GE Pre-lit Christmas Tree - Adapter help

[KNKLHEAD]

Hi:

I have an artificial tree that I purchased on sales end of season last year, Pre-lit Just Cut Norway Spruce, 016435R and UPC 803993016436. I appears as if the adapter is not providing power to the tree. The company , GE Lighting and Nicholas Holiday, while very nice, appears to be having a heck of a time finding a replacement power adapter and foot switch.

I'd power the tree with another adapter and wire it, but the specs seem very strange:
Model GT-30V12
Input: 120v-60hz, 0.23A
Output: 29V .... 12W (weird characters in between)
For use with UL and CUL Listed non-integral LED light String rated 12 watts.

M/V 0516

The output of 12W is very scary to me .. I can buy an adapter that provided 30V, but nervous about the 12w output.

Any help/direction is appreciated. I'm handy enough to get myself into trouble.

Thank you for helping me light up the tree while I listen to my wife say "I told you we need to get a real tree."

-KH

 

[JimB]

I appears as if the adapter is not providing power to the tree.

How do you know that there is no output from the power unit, have you measured it?

The output of 12W is very scary to me .. I can buy an adapter that provided 30V, but nervous about the 12w output.

Why are you nervous about the 12 W ?

JimB

 

[JonSea]

A DC supply rated close to 29 volts that can supply at least 12 watts will do the trick. 12 watts is a little less than 500 mA; most supplies will be rated in terms of mA, so anything GREATER than 500 mA will do the trick.

Finding a 29 volt supply could be tough. A 24 volt supply may work but the lights will be a little dimmer.

 

[Reloadron]

Output: 29V .... 12W (weird characters in between)

The weird character is a DC symbol so the output is 29 VDC and capable of 12 Watts. If you can find a 30 Volt 500MA wall wort it should work fine. That assumes the power supply is the problem. Make sure if you find a replacement the polarity is correct when you connect it.

Ron

 

[KNKLHEAD]

Thank you all! Yes, I put a meter on the adapter and got nothing from the female outputs. How do I check polarity? (sorry!) Also, I am wondering what the foot switch does to make the lights go from white, to multi, then alternate, then off. I am curious if that "intelligence" was in the original adapter. Again very much appreciate the info. You are life-savers.

 

[Reloadron]

Uh Oh, reading it I only took it to be an AC / DC Adapter. I just assumed that the adapter powered another box which did the magic stuff. I may have to start agreeing with your wife. Generally adapters have polarity marked but I don't see that in the image you posted.

Ron

 

[KNKLHEAD]

Ah, don't give up on me. (ha, ha.) The polarity is marked on the connecting cords, so I think I'll be okay there. (fingers crossed I do it correctly!) "m not sure what the foot switch actually does, I may take it apart to see if there are brains inside that piece!

 

[JimB]

Generally adapters have polarity marked but I don't see that in the image you posted.

It is there Ron, you just need to look a bit harder.

JimB

 

[KNKLHEAD]

Aha! Thank y ou! I have also included the foot switch innerds -- it appears as if that's where the "intelligence" is for the tree changing color. Fun stuff. So I am thinking I'd be okay with a wall wort as indicated above.

 

[JonSea]

Sorry, a single tact switch is not the "smarts" to drive the tree. I think this game is over.

If the connector to the tree only has 3 or 4 pins, or if the LEDs on the tree have different patterns or can be different colors (i.e., some of the LEDs red and other LEDs green, then they change to diffeeent colors), the LEDs in the tree are smart - each one contains a smart chip, programmed over a serial data line.

This rype of LED can be controlled by an Arduino or other micro, but it would be no trival task to figure out which type of programable LEDs the tree uses and how they are wired up. Even if this were discovered, you would have to write code to make anything happen.

 

[Les Jones]

There is only 1 wire connected to the right hand side of the switch unit. You need to find the other wire and re connect it.

Les.

 

[KNKLHEAD]

Yeah, the second wire was just out of the photo. It was broken when I took the pieces apart.

 

[KNKLHEAD]

Just heard, the company is sending me the adapter. We'll see how it goes. I will solder on the wire and give it a shot.

 

[Brian Triggs]

I have the same power supply and need to fix it or replace it. Can you tell me where you called to get a new adapter? As far as the foot switch goes, it reverses the voltage to the tree for the multi colored LED's, and then oscillates between the two voltages for the white/multi colored effect. I assume this feature is in the foot switch because the wall adapter just puts out 29 V. I used our real time x-ray to look inside the adapter to see where I could saw the lid open and not impact any of the electronics and plan to open it tonight. Any helpful hints would be appreciated!

 

[AnalogKid]

The tact switch is almost certainly SPST momentary. My bet is that the smarts are on the underside of the board. Can you lift out the board and post a shot?

Separate from that, there now are two things that might not be working. Do you have a resistor you can push into the power supply output connector to see if it comes up when there is a small load attached?
1K / 2 W, 4.7K / 1/2 W, something like that?

ak

 

[Brian Triggs]

This tree also has a wireless remote control that you can use to change from white lights to mulit color lights to blinking back and forth and off. When you take out the foot switch you only get white lights and the remote does nothing, so I would agree that the smarts are in the foot switch. Also, using a volt meter connected to the output of the foot switch connected to the wall adapter I get 29 V for white lights, -29 V for multi colored, and switching from +29 V to -29 V for blinking and off gives me 0 V. I believe my problem is in the wall adapter and it has some open circuit around the connector, because I can manipulate the connector to get the lights to come on and then if I touch it again they go off. I just ordered a new wall adapter at
https://shop.geholidaylighting.com/collections/power-adapters and will open my broken one tonight to see what I can find. More to come....

 

[AnalogKid]

I believe my problem is in the wall adapter and it has some open circuit around the connector, because I can manipulate the connector to get the lights to come on and then if I touch it again they go off.

Sounds pretty clearly diagnosed to me.

ak

 

[Brian Triggs]

I opened up the unit last night using a drumall drill and a cutting wheel. The plastic just melted and I would scrap off the melted plastic as it would ball up. I was careful not to penetrate into the unit and nick the components. When I had three sides cut I used a screw driver to pry open the lid and it broke off clean. I then inspected the components to make sure I didn't nick any and I got lucky and didn't touch a one. The input connection from the wall plug is just crimped on to the blades of the plug inside the unit, so this is not a soldered connection and subject to corrosion and oxidation. I believe that was the source of the problem, that the blades of the wall plug were not making good contact with the internal circuit board. I soldered this connection as best I could and tested it and it worked perfectly. I connected the foot switch and tried out the remote unit and it worked as designed. I was able to switch between white, multi, blinking, and off. I am attaching pictures of the opened unit and a close up of the plug where I soldered (the picture is before I soldered). Hope this helps others! Merry Christmas!!

 

[DerStrom8]

I don't think there are any smarts in that thing. Looks like your stereotypical el-cheapo single-sided power supply board to me. The smarts are probably either on the underside of the switch board (as mentioned earlier) or more likely in the base of the tree itself.

 

[Brian Triggs]

I agree that the smarts are not in this wall unit. I did determine that the only time the smarts work is with the foot switch, so I conclude that the smarts are on the underside of the foot switch. I also believe that each bulb has two LED's with opposite polarity because the foot switch reverses the polarity of the voltage to the tree. When it reads +29 V I get white lights and when it reads -29 V I get colored lights. When it blinks the voltage changes from +29 V to -29 V at about a 2 second period. On to the next problem! Merry Christmas!!