SOLAR-RECHARGEABE LED
CHRISTMAS LIGHT SET

Solar-Rechargeable LED Christmas Lights, retail $59.99 (www.symmetryco.com...)
Manufactured by (Unknown) for Go! Electric! (www.symmetryco.com)
Last updated 08-27-06




Tired of getting out the Christmas lights every year and finding they don't work because half of the bulbs are broken? Tired of the endless chore of hunting down & changing bulbs as they go out over the duration of the holidays?
Do you live in California or Washington and pay so much for power you can no longer afford to put up lights anymore? Then these are for you: A fairly ordinary looking set of Christmas lights that have colored LEDs instead of bulbs. They run cool and the bulbs never pop, and best of all, they're solar-rechargeable!!! That is, you place the battery box where it will get some sun, and let ol' Sol do its thing.

They also have a number of flashing and chasing patterns to choose from, so you aren't just stuck with steady-on bubs.

Because this set is solar-rechargeable, they're designed to be used outdoors.


SIZE



Plug the end of the cord on the light string into the circular receptacle labelled "Jack 1" on the back of the battery box. Pay attention to the inside of the plug and the receptacle (jack) for it - this connector has a fairly complex array of metal pins and a plastic "key" in it to help ensure the plug fits the jack only one way. The pins in this plug are incredibly easy to bend - it took me ~10 minutes to fix mine with a small screwdriver and a flashlight after I {vulgar term for having had intercourse} it up.

Turn the rocker switch labelled "on" and "off" to the "on" position.

To change modes, use the switch labelled "auto" and "select". Leave it in "auto" mode for the preset cycle in 6 different sequence:
  1. All lamp turn on steady-on mode
  2. All lamps twinkling faster
  3. All lamps twinkling slower
  4. Twinkling in sequence (Faster)
  5. Twinkling in sequence first then twinkling in reverse sequence
  6. All extinguished then back on; cycle then repeats.
You can manually select a mode you like. When your desired sequence is being displayed, turn the "auto" switch to the "select" position. The lights will then remain on in the mode of your choice. Steady-on or twinkling.

The lights have an automatic day/night switch, so you do not need to go out of your way to turn it on each evening and turn it off each morning.



Since there are no disposable batteries to fuss with, I don't have to tell you which part to throw in the snowbank and then turn around and tell you not to do it.

Just place the battery box so that the solar cells on its top are exposed to sunshine for as long as possible each day.

This product uses a multi-crystal silicon solar cell array, outputting 8.6 volts at 1.35 watts in full sun.



This light set is meant to be used as a decorative light set on your bushes outside, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown them in the toilet tank, bash them against a steel rod or against the concrete floor of a patio, let my housemate's citty kats go to the litterbox on them, run over them with a 450lb Celebrity motorised wheelchair, or perform other indecencies on them that a regular flashlight might have to have performed on it. So this section of the web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

Steady-on really isn't steady-on; the set uses a method called PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), where the LEDs strobe on and off rapidly. Waving the lights about revealed this behaviour. This was done intentionally - it helps reduce the overall current and allows the lights to operate longer per battery charge.

What I like about this light set is that it has multiple modes of operation - they're not limited to just steady-on. And the number of lamps in the set (204) is favourable, and the length of the lighted portion of the set (>50 feet) is more than adequate for decorating even large bushes.

What I don't like about this light set is that the "bulbs" are a lot dimmer than I expected - even for an LED set. They will only stand out in darkness, and are no competition whatsoever for a set of incandescent mini-lights.
If incandescent sets are used with this set, you might not even notice this set is even on.



Photograph of the set, illuminated of course.


Quicktime movie (.mov extension) showing some of the patterns in this light set.
It is approximately 3.4 megabytes (3,616,988 bytes); dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than eighteen minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

The movie quality sucks because these lights aren't that bright.



TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased on Ebay on 08-22-06, and was received on 08-25-06.


UPDATE: 00-00-00



PROS:



CONS:



    MANUFACTURER: Unknown
    PRODUCT TYPE: Solar-rechargeable LED Christmas lights
    LAMP TYPE: LED
    No. OF LAMPS: 204
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Rocker switches for on/off & mode change on ctrl. box
    CASE MATERIAL: Plastic
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: 1x6 volt 3.3Ah SLA battery
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Published as 100mA
    WATER RESISTANT: Yes, weather-resistant at minimum
    SUBMERSIBLE: No
    ACCESSORIES: Control & Batt. Box, Ground Stake, Ground Stake spike. Stake Connector (2), Nylon Belt
    WARRANTY: Unknown/not stated

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star Rating





Solar-Rechargeable LED Christmas Light Set * www.symmetryco.com...






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