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Copper wire LED lights are great decorations to have around your house- especially during the holiday. Here’s a guide on how to make copper wire led lights.
The holiday season is most likely coming up if you’re already thinking of decorating your home with lights. However, the store-bought holiday lights can be a little costly during the season. That’s why a lot of people take the other road of choosing to make their own lights instead.
How exactly do you do that?
By simply learning how to make copper wire led lights. You may think that it sounds a little complicated, especially if you have little experience dealing with electrical jobs. However, it’s actually quite easy to do.
These steps will show you how to do it the easy way:
What Is Copper Wire LED Lights?
For those who aren’t familiar with what a copper wire LED is, let’s discuss that first.
A copper wire LED light, as the name implies, is a string of LED lights that are all connected by a copper wire. They are often used for decorative purposes, especially during the holidays and during events.
Can You Cut Copper Wire Lights?
Can you cut copper wire lights if you think they’re too long?
The answer is yes, you can cut them. Since copper wires are not that strong to begin with, you can use a wire cutter anywhere you want to cut out.
How To Make Copper Wire LED Lights
With that out of the way, we can move on to the guide. Before we start, let’s discuss some of the things you’ll need. Here’s a shortlist:
- LED Lights
- LED caps
- Copper wire
- Solder
- Cable/Wire Cutter
You buy any of these at Home Depot or pretty much any local hardware store. Once you’ve got everything you need, follow the steps below:
1. Cut The Wires Into Equal Lengths
Use your wire cutter to cut the wires into equal lengths of your preference. We recommend that you cut them into 13 inches, but it’s really up to you. Also, the number of wires you cut out will determine how long your LED copper wire lights will become. The more wires you cut out, the longer your LED copper wire light set becomes.
2. Solder Your LEDs
Get out your LED lights and test them first with a voltmeter. This will tell you if they are working or not. Once you check if they’re working, solder the LED light the wire. Take note that there are two wires coming out of the LED light. Solder two copper wires pieces to these two LED light wires. Insert the LED cap to the wires to keep the LED light in place. Repeat the process with all the other LED lights.
3. Connect All The Leds
Now that you have a few LEDs that are soldered to wires, connect each LED to each other by connecting their wires together (you do this by twisting the wires together). You can get some extra copper wire to wrap the connecting wires. This helps keep them in place.
After doing all of these, the next thing to do is connect the LEDs to the DC. So, for that, you’ll need to buy a DC, 0.47uF capacitor, a 10-ohm resistor, and four diodes.
- Solder The Components
Solder the capacitor and resistor on the edges of the DC and the 4 diodes on the bridge.
- Solder The AC Lines
Turn the DC over and bring out your AC lines. Solder the two AC lines on that side of the DC.
- Connect The LED Lights
On the same side as the AC lines, solder the two wires at the end of your copper string lights to the DC.
- Connect Your AC Line To Your Battery
Lastly, make sure that your AC line is connected to a battery connector head (you can buy one at the hardware store) and place your 9v battery there.
Conclusion
While there is an option to simply buy your copper LED wire lights, it’s cheaper and more fun to make them at home. Of course, you will need some knowledge on how to connect copper wire lights and how to solder metals but that’s just some basic stuff. As long as you know how to do those and you can follow the steps above, learning how to make copper wire led lights at home should be a breeze.
What are you waiting for? Get started on your DIY copper wire LED lights today.
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