ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Another year, and as if on cue... Happy Holidays

Has anyone tried the Lightkeeper Repair Tool ? My brother just got one and said it worked on 4 out of the 5 sets that he tried it on.
Here is one of their questions and answers about the tool:
I always thought that the shunt in the bulb had a higher resistance than that of the filament and that an open filament in a bulb would reduce the voltage to the other bulbs in the set.
Don

[This message has been edited by resqcapt19 (edited 12-01-2003).]

Thanks for the link, Don. I'm going to Sears today. I'll look one over.


It's hard to believe that another year has gone by.
Happy Holidays to all.

Don,

I've never seen that in any of the bulbs used on sets in Britain. When the filament burns out, the shunt just bridges the contacts directly (Sometimes! ).

It's quite noticable that the rest of the typical string of 20 lamps are brighter once two or three bulbs have shunted out, and of course the increased voltage can soon result in a chain reaction taking out more bulbs quite quickly.

Sets sold here usually come with one "fuse bulb" (identified by plain glass with just a white-painted tip) intended to open the circuit if too many regular bulbs short out. In practice it quite often takes 5 or 6 to go before the fuse bulb operates.

oh yes, big problems also here in germany. all sets like these run on 24V with transformer. the bridges of cheap sets never work, the bridges of good setz partially work....

does that detector also work on 24VAC?
how much is it?

Once you get your light sets working, try this scheme: http://home.netcom.com/~wa2ise/radios/xmassp.html Most of the sets will vary in brightness as a few sets' blinkers start blinking. Also, the bulbs will last much longer, but still be plenty bright.