Re: Just stop flashing!!!
A colleague bought 10 identical strings of lights for work, from the same supplier at the same time. Outwardly they look identical, but while nine of the strings come on when you apply power using the same settings you used last time - possibly weeks ago - one string always comes on at "flashing mode 1" and requires seven firm pushes of the button to get it to steady state.
From the top of a ladder.
Some time later, same colleague bought another dozen or so strings of lights for another area. These blasted things do not come on at all until you climb a (taller) ladder and press the button seven times.
This is why whenever I buy lights for home, I buy the type which does not have a little module to make them flash, and why I was cross when my wife decided this year she needed another set of lights for outside, too late for me to order them from CPC, went down to ASDA and bought a flashy-flashy set which has to have the button push done, every flippin' time we turn them on, and as the button is in a waterproof box that is a pig to open, that turns out to be a job that isn't often done.
M.