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Old 12-07-2008, 08:52 PM   #12
ZenGum
Doctor Wtf
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Badelaide, Baustralia
Posts: 12,861
Somewhat late, here they are:
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These nine stars were $20. There were a few difficulties: the distance from the solar panel to the first light was only about 3 meters. I needed about 12. It could have been an easy job to splice in some speaker wire, but (second issue) the stars are on two circuits that flash alternately (1, 3, 5, 7, 9; and 2, 4, 6, 8) and hence use 3-core wire (one for each circuit and one as a shared return, I think). So I had to get some 3-core wire to splice in. Cut, strip, crimp, tape ... to my mild surprise, it worked first time.

As well as making the wiring difficult, the flashing is in fact unwanted. I am considering simply bridging the two feed wires and seeing what happens. I'll let you know. If it works I have a second set like this which I will simply extend with 2 core wire.

Meanwhile, the icicle lights were $70, but $55 on discount:

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The whole thing has a one meter drop and is about 3 meters long. It came with a 10-meter lead cord so I didn't have to do any wiring, just an awful amount on untangling. It is wrapped around a central wall so you can't see all of it here, but you can see some of it in the mirror on the left of the picture. It can cycle through about 8 combinations of flashing, but I set it for a steady glow.

Neither is bright enough to read by, but they're both enough to provide some mood lighting and make it safe to walk about at night.
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