Cheap LED string lights

[marknewton]

We were having dinner last night at our local Japanese restaurant when I noticed the owners had some decorative bottles in the window with tiny lights in them. I had a look at one and saw that it was a string of very small surface mount LEDS powered by batteries contained in a plastic "cork" shaped holder. I asked about them and the owners said they'd got them off eBay. And they very kindly gave me one to take home and play with! :)

 

 

The string has 20 warm white SMLEDS, each is encased in a small blob of clear resin that looks like a lamp housing. The string is about a metre long, and is fairly flexible. I think these strings have great potential to be installed under station canopies or used for internal lighting in structures. And as they're cheap as chips, I'm willing to experiment with them. The type I have to play with is this:

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/i/262971760517?chn=ps&dispctrl=1&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%2Frover%2F1%2F705-139619-5960-0%2F2%3Fmpre%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.com.au%252Fi%252F262971760517%253Fchn%253Dps%2526dispctrl%253D1%26itemid%3D262971760517%26targetid%3D380651960334%26device%3Dt%26adtype%3Dpla%26googleloc%3D9071888%26poi%3D%26campaignid%3D905533373%26adgroupid%3D44539365029%26rlsatarget%3Dpla-380651960334%26abcId%3D1129306%26merchantid%3D107424895%26gclid%3DEAIaIQobChMI_cT29vfj1wIVFHy9Ch0JEAcFEAkYFCABEgJpjPD_BwE%26srcrot%3D705-139619-5960-0%26rvr_id%3D1378530272231&var=561980028107

 

( I should add that the family who run the restaurant are lovely people. They give my son the VIP treatment whenever we visit, and the food is always excellent. There are other Japanese restaurants in our part of the world, but none compare to our local. )

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2017 by marknewton

[cteno4]

Mark,

 

Cool, these are nice, little 805s and some use heavy magnet wire so finer connections (although this year I don't see many of those, mostly fatter insulated wire versions, probably holds up better). I got a couple of these two years ago to decorate my moms little fake Xmas trees and they are still going. She kept them on for months.

 

You could snip them apart to get prewired smds and may be cheap way to get soldered smd leds. I've been meaning to tear one apart to see exactly how they are done.

 

So nice to have restaurants like that, bit that for the boy and you guys! Those will be great memories for your son! 

 

We had a Japanese restaurant like that when I was young. In the 60s Japanese was a bit off the norm even in California (the word sushi was not in the American dialect) and they appreciated the more adventurous visitors. They would always be so very nice and bring something different out extra each visit just to try and how I ended up liking raw fish way over cooked fish at about age 4. It was both nice and smart as they definitely widened our palates as well as made it a real treat to go there. Then always gave me the box of rice candy with the melt in the mouth rice paper wrappers and toy (the pink and green box still around but now stickers not a toy, same cheap out as cracker jacks!). 

 

Later in childhood we moved next to a Japanese chef and that was a whole nother experience! He was all thumbs with fixing things so dad and I did all that stuff for him around the house and we got all sorts of treats dropped off all the time from the restaurant or his kitchen. Eating at his restaurant was like a 20 course meal as he grew to know what we liked the best and would personalize a long meal with a wider range than the menu (always fun watching other folks look at our meals!) The tempura that man could make, so delicate and flakey yet most all the oil would drain out quickly, and each different thing cooked just right! He would even do lettuce tempura and his scallions he would flower the bulb ends and oh man! I've learned to judge Japanese restaurants by their tempura after hearing him talk of the art form and watching him! Dad would bring home fresh fish right off the fishing boats from buddies and mr oda would fillet them up beautifully, it was really amazing to watch him do this.

 

He was an amazing chap, went from WWII internment camp to being a general's cook for a few months, then to the 442nd in Europe and just after their heaviest fighting ended he was shipped to the pacific to be an in the trenches radio translator and interrogator. It was wonderful that he was able to come to D.C. And get the 442 presidential gold metal at the end of his life and take him out to a nice big Japanese dinner (but was no where near the quality he use to produce).

 

these are some of the best childhood memories for me!

 

jeff