How to make a garland of light bulbs with your own hands

A do-it-yourself garland of light bulbs is made quite simply, if you understand the topic and purchase everything you need for work. It is important to use only high-quality components and carry out work according to the instructions, observing all safety requirements.

You can assemble a garland on your own in just an hour.

What you need to know about the garland

Since there are many low-quality garlands on sale, you can assemble a reliable and durable device yourself. But first of all, you need to understand the features of this type of product:

1. The type of light bulbs used. If earlier incandescent lamps were used, which is not very economical and reliable, now almost all models are equipped with LED lamps, which last ten times longer, do not heat up during operation and are much safer to use.
   LED equipment operates on low voltage.
2. Connection type.The simplest and cheapest options have a serial connection, when the wire goes from one base to another, which is not very good. The voltage gradually decreases, and if one of the bulbs in the chain burns out, the entire device stops working. At parallel connection voltage comes to each lamp separately, which ensures a uniform glow. And if one of the light sources fails, the rest will work.
   Parallel Connection Diagram
3. Mains voltage. There are solutions that work from the standard 220 V, but it is much easier and safer to use a power supply to turn on the garland from 12 V.

By the way! The connection method may also differ, it can be a cartridge, a plug or soldering contacts.

Advantages and disadvantages

A home-made electric garland has its advantages and disadvantages, the following can be distinguished from the advantages:

1. The ability to manufacture the product of the desired length, which allows you to get a variant of a suitable size for indoors or outdoors.
   You can make a garland of any size.
2. Using light bulbs of the right color and power, which allows you to achieve the best effect.
3. Saving money, as it is much cheaper to assemble lights than to buy an analogue of the same quality.

This solution also has disadvantages:

1. If the system is assembled incorrectly, it will not work or will quickly fail.
2. To carry out the work, at least minimal skills in assembling electrical devices are needed. And in some cases, you have to solder a lot.

What are garlands

There are many options that you can implement yourself, the most popular of them are:

1. Usage plain LED strip to create a flashing bar.To do this, a controller is soldered to it, which can control the system and provides different flashing modes. You will also need a suitable power supply.
   From the LED strip you can make a garland with running lights.
2. Multicolor RGB- the tape is much more beautiful due to the fact that the bulbs on it can not only blink, but also shimmer in thousands of shades. The main thing is to choose a quality controller.
3. You can assemble a garland of individual LEDs, the main thing is that the voltage on them does not exceed the allowable one.
4. It is easy to assemble a system of wires and cartridges into which light bulbs of a suitable type are screwed.

You can use both new parts and used ones, if you have them on hand.

Selection of necessary materials

To make a garland of LEDs, it is important to pre-assemble everything you need. Components are sold in radio electronics stores and cost little. You will need the following:

1. LEDs different colors with a diameter of 4 to 5 mm, the permissible current strength is about 20-30 mA. The value of the voltage drop in this case should be from 2.1 to 3 V. As for the quantity, it is necessary to determine the length of the garland and the spacing of the lights, most often they are placed after 25-30 cm.
   Multi-colored LEDs are inexpensive.
2. It is also necessary to choose resistors. If the system will use a serial connection, only one element is needed. With parallel, you need to use either one resistor for each diode, or divide the system into small groups. It is important to choose an option with suitable indicators, usually the store offers the best solution if you explain how the system will be assembled.
   Scheme of serial-parallel connection of three series groups of LEDs in chains of three LED elements. Each circuit has a current-limiting resistor on the left. It "extinguishes" the excess of the sum of the forward voltages of the diodes.
3. Power Supply also purchased for a specific product. It is necessary to calculate the total power of all used LEDs and increase it by 20-30%. The resulting indicator will be a guideline when choosing a block.
   Connecting the LED strip to the power supply.
4. It is also necessary to purchase a safety plug, it is convenient to use a collapsible version, it is easy to connect.

By the way! Stranded copper cable is best, as it bends well and lasts much longer.

Wiring diagram

It is worth drawing in advance at least the simplest scheme by which you can navigate during assembly. It will help in calculating the amount of materials, determining the length of the wire, you can also roughly determine the size so as not to count in your mind, but to clearly see what the result will be.

There are many ready-made options on the network, it is easy to choose the right one to further simplify your work. You can use the scheme as it is, or you can make your own based on it if you need to make changes or the equipment characteristics are different.

This is how a parallel connection looks like.

Small garlands can also run on batteries.

Step-by-step instructions for assembling the version with light bulbs

A garland of lamps is assembled differently than an LED one, you should understand the process of work in order to do everything right. Since the system operates on 220 volts, reliability and safety are important here: follow the steps from the table.

Step 1. To give the product an old look, you need to prepare a twisted wire. To do this, you need to separate the veins. Tie one end to the wall, and fasten the other end to the drill chuck and roll it up to make fairly tight coils. No need to be very zealous, it is important not to damage the insulation. After twisting, it is worth stretching the wire and letting it lie down for at least a day so that it takes a new shape.	You can insert a hook from the anchor into the screwdriver chuck, or bend a loop of tight wire.
Step 2 After twisting, you need to mark the wire. To begin with, leave a 1.5 m long end for the power plug, on the second side you can put a light bulb or add an additional plug. Mark the location of the cartridges, usually they are placed after 50-60 cm. On each mark, the wires are moved apart to make a ring with a diameter of 2 cm. On each of the cores, insulation is exposed in a section of 15 mm and loops are formed with a nail.	You can make rings with a screwdriver.
Step 3 An old-style plug is taken, disassembled, then you need to place the bare ends of the wire 10-15 mm long and tighten with screws. The cable itself at the place of fixation in the case must be insulated, so it will be less deformed.	The current in the network is 220 V. AC, so you do not need to observe the polarity.
Step 4 The cartridge is disassembled and attached to the bare loops on the wire with the help of bolts. Then it needs to be collected. After installing all the cartridges, the bulbs are screwed in.	Polarity doesn't matter here either.
Step 5 The operation of the system is checked, if everything is fine, the garland can be hung.	The garland is ready, you can proceed with the installation.

To consolidate the video information: The process of creating a simple retro garland of incandescent lamps.

What else do you need to know

There are a few important points to consider as well:

1. To make a garland with running lights, you need to purchase a three-phase multivibrator. It only works with LED equipment.
2. For outdoor use, use only diode products, it is best to additionally protect the connections with a heat shrink tube, and place the socket and control unit indoors. A street garland should be an order of magnitude stronger than a home one.
3. If there is an old non-working garland, it can be fixed. To do this, the power supply is first removed, the diameter of the diodes used is measured in order to find out their characteristics via the Internet. The power of the resistor is calculated, it is soldered instead of the block, after which you can turn on the lights.

The garlands restored according to the described method will simply burn, they cannot blink without a control unit.

Read also

How to fix a garland on windows and walls

 

Safety regulations

To eliminate any problems, you should follow a few simple tips:

1. Solder in good light, using high quality solder and flux.
2. Protect all connections with heat shrink tubing, do not leave bare wires.
3. Give preference to low-voltage garlands.
4. Before installation, be sure to check the work.

Assembling a homemade garland is easy if you use the right accessories and follow the instructions. It is important to follow all the rules to eliminate the risk of electric shock and get a system that will work for a long time.