Fiber optic decorations damaged by high voltage?

M

Mike

Guest
I have these relatives who have a bunch of fiber optic Christmas
decorations, which have suddenly stopped working. The decorations said
to set the universal adaptor to something like 6 volts and the
relatives accidentally set them to 8 volts. Everything seemed to work
fine but then after a few minutes we noticed that the colors were
wrong. They're supposed to change from like blue to red to yellow to
orange to green to purple or something like that. But the orange,
yellow, and, red wouldn't work. I realized that it was set to the
wrong voltage and changed it to the correct setting. But the colors
still won't work. After a little while the whole thing stopped
working. Is it most likely that setting it to the wrong voltage
damaged these decorations? Is there anyway to repair them or would
that not even be worth it? I think they cost under $30. Not sure
though.
 
You may have burned out the electronics and maybe the LED's. You would be
cheaper off to replace the complete tree, or whatever it is.

Only use the original supply that is recommended for it. These are easily
damaged.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
=========================================
WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com
Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm
=========================================


"Mike" <littleboyblu87@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3e7445e7.0312042156.3deb1ba0@posting.google.com...
I have these relatives who have a bunch of fiber optic Christmas
decorations, which have suddenly stopped working. The decorations said
to set the universal adaptor to something like 6 volts and the
relatives accidentally set them to 8 volts. Everything seemed to work
fine but then after a few minutes we noticed that the colors were
wrong. They're supposed to change from like blue to red to yellow to
orange to green to purple or something like that. But the orange,
yellow, and, red wouldn't work. I realized that it was set to the
wrong voltage and changed it to the correct setting. But the colors
still won't work. After a little while the whole thing stopped
working. Is it most likely that setting it to the wrong voltage
damaged these decorations? Is there anyway to repair them or would
that not even be worth it? I think they cost under $30. Not sure
though.
 
"Mike" <littleboyblu87@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3e7445e7.0312042156.3deb1ba0@posting.google.com...
I have these relatives who have a bunch of fiber optic Christmas
decorations, which have suddenly stopped working. The decorations said
to set the universal adaptor to something like 6 volts and the
relatives accidentally set them to 8 volts. Everything seemed to work
fine but then after a few minutes we noticed that the colors were
wrong. They're supposed to change from like blue to red to yellow to
orange to green to purple or something like that. But the orange,
yellow, and, red wouldn't work. I realized that it was set to the
wrong voltage and changed it to the correct setting. But the colors
still won't work. After a little while the whole thing stopped
working. Is it most likely that setting it to the wrong voltage
damaged these decorations? Is there anyway to repair them or would
that not even be worth it? I think they cost under $30. Not sure
though.
Click to expand...
Are these the old type with the rotating color wheel and the halogen lamp?
If so maybe you melted down the color wheel, either way you may as well
crack one open and see what's inside.
 
"James Sweet" <jamessweet@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<pJWzb.433601$Fm2.434609@attbi_s04>...
"Mike" <littleboyblu87@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3e7445e7.0312042156.3deb1ba0@posting.google.com...
I have these relatives who have a bunch of fiber optic Christmas
decorations, which have suddenly stopped working. The decorations said
to set the universal adaptor to something like 6 volts and the
relatives accidentally set them to 8 volts. Everything seemed to work
fine but then after a few minutes we noticed that the colors were
wrong. They're supposed to change from like blue to red to yellow to
orange to green to purple or something like that. But the orange,
yellow, and, red wouldn't work. I realized that it was set to the
wrong voltage and changed it to the correct setting. But the colors
still won't work. After a little while the whole thing stopped
working. Is it most likely that setting it to the wrong voltage
damaged these decorations? Is there anyway to repair them or would
that not even be worth it? I think they cost under $30. Not sure
though.

Are these the old type with the rotating color wheel and the halogen lamp?
If so maybe you melted down the color wheel, either way you may as well
crack one open and see what's inside.
Click to expand...

These are the newer ones. No lamps and no color wheel. I opened it up
and well it doesn't look like something the average person could fix.
It appears to be something only an electronics expert could fix.
Probably not even worth getting it fixed. It's basically a little barn
with a few small trees around it. The fiber optics are sort of weaved
through parts of the barn and the trees are fiber optic too. I guess
that'll teach them to read the correct directions next time.
 
"Mike" <littleboyblu87@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3e7445e7.0312052034.1197b199@posting.google.com...
"James Sweet" <jamessweet@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:<pJWzb.433601$Fm2.434609@attbi_s04>...
"Mike" <littleboyblu87@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3e7445e7.0312042156.3deb1ba0@posting.google.com...
I have these relatives who have a bunch of fiber optic Christmas
decorations, which have suddenly stopped working. The decorations said
to set the universal adaptor to something like 6 volts and the
relatives accidentally set them to 8 volts. Everything seemed to work
fine but then after a few minutes we noticed that the colors were
wrong. They're supposed to change from like blue to red to yellow to
orange to green to purple or something like that. But the orange,
yellow, and, red wouldn't work. I realized that it was set to the
wrong voltage and changed it to the correct setting. But the colors
still won't work. After a little while the whole thing stopped
working. Is it most likely that setting it to the wrong voltage
damaged these decorations? Is there anyway to repair them or would
that not even be worth it? I think they cost under $30. Not sure
though.

Are these the old type with the rotating color wheel and the halogen
lamp?
If so maybe you melted down the color wheel, either way you may as well
crack one open and see what's inside.


These are the newer ones. No lamps and no color wheel. I opened it up
and well it doesn't look like something the average person could fix.
It appears to be something only an electronics expert could fix.
Probably not even worth getting it fixed. It's basically a little barn
with a few small trees around it. The fiber optics are sort of weaved
through parts of the barn and the trees are fiber optic too. I guess
that'll teach them to read the correct directions next time.
Click to expand...
It's probably just an RGB LED with a microcontroller to cycle the colors.
You can buy those LED's for a few dollars and there's free code out there to
program a PIC to drive them, so someone could repair these things if they
really felt like it.
 
I doubt you damaged them, if the cable has any microbends the fibers may have
been damaged, but since you receive partial spectrum this problem is most
likely in the alignment of or intensity of your light source. If there is
access to the light source ensure the path of light isn't obscured, and the
surface of the light source is clean, surface to surface mating of cable fiber,
and no air gap between surfaces
 
"Electrical Jon" <electricaljon@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20031206101901.26046.00000306@mb-m06.aol.com...
I doubt you damaged them, if the cable has any microbends the fibers may
have
been damaged, but since you receive partial spectrum this problem is most
likely in the alignment of or intensity of your light source. If there is
access to the light source ensure the path of light isn't obscured, and
the
surface of the light source is clean, surface to surface mating of cable
fiber,
and no air gap between surfaces
Click to expand...
Actually he said this is the newer type using an LED light source, the
symtoms are what I'd expect from an overdriven LED, possibly failure of the
driver circuit as well. The fibers themselves are fine I'm sure.
 
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