Christmas lights question

“ok, I've got this strand of Christmas lights going across the ceiling of the room. I put them up a week ago and they worked fine. At the far end, I pulled a few/unscrewed a few between the ceiling and where they are draped on a small tree, ya know, so it would be dark there. Says they should work.

I plugged them in next (a week later... lol) and they only lights illuminated are those on the first half of the strand. WTF???!

They only cost $1.50... lol... and I have a second strand I could put up, but why is this happening?”

“Fought with that same thing at work- I bought lights to put up there. Frustrating!! Think ya have to check each bulb one by one...pain in the butt!”

“I had this problem once...forgot what it was though. I think we bought a new set. I think it's one half of the xmas lights that's broke. Are they not on 2 strings? Kind a twisted?? Mabe one of those strings is broke...

Or maybe you need to exchange the bulb where the lights stop working.

kind a curious myself now.

oh,oh,oh...I also have a nother question. On my xmas light set is says..." intented for outdoor and indoor use ONLY"
Can someone tell me where I can NOT use them??”

“Gem- LOL!”

“Hey Lizs- Might be a fuse too- the little tiny ones that are in the plug itself. They usually have extras in the little bag with the spare bulbs.”

“Gemini, the bathtub counts as indoors, right?”

“OK, I'll try some stuff

Gemini... maybe you are not supposed to ingest them??? LOL”

“If you have had more than three beers, two glasses of wine or two shots of Tangle Ridge then you should not operate Christmas lights.”

“OK, for fun, I plugged in the second string of lights to the first string. Works fine. There's just the half of the first string that won't work. GRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

“Its a bulb thing. You need to find which hole has to have a bulb. Good Luck.”

“But these lights are NOT supposed to do that. It says so on the package! And why would only HALF go out anyway? I'm inclined to try the fuse, but don't know how to mess with the plug to get to the fuse.”

“There's never an Electrical Engineer around when you need one....”

“the strand is divided into two separate circuits, each being one-half of the length.

All the bulbs have to be working in the circuit for it to work. That means that at least one bulb is bad or has come loose. The flasher can also be defective. You have to test each one with a good bulb until you find the culprit. One way is to take a good replacement bulb and put it in the first socket. If that doesn't work, then take the bulb you just took out and use it to replace the second bulb, and so on.

There may be a fuse for each half of the strand in the plug. You have to slide the tiny panel open and pop out the fuses with a small knife blade or screwdriver.

Problem is that these lights are so cheap the quality sucks. We have one strand we haven't been able to fix.

If you have a string of lights that works and it is not too much trouble, I say replace it.”

“You need more voltage to light up the whole set. Try wiring the strand directly into the 230 kilovolt transmission line outside. The whole strand will light up then.

Guaranteed.”

“Hey Gem, it's like those xmas lights in the new backpacker magazine.....the one's you can put around your tent...that way you can use them inside and outside at the same time. It comes with it's own battery powered source.”

“I was reading this to Chili and he wants to know what the he!! are they on the ceiling for. Shouldn't they be on the dam tree? Lights on the ceiling? What are you trying to do? WTF???”

“I think it has something to do with tequila.”

“CALL JOEY! LOL!”

“LOL! I don't HAVE a Christmas tree, just a 1.5-ft. tall Norfolk pine -- which, btw, has those "portable" Xmas lights on it. I got two strands of those, one white (kind of a blue-ish white) and one that's colored. One strand works; one doesn't. I think maybe the batteries aren't quite making a connection in the one strand (although it DID work when I first tried it. ACK!! Me and $@#^%@##@^ Christmas lights)

Now, cottonsocks, don't you guys have better things to be doing on a Sunday morning than worrying about my Christmas lights on the ceiling???! LOL!

You see, there's a couple phone cables routed across the ceiling with hooks from the computer to the faaaaaaaaar side of the room, where the telephone outlet is. They sat on my floor from July until a certain road tripper (Jeffers might have the right comment there. LMAO!!) stopped by here in October and rigged them up out of the way on the ceiling.

So I figured, hey lets make it look like your favorite watering hole, and put lights up there. It is totally festive, I tell ya!!! lol... They even end up by the fridge, where there's a tiny (smaller than the Norfolk pine) fake tree and they light it up. ooooooooooooohhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

Did I tell ya I got a couple poinsettia plants, too?? WOW, it's the most I've decorated for Christmas in probably 15 years. (which ain't saying much, as you can see. BAH! lol)”

“Battery powered lights???

Well now that explains everything.



;-)
chili (not bothering to change ID's on our blazing 10K speed out here in the country)”

“There's TWO different sets of lights here, to clarify...

1. Two sets that cost $1.50 each, that do not blink, that are put up in the apt. The one strand first worked, then only half of it worked.

Now I put the second strand up, not wanting to deal with the pulling bulbs on the first strand to see WTF was wrong!! And these PLUG INTO AN OUTLET!

2. I also have two strands of Inklings lights (which are really short, by the way). They are the battery-operated ones. At first, the colored strand worked great. I hauled it into work to share the joy (lol) and then they didn't work!! I think the batteries are not making good connections.

The other strand, white/blue-ish, is working fine. They're on the little Norfolk pine. You can set them to blink... or not to blink, your choice. Setting them to blink supposedly increases battery life.

THERE, CLEAR NOW???? lol”

“Maybe you should convert to some religion that doesn't celebrate Christmas. Then there would be no Christmas light problems! :-)”

“I took my pink looking purple lights and hung them on the garage door opener...wooohooo...my room looks so festive now.......LIZs.....just go buy new lights for $1.50......but don't expect the purple ones to look purple!!!”

“Divinity, you're not gay or you...not there's anything wrong with being gay....just wondering.”

“You string the computer line across the ceiling? COOOOOL.... (I just trip over mine)

I thought maybe you had lights on the ceiling so you'd have a good view of them when you wake up on the floor (at least that would be the reason from MY point of view, <aHem>).

I forgot how much fun it is to have a few drinks and watch your friends try to electrocute themselves with Christmastreelights.”

“I see that was a Jerbear comment, not Jeffers, above. LOL!! Makes much more sense now.

Yo Bear! ;-)”

“AAAAAAAHHH!

The whole effin' tree went dark! Now none of the blighters work!”

“Ha Ha! Now you have to find the fuse or one bulb that is causing it all!”

“buy new lights it easier”

“Don't ya hate those mini lights? That's why it's always best to buy the cheap string. That way, when they don't work, you just get new ones....”

“BTW, I got two strands of those "backpacking" outdoor lights that run on batteries last year...

Both quit working. (and yes, I replaced the batteries)

OK, now I know matahari had some on a May canoe trip. I don't if they were the same ones I had... but just wanting to be fair.”

“Okay, just had to replace a fuse. Phew!”

“LOL-- We always label the plug with the year we bought the lights-- that way, if they are too old, we know not to worry about them... But sometimes we will "harvest" bulbs off of an old strand!”