: Christmas Light Upgrade

Ya know when you open up a brand new set of christmas lights, and they come with that little bag of replacement bulbs? KEEP THEM! They saved me 50 bucks this year ALONE! I use these for making a normal christmas light sets flash on and off. The best part though is that all you need is the replacment bulb bag (and its contents) from a random flashing icicle set.

STEP 1: This Might Be All You Have to Do!

This step can either be the first, or last depending on you light sets. If you are lucky all you have to do is pull out the entire bulb and replace it with a "replacment bulb" from your twinkling light set, and make sure it has to red tip and a wierd looking filament. It usually takes 2 flashing bulbs to get string of lights to work completely

STEP 2: Making It Fit

Now there is a very good chace that your light bulb didn't fit in the new socket, this is fixed very easily

1.Pull the light out of the socket that you are going to put the twinkling bulb in

2.There will be two wires on the bottum of the housing of the bulb- bend them so they are straight

3.Pull the bulb out of the housing

4.Do the same to the random twinkling bulb

You should now have 2 light bulbs and 2 housings

1.Thread the contacts of the twinkling bulb into the new housing and bend into the proper postition ( polarity doesn't seem to matter ).

do the same to the other bulb if you want

STEP 3: Plugging It In

Plug the flashing light into the socket of the set you want to flash.

Plug in the light set

add flashing bulbs as nesesary

6 Comments

ac7ss 14 years ago

Over time, you will notice that the lights are in different voltages! A good plan is to label the replacement bulb bags with a number that matches the number of lights that go out on a strand when you unplug one of the lights. (Frequently this is 1/2 or 1/3 of the total number of lights on the string. It will always be a 1/x fraction of the string.) I saw 2.5v (50/string) 3.5v (30/string) and 6v (20/string) with a quick search. another tool to have is a no-touch voltage sensor, this may help with identifying the bad bulb.

vodo 15 years ago

no, you need to use the replacements

wolf555hound 15 years ago

i just pulled out a bag of bulbs lol, i like 9v with them, day wight.

zachninme 16 years ago

Thats... brilliant!!! Is it possible to just take the normal ones, or do you need to use the replacements?

GorillazMiko 16 years ago

Wow... cool Instructable. Thanks for showing, maybe I'll save $50 like you did, maybe more. Mwahahaha! :-)