Date:         Sun, 3 Apr 2005 20:28:37 -0700
Reply-To:     BA <ande@SAN.RR.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         BA <ande@SAN.RR.COM>
Subject:      Re: DC party lights
In-Reply-To:  <c83dc48a9869f950a07e2e2040860581@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 20:00:28 -0400, you wrote:

>I'm looking to get a string of party lights to hand from my awning.
>I've seen some that have a DC plug on them but it really cuts down on
>the selection. Is it possible to just cut off the AC plug and splice on
>a cig lighter DC style plug?
>
>thanks
>
>JFF


Nope.  There are power issues ... I don't entirely understand it but
that's because I got my EE degree (barely) many years ago, and I've
forgotten most of it (what I do for a living is software rather than
EE hardware).

You can buy 12V strings of party lights,  They're not cheap - not even
at WalMart.  And as you've noticed, the selection is limited.

If you google, you can find people who have converted AC strings of
lights to 12V DC.  There's something about turning a serial string of
120 V AC into parallel strings of 4 lamps each for 12V DC.  That
"sounds" right to my vague EE memory ...

My hero S saved me from having to re-learn enough to do it by
installing an inverter so I could run standard strings of party lights
from our aux battery.  But as it happens, I just run the party lights
when we have an electrical hookup. 


B(&S)
'87 Westy 'Esmerelda Blanc'
SoCal