Philly - I already did cut it open, There is another plastic cover over it! (I guess the first makes it water resistant). So after trying to cut the second cover off, which is much harder as it is like it was dipped in liquid plastic, I was able to expose part of it. I can't tell what it is, it would need to be heated up to melt the plastic off. Looking at the noveltylights website, I am about positive it is a rectifier. It looks exactly like the top pic here from Bsharp.