Replaceable LED Sub-Strings for Artificial Christmas Trees
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing artificial holiday decoration lighting systems, particularly for Christmas trees, are prone to failure when a single LED or bulb fails, causing the entire string to be rendered useless, as they are operated in series, making it difficult and costly to replace individual components.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising sub-strings with a few LEDs in series, each with a plug that can be easily replaced by attaching to a master power source or extender cable, allowing parallel operation and minimizing the impact of a single point failure, with extender cables featuring parallel splits to distribute power across multiple sub-strings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If numerous small LEDs are operated in series to minimize wire size and current, then power consumption and wire gauge are optimized, but a single LED failure causes the entire string to fail
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting string is divided into multiple parallel sub-strings, each containing a series of LEDs. This segmentation allows individual sub-strings to be replaced without affecting the entire string, maintaining reliability while preserving the energy-efficient series wiring within each sub-string.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the electrical configuration parameter from a single long series string to multiple parallel sub-strings with series wiring within each. This parameter change enables both low current operation (through series wiring) and high reliability (through parallel redundancy).
2Ease of repair
If individual bulbs are made replaceable in older systems, then repairability is improved, but it becomes very difficult to find the bad bulb and virtually impossible to fix if more than one bulb is bad
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the string into smaller sub-strings of approximately 15 LEDs each, the system makes fault location manageable. When a sub-string fails, the problem is isolated to that specific segment, making it easy to identify and replace without searching through the entire string.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the faulty sub-string from the overall system and replaces it as a complete unit. This approach eliminates the need to individually locate and replace specific failed LEDs within a sub-string, simplifying the repair process significantly.
3Manufacturing precision
If LED systems are designed with non-removable LEDs to improve durability, then manufacturing precision and assembly are improved, but a single LED failure dooms the entire string to becoming trash
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the lighting string into replaceable sub-string modules. Each sub-string maintains precise manufacturing with non-removable LEDs within it, but the entire sub-string can be replaced as a unit, combining manufacturing precision with repairability.
Solution Approach 2:
When a sub-string fails, the entire sub-string module is discarded and replaced with a new one. This approach recovers the value of the working LEDs in the sub-string by replacing the entire module rather than attempting to salvage individual LEDs, simplifying the repair process while maintaining manufacturing precision.
4Duration of action of stationary object
If a new working string is purchased and wrapped around the portion of the tree that is out, then the tree can be restored, but this leads to tangled wires, some lights out with some lights on, and portions of the tree that are not lighted
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses uniformly sized sub-string modules that are designed to replace each other in standardized positions. This segmentation enables clean, organized replacements without the tangled wire arrangements that occur when wrapping new strings around existing trees, maintaining simple wire architecture while restoring full functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A system of lighting for an artificial tree or other decoration that allows easy replacement of small sub-strings of luminaries. Each sub-string contains N luminaries, where N is an integer around 10, where the N luminaries are wired in series. Extender cables can be supplied that contain parallel splits so that the different sub-strings are operated in parallel. The extender cable can attach to a master power source that supplies the constant voltage needed to power each sub-string. The exact voltage is determined by the number N and by the voltage requirement for each of the luminaries. Each sub-string has a plug that mates with a receptacle on either an extender cable, or on the master power device. Single point failures only cause one sub-string to go dark. The physical arrangement with plugs and receptacles allows easy replacement of an individual sub-string that is dark because of a failed luminary.