Rather than closing my threads and threatening to ban me can someone please actually HELP me correct the problem? Is that not what the forum is for?

I do not see what the problem is here with this LED setup. The respondent implies that the LED is hooked up to AC mains but this is not the case, you can see in the diagram that the power to the LED is coming from a 5vdc Christmas light controller output which is PROTECTED, I see no way that it could inadvertently route to the AC mains which supplies the line power to the relay. The LED is across the coil, not the line or load of the relay.


http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?p=670083

Thank you in advance.

- Matt

 

Matt, I sent you an email to another site. What they are not explaining to you here is that the problem is the led string you purchased connects directly to the mains. They feel this is unsafe. Perhaps they didnt realize that this is how the led lights came from the manufacturer.

 

Thank you. I thought they were referring to the status LED across the coil. What else am I supposed to do to the Christmas light strand other than how I did it? Out of the box it plugs directly into the AC power too AND it has 3A fuses on each of the AC wires...

- Matt

 

If you read the ToS, it clearly states why your threads were closed, not to mention the explanations you got from forum members.

Just because you get a string of LEDs manufactured in China, it doesn't make it safe - probably more often the opposite, even...

This site doesn't want to endanger you or your tree this Christmas...

 

The ban may seem a bit arbitrary, but you have to appreciate that the combination of LEDs and mains power attracts a lot of noobies that are putting themselves at risk. The policy is a blanket to protect those folks in spite of themselves, and a rule is a rule. It's easier to just enforce a simple rule even when it occasionally seems inappropriate.

Other mains projects here are not banned outright, even sometimes when they probably should be. It's just not practical to write rules that always exclude the "wrong" projects while allowing the safe ones.

 

The lights are made by GE and sold at Costco.

If they are dangerous enough to cause me to get closed threads and/or banned do I not at least deserve an explanation as to what the problem is with the design and preferably a recommendation on how to make it safer? I still have yet to hear what anyone's recommendation would be to negate the safety issue here, is it as simple as adding another fuse somewhere? a resistor or diode?

- Matt

If you read the ToS, it clearly states why your threads were closed, not to mention the explanations you got from forum members.

Just because you get a string of LEDs manufactured in China, it doesn't make it safe - probably more often the opposite, even...

This site doesn't want to endanger you or your tree this Christmas...

 

The lights are made by GE and sold at Costco.

If they are dangerous enough to cause me to get closed threads and/or banned do I not at least deserve an explanation as to what the problem is with the design and preferably a recommendation on how to make it safer? I still have yet to hear what anyone's recommendation would be to negate the safety issue here, is it as simple as adding another fuse somewhere? a resistor or diode?

- Matt

Have you tried searching the forum for that? People do not enjoy repeating information over and over for each person trying to do something that has been explained already.

 

Look, this trans-less fluorescent light was made by GE.

After two months it exploded for no visible reason, and the PCB was badly burned.

Look, a forum allows discussion of these devices, and then this is accounted for as advice.

Then something bad happens, and the forum is accounted for that legally- could be a dead baby, a fire, or a fried dog, you name it.

This forum has decided not to host any discussions about this technology. If you read Bill Marsdens reply, you'll have to accept it, or to go somewhere else, at least for these topics.

My opinion is if you don't know and have to ask on a forum, it's better not to touch trans-less technology at all.

And also maybe just your post would be OK but it is clearly trans-less, which is not allowed, and softening the rule would attract others to feel allowed to post about that.

 

There's plenty discussion of such things here, it's when you also introduce LEDs that the rule must be strictly enforced. The rule is a specific response to deal with a specific and common problem - noobs playing with LEDs on mains.

Don't bother trying to repackage your project to fool the mods at this point. They'll see right through you.