# LEDs from Costco



## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

1 box is $10 at Costco.
1 box contains 4 strings of 50 LEDs.
Each string has a 2 AA battery pack with animation control.












3 types of LEDs on each string Soft White with Green, or with Blue or with Red. So each has an incandescent soft white. Shown below snipped off is SW/Green. The soft white appears yellow when off.


























I snipped one off, not knowing how the leads feed through, and did a direct connection to a pair of AA batteries. No luck, so I’m missing something. Should’ve lit on 3V even without a resistor. 
My intention being how to light up the soft white without using the controller or entire string. 
Wiring a house, breaker panel, etc is one thing (electrical), but electronic stuff is a different ballgame. And the announcer is speakin’ Greek.

So I know there’s folks here who know how to get these working (Lemonhawk comes to mind); and while I’m pretty sure they’ll help out with the missing puzzle piece, that missing link isn’t why I made this post. My numbskull knowledge on how to breakdown the components aside…

200 tiny LEDs for $10 is a pretty good deal IMO. Especially these “wedding cake” type that are easy to put under a business door overhang or house porch etc. The linear design versus the christmas tree design. Thought I’d give a heads up for those who want to stock up on soft white and/or red LEDs for cheeeeep. It’s 5 cents per LED. You’d be hard pressed to beat that price I think.


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## rrman987 (Aug 29, 2021)

Would be interesting to see how they are achieving colors over the two wires ❓


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

rrman987 said:


> Would be interesting to see how they are achieving colors over the two wires ❓


If they're random color changing, it only takes two power connections to make them go.


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## EBrown (5 mo ago)

OilValleyRy said:


> 1 box is $10 at Costco.
> 1 box contains 4 strings of 50 LEDs.
> Each string has a 2 AA battery pack with animation control.
> 
> ...


How exactly did you wire them up?

If you didn't do so initially, I would suggest twisting both wires off one end together, then putting a battery on the two wires on the other end. Try the AA batteries in both polarities.

Edit: Looking again, I wonder if the battery just needs connected at one end or the other, not across the LED.


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## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

The photo of the snipped LED, I held the leads across the batteries in every possible combination. But the sides of the leads. More on that later.

If you zoom in on that photo you’ll see 2 distinct LEDs, the green looks “clear” and the soft white looks yellow. It also looks like the leads go across both LEDs on respective sides. If that is the case I’m not sure how one turns off and the other turns on. Breaking open the controller (glued) would shed some light but I’m still reluctant to do that just yet. Unfortunately I don’t think I have a multimeter on hand to determine continuity.

And something else occurred to me. Even though it’s low voltage, I bet those wires have some sort of non conductive silvery coating. I simply nipped them, and didn’t strip any invisible “insulation.” That might be why they didn’t illuminate. They look bare, but probably are not. Duh. Lol


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## kilowatt62 (Aug 18, 2019)

I’m gonna go with the insulation thing being the problem. D’oh! 
Time to bust out the high octane iso alcohol. Or fire-lol.


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## SF Gal (11 mo ago)

I also bet you have clear insulation on the wires. Apply voltage one way and you get color, switch polarity on the wire and you get white.
I saw those at Hobby lobby and thought about the same thing...
So I will be curious if you get it working after cutting them up. 
Use a exacto knife to scrape off the coating and try it again. 
One AAA battery might show it blows quick at that amperage...maybe 3V is just to many amps to see how quick it fries?? Try with a 1K resistor.
I made a battery pack with wires attached with a 1K resistor to check and test LED's before I solder them or just to see they work. 
Found a lot of LEDs can be very heat sensitive after soldering leads, so be careful with heat.

I have been saving my few pennies using 7cent 3mm LEDs for inside my buildings and spending those savings on 34 cent pre-soldered Micro Litz Wired Leads Warm White SMD Led 0603 for scale sized outside light bulbs. So how frugal do you want to get, after all????









If you get it going, I might spring for as set and check them out.


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## Raege (Jan 7, 2022)

Interested in seeing how you make out with these.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I have one of these for testing LED's. I equipped it with a set of leads with test clips on the end for quickly testing LED's. I paid $2 shipped for it, pretty useful at the price.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I use a 3v battery the 2025 0r the slimmer 2032. It is good enough to check polarity. Erery time I wire one in I check polarity at each step. Initial wiring with solder, feeding the wires adding extensions and adding resistors, and power connections.

For the snipit just make connections on one side and flip if it the first test fails.
GO to the other side and try again. Note the results.

For three bucks I got a warm white string of 30 for 3 bucks. run by a pair of 3LR 44 bateries contained in a fake cork.
The string is ten feet long. The other one I bought was multicolored. I checked my end connection at the last LED and it is Open .

In checking out various these mini lights are available in the five to seven dollar range plenty of options out there.

You did get a good deal with the controllers included. Should be fun.

There is a difference between white and warm white. Warm white is more natural to electric bulbs, White is like an alien beaming down at you with a blinding flood.

It does help to have a good source

For string lights this is the time of year to purchase them. The small bulbs are in demand too!


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## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

Well to be extremely accurate there is Warm White, Soft White, and Daylight. Which are reddish hued, yellow hued, and blue hued respectively. Daylight is more modern, looks somewhat fluorescent. Some people hate them in their 1:1 homes. Soft White & Warm White would both work for traditional incandescent, but I prefer the yellow tinge over the redder. 
It’s difficult for most to tell the difference between Warm & Soft white unless they're side by side. But an important distinction when modeling something like a sodium light on a pole barn or rear of a strip mall.


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## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

Well after scraping off whatever microscopic insulation coating was there, and trying to determine continuity using a battery… Nothing blew. I didn’t get any illumination, but something was cooking… according to the little smoke signals. Hahaha
The battery pack/controller is 3V so I expected some light. Hmm. Maybe I’ll break that open later & investigate whatever tiny circuit board is in there. I know there’s a load-limiting resistor. Or should be. 
Intention here being to figure out how to hook it up to a 3V lighting bus.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

When you're testing LED's it's NEVER a bad idea to have a series resistor that limits the maximum current to around 20ma, so that's 50 ohms for each volt of the power supply. If you put a 150 ohm resistor in series with the 3V battery, there's very little likelihood that you'll cook any LED's in your testing, and you'll still be able to function test.


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## kilowatt62 (Aug 18, 2019)

“50 ohms per volt.” 
Does that stay linear as voltage goes up, to say 15 volts? I ask because I’m seeing 5mm LEDs for sale that want 12 to 15 volts. 
So 600 to 750 ohms. 

“I shouldve listened to my High School Counselor and taken that first electronics course in 11th grade.” 🤨


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Yes that would be the minimum. It is a simplified form of Ohms law. 1 volt divided by .02 amps equal 50 ohms.
1000 ohms can be used for 12 volt power supplies. Different colors need adjustment to achieve a like brightness.


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## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

kilowatt62 said:


> “50 ohms per volt.”
> Does that stay linear as voltage goes up, to say 15 volts? I ask because I’m seeing 5mm LEDs for sale that want 12 to 15 volts.
> So 600 to 750 ohms.
> 
> “I shouldve listened to my High School Counselor and taken that first electronics course in 11th grade.” 🤨


Or Greek as a foreign language. Only options I had were Spanish or French. If I could've taken Greek I’d be able to keep up with T-Man here. Lol I was always confused by the theory stuff.


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