Fixing Twinkly festoon issues - interesting power and data system

Published on 2024-01-15 | Archived on 2024-01-22

Twinkly is a prominent brand of addressable LED lights that can be used with simple controllers or pixel mapped with a phone camera. The data to the LEDs is transferred along just two power wires, which is quite an engineering feat, given how fast they can be refreshed. Thank you to Kip Hakes for the donation of his faulty PCBs.

If you have the Twinkly festoon (a cable with "bulbs" dotted along it) then it's worth checking to make sure that water is not getting into the caps. It appears that there has been an issue with the O-ring being a fraction too small, resulting in water ingress through thermal cycling and capillary wicking.

If any PCBs have been damaged then they may be replaced under warranty, and will often come with a set of new o-rings. You have to tell your supplier the bulb number as they have fixed addresses.

If they're out of warranty or not covered then you may be able to repair them as detailed in the video. A toothbrush and some isopropyl alcohol removes the corrosion to allow easier testing.

I'd also be tempted to paint on a conformal coating like a suitable electronics grade varnish to protect the components against water ingress. A smear of vaseline or grease might also be a useful alternative.

The technology behind the Twinkly lights is quite unusual with the two wire power/data, and the camera pixel mapping software. At this point I don't think the usual suspects have managed to match their system for features.


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