[rhyds]

I've not actually fixed anything yet, but am after a bit of advice...

Long story short: I've got an LED Christmas tree that was supplied with a dead 31v DC power supply. The suppliers refunded me for the tree but couldn't supply a replacement power supply.

I've now bought a 31v power supply from another LED lighting supplier, but the new unit has flashing/chasing options and a 3-pin connector, as opposed to the original unit's 2-pin connector and no flashing options.

Now, From an electronics point of view I'm guessing the 3 pins are:

Negative connection
Positive 1
Positive 2

And the flashing/chasing effects are done by applying voltage to the two positive connections in turn, with the "all on" setting being +31v to both positive terminals.

Now, as the connections are totally different I'll be chopping the connectors off and joining the cables directly (the new unit comes with a length of cable, so it should be a simple job to join them up)

First off: Should I join the two positives together or just use one and tape off the spare cable? As the LEDs are wired in one bank/chain most of the flashing cycles probably won't work anyway, but with the two positives joined I'd imagine most options would essentially become "always on" as there would always be 31v or so on the connector.

Secondly: What's the best way to join small gauge cable like you get in LED Christmas lights? I was thinking twisting the wires together together, then soldering, then taping them up or should I use terminal/chock blocks instead?

All suggestions welcome.