How to shorten a battery operated LED fairy lights with timer?

[meganfurley]

Hi
I need to shorten the LED lights to light up a diy canvas. But I need only five to work. I have tried covering the lights with black tape - not very good results. I have also been advised that these lights don't work if I just cut and tape them.

So...

Is there a way to cut these battery operated led lights without harming them? It has has a timer (lights work for 6 hours followed by a break).

Can I just keep the top 5 lights and reconnect to the timer(solder)?

Or can I keep the first five from the timer and cut off the remaining lights?
Any way round this problem?

Can any one who has done this with LED lights let me know?

Thanks.Megan

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[bernardgreen]

If the lamps are connected in parallel then cutting the string down to just five lamps connected to the controller should work.

They will be connected in parallel if 4 wires go into each lamp. ( two from the prevopus lamp and 2 to the next lamp. )

 

[ericmark]

Who advised you not to cut them? With mains powered lights that is the case, however it is unlikely to cause a problem with battery operated lights. Most LED's work on between 1.2 and 3 volt according to colour, normally there is a resistor to limit the current, LED's are current dependent devices not voltage, the resistors are normally at each LED, in which case cutting is not a problem, if the current limiting resistor is in the controller then cutting could overload the remaining lamps.

No one can be 100% sure where the resistor is, but likely it is built into the LED's so cutting will not cause a problem.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Try it out by just chopping off the LED at the very end first. If all the other lights still work, then the LEDS are connected in Parallel. If the lights do not work then they are connected in series and you will need to connect together the wires at the cut end to amke them work again.

Once you have done that experiment you could try the same but leave just 5 LEDs connected to the controller end. As everybody has said above "it should work" but no guarantees!

 

[meganfurley]

Thanks to bernardgreen, ericmark and taylortwocities .
Each lamp is connected with 4 wires(2 from prev and 2 from next). Apologies for a dumb question - so do you mean I could try and cut leaving the first five lamps connected to the battery? What do i do with the two sets of wires coming out of the 5th bulb? Just put insulation tape?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Well it sounds as if they are in parallel, so cutting them ought to be fine. Best thing to do with the loose ends would be to cover each one with a heat-shrink cable end cap.

 

[Taylortwocities]

If the lights are wired in parallel, you need to insulate them. They should not touch each other or it will short out the battery.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Do you need the timer function?
It might be easier to just wire up 5 LEDs with appropriate resistor to a battery than to play about with an unknown controller.

 

[meganfurley]

I absolutely need the timer to light up the canvas just for the nights. Thanks everyone.I'll give it a try and let you know what happens

 

[meganfurley]

Thanks to each one of you My canvas is lit up on the wall!