Test Equipment Anonymous

bd139 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:17 am I'd buy black Christmas lights

They are difficult to find in the shops, but I'll sell you my spare set for £50.

I expect hipsters will have a kickstarter for a half-hearted gray version in 2025

I've only had cheap strings of solar powered outdoor lights. One problem is that the LED leads are not well sealed, moisture gets in and the leads corrode away. Electrolysis may play a part. The solar charger/battery component also has problems with not being sealed against moisture and the battery must have a hard life with frost. They never seem to last longer than six months.

Outdoor Christmas lights are put out for a week or two and taken down and put away, so as well as probably being better made, they don't have the same exposure.

I was given a three metre strip of Govee LEDs with one side adhesive. These are 16 million colours and have a controller that does all sorts of effects. It isn't USB, it supplies 12V @ 2A. It looks as if it's strictly for indoor use. I believe they were an Amazon return. The LEDs are in six pin packages and for every few LEDs there's an eight pin package which I guess is a microcontroller which can be addressed by the control box/power supply.

The other thing that came from the same source is a White Noise machine that's supposed to get you off to sleep. That's USB powered.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:47 am

bd139 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:17 am I'd buy black Christmas lights

They are difficult to find in the shops, but I'll sell you my spare set for £50.

I expect hipsters will have a kickstarter for a half-hearted gray version in 2025

Those near UV fluorescent tubes were called black lights. They have their uses but not as Christmas lights.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:47 am

bd139 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:17 am I'd buy black Christmas lights

They are difficult to find in the shops, but I'll sell you my spare set for £50.

I expect hipsters will have a kickstarter for a half-hearted gray version in 2025

Beige is the new grey which was the new beige which was an improvement of the previous brown.

bd139 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 11:42 am

tggzzz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:47 am

bd139 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 10:17 am I'd buy black Christmas lights

They are difficult to find in the shops, but I'll sell you my spare set for £50.

I expect hipsters will have a kickstarter for a half-hearted gray version in 2025

Beige is the new grey which was the new beige which was an improvement of the previous brown.

Are you stuck at ~1985 (beige) or ~1995 (grey), or is this the wheel of time going round again?

Arrow of time? Maybe w.r.t. physics. But the Hindus are right when it comes to human affairs (we are back in ~1935 )