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Splice together a 3-wire string of xmas lights

66K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  FrodoOne  
#1 ·
I have three packages of 50' strings (LED if it matters). I need one 70' run and one 80' run. So my thought was that I'd cut the third string into two, and then solder and heat-shrink tube those to the other sets to get the exact length strings I need. It seemed so simple at the time.

But I just opened the packages, and noticed that they have 3 wires. I've just learned that 3-wire Christmas lights are "series-parallel". So if I want to splice them together I need to figure out which wires go with which. Is that correct?

I think the diagram below depicts what's going on, except in my case, the three wires run the distance from the first light to the last (vs. this diagram, where the last series is just two wires).

Image



Is there an easy way to do this? Can I use trial and error without blowing anything up (i.e., if it works, it's correct, if it doesn't, swap a wire and try again)? Or is that risky business?
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
(probe technique)
Yes, this is sort of what I thought I needed to so, thank you so much! So of the three wires, two will have continuity to one prong on the outlet, and the third will be the lone wolf.

I just need to match the two to the two, and the one to the one, and I should be good.

And yes, I did think about the draw, and the sets say that you can connect 5 sets in series, and I'm only going ~1.6, so it should be fine.

Thanks again!
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Yeah, I actually did cut the wires, and used a continuity tester, and found that only two wires on each side of the cut had continuity, which blew my "2 + 1" theory out of the water, so I reversed the cuts to restore the set, and chalked up a loss.

Thanks for your thorough explanation, parts of it are a little over my head, but it does generally make sense.

I will just buy another string and conceal the excess on each side.