Can I Cut Led Christmas Lights

A pair of scissors will do the job.

Can i cut led christmas lights.

R v supply n v led over i led p i led 2 r. You should be cutting between the copper dots. Sometimes christmas light strings are too long or too short. Use wire cutters to strip the ends of the two wires cut in the previous step.

They will be used to cut and shorten your led christmas lights. They re also available online. Hold the lights still and cut along the dotted line. If you know or can measure the led current for each led end therefore for a series and the voltage drop of each and the applied voltage you could calculate the resistance and wattage of a resistor to limit the current to a safe value.

Wire cutters again a pair can be purchased in any hardware or electrical supply store. If however you are installing c7 c9 18 awg christmas light cords with sockets and screw in bulbs that are wired in parallel yes you can shorten them. Line up the cut carefully to avoid damaging the leds. Yes you can cut led strings down to whatever length you need.

With the lights unplugged cut the two wires that enter the last light in the series strand with wire cutters. If you are handy with a multimeter it is really simple. Unless you are only shortening the strand by five or less individual lights should not be removed because the remaining lights will receive too much power and burn out much faster. You can find led calculators to determine the propper resister but too many different voltages for different leds.

This video will show you how to cut an led string so you will have a usable length without have to much left over. After twisting the wires together secure with a wires connector. This problem can occur when christmas lights are added to the yard and yard decorations. Electrical tape this is optional but if you want to make sure that your wire nuts are secured then it s best to purchase a roll as well.

We explained in our article answering the question are christmas lights in series or parallel we discussed that while mini lights with small wiring harnesses wired in series cannot be easily cut to custom lengths parallel wired cords can be cut and terminated. When your three strand christmas lights are too long for the place you had intended and you do not have any shorter strands you can shorten your light strand in a couple of easy but time consuming ways. Even if they work at first they won t last long. As stated you must change the current limiting resister to match.