A while ago I made some Fairy Light Globes. 100mm Glass Christmas ornament globes with a Fairy LED Light String in them. I display them in groups of three in two places in the house. Recently I touched the power supplies – Wall Wart supplies producing 3.5 Volts – and noticed that one of them was warmer. Odd. All the light strings were bought at the same time. I got out my FLIR thermal camera and this is what I found.
One of the globes is hotter then the others. Using a KillaWatt measuring device, I found that the warm globe is drawing 3 watts, and other others don’t draw enough to move the value from zero. So this is what is making the power supply for that globe warmer. I have swapped the power supplies and the globe – Fairly Light String actually – is different, not the power supply. Odd. I have no idea why.
Also, there appears to be a hot spot in the string as you can see from this photo of the power hungry globe.
Nothing is obvious, and I see no need to attempt a repair. The fairy light strings are still sold, but the power supplies and connections are different, so replacing it does not seem interesting.
Here are pictures of some other globes that use different light strings and power supplies:
Oh Well. Weird. May you walk in the Light of the LED.
:ww
Windy Weather 