Fiber Optic xmas tree

Striker

Learning Storage Performance
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Sep 17, 2007
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269
I've had a fiber optic xmas tree for years that my parents gave me, I guess because when I was on my own I didn't bother with one.
Anyway, the power supply on it went bad. It was a 12 volt 1500ma 18W power supply.
I went to radio shack to see if I could figure out something suitable to replace it with and came up with http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3807944
I felt terrible paying so much and the motor no longer spins the color wheel. It started me thinking. I wondered if I could replace the halogen bulb with a LED and perhaps find a new motor and have something more efficient.

I've done some searching and unfortunately come up rather empty. It doesn't help that what I know about electronics is that I don't know much.
I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas. The base of this tree appears to be the same as http://www.puleointl.com/store/product-info.php?pid66.html and inside appears to be a rather simple circuit (that doesn't mean I understand it.)
The bulb appears to be http://www.puleointl.com/store/product-info.php?pid120.html
It looks like the power comes in, attaches to a switch, which then has leads going to the motor and the bulb. I don't see any resistors or the like at all.
I've found http://www.ebay.com/itm/MR11-12Volt-12LED-Cool-White-15W-Halogen-Replacement-Fiber-Optics-LED-/350501628959

Any ideas anyone has would be appreciated. Especially if I've picked the wrong PS to run what's there and there's some danger. It does appear to run rather hot.

P.S. I just realized I put this in Computers, if someone could move it to the Bar and Grill I would appreciate it.
 
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Bozo

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Feb 12, 2002
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Twilight Zone
We had one of those Christmas trees. It died last year and I fooled around with it trying to make it work. Parts are non-existent and doing something make-shift didn't seem safe.
It went into the trash.
 

Striker

Learning Storage Performance
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Sep 17, 2007
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Yeah, I considered this, but it seems simple enough a device that someone with sufficient knowledge could repair it.
Thanks for your input.
 

jtr1962

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Jan 25, 2002
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Flushing, New York
I modded one of those fiber optic things with LED. You need to keep the original AC supply because most of them use an AC motor to turn the color wheel. To drive the LED I rectified the AC with a full-wave bridge and added a filter capacitor. I then used one of my automotive constant current drivers to drive the LED. I mounted the LED on a piece of aluminum and used an optic to focus the light into the fiber optic. The reds aren't as nice as with the incandescent but all of the other colors look better, especially white which now looks like real white, not yellow. In retrospect had I used a Nichia 219 (which wasn't available at the time I did this), the reds would have looked OK also.

Bottom line-it's a bit of work but the end result is worth it. It runs considerably cooler and for the most part looks better.
 
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