The garland does not work; the scheme is simple. How are New Year's garlands arranged? Other ways to solve problems

I admit, I didn’t plan to write a full review.
Well, I once bought these LEDs, “in reserve.” Well.., LEDs... why write about them? Only a year ago I mentioned them in one of the comments, and considered the topic closed.

But literally today at work, an employee, looking at the soldering iron in my hands and the code for the Arduino on the screen, complained that there are fathers in the world (the majority of them) who “do not cut anything further than a designer with a battery and a light bulb at a labor lesson in electronics” . But, for example, it “cuts” in something else. But doing something with your own hands, and even on the weekend with your son, would be quite nice. And in fact: this raises the father’s prestige in the eyes of the whole family, this certainly contributes to education, and, most importantly, this is how the foundations of creativity are laid in the emerging personality.

This conversation was the impetus for writing this review. And the theme is obvious: since ancient times, in Soviet magazines, starting with “Young Technician” and ending with “Radio”, it was in November that homemade products dedicated to the New Year were published. There is time to think, do and be in time for the holiday.
Why is our resource worse?

In today's review we will build a beautiful iridescent New Year's garland. With my own hands. Without any “arduinos”, “scripts”, “controllers”, “datasheets” and other obscurities. I will even try to avoid the words “anode” and “cathode”.

Everything will be amateurish, simple and “on the fingers”. Experienced specialists will definitely find it boring, primitive, “ kindergarten"and not interesting. Somewhere it's even funny.

Here he is, the hero of the review:

The LED is unusual. It doesn't have just one glow color.
It shines like this: it smoothly (chameleon) changes seven colors in a circle: red, through orange and yellow to green, through blue to blue and purple, etc. Each color lasts for a second and a half and is smoothly replaced by the next one.
The colors are very rich and bright. Even adults are happy, let alone children.

To understand the size, next to the ruble coin:

The LED itself has the shape of a ribbed “rocket”, which, if you have a child’s imagination, is also important.

Since the experts went under the cut anyway, here’s

a few technical details, you don’t need to read the rest

LEDs come sealed in a metallized antistatic bag:

Tag included by the seller. I suspect that the handwriting is also his.

Dimensions: L = 13mm, Ø 5mm.



I measured the current consumption at a voltage of 3.3V.
It fluctuates (depending on the included crystals) between 9-14 mA.
The seller writes 20mA, but I think this is the maximum value.
I consider the nominal voltage to be 3.2 - 3.4 volts, 5v is the maximum maximum specified by the seller.

What do we need to know about this LED?
It will operate from any 3 volt source (lithium coin cell battery or a pair of finger/pinky batteries).

No diagrams or additional details. Just a battery and these diodes. All.
In any watch repair shop you can say: “Give me a battery size 2032 or 2025,” or even like this: “A coin cell battery for the motherboard.”

It's very easy to connect.
The LED has two terminals. Moreover, one is longer than the other. The long pin is connected to the “plus” of the source, the short one to the “minus”. For a coin cell battery, everything is the same - the larger area of ​​the shirt is a plus, the contact patch is a minus.

If you take several such diodes at once and connect them to a battery, then they, asynchronously, will gradually diverge in time; you will get a kind of multi-colored rainbow-plasma-scattering. You can make lamps, night lights, or something similar with your child; embed where appropriate. It's all about creativity and imagination. You can, say, glue together figures from thin paper and illuminate them (from the inside or outside). Insert into some toys, etc.

In principle, this could be an intermediate point. I talked about LEDs and explained how to power them.
But we are building a New Year's garland.
So, let's move on to the second part of the review.

It's time to take out the soldering iron and stock up on other auxiliary materials. I really hope that the word “soldering iron” will not scare off novice designers too much. Perhaps someone in the comments will offer some elegant solution on how to do without soldering. I can’t think of anything other than the Vago terminal blocks, but it’s cumbersome, unsightly for a garland and unreliable for a device that will constantly be unwound/retrieved/put away. Therefore, I don’t see alternatives to soldering for this case.
But soldering is not that scary. Plus additional experience.

In addition to the soldering iron itself, we will need
- Heat shrink tube of two diameters (I assume Ø 2mm and Ø 3mm). You can do without heat shrink, replacing it with electrical tape, but it will not be as artistic or convenient.
- No-clean Vaseline-like flux (which will be much more convenient for a beginner). Or rosin, it’s more affordable.
- Solder.
- The wires themselves, from which we will make a garland.

I suggest removing the wires from a piece of computer cable " twisted pair", preferably with multi-core conductors (such cables are softer, as a rule, they are industrially manufactured). I think you can ask a system administrator friend at work for a couple of meters of twisted pair cable or buy it at the nearest construction market.
The beauty of this solution is that there are guaranteed to be green and brown conductors, which is very good for a Christmas tree garland - it will be less noticeable. We will not need the remaining six conductors from the gutted pair in this design. It can only be made from a green conductor, but a beginner will have a chance to get confused in the “pros” and “cons” of LEDs in a garland; in my opinion, green and brown are just right.

It makes sense to pre-cut the wires into pieces of the required length. For myself, I chose an interval of 10-12 cm between adjacent LEDs, although everything is individual.
Each piece of wire is stripped 3 millimeters from both ends, and, using flux and solder, tinned to a shiny state. I think it would be advisable to do this routine work right away, so as not to be distracted by it during the process of assembling the garland. It also makes sense to cut pieces of heat shrink in advance (I’ll talk about their length below). On this preparatory stage can be considered completed.

The number of LEDs in our garland is determined by the planned length of the garland, patience and desire. Already one and a half to two dozen - it will be beautiful on a small tabletop Christmas tree. And fifty diodes will decorate even a one and a half meter forest beauty.

All LEDs are connected in parallel to each other. This means that all long leads of all LEDs must be connected together and connected to a common positive; all short leads are also connected and connected to the common negative.
If you depict it on a diagram, it looks like this:

With such a connection, damage and burnout of one LED will not lead to breakdown of the entire garland, everything will work the same, only without the “defective” diode.

Structurally, I suggest assembling the garland like this. We solder one conductor to the LED and insulate it with a small-diameter heat-shrinkable tube. We set it with a lighter or a hair dryer. Then we solder another conductor and insulate everything together with a larger diameter tube. We seat the finished connection.

This method will save small-diameter tubes (since we are insulating only one leg), and will make the design neat, since the entire soldering area will be covered by a large tube.
Like this:

And like this, link by link, we assemble the entire garland.

A few remarks at once.
Firstly, when soldering the next LED contact, obviously, you will need to pass two conductors of the same name into the tube at once - from the previous link and for the current one. So that both wires are crimped at once.
Secondly, the legs of the LEDs will need to be cut to a length of 6-7 mm and tinned, and it is reasonable to do this not in advance, but immediately before soldering the next diode. In order for the difference in the length of the legs to be visible until the last minute. Well, or use a felt-tip pen to place dots near the positive legs of the LEDs in advance, then immediately cut everything off and tin it.
Now the length of the tubes has become obvious. Thin ones should be slightly longer than the bitten leg, i.e. about a centimeter. Thick ones - a little longer to cover the entire structure, a centimeter and a half.

Assembly, despite such an abundance of text in the review, is not at all difficult, just a chore. But as you get better at it, the process will speed up.

An optional but justified action would be to lightly intertwine the conductors. Coiled conductors do not bulge as much, look neater and are easier to unwind.

The finished unit, when examined closely and enlarged, will look like this:

While assembling the links, it would be wise to monitor the process using a three-volt battery to ensure that the polarity of the next soldered LED is not reversed.

It makes sense to make the conductors from the power source to the nearest LED longer.

But everyone will decide for themselves how to power our garland.
I offer several options.

Option 1. The best I can see is this network adapter 3.3 volt power supply. This means that it should say “DC 3.3V”. The maximum that can be allowed is 5 volts, but the LEDs will work at the limit. Nine-volt, twelve-volt, etc. power supplies are guaranteed to kill the garland.
You can also try adapting an old charger from unnecessary phone, if it says DC 5V.


The current values ​​​​indicated on the power adapter (this is what is in amperes or milliamps, mA) are not important for this case, do not bother yourself.

For specialists who are outraged by the last phrase. The rest don't need to read

Even a hundred milliampere power supply will power a dozen diodes. It is unlikely that you will come across a charger with a current of less than 200mA, which, taking into account the out-of-synchronization of the diodes, will allow a garland of any reasonable number of diodes to operate comfortably.


When connecting the power adapter, you will have to figure out where it is “plus” and where it is “minus”.

Finding out the polarity of the power adapter

If you know how to use a tester, voltmeter or multimeter, then you can minimize this spoiler, the issue is resolved.
For those who don’t know what I’m talking about here, let’s start to figure it out.
Most likely, we will have to analyze a power adapter without a connector. Either it was cut and bitten off before us, or we will still need to cut it off, since we still don’t have the mating connectors from the old Siemens, Nokia, Samsung and Ericsson. We look at the wire strands.
If they are colored, then the plus is usually a “warmer” color. For example, in a red-black pair, the minus will most likely be on the black wire; in the “red-blue” pair, the minus will most likely be blue.
If the wire looks like “a thin wire with a braided jacket around it” (this is called “shielded” or even “coaxial”), then the outer layer is a minus, the inner core is a plus.
In any case, take a separate LED and try to instantly connect it at random to the power adapter, there are a maximum of two options, in one position it will light up, in the other it will not.

Option 2. Batteries. A good option for when there is no outlet nearby. Let's say we decorate a Christmas tree in the yard or at the dacha. It is best to use AA batteries or batteries. You need two of them, connected by a “train” (this is called “series”) - in the middle, the “plus” of one touches the “minus” of the other. At the edges we remove the “plus” and “minus” to power the garland. There are special boxes for batteries, with contacts included. Well, or in a simple way, assemble them with electrical tape, tin the contact pads with flux (rosin is difficult to tin) and solder the wires.

An important factor is that the garland is powered by a low voltage that is isolated from the mains (whether it’s batteries or a good working power adapter) absolutely fire and electrical safety. The voltage on any part of our decorated Christmas tree will not exceed 3-5 volts, which is absolutely safe.

At the end of the review, of course, I will show a minute-long video of the finished garland in action.
Anyone who has ever filmed LEDs knows that it is almost impossible to correctly convey the color and brightness of an LED using household video recording devices. Believe me, in reality everything looks much more colorful and beautiful. The colors are juicy. There are no highlights near the LEDs themselves, this is a drawback of photography. The flickering in the video during the change of colors of each LED is a stroboscopic effect from PWM shooting; in reality it does not exist either.

I suspect that a lot of 250 pieces will seem excessive to most. I just provided the link I used to buy it myself. This does not mean that you need to buy this particular lot from this particular seller. There will probably be offers of this product in smaller quantities.

All in this review bought it myself at different times; no one provided anything for review or set any conditions.

I'm planning to buy +80 Add to favorites I liked the review +100 +180

We are all familiar with Christmas tree garlands consisting of multi-colored light bulbs. However, recently products based on LEDs have become very popular.

How they are designed, what kind of connection diagram they have and what to do if the garland stops glowing will be discussed in detail in this article.

What does a Christmas tree garland consist of?

What is a garland of LEDs, is it worse or better than a regular one?

Externally, this is almost the same product as before - wires, light bulbs (LED), control unit.

The most important element is, of course, the control unit. A small plastic box on which various operating modes of the backlight are indicated.

They can be changed by simply pressing a button. The unit itself can be quite well protected with IP44 level of moisture and dust protection.

What's inside? To open it, use the sharp tip of a knife or a thin screwdriver to pry up the latches from below and remove the protective cover.

By the way, sometimes it is glued, and not just sitting on the latches.

First of all, inside you will see wires soldered to the board. The thicker wire is usually the network wire, supplying 220V voltage.

Soldered on the board:

  • the controller that creates all the lighting effects
  • thyristors, each of them goes to a separate channel of the garland
  • resistors
  • capacitor
  • and diode bridges

The number of board elements depends primarily on the number of light channels of the garland. More expensive models may have a fuse.

Scheme LED garland

Network AC voltage through resistors and a diode bridge, already rectified and smoothed through a capacitor, it is supplied to the supply controller.

In this case, this voltage is supplied through the button, which is open in the normal state. When you close it, the controller modes switch.

The controller in turn controls the thyristors. Their number depends on the number of backlight channels. And after the thyristors, the output power goes directly to the LEDs in the garland.

The more such outputs, the more varied the colors the product can have. If there are only two of them, this means that only two parts (or halves) of the garland will work in different modes - some bulbs will go out, others will light up, etc.

In fact, these two lines of diodes will be connected on two channels in series. They will connect to each other at the end point - the last LED.

If for some reason you are annoyed by the blinking of the garland and you want it to glow evenly with only one color, it is enough to back side boards, short-circuit the cathode and anode of the thyristor by soldering.

The more expensive the garland you have, the more outgoing channels and wiring will leave the control board.

At the same time, if you follow the traces of the board, one of the mains voltage outputs is always supplied directly to the final LED of the garland, bypassing all elements of the circuit.

Causes of malfunction

Situations with garland malfunctions are very diverse.

At the same time, remember that the most important element - the microcircuit on the board - “burns” very, very rarely.

In approximately 5-10% of all cases.

  • Poor contact on wires
  • LED in one of the light bulbs
  • Capacitor
  • Resistance
  • One of the diodes
  • One of the thyristors
  • Controller chip

Bad soldering

If your backlight suddenly stops working, first of all always check the soldering of the supply and output wires. It is quite possible that the entire contact was held only by hot glue.

It’s worth moving the wiring and contacts as usual.

The most common problem with Chinese garlands is the use of very thin wires, which simply break off at the solder points on the board.

To prevent this from happening, all contacts after soldering must be covered with a thick layer of hot-melt adhesive.

And when stripping such veins, it is advised to use not a knife, but a lighter. Instead of whittling away the insulation with a blade, lightly heat and melt it with a lighter.

After that, simply remove the outer layer with your nails without damaging the veins themselves.

LED damage

If the wire contacts are OK and you are sinning on one of the diodes, how can you check if it is faulty? And most importantly, how to find it among the whole series of light bulbs?

First of all, unplug the garland from the outlet. Start with the last diode. The power wire comes to it directly from the control unit.

An outgoing conductor is soldered to the same leg. He goes to the next branch of the light channel. You also need to test the diode between its two power wires (input-output).

You will need a multimeter and its somewhat modernized probes.

Thin needles are tightly tied to the tips of the tester probes with a thread so that their points protrude a maximum of 5-8mm.

Wrap everything on top with a thick layer of electrical tape.

Since the LEDs are soldered, you won’t be able to simply pull them out of the light bulb like in regular garlands.

Therefore, you will have to pierce the insulation of the conductors to get to the copper conductors of the wiring. Switch the multimeter to diode testing mode.

And you begin to sequentially pierce the supply wires near each suspicious diode.

If you have a garland not 220V, but 12V or 24V, which is connected from this power supply:

then the working LED from the multimeter battery should light up.

If this is a 220V backlight, then check the multimeter readings.

On working elements they will be approximately the same, but the faulty one will show a break.

The method is of course barbaric and damages the insulation, but it works quite well. True, after such punctures, it is better not to use outdoor garlands outdoors.

Chaotic blinking

There is a situation when you turn on a garland and it starts blinking chaotically, sometimes brighter, sometimes dimmer. It sorts through the channels on its own.

In general, one gets the impression that this is not some kind of factory effect, but as if the garland has “gone crazy”.

Most often the problem here is the electrolytic capacitor. It may swell and swell a little, and this will be clearly visible even to the naked eye.

Everything can be solved by replacing it. The denomination is indicated on the case, so you can easily purchase and select a similar one in radio parts stores.

If you replaced the capacitor, but it did not give any effect, where to look next? Most likely one of the resistors has burned out (broken). It is quite problematic to visually determine the breakdown. You will need a tester.

You take resistance measurements, having previously learned its nominal (normal) value from the markings. If it doesn't match, change it.

Part of the garland does not shine

When any of the channels on the garland does not work completely, there may be two reasons.

For example, a breakdown on one of the thyristors or diodes responsible for it.
To make sure of this for sure, simply unsolder the wiring of this channel on the board from its place and connect there the adjacent channel, which is known to be working.

And if at the same time another channel also stops working, then the problem is not in the garland itself, but in the components of its board - a thyristor or diode.

You check them with a multimeter, find the ones that match the parameters and change them.

The garland shines dimly

There are also not entirely obvious accidents, when the LEDs of a separate channel seem to be on, but rather dimly compared to the others.

What does it mean? The controller circuit is working fine. When you press the button, all modes are switched.

Testing the parameters of the diode bridge and resistance with a tester also does not reveal any problems. In this case, the only thing left to blame is the wires. They are already quite frail, and when such a multi-core wire breaks, its cross-section decreases even more.

As a result, the garland is simply not capable of starting the LEDs in the nominal brightness mode, since they simply do not have enough voltage. How to find this torn vein in a long garland?

To do this, you will have to walk along the entire line with your hands. Turn on the garland and start moving the wires near each LED until all the backlight lights up at full strength.

According to Murphy's Law, this may be the very last piece of garland, so be patient.

As soon as you find this area, pick up a soldering iron and disassemble the wires on the LED. Clean them with a lighter and solder everything again.

Then insulate the soldering area with heat shrink.

How to make your own Christmas tree garland using inexpensive, readily available components. I put together this simple scheme on New Year's Eve twenty years ago, and it still works honestly every day. New Year's celebration. A garland according to the diagram below allows you to create an interesting lighting effect that is not found in commercial controllers Chinese devices management.

Schematic diagram of a Christmas tree garland on microcircuits

The microcircuits are powered from a parametric stabilizer on D814D . The master oscillator is assembled on K176IE12 With quartz resonator with a period of 1 second. The signal from it reaches the decoder K561IE8 . Positive pulses are fed through diodes to the control transistor KT315 , resulting in the opening of the thyristor.

There are enough on sale, but for a softer and more festive cozy glow, it is better to use ordinary light bulbs. The garland lamps with both branches are connected to a bridge rectifier and burn at full intensity. At the moment the thyristor opens, some of the lamps are bypassed and the rest begin to glow at full intensity - this must be taken into account. The transformer is taken from a suitable household device.


Unlike most garlands from the store, this one is isolated according to the mains voltage, that is, if children accidentally touch the power wires of the lamps, nothing bad will happen, since they have a safe voltage. Sincerely Nikolay.

The New Year holidays are already very close and if you are thinking about how to make a garland of light bulbs or LEDs with your own hands, below we have provided several original master classes with photo and video examples. The advantage of a homemade electric garland is that you can assemble it from available materials and at the same time develop your skills in working with wires, lamps and a soldering iron, and you can also make a unique configuration of light bulbs that you need. Therefore, feel free to try to repeat this homemade product!

Idea No. 1 – Use 220 Volt lamps!

We bring to your attention the first and most interesting master class, which clearly shows how to make an electric garland with 220 V lamps. So, to begin with, we prepare the following tools and materials (everything shown in the photo):

We begin the assembly by cutting the conductor into 9 pieces of 50 centimeters each and the remaining piece, which will have a length of 150 cm. You can choose a different distance between the lamps, or between the plug and the first lamp, or change the number of lamps. This is the main advantage of a homemade garland - the ability to build it specifically for yourself. For example, according to the size of the room or section of the wall that you would like to decorate.




After this, we clean the ends, for which it is best to use a special one. To prevent the fabric braid from fluffing, we recommend that you burn it, and then apply heat shrink to the edge of the insulation for greater reliability and safety.




After this, you need to assemble the electrical plug of a homemade New Year's garland, which will not be difficult even for an inexperienced electrician: you just need to tighten a couple of screws. To connect the plug, take a long piece of wire, in our case it is 150 cm.

Unscrew the sockets and proceed to connecting 10 incandescent light bulbs. Must be used when making 220 Volt electric garlands. In this case, if one bulb burns out, the others will continue to shine. You can also change the number of connected lamps.








When all the cartridges are assembled into one circuit, all that remains is to screw in the lamps and light the finished electric garland. Like this step by step instructions You can make your own Christmas tree garland at home! As you can see, everything is quite simple and at the same time interesting!




By the way, you can also use serial connection light bulbs Only in this case you need to use, the total voltage of which will be 220 V, for example: 20 pieces of 12 Volts or 40 of 6.

It is worth noting that incandescent lamps have extremely low efficiency and convert most of the energy into heat. Therefore, it is more advisable to use small LED bulbs, they heat up less and consume less electricity, which will make your garland much more economical. Be careful and do not allow exposed wires on your garland, it is under life-threatening mains voltage!

If any of the points were unclear, we recommend watching the video lesson:

Homemade product operating from a 220V network

Idea No. 2 – Modernize an old electric garland

If you just don't like what was on the tree last year, you can decorate an electric garland in an original way using regular paper coffee cups. Making a beautiful New Year's product is quite simple. To begin, prepare glasses, scissors, glue, tape and scrapbooking paper.

After this, cut and unfold one of the cups, which will become a template for cutting out the decorative wrapper. Having cut out the blanks according to the pattern, we glue them onto the glasses using glue or double-sided tape.

After this, we cut out a place in the bottom of the homemade lampshades for the glowing bulbs and insert them there, securing them on the outside with a thin strip of tape.

That's all - the electric garland is ready! In this way, you can greatly upgrade an ordinary LED garland for a New Year tree and make it more elegant and festive! However, please note that it is not recommended to alter the garland on incandescent lamps in this way due to the strong heat, which can lead to a fire.

Idea No. 3 – LEDs in action!

The third way is to assemble an electric garland on New Year do it yourself - use 12 Volt LEDs. To begin, prepare the light bulbs, wire, 12v power supply, resistor, soldering iron, knife and sealant.

If you decide to make a 12-volt LED garland, first calculate the LED installation step. It is recommended to place them every 20 cm. Make marks on the wire and strip these places by about 10-15 mm to connect the diodes.

Next, apply rosin to the bare wires and drop solder using a soldering iron. you can according to our corresponding instructions. After this, solder the LEDs to the wires, observing the polarity. Determining it with LEDs is not difficult, everything is indicated in the picture.

Lastly, the resistor and power supply are soldered. is calculated based on the type and power of LEDs; there is a special calculator for this. When connecting the garland to the power supply, the polarity must be observed, otherwise the garland simply will not light up. By the way, you can also do it without much effort, using improvised means. We recommend watching another interesting master class in the video lesson:

New Year's homemade tennis balls

Idea #4 – Let's use an old keyboard!

By analogy with the previous way You can make a diode garland with your own hands using an unnecessary keyboard. As you know, some keys are backlit with 5 Volt diodes (for example, Caps Lock). If you have a non-working keyboard, disassemble it and carefully remove the light bulbs, from which you can assemble a simple electric garland. Next, select suitable resistors and USB cord, with which the connection will be made. The diode garland circuit is as follows:

The diode legs () must be soldered to the black and red wires of the electrical cord, in accordance with. When everything is ready, insulate the exposed contacts and proceed to testing the homemade garland. Such a garland can be powered with a voltage from 5 to 12 volts, while selecting the required resistor for each of the LEDs. In our case, the homemade product will be powered from a 220 Volt network via Charger, which will give exactly 5 V at the output. Please note that the number of parallel-connected LEDs with resistors can be increased or decreased, as is the case with a garland on incandescent lamps.

In the video you can also see an example of how to make an LED garland at home:

How to assemble a flashing electric garland with musical accompaniment?

Idea No. 5 – How to decorate the street?

If you want to make an outdoor diode garland for the garden, we recommend using this master class. First, prepare all of the following materials:

  • multi-colored diodes, 10 mm in diameter;
  • lithium 3-volt batteries;
  • thin tape;
  • magnets, 13 mm in diameter and 30 mm thick;
  • epoxy adhesive.


Next, you need to attach the diode legs to the battery using glue. The anode (long leg) is attached to the positive pole, and the cathode, respectively, to the side with the “-” sign. When the glue has set, additionally wrap the glowing diode with the battery with tape.


Attach a magnet to the positive pole of the lithium battery and also wrap it with tape several times. Do this with 10-20 light bulbs, then secure them in convenient places on the street, for example, on the facade of the house using magnets. Thus, you can assemble an outdoor electric garland from LEDs yourself. However, this design does not have a switch, and over time the battery will run out, which is not very convenient; to prevent this from happening, you can add a miniature switch to the circuit break.

That's all the master classes we wanted to demonstrate. We hope that now you know how to make a garland of light bulbs and diodes with your own hands, because... The photos, videos and diagrams provided were pretty clear!

It often happens that a garland that has been lying in the closet all year stops working. Many people find a solution in buying a new garland. However, if desired and available minimal knowledge You can repair the LED garland yourself.

Components of an LED garland

Externally, a garland based on LEDs is similar to an old type device: the same wires, light bulbs, control unit. However, the technical essence of the system lies in the control unit. It is a small plastic box on which are displayed various possibilities

backlight functioning. To change the lighting mode, simply press the corresponding button. Units are available in various designs, including those with a high level of protection from moisture and dust (protection class - IP44). To see the inside of the unit, you must remove the protective cover. To do this, use a thin screwdriver or knife to pry off the cover. On some models the cover is installed with latches, so there is no special tool

will not need. Inside the block there are conductors soldered to the board. The thickest wire is usually the mains wire (it supplies voltage).

  • The board contains the following components:
  • thyristors (one for each channel);
  • resistors;
  • capacitor;
  • diode bridges.

The number of components of the board is determined by the number of channels of the garland. The most expensive modifications are equipped with fuses.

Garland scheme

The operating diagram of the LED garland is shown below. The mains voltage is supplied to the supply controller, passing through resistors and a diode bridge. The voltage enters the controller in a rectified and smoothed state (thanks to the capacitor).

The voltage passes through the button, which is open in the normal position. If the button is closed, the controller modes are changed. As for the controller, this component is responsible for controlling the thyristors. The number of thyristors is determined by the number of channels in the lighting system.

After passing through the thyristors, the output power is sent to the light diodes in the garland. The number of outputs directly affects the variety of colors produced by the lighting device. If there is only a pair of outputs, then the most simple circuit, in which one half of the light bulbs goes out and the other half lights up.

Two diode bars are connected to two channels in series. The connection is made at the last point - the light diode.

Note! One of the mains voltage wires is always sent directly (bypassing all circuit components) to the final diode of the garland.

Causes of failure

There are many reasons that can cause a garland to malfunction:

  • insufficient contact on conductors;
  • a failed light diode in one of the lamps;
  • failure of a capacitor or thyristor;
  • burnt out controller chip.

The chip on the board does not light up often. Among all the reasons, burnt microcircuits occur in approximately every tenth case.

Problems and their solutions

Below are the most common breakdowns. You can actually repair the garland with your own hands: this will require attentiveness and accuracy.

Poor soldering quality

Poor soldering of supply and output conductors is the most common cause of backlight malfunction. In some cases, the contact is held solely by hot-melt adhesive, so its functionality is out of the question. It is enough to lightly touch the conductor, and the contact is completely broken.

Low-quality connections are especially common in Chinese-made garlands. Also, manufacturers from China, in order to save money, often use wires that are too thin, which easily break at the junction with the board.

Advice! To avoid tearing off the contacts, the soldering areas must be filled with a layer of hot-melt adhesive of sufficient thickness.

Another way to avoid wire problems is to avoid stripping wires with a knife. It is easy to excessively thin the wire during this operation. It is better to clean the conductor by heat treatment with a lighter.

LED damage

To find the faulty diode, disconnect the garland from the power supply. We start the test with the last LED in the circuit (the conductor from the power supply goes directly to it). An outgoing wire is connected to the same leg, which goes further to the next branch of the light channel.

You will need to test the LED between a pair of power wires (input and output). As a test device we use a multimeter with slightly modified probes. To upgrade the probes, we attach thin needles to their ends using thread. The point of the needles should protrude just a little - 5–7 millimeters. Apply a layer of insulating tape on top.

Since all the diodes are connected to the circuit by soldering, simply removing them from the lamp (as is the case with a regular garland) will not work. We pierce the insulating layer of the cores to find the copper wires.

Switch the device to LED ringing mode. We begin to pierce the supply conductors near each diode over and over again.

If the garland being tested is not 220 V, but 12 or 24 V, the working LED will light up. If we check a 220 V system, we pay attention to the multimeter readings. On serviceable parts of the circuit, the indicators will be approximately equal, but the defect will reveal itself as a break.

Chaotic flickering

Another common problem is light bulbs flickering randomly. The diodes blink without any apparent reason, their brightness changes chaotically.

The cause of this malfunction is the incorrect operation of the electrolytic capacitor. This element is usually subject to deformation - it looks somewhat bloated.

The way out of this situation is to replace the capacitor. Its nominal value is always written on the body.

If after replacing the capacitor the situation does not improve, the problem may be a burnt-out resistor. Such a defect cannot be detected visually, so in this case you cannot do without a tester. We measure the resistance, not forgetting to find out the rating for the component in advance. If the result obtained does not correspond to the nominal value, change the resistor.

No light in one of the areas

If there is no light at all on any of the channels, this could be due to one of two factors:

  1. Breakdown on the thyristor or diode of this channel. To make sure that the cause of the malfunction is correctly determined, we unsolder the channel wire on the board and connect a new channel instead of the old one (which definitely works).
  2. If the above method does not bring a positive result, the problem lies not in the garland, but in one of the board elements - a diode or thyristor. Using a multimeter, we check these components and, if necessary, replace them with working ones.

Dim lighting

There are situations when there is lighting, but one of the channels provides too dim light. In this case, the controller circuit functions without problems, and when pressing the buttons, normal mode switching occurs.

Testing the diodes using a multitester also does not give any results. There's only one left possible reason- poor quality wires. If any part of the stranded conductor is torn, the total cross-section decreases, which is reflected in the dimness of the light. This happens due to the fact that the required amount of voltage is not supplied to the LEDs.

To find a gap, you will need manual mode check the entire wire line. You will have to be patient, since the defect on the line is quite possibly located on the last thread being tested.

When the problem area is found, we disassemble the conductors on the LED, clean them (preferably with a lighter) and solder them again. Next, we apply an insulating layer using heat shrink.

Broken lamps

If one or more lamps are broken and you decide to repair the garland, it is recommended to simply replace one LED with another. It is technically impractical to repair such light bulbs.

Note! Replacement of diodes is carried out only when the power supply is turned off.

If there is no spare light bulb, remove the broken light source and connect the wires without its participation.

LED ringing

Finding a burnt wire and other defects is easy with the help of a ringer. LEDs are characterized by indicators that determine their operating environment. These include voltage and operating current. These parameters vary depending on the type of light diode. The most important parameter is the current strength. These indicators should be taken into account when independently ringing the LED. If the current and voltage are unknown, it is recommended to use one of two reliable dialing methods:

  • using a multimeter;
  • using a standard battery.

Note! Before checking the LED bulb, it must be unfastened or unsoldered from the contacts.

A diode is a semiconductor (that is, it passes electricity in one direction) and has two contact parts (anode and cathode). The contacts are made in the form of copper legs.

We put the tester in ringing mode. In this position, the current flowing through the light diode will be approximately 1 mA. We touch the multitester probes to the legs and look at the readings shown on the device monitor.

Advice! It will be easier to notice the LED glow if the room is darkened.

We ring in two positions - this will allow us to establish the position of the cathode and anode of the working light diode. If the device is faulty or does not provide enough light, the multimeter will show one.

In the absence of a tester, ringing is performed using a standard 9-volt battery. Since directly connecting the diode to the battery leads to its breakdown, you will need a step-down device - a resistance resistor. However, since the operation involves the absence of any auxiliary means other than a battery, we use a finger soaked in water as a resistor. We touch the plus of the battery with the anode, and put our finger on the minus and bring the cathode to it.

Garlands produced in Soviet times are reliable. Another feature is that they can be repaired, while not all Chinese-made products can be repaired. Modern devices and tools allow you to identify faults and carry out repair work.

Required set of tools and materials:

  • soldering iron;
  • indicator screwdriver;
  • insulating material;
  • pliers.

The garland uses a serial connection circuit. In other words, if one light bulb burns out, the entire system stops functioning.

We check the lamps for integrity. If the light sources are not damaged, check how they are screwed into the sockets. If necessary, screw the lamp into the socket until the end.

Advice! If you need to replace a colored light bulb, but a replacement is not available, it is recommended to paint the light source with tsapon varnish.

If the steps described above do not give a positive result, take an indicator screwdriver and look for the area where the contact is interrupted in the conductor. The broken contact is not necessarily located in the wire, so we also check the cartridge. If the problem is a broken contact, we restore its functionality using a soldering iron. If necessary, we connect the conductors directly.

Remaking a Chinese garland

Most consumers do not have a very good opinion about Chinese products. The garlands also do not stand out against the general background of goods from China: poor-quality connections, too thin conductors, cheap construction materials. As a result, such garlands (including their control units) often fail.

A breakdown of any of the circuit elements can affect the functioning of the garland. For example, a non-working capacitor causes light bulbs to flicker. A thyristor failure entails the shutdown of one of the channels. A burnt-out diode or a failed diode bridge lead to complete system inoperability.

Advice! If you need to change the flicker frequency, it is recommended to add a 0.5–2 µF capacitor to the circuit.

Damaged parts must be replaced with new ones. If you do not have sufficient knowledge in the field of electrical engineering or do not want to bother with repairs, an extremely simple but effective scheme is recommended. We connect the garland directly with the plug, and build a starter from fluorescent lamp. However this scheme Effective only for regular light bulbs. As for the LED garland, its functionality will be restored in this case, but the light will become dimmer.