Convert your Christmas Village Display to LED and all 12V DC power

Everything running off 12V DC and no more batteries was the objective and what was achieved for this ceramic Christmas Village.
This video covers an easy way to do the conversion so you can use the 12V accessories available on the market for control and content.
The main conversion of the fixtures is done with no soldering.
The conversion of Battery accessories I use a technique that should work with any battery operated fixture. For some fixtures there may be other techniques available. For consistency I present just one.
Some parts referenced:
Fall 2022 Parts updated parts references
le is now lepro
www.amazon.com/dp/B07TJQX1XT
www.amazon.com/dp/B00HSF64JG
Olafus LED. I have not used this brand
www.amazon.com/dp/B07PQX6DGS
on/off switch
www.amazon.com/dp/B07FVJZZK2
Cable power ends
www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZHTNFYK
Dimmers
www.amazon.com/dp/B083LVFD5R
www.amazon.com/dp/B09SLKNRCN
Barrel connectors (bulk pricing is probably better with ReliableMate)
www.amazon.com/dp/B08DFLHQDY
Barrel Connectors… while you can buy them anyplace…
I usually purchase from ReliableMate who sells them in small and large quantities. At consistent pricing. www.ebaystores.com/reliablemate
They also have a 5A 12V DC power supply with a 1-8 Y connector for under $12 or so.
Lights I used in the video 4100057-WW
Lighthouse top 4100057-DW
If you go into wifi controllers I would try to stay with the same control software. In this video I reference MAGIC HOME WIFI a commonly found software used. If you have a mix of controlling apps the only hope of controlling them together would likely be with voice like Alexa or Google home.
These are references. Many companies sell magic home controllers. Look for the log in the QR code.
Goldwin 3 pack of color WIFI magic home controllers
www.amazon.com/Goldwin-Contro...
One Color WIFI magic home controllers
www.amazon.com/Controller-And...
In Line 12V LED Power switche example
www.amazon.com/TronicsPros-In...

[@Rdenham1976]

Congratulations to anyone who was able to follow the firehouse of information in this video it might make more sence if I watch it at half speed haha

[@MaximusMednick]

Great walkthrough and excellent editing really appreciate it! Going to tackle the project now with much more confidence

[@cjkh]

Very helpful. There is nothing better than Buffalo Snow.

[@cornfedlife]

Great idea! 💡

[@tomasgonzalez4819]

Great video 👍

[@rksmith5273]

This is fantastic stuff. I have been wanting to improve the lighting of my villages but I didn't have the know how until your video. Now I just have to figure out how my AC-AC Adapter Class 2 Transformer for my Victorian Village works because when it plugs in, the flashing lights only stay on for a few seconds before the whole system shuts down. Thank you for posting this most awesome video. You have earned another subscriber.

[@Noah_in_Maine]

This video was great! We changed over our village to LED using the items you suggested. I wouldn’t have known where to start if I hadn’t watched your video. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Next weekend I’m going to try and convert the streetlights.

[@alwaystinkering6972]

That’s great. Start your voltage low on the incandescent bulbs. Maybe even as low as 2.5 volts. You can always work your way up but running them dimmer will extend their life now that they can be always on. When you pack up at the end of the season you can put a dab of hot glue on the wires going into the connectors. That will reduce them getting pulled apart during packing.

[@mdenham4048]

Like your display n lights. I did my outdoor led string lights by hooking 2 leads into each box. And run one to another until it counted 12v and returned to deep cell battery to make sure my little solar lights burned. And they did

[@humbertogarciavasquez1076]

awesome video man,...can you do some more videos like this one?

[@deanlang3894]

this is awesome and very informative.. but I would like to have different colored lights in my houses... any ideas????

[@alwaystinkering6972]

Two choices... RGB as a single which requires 4 wires (a lot to manage). You could make it cleaner by buying pre-made Y connectors and such but the challenge will always be the qty of wire involved. Doing a couple of fixtures likely would not be bad. If you put a color controller (a compact in-line one), you could place one at each house. Keep in mind the color controllers would need full power as the input at each location... meaning no master dimmer on that power feed. You could do addressable LED's... that is 3 wire. You would still have to deal with connectors that might be harder to match. Unless you program a custom controller for addressable LED's you would not have the detail in color control. Personally... the individual color controller at each location would likely be the most manageable from a wiring standpoint, but a lot of on/off switches.

[@alwaystinkering6972]

Some sample controllers... these are wifi controllers... so you would be able to group them together in a phone app... so they all turn on together, but you can control them together. www.amazon.com/dp/B073Y3WCKH The wifi controllers appear to be the same price as the RF controllers... so WIFI would do what you want. They would be an always on connection to the controllers. The controller would be near the fixture with the color light being attached directly. I have never tried these but they appear to do the same thing. No case they may get a little warmer to the touch. www.amazon.com/dp/B09B1WDM42 Keep in mind with color controllers you normally need the RGB connector at the controller side. You can ether solder them on www.amazon.com/dp/B01DH7VMP4 or do clip on ones... which may leave you wishing you soldered them... but should be easier to get started. Both would give you about a hand lengths of wire so you can put the controller farther from the fixture. www.amazon.com/dp/B07YFRT861

[@nellybell7374]

Fantastic video I have converted the mini lights you buy at Wal-mart into ac power so when I turn it on everything comes on at once instead of taking each piece on separately with the battery pack. One of my questions I have because I ran out of solder is what type do you use. My other question is I have bigger piece of decoration I have is this christmas tree made out of ceramic its about 13 inches tall and the center is hollowed out and inside you have a small Santa that is passing out trees its hooked with one of Lemax adapters and has really bright LED lights on it but they flash like crazy there is no "steady" position, it seems like you would know how to fix this, any ideas

[@alwaystinkering6972]

Regarding your small tree. Someplace there is likely an IC chip controlling the works. I am going to say... without seeing it... the odds are against you. If it is new within the last 7 years or so... a lot accent LED strips with flash patterns are using addressable LED chips... and for those you usually need a controller. If it is a really primitive IC chip, it is possible that it has just a single flash mode programmed it. As a next step, I would say if you can find the control board... see if it has, or leads to a button you have not yet found that controls the light mode. Do be careful if you try to light the LED's directly. You have no idea what voltage the are sending to them. Of course you could try to read that at the line out to the LED in the current configuration. Addressable chips will show a voltage, but usually will not light when you power them directly.

[@johnmclaughlin9523]

Hi. I want to assemble lighting for a simple string of houses as shown in the first part of the video. Can this be done using the following items from your list? A light kit, wire, and male and female barrel connectors? Would I need barrel connector leads as well? I just want to start simple. Thank you.

[@alwaystinkering6972]

You would need the leads (LED strip connector to barrel connector). Without them you would have to solder wires pieces onto the LED strip and put the other end in a barrel connector. You would wrap and tape the LED to the wire extension. If there was an advantage to soldered on wires, other than having to buy more parts, you could make the wire as long as you want and not be limited to the length of the leads.

[@rksmith5273]

You seem to be very knowledgeable with electronics hence the reason I have been watching all your videos. I have a question. I have an AC-AC Adapter Class 2 transformer Input is 120V AC and output is 6V AC 4A. When I plug the village in, the lights only stay on for a 1-min then they go off. I have to unplug the whole village for a few minutes and then plug it back in and the lights come on again, only to shut off again. Your videos have helped me with changing all the original lights with the LED string lights. I want to do something similar to the village that this AC-AC Adapter goes to. Any idea as to what to do?

[@alwaystinkering6972]

without a picture or reference to what the set looks like I might guess this set has color lights as well? The shutoff in any low power supply system is likely do to a short, or over draw on the power supply or a failing power supply. The first two would frequently reset by unplugging, wait and plug in. That would just recover the power source, not find the problem. Can you isolate any fixtures and try powering them up one at a time? Do you have a power meter? Does the power supply still put out the 4v AC after being on for a minute with nothing plugged in? Changing out individual bulbs is certainly more difficult than sections of strips. If the AC set has LED's there is likely a converting changing the AC to DC after the plugging and before the lights. Usually a non-serviceable in-line box. If there is an AC to DC converter then that has to not be in line. powering LED's directly usually desires a resister to control flow. So the answer. Probably not easily?

[@rksmith5273]

@@alwaystinkering6972 I figured out the problem. There were electrical lines in one of the houses that had a short. I reworded it and now I have no issues with the houses.

[@alwaystinkering6972]

@@rksmith5273 that’s great! Good diagnostic work.

[@MrCarlito5656]

Hi, Can I purchase a switch over for the Lantern streetlamps not too confident making one...

[@alwaystinkering6972]

I will be posting a video on converting my street lamps to led bulbs. One attribute of running my 20 year old incandescent bulbs continuously is that the bulbs all finally blew. Converting the street lamps to led was not the easiest. The lamps were not designed to come apart and everything was miniature. In the end it did work and I ran them for a couple of weeks before storing them. Does that answer your question for now?

[@MrCarlito5656]

Hello. would I be able to use the hub power up the led source, from "Department 56"?

[@alwaystinkering6972]

I went to there website and looked at their replacement parts listing. They have a wide variety of power supplies from 3v to 12v. So, for what I showed with 12v any 12v will work. I did not spend a lot of time talking about power supply sizes since everything I showed had a very small draw. I cannot totally answer your question since I don’t know what other features of theirs you might be powering. For what we are converting estimate the amps for each section of 3 lights. So 300 lights in a 2 amp rated string figure .02 amps or 20 milliamperes per section of 3 lights. The dc step downs are harder to estimate w/o metering the current. There will also be some loss for the wire distance and splitting the power. So if their power hub has say a 500ma 12v output… if you added just lights and assume 60% usability… for 300ma that would be 15 sections of lights if there was no other load at 20ma per section. If you are not comfortable guessing overall load, use a separate power source for what you convert. If the hub is less than 12vdc it will not power a 12v string. I should also add that led amp rating should be peak load (as it can change based on several factors). I hope that helps in your determination.

[@vwannop11]

Ok you lost me at hello. Lol

[@Pgresham3]

Can I use a self contained buck converter to replace the battery compartment on a string or several strings of lights and use a pattern controller device for each string to control flashing etc. I am such a novice and have no one to ask. Any help is appreciated.

[@alwaystinkering6972]

The converter can be any format so long as it has the input/output voltage you need a connection point you can use. The reason for trying to connect to the battery terminals is so you don’t have to know anything about the guts. You just need to deliver the right voltage to the right point. If you have flashing pattern lights, someplace in that box is a control chip. You won’t be able to connect the power to the lights direct. Addressable bulbs generally don’t do anything on straight power. The chip tells them when to turn on and off. Can you use one buck to power several boxes? Yes you could. Ether home run to power or run the power from one box battery connection to the next should work as both are a parallel power config.

[@Pgresham3]

@@alwaystinkering6972 ok, I've gotten my house lights done. Now on to the individual strings. I have a buck converter CL3641AH. I would like to wire two or more strings with a flash pattern controller between the converter and each string. I got a controller SP110E. Since, obviously, I don't really know what I'm doing, I not sure if I have the right things. The pattern controller has a different wire connection array, probably because it also controls color. Anyway, my main question right now is, if I connect two strings that use 3 1.5 volt batteries for a total of 4.5 volts, will I have to crank the voltage on the buck converter up to 9 volts or leave it at 4.5? I appreciate any help you can give me. You probably think I'm a dope, but I am willing to learn.

[@alwaystinkering6972]

@@Pgresham3 Did the accessories flash on their own already? If they flash already then you want to get 4.5V to each of the battery packs. Are you going to use that remote on the houses? On that remote the common (frequently the black) is usually (+) and you would use just one of the leads for controlling one color. On the software moving to and from that color will change the light... as will the dim control. That remote dims and flashes... you don't want to use that to the battery boxes since they want a non-dimmed steady 4.5v volts. So the 4.5V to each is done by wiring in parallel. if you ran to one battery pack, the wire to the next battery pack needs to leave from the end of the wire that arrived at the first battery pack. If you need I will find an illustration of that. So set the buck at 4.5V out. You can always run a wire from each battery pack to the same two connections on the buck... that is parallel as well.

[@marciofmusa]

Is there anyway you could send me the part numbers or link for the items? I’m not being able to find them on Amazon and eBay. Thanks a lot

[@alwaystinkering6972]

I posted updated parts links in the description. Let me know if I missed anything you have troubles finding. Thanks

[@LauCerrato]

How many houses do you think that you can connect we just 1 line?

[@alwaystinkering6972]

The led string I used was rated at 12v 3 amps per 5 meter of lights (300 LED’s on this string). There are 100 3 led sections. So if each house had 3 sections of light, about 33 fixtures on a 3 amp power supply. The led strips are rated at peak amps. Most draw less than their rating. Keep in mind that dc loses strength with distance. You can usually see your drop by measuring at the end of the length if it becomes a concern. If that became a problem, I would first see if I could source the power in the center. That way both directions are half the length.

[@brycenbascomb]

My LED lightstrip is a 4-wire. Is it possible to still do this?

[@alwaystinkering6972]

I was so tempted to wire in color, but to power an entire set of houses from one controller is a lot of wire. More of an issue would be all the Y connectors needed. It could be done that way but pre-built Y splitters would be needed… and connectors to match. You could try terminal blocks. You do have another option I considered which was to put an led controller at each house. You would wire it exactly as I did with no dimmer on the house line and put a small color controller behind each house. That would be 12 v to each house, controller and then 4 wire to the light. I recently bought a 5 pack of rf color controllers for about 20 for a magnamite night light I printed. The last option you have is to run one or all the colors together. In this model you have the power to the houses as is with the dimmer if you want. Wire one or all the color to (-) and the usually black line to (+). It will be a cool white if you use all 3 colors. You could wire just one color or any color combinations you want as well. So yes you could. Hook a section directly to a power supply and see if you like it.

[@pamelamclemore2935]

I did this , my question is why is the lights pulsing? Any ideas?

[@shullln]

If your LED lights are pulsing, it has to do with the stability and cycle of your 12v DC converter. Get a different converter made for LED lights and they won't pulse/flicker.

[@Pgresham3]

Do you think you could talk a little faster?

[@alwaystinkering6972]

Sorry. I have a desire to include all the material and not consume a persons life. Under the KZbin options gear which is usually in the lower right on the full browser version there is a playback speed control which may help. Thanks for the feedback.

[@Pgresham3]

@@alwaystinkering6972 I appreciate you getting back to me. I really like your video and could use your help. I've watched it several times and really need more help with the last part where you use the battery compartment to convert accessories. But, it gets a little technical and is difficult for me to follow easily. Especially about adjusting volts on that tiny device that goes inside the battery compartment and making sure you id the positive and negative correctly. Although I have solder equipment, i think i found a device on Amazon that uses screw inserts so I don't have to solder. Anyway, it's difficult to find really helpful videos and to make sure I have a chance of success. I am so sick of battery issues. Sorry for the rant.🤪

[@alwaystinkering6972]

@@Pgresham3 my goal was to reuse the box and not disturb the existing wiring as much as possible. Electric flows one way through batteries. For 3v dc the flow goes through one battery for 1.5v and then flows through the other battery adding another 1.5v. When batteries go in opposite, the two ends on one side should measure 3v dc. If the batteries go in the same way then the power should test 3v with the positive on one battery and negative on the other. If it is not one combination it should be the other. Soldering. It can be sloppy. So long as it does not short to another contact or melt something and it is solid you are good. The most important item is to “Tin” the wire and then the contact. That is where you apply some solder to each separately. There are some good videos on soldering. After you tin them you lay one over the other and touch them with the iron until they melt together and then release. There are some lm2596 videos that take longer to show adjusting output voltage. They are mostly reviews like this one. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmrFq4Rjn9ypf5Y I have another video pending. Burning my 20 year old street lamps for 30 days last year burned them out. I converted them to led. Such small wires on something never designed to come apart. I did not know if that one was going to work. This year we just turned on the village and ran it from thanksgiving to New Years and all ran great including the street lights. Best of luck. Remember to pay attention to the (-) when you see it on the meter. That means the positive and negative are opposite from where you have the probes.