LED light string/fairy light remote question

[mr_ed]

Has anybody done away with the stupid little remote that comes with all the LED string lights out there?

I have them running around the inside perimeter of my truck camper and they're awesome...great for gentle ambient light while hanging out inside hiding from mosquitoes! But the stupid remote keeps acting up. Namely, it randomly will simply stop working for a while. Normally, reseating the remote's battery has worked, but tonight, sitting here in the shadow of the Tetons outside Alpine WY, it has decided to quit hardcore.

Can a person simply cut the little receiver eye off the light string and wire it into a normal switch? I never use the dimmer function (plus I could run it through a rheostat like my interior floods), and who the heck actually uses the fifteen different blinky settings??

Also, it should be mentioned, my light string has been hardwired into the camper electrical system via a converter box that turns 12v into the fairy lights' requisite 5v, so my problem isn't dead light batteries.

Ed

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[loudboy]

I wouldnt bet on just cutting out or bypassing the IR light unless you know how to reverse engineer the circuit that runs the lights. They usually aren't straight 5v to the string, there is some Pulse Width Modification (PWM) or similar metering happening to control the color/pattern/brightness. I enjoy reverse engineering stuff, but those cheapy string lights are usually poorly designed and just not worth the frustration. Save the hassle and swap 'em out for exactly what you want.

 

[mr_ed]

Yeah I'm figuring you're right, since I cannot find anything online about doing away with the remote. Which sucks cuz my wife and I really like those style lights over the tape-style ones. Oh well.

Maybe I'll fart around with em once our trip is done, and if I end up frying them, they were only like 6 bucks...

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[luthj]

RGB units have a LED with three colors combined. So you could in theory just apply power to all 3 supply wires (common ground) to get roughly white light. You should check what voltage each circuit runs on white setting. If its around 12V, you can tie all three control/supply + wires together, and use a regular PWM dimmer. Or just wire straight to 12V with a switch.

 

[rayra]

Or find a similar 'normal' strand of 12V lights in the color you want, so you can just wire them to a switch.

I added a couple of switches to the base of the right hand rearmost pillar, tapping the nearby 'PowerPort' for power.


Find better lights than I did, mine are the naked ribbon-tape type and the white side has failed where they were applied around the tightly-curving corner. Some sort of 'rope' version would be more durable.

 

[mr_ed]

Yeah I'll look at the rope variety if my hacking fails. Stupid things decided to start working again once we hit Iowa. Maybe they didn't like the altitude in the Tetons lol.

I'm still going to attempt to hack the switching dongle, see if I can sort it out. I really like the light color of these fairy lights, and their ability to be tucked way down into the corners, nooks, and crannies where they're practically invisible until you turn them on.

Thanks for the feedback!

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[Backcountry12309]

Has anybody done away with the stupid little remote that comes with all the LED string lights out there?

I have them running around the inside perimeter of my truck camper and they're awesome...great for gentle ambient light while hanging out inside hiding from mosquitoes! But the stupid remote keeps acting up. Namely, it randomly will simply stop working for a while. Normally, reseating the remote's battery has worked, but tonight, sitting here in the shadow of the Tetons outside Alpine WY, it has decided to quit hardcore.

Can a person simply cut the little receiver eye off the light string and wire it into a normal switch? I never use the dimmer function (plus I could run it through a rheostat like my interior floods), and who the heck actually uses the fifteen different blinky settings??

Also, it should be mentioned, my light string has been hardwired into the camper electrical system via a converter box that turns 12v into the fairy lights' requisite 5v, so my problem isn't dead light batteries.

Ed

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Are you sure the problem is not the battery in the remote. Those little button batteries that are in remotes are only 3 volt and very low milliamperes so it does not take much of a drop to cause problems. Also with the low milliamperes that the remote will draw just the grease and oil from your fingers on the battery or the contacts can create enough resistance to cause your problem.


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[mr_ed]

Are you sure the problem is not the battery in the remote. Those little button batteries that are in remotes are only 3 volt and very low milliamperes so it does not take much of a drop to cause problems. Also with the low milliamperes that the remote will draw just the grease and oil from your fingers on the battery or the contacts can create enough resistance to cause your problem.


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I'm 100% sure the remote is the problem... sometimes taking the battery out and cleaning it helps, sometimes not. It's why I want to do away with it entirely. Most of the time when it's being problematic, it's exactly when I want those lights haha.

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