Xmas Light MYSTERY

Is where you stored them subject to wide temperature swings, such as an attic that is not climate controlled? Any evidence of rodent activity nearby? Your power cord may have arched when you unplug or plugged them in. Do you know if they are wired in series or parallel?

Basically, companies make tech with a shelve life, so you buy it, you use it a small number of times (once in this case) and then it breaks without rhyme nor reason.

Why?

To extort money out of you for new lights, user.

Thank you for your reply! I stored them in a temperature controlled, dry closet indoors. Not a basement or attic.

No evidence of rodents. Worth mentioning that I have 4 cats who hunt.

Not sure about your last question; can you explain what you mean by series/parallel? I can tell you that if you remove the first or last bulb on the string, half the string will go out for each of those bulbs.

I'm sure you are right, but I am looking for a scientific answer to explain this phenomenon.

>I balled them up and let the cats play in them

The wires have lead on them so you're poisoning your cat by doing that. Also, don't forget to wash your hands after handling them.

If you take any bulb out, do they all go out? Or does this only happen with the bulbs on the ends? How many wires go to each bulb? 2 means is in series, 3 is parallel.

chrismas lights are usually in series.
if one bulb in a line is out they all go out

Get a voltmeter, unplug a bulb in the middle, check to see if the ends are live, repeat for the bad half until you've found the bad bulb.

(I know this from when they were working last year) That if you remove the first bulb, the first half of the strand goes out. If you remove the lat bulb, the last half goes out.

There are 2 wires on the strand, so 2 wires to each bulb.

The lights are wired in series. When one breaks, the circuit is broken.

You must have missed a broken light - a single one in each (they are made cheaply and poorly to insure you buy more every year, it would be odd but I wouldn't doubt that at least one in each has broken) - there's no other logical explaination that I can think of.

Now show us your feet please.

Thanks user, for your explanation. I guess I found it super weird that this would happen to literally every strand. I mean, not even one works. SO I guess I am unlucky.

Also with that said, I'm going to Walmart now. Thanks again guys. :)

>Get a voltmeter

Nah, just use a continuity tester on each bulb.

It'll take awhile, but you WILL find which bulbs are broken.

Tiny incandescants are a pain in the ass, as are multiple lights wired in series.

Virtually guarantees that your string will go dark.

Also, planned obscelesance, corperations love filling up garbage dumps for money on purposely crappy products.

Saw this video one time about printers and how they were literally engineered to be shit.

There was a small sensor on the board that counted how many times you had printed, it was designed to "Break" and be unusable after like, 1,000 print jobs.

Not even joking, these corperations are controlled by the most retarded and psychopathic people.

And then they tell YOU that you are a bad person for filling up landfills with THEIR shitty products that are designed to break so that you have to purchase more.

the contacts inside the sockets might be corroded or filled with dirt and crap.

you can use a small file to clean the wire contacts of the socket and reply this post or your mother will die in her sleep tonight.

Using a volt meter in the middle is Θ(log2(n))
Using continuity on each is Θ(n) and at that point it's easier just to look at the bulb and see if the filament is still attached

sp00ky

fu

Based on your lights, it looks like copper density degradation has taken effect.

I don't know, man...

some of them filaments are REALLY tiny.