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| These are the WalMart Multi Color LED lights, and they can be re-arranged to make a single color strand. This only works on the "Green Wire" based lights, as they have a sealed resister on the line to make the voltage correct for the LEDs. The "White Wire" based lights DO NOT have the sealed resister, some of the bulbs have resisters in the bulb case, so you cannot easily rearrange the "White Wire" based lights as you can with the "Green Wire". |
The strands all start and end with Red for each section. That is by design. Look at these lights, the ones on the left go in a certain location, and the rest of the lights look like the one on the right. and can go anywhere.
These strands are about 35% Red, 35% Yellow, 15% Blue, and 15% Green. This makes the math for getting the number of strands you want of one color complicated. But for those that liquidated WalMart's stock, this should be easy to do. |
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| If you look at the wiring, you can see most of the lights only have 2 wires going into the base. The ones with the 3 wires on the base is where the larger light bases (Ones on the left, pictured above) are supposed to go. Once you have it all built the way you want, you may notice one of the lights in a 3 wire base won't light, simply take that light out of the set, remove it from the base and flip the polarity, then plug it back in.
I think the LEDs have a small bypass in the LED themselves to allow the current to flow through, even when the polarity is reversed. This would explain why I could cram a 2 Wire light into the 3 Wire base, and the other lights will work. |
Each light string is in 2 sections of 25 lights each. The separation point can be found when there is only 2 wires going between 2 lights (Each with 3 wires going into the base). Based on this, I believe these light strings can be trimmed into 25 light sections without any issues.
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| This one on the left is a 3 wire base, with a 2 wire light crammed in. The other lights do come on, but not this one. Just flip the LED in the base, and it will light, once plugged back in. |
This method will also work on these type of lights from Lowes (As reported by ): These ones seem to be built better, as there is no odd ports, or playing with the polarity of the LEDs to get them all to work.
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Here are the colors on this C9 style set.
The clear led is what is in the yellow c9 bulb. |
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| The resister is built into the plug, allowing you to change around the lights without any issues. |
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| This is the socket for this type of LED lights. The LED is polarity set, and only goes in the correct way. The C9 case also plugs into the plug. |
A WARNING ABOUT - "White Wire" (NO SEALED RESISTER ON THE LINE)
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| Resister on this LED heated up and melted the base. Most of the lights don't have a resister on them, but some do to correct the voltage for the set. Swap bulbs about, and you will either overwork the resister, or you will fry a few LEDs. |
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One would think you could do the same with the "White Wire" type of lights that are the same brand, not so. These are easier to move around, but are not compatible with the "Green Wire" type. This is because the "White Wire" type doesn't have the same sealed resister on the line.
This is a DIY project, and your results may vary, so this is AT YOUR OWN RISK.
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| The reason why this project worked well for me is because it appears that the original string is setup to drive the Red/Yellow lights which operate at a lower voltage than the Green/Blue. By changing the colors around and making single color strands, the Blue/Green might not be as brights as the Red/Yellow due to the voltage being slightly lower than they need for full brightness. This means that the Green/Blue strands would be slightly underpowered. This shouldn't affect the life span of the LEDs though. |
