OK, I bit on Home Depot's door buster LED christmas lights… 150 LED lights for under $5 each. How could I resist? (Answer: By remembering that cheap LEDs flicker, AND that I'm sensitive to it. )
https://www.instyleled.co.uk/what-causes-led-flicker-and-how-can-i-stop-it-happening/
Seeing as how they were door-busters, they are also non-returnable. I'd like to figure out how to make them work. I've done some research, which has shown that it's possible to create a dc rectifier/transformer/ that will make the flickering stop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqRd3q7k9OU
Now, I think I can do all of that (I love soldering that gives you that much room to screw up. BUT, I'd rather just pay $5 for a professional version that absolutely positively won't overheat and burn down my house. I can NOT find anything that's not built for uses like under-cabinet lighting or dimmers, and which have specific connectors for specific manufacturers. Does anyone know if anyone sells something like this, or if there are kits that are a little LESS DIY in nature? Thanks!
Best Answer
No-one will sell a commercial product like that. It's dangerous.
DC is nasty business. Seriously, go to mouser and pick any random power relay. Look at its specs for AC, and then look at its specs for DC. Whoa!
DC is de-rated by a large factor because when a DC arc strikes, it doesn't self-extinguish because the voltage never goes to zero. An arc, once struck, doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop until it's burned up so much conductor it can no longer bridge the gap, and if that sets your house on fire, too bad. If you've seen old "snap switches" which have a considerable action to them, they are preloading and releasing a "snap" action which creates a large gap when the contact breaks. Larger switches and contactors have designed-in "blowouts" which bend the arc into an arc-chute. The point is, interrupting DC takes a lot more design and engineering than interrupting AC. And a short is a much bigger deal.
Now when you rectify AC into DC, you get a bouncing-ball waveform.
Supposedly that should self-extinguish same as full-wave AC, but capacitance will prevent it from getting all the way to zero. If you add a smoothing capacitor, then it has no chance to extinguish. You wouldn't want to do that anyway, because that would raise the average (RMS) voltage, which could overcurrent the LEDs. LEDs are non-linear, so a small voltage increase makes a big current increase. The curves are in LED spec sheets.
Of course if you could constant-current regulate each LED chain, it's perfectly wired for that.