Random cheap LED floodlight teardown.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2016
- It's a while since I've taken a cheap LED flood to bits, so I bought this one from a UK seller for 5 quid inclusive to see how it fared. The cases of these things alone are worth the money, although the use of steel pressings is a step down from a more weather resilient alloy or even plastic.
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8:33 When the earth screw isn't tight, those cases really are full of potential
Krisztián Szirtes
Agreed.
just spilled my coffee-.-
Carlos!
I have the 20w version of this light, and surprisingly, it has impressed me beyond what i had thought. It is earthed and safe. Even better, i only got it for £4 and came within a week.
I'm not really that interested in these teardowns but I find Big Clive therapeutic to listen too.Sounds like such a cool dude.
That's how I started, now I have a work desk with a bookshelf of electrical gubbins and too many string of Poundland LEDs (no such thing right). Also thanks to Julian Ilett I now have a small tub of Arduino stuff.
Frank Howarth and Matthias Wandel make me desire a shed.
I can't afford to watch youtube anymore.
Love your videos Clive. The way I came across your channel was because I was researching liver salts and found your home made health salts video. Now I'm hooked on your videos. Really well explained with humour. Very intelligent man. 👍
Hi Clive, I bought some of these cheap 10w 240v flood lights recently. I bought mine to convert to 12v, using mr16 600mA constant current drivers. My lights only had 2 screws for the led mounting , luckily I noticed that my 10w chips were not sitting(seating?) flush against the heat sink wall.If I pushed against a loose corner I could see the slight movement. I had to find some screws to add in. I found mine for $6 each Australian, thought it was an error bought a few lol. My only concern would be how waterproof they actually are. Great fun converting them, 12v allows the use of so many products out there too. I have one connected to one of those cheap RF relay modules with a fob. Keep up the inspiring vids.
Perfect timing, as the bulkhead lights outside my garage have broken. Ine of these with a PIR sensor for under £10 and it will save plenty of energy compared to the two 11w fluorescents I currently have, and will turn on at full brightness instantly!
Keep up the good work... when I get paid I will have to send you some coffee and biscuits via patreon!
I'm really enjoying your videos even though I don't know the first thing about electricity and electronics. You explain things very well and are obviously very experienced. Maybe I'll learn something and thanks for pointing out the bad components in the videos. You may end up saving someone's life. Thanks from the U.S.A.!
I am always thankful for a new Big Clive video!
Yeah I agree about the cases. Tons of potential.
I bought two lamps that looked exactly like that a couple of years ago. Neither had the ground connected and one had the driver catch fire after a couple of days. Yours look comparatively well made.
yes it seems an improve version, also the led is 7.5w, i have the older version with the older 12v led, its more like 4w at most , same case though, yes the driver was a couple of cheap components wrapped in kapton tape, not a box like clives
Clive, I asked a seller if their two single cob "100 watt" was really 2 50 watt cobs with two 50 watt drivers and the answer was a yes. So, I asked if the single 100 watt cob was 100 watt with a 100 watt driver and they said errors happen. So, I asked them if that meant they know they are selling a 100 watt LED wrongly and they said errors happen. So, they know damn good and well what they are doing and at least this person was nice enough to tell me it was a fake. I ended up winning one from another seller that was the two cob "100 watt" version for $12.50 last night so not bad. I will open it up and remove the cord and replace with my three prong cord (theirs is just wires) and make sure it is really grounded in the process.
Cheers.
Yeah, and you know what ticks me off the most? There is no way to turn in these sellers for false advertising and selling something they really don't have.
I bought some little 12v LED lights from china on ebay. They were advertised as 9w, when they came I tested them at less than 1w! Seller's reply was: "Sorry to hear this news, may be due to voltage is not the same as the result"!! Lol
scbk
Yeah, I hear all kinds of things in their Chinglish but if I get a response like you did I file for a refund and every time I get my money back. I had one light that came that was 10 watts and was so dim I knew what was wrong because it said 110v but acted like it was for 220v. I told them and they refunded my money. I mean I use 9 watt bulbs in my house and this was about 1 watt which made no sense because they had a bunch of the little chips all around it (was a corn cob light) not a single chip so I could only surmise that it was due to being ran at half voltage.
yeh! that baby will light a stadium for sure!!!
I've got an image of Miners going down a shaft with huge mains extension cables trailing behind them and an onlooking canary face winging.
Damn, two videos in a row for bits of kit that isn't actually going to kill you. I'm both impressed and disappointing.
That being said, that floodlight does actually seem to be somewhat decent quality :)
Big Clive is so amazing… When I saw the new video in subscriptions panel, there were 121 views. When it loaded there were 131 views already! :)
send that light to Cody's lab so that he can put it in his mine next time he blasts it.
I've used a floodlight housing to keep a Raspberry Pi and camera in. It's been in the garden for years. I took out the thick glass and replaced it with picture frame glass. In order to get a good seal onto the silicon seal, I put some strips of foam between the front frame and the glass. So you could use them for solar, but you just have to use other glass.
Rather obviously, you have to be able to cut glass. It's not a difficult job.
Maybe try a nice Christmas sweater...perhaps something with Snowmen or Reindeer. :-)
Should do a teardown of one of those cheap $4 TENS machines.
I would also like to see this........could be very interesting.
yep
Yes, I can hear the coat rustling, but to be honest its not really annoying to me.
Enjoy your videos very very much. Wish you'd do one on your favourite tools, meters you use etc. Especially that screwdriver :). Thank you for taking the time to do these.
Was thinking the same. What wonderfull things has our MILD MANNERED ELECTRONIC CRASH DUMMY or as his friends call him "BIG CLIVE " does he make, build ,invent or blow up ??? And even maybe the odd outtake , personal injury , swearing and drunkenness is accepted and expected. keep up the good work muka your fans await
Apart from the loose ground, this flood light seems to be actually very reasonable. Since the LED lights evenly, and the unit does draw close to its advertised power, I'd probably trust it more than most of the others I've seen on this channel.
I was supprised to see the leds all come up together, it shows some quality control.
Who needs an earth LOL :-D
I really don't see these being used in any mines, certainly here in the UK.
Everything electrical down the pit, needs to be either "Intrinsically safe", which is it uses a low enough voltage, and is designed so it cannot cause a spark hot enough to ignite methane gas. Or for all the heavier stuff, with higher voltages, 3 phase etc, need to be gas proof or in a "flameproof cabinet", in that all the electrical equipment needs to be housed in very heavy cast "panels", like boxes, and any doors or glands are designed so that if there were to be an ignition of some methane gas inside the equipment, the gaps are small enough that none can get out of the equipment and ignite an outside source of methane gas. The panel doors are well bolted closed and the gaps need to be checked with feeler gauges to make sure. No power can be on whilst a panel is open.
Now you see why China has been having so many mining accidents and out right explosions for decades.
*****
Well, do you want active mines that blow up and kill people like in China or having closed mines because of safety regulations?
Let's just do neither and make wonderful mining robots that we don't really care about if and when they go up in flames.
Roflcopter4b
Don't care about? Are you insane? Robots cost a shit load of money whereas humans are virtually free slaves. Easier to just get another human, or a hundred, than to have to buy another robot to do the same chore. Mining bots are not cheap but human life is.
*****
Clearly you've never heard of lawsuits.
These little lights do make useful waterproof cases. I used one to build an outdoor light sensor switch.
Really enjoyed your work videos, hope you post more
We actually use a lot of these at work. 12v 24v and 240v. every 240v we have uses a capasative dropper. ive never seen one with an actual power supply in them. we open them because most of them are not earthed. it just routine now. but i must say im surprised at how durable they are. we install them on boats, Campers, Caravans, 4WD, outdoor lighting. in the last 4 or so years we have had mabye 1 or 2 percent fail.
The black mask on the glass is called the frit. Properly done, it will be black glass powder fused to the glass and impossible to remove. In this day and age however, they are commonly done with some sort of thermoset plastic.
Yours
Vern
I think you have a fixation with lights. I like that.
You can get acrylic cut to size on eBay to replace the glass
That Ebay vendor has a very good rating. I just received a similar version of this and for my $7 CAD I got a dodgy 10w led with a 10Watt ceramic resistor that was not quite soldered to one of the leads. And that's all. No LED driver to handle the 110v, no earth wire. and the case metal was about the gauge of tin foil.
Clive, I checked out that seller, and they are listed as "from China"
They do not have anything for 5 quid. The least expensive item in their listings was a 10W - 85-265v cool white PIR sensor outdoor lamp for 10 USD.
How would one know if one is getting a lamp similar to the one you show in this video? I don't have all the test equipment you do, and certainly not your knowledge base to know what to even look for.
A 10 or 20W LED flood for a fiver would work wonders in my garage.
Thanks for a great channel!
Hey BC if you want to remove the "baked on black" from the glass all you have to do is pop it in the oven at medium heat for an hour and then when it cools down the black will just scrub off with hot water and dish soap.
This one is quite good. I've seen cut earth wires, and underpowered drivers that are used far out of their rated power and voltage.
Hey Clive, you've mentioned a few times before that these cases have potential for projects/hacking. How about a showcase video of different things you've made using parts from these as a bit of inspiration?
Love the videos buddy
Confirmed: Clive is a bear.
untrue ! bears hibernate and Clive doesn't fortunately
in the dodgy worklight with lithium cells when he's trying to get the battery apart, listen with this in mind. i about fell out of my chair. Clive, if you're reading this, just know you're my favorite bear and I'm friends with quite a few :)
I bought some cheap 10W LED floods to light up the garden when I moved 2 years ago. Been as good as gold no complaints, I'm of the opinion "that if you do a bit of research and don't buy the absolute cheapest item out there most "cheap" Chinese stuff is OK"
Admit it Clive, you are just too tight to have heating in your house really LOL.
Neat light, I was surprised that it drew more than 5A.
Rather different tastes in environment - though of course I live in Southern California, which makes a difference. ;) I like it warm (~25C) and dry; of course, I like lazing around in naught but a pair of shorts. (As you say, I'm the only one who lives here, so....)
At least we agree that humidity is horrible - icky sticky if it's hot, clammy and chilling if it's cold.
what im finding with the newer equally cheap led floodlights is the metal is getting thinner and thinner, lots of pressed steel parts where at least the older ones were mostly cast aluminium. also the floodlights with lots of individual chips (2835, 5730) tend to be less reliable, harder to fix.
Nice video.
May be you should desolder the LED from its power supply before connecting your bench power supply to the LED for testing. I have done that before and I fryed the LED power supply due to backfeeding!
Great video anyway!
I think some Chinese sellers are increasingly sending in bulk to the UK and dispatching from there through a partner or something like that. Your starting to see the weirdly unfitting names dispatching from the UK more and more.
its for impuse buyers who dont want to wait 3 weeks and willing to pay 3-4 $ more
very true on the waiting, but also, i lose maybe 30 percent of small orders from china, i buy a fair amount of £1-4 stuff and it is not tracked and never turns up.
Yeah I've noticed that in Australia too. I think a lot of them probably have a small warehouse/storage place because they often run out of stock, and/or ship from Asia. Multiple accounts from the same sellers possibly too. Most of the Australian sellers is the same stock with their margin added.
I have been quite lucky over here in Australia. Made around 800+ purchases from China only lost a few, some even turn up after 3 months lol. Most of the sellers have been quite good and refunded or reshipped. Just keep an eye out for good ratings too, I rarely buy from less than 99%.
Dark Anthem
oh its not the chinese, its the UK post office, they also lose a fair amount of small stuff i buy in the UK.
I think this is the first chinese case we've seen with proper silicone gaskets, front _and_ rear.
Wow, that could really be taken out of context. :3
Unbelievable.. there are still people outside watching this channel and still don't know the quick test? Come on guys.. it's the quick test! :D
Why are they watching it outside? Surely it's warmer inside?
hey Clive have you tried using a Dremel and some medium/corse buffing compound to get the black stuff of the glass?
What's that device called that you use for a quick test?
I bought a couple of 20watt versions to use in my workshop as task lighting for my lathe. Great light but the RF interference was so bad that my FM radio became useless. So, I'm still looking for a use for the pair where I won't be using a radio.
Hey Clive, what do you use for air dehumidification?
I have two that look the same as these, but the earth wire was not connected to anything. seals were all great and it takes the same 7-8 watts. I connected the earth properly and they are hooked up beneath the cabinets above my workbench in the garage. Only I think i paid 3 dollars a piece for them. Probably the difference in cost for those extra screws holding the led and reflector and an earthing lug lol
Clive, is there a way to hardwire the kinect to the xbone s without the adapter sir?
Had a couple of really shitty ones recently where there is no separate driver, everything is just mounted on to a board with the LED's and stuck in with some shmoo, the mains wires have been very close to the reflector and the only insulation is the blue protective film on the reflector
Have you tried soaking the glass in acetone? It may take a while but it might loosen that black coating up.
For five pounds, the quality on that light is amazing. Shame about the ground screw though.
could you give me tip which power supply should i get ? i mean are there any decent ones ?
Do you prefer this case style or the one from the "A look at some super-cheap mini 10W LED floodlights."?
I am waiting for 2 of those and will put colored 10w LEDS. I will most likely have to change the driver but i have not found cheap actually 10w drivers.
Clive I think the chanel is due for something new... if you have some very bizarre things show em next
I could send him some random things from Aliexpress. I wonder if Clive has some sort of PO box.
Lots of this kind of thing flying around in China. You order parts for another project, find you have been shipped too many which you throw into a bin someplace. Later on you find over-shipments have been made on enough projects to kluge together something you might be able to sell. Someone with enough experience in electric circuits designs comes up with something that produces light. They sell these in bulk and they end up with lights used for illumination of fried rice in a street vendor in Myanmar or something else. Hopefully, it doesn't fry someone else's parts. High tech today.
Can you get these with infrared leds? Looking for something invisable to us, but will help a cctv system in the dark outside
Since only half the screw posts are used, you could remove one and fit the 18650
Would you actually use them as lights outside? (their intended purpose, apart from mining)
Good Vid.
What power supply do you use?
is that casing really worth the money? It's made of iron, which will rust in a couple of years time, when used outside I reckon.
"You've had your fivers worth." 😂
I guess you could aways get a piece of glass cut (or cut some glass yourself) to fit the housing - but then you may end up paying more for the glass than you did for the box!
Hey clive what soldering tip do you use as i like the method that you solder with
I tend to go for a larger tip for the extra heat mass.
ah okay dont you usually go with the chisel tip?
Yes. I got so used to the Antex 3mm chisel tip that I stuck with that style.
So, maybe a vid on how LED's actually work
can u do review of yugi led with cri 96 as it mimics sunligjt
Clive, do you have an eBay link at all to the 10w lights that are "10w"?
There are so many listings that use different stock all the time that it's hard to tell what you're going to get.
You should try and find a usb heater or something haha
30v is always better even with the same chips, not bad at all :)
what wattage led do you think you need a fan assisted heatsink ? ive seen led floodlights at 50w with just a normal heatsink.
Depends on several variables you didn't specify. First the claimed "50W" light probably isn't really 50W, second it would depend on the material and surface area of the heatsink on the particular light. Third I don't see the point as it's little to no more expensive for them to just make the heatsink larger than it is to buy a "good" quality fan and wire that up, especially in this case where you would either need a 220VAC fan or a separate power supply for it.
I like the video, I'd love to see you put 18650's in one of these and making a efficient driver for it, I think that would be very interesting, maybe incorporate USB C fast charging and it being a USB power bank aswell? (might be getting a bit complicated tho)
Start with a better host, some would argue that is an excessive thing to do considering the economized casing, relatively low grade heatsink and poor efficiency LED... sort of like putting lipstick on a pig.
According to the instructions it could be installed in mines. Bet it didn't have an ATEX label on it.
It might be ok in a copper or lead mine apart from reliability but fatal in a coal mine.
Wonder if they didn't tighten the earth connection in the factory or if it worked loose in transit due to lack of washer/threadlock.
didnt tighten, the others didnt get loose, most often the earth isnt connected just tucked in behind
where do you get one of those mains break out boxes, or whatever they're called.
that question is answered almost 10000000 times here.
Cliff CL1850 Quicktest Mains Connector
I bought four of these lights (look near identical on outside), except mine have cast aluminum backplate and cover, not stamped steel. Now I'm wondering whose are the new design and whose are the old design. 😕
Could i have the link to this item i cant find the exact one?
I only notice the sound of your jacket when you mention it.
:O Clive changed his screwdriver?!
Anyone got any ideas on how to actually make it battery powered? An 18650 battery seems to be stretching it, when you have to fit the driver, battery, and charging circuit in that case. Unless its an external mounted battery
can i ask can you put a 100w led chip in a 30w led flood light case with the heat of the chip
If you put a 100W LED in an existing casing designed for a 30W LED and with a 30W driver then it should be fine as it is sized to dissipate 30W. You can't put a higher power driver in a small case.
Hot humid houses are indeed horrible. :/
all I can say is; (that simply indicates that I'm about to opinionate), whenever possible *PLEASE* avoid *at ALL costs* purchasing any electronics (or children's plastic toys), anything that may come in contact with foodstuffs for human OR domesticated critters or beastys that you love or care about, directly from China... be it from Amazon, eBay, Wish/Geek sellers, etc.,. I learned some time back that [many] products are faulty from either shoddy construction, parts, components or failure but "turn-blind-eye" & passed through whatever inspection procedures that are performed before entering most modern, consumer conscious countries
v Rod
Agreed, Clive first test the light for connected ground and it tests - fine. How many of us (me too) leave it at that? Maybe we are just so used to it being bolt- tight grounded. Clive opens the light up and discovers the ground not screwed tight, I mightn't have gone that far and put it in to service. EU, UK, NA, product, yeah. Chinese? No. with then, a physical tear-down and fix. Going cheap on Chinese products or spending more on western products (10 or more), pay a little more for reliability and get equipment into use quicker and safer. Yeah, your coat is bit noisy; better that and learn some safety. Clive makes great videos and we learn about some cheap stuff we can use for our projects. We're all pretty smart with good learning curves.
I agree...But only if you're going to just plug things in and not inspect them. I don't have a problem buying some things, like smaller G8/T4 style LED lights, because you can see the entire design through the clear molded silicone without needing to take anything apart. I've used the LED cob floods in this video too - but I always redo them completely (reseat all the weatherproof seals and gland, remove zinc oxide thermal paste and use better silver thermal compound, solder a longer flex/ground on, and check the power supply design (if it's not potted). Even spending 20 minutes on a light works out much cheaper (and nicer light) than what a hardware store sells anything equivalent for (in fact, most by hardware stores by me rarely have anything equivalent).
I am not sure many of the big UK eBay/Amazon importers do anything to check the quality or safety.
id get this one though.., for a fiver this thing seems well build.., like clive said though.., keep low expectations and dont use it in a professional setting. ive seen many dodgy china things.., this one looks to be among the best.. close to not being dodgy. the question of quality and longevity of the driver and LED chip is still open though.
Silver thermal compound is pretty much a waste on these. The LED base area to wattage is far higher than on CPUs/etc, the LED isn't worth much, and the overall performance once it's on for a few minutes is dominated by the passive heatsink. Regardless you'd probably get an equal or better improvement by just scrubbing the heatsink interface area with steel wool to level it and get rid of the oxide layer, then of course use the silver thermal compound if that's all you have.
The black parts on the glass is actually glass.
Is this really 10 watts or is it 9 watts?
For the 5 quid, I'd rather have two pints of bitter ...
Richard T you can buy bitter for £2.50 a pint?! £4.10 down here lad!
Mr incredible To be fair it was a few years back during my uni days ... 2.5 a pint ... That was around 20 years ago ;)
It was 70p a pint in my university halls bar! :-) That was 1988, how many year ago was that? Argh!
Anyway, these lights seem better value than a pint, but once you'd got a light to light your way back from the pub, you can then happily spend the rest if your money on beer.
After a quick isle of man weather google, well into winter seems something different over in Britain
Well it's humid and cold at the same time... so it feels worse than the thermometer alone would tell you.
That's the stock response.
also I think weather websites generally read a few degrees hot. I had to scrape ice off my car at 6PM today after work and the met office says it was +4C
I think I'm going to be checking the earth connection in the flood lights I bought now... That's really dodgy!
Hey Clive!
Just before halloween I bought a similar light to this for about fifteen pounds, amazon has literally just pulled them down from sale because they are dangerous. I would like to know why though! Perhaps I could send it to you and you can check it out?
Thanks,
Tom
I want to buy one! Can you link it?
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Floodlight-10W-20W-30W-50W-100W-Cool-Warm-White-Garden-Outdoor-Lamp-IP65-/112044157501?var=&hash=item5fb056a5ae
Although they are sold out of the 10W ones that Clive looked at and who knows if the higher wattage ones will be as good quality.
We need to chip in and buy you a cordless screwdriver, my hands get worn out on some projects from all the screws, but I am 62 and kind of lazy
i think for 5 bucks thats about as good as it gets.
jort93z 5 pounds
RC MAD isn't bucks referring to any currency?
if not, then not. lol. then 5 pounds. pound isn't very high rightnow anyway. barely higher then euro.
***** ok
Just a shame that the seller seems to have either sold out of them or jacked up the price (as always happens with chinese sellers), ah well... :P
Keep meaning to buy a set of this style of LED light as the other style (the really flat 10W things that started the ball rolling) don't quite fit where I want them, as the (replaced with UK spec quality) cable would rub on a brick wall, which ain't good, but these ones with a bit more standoff room are just the ticket, just need to get them when cheap enough for my wallet... :)
how to add a PIR to it ? for lets say as a security light outsider my front door
Cheaper to buy it with one pre-fitted.
bigclivedotcom
yh i imagined so ,i do have afitting outside already but its a bayonet fitting ,prob easier to invest in a fgood LED bulb
why is it called floodlight? are you supposed to use it when a flood happens?
Yeah...and you can get spot lights, for when you're having skin issues.
And then there are flash lights for when you wear the trenchcoat...
Jamie Rogers And there are Fleshlights for preparing meat
Wouldn't the heat from the light blow the battery up?
Not if it was running at just a watt or so.
bigclivedotcom True but I was seeing 7.4 watts
As a child did you get told of a lot for taking things apart?
im sure his mother still tells him off for doing so!
v Rod
depends if 'tinker' really meant taking it apart when it worked, and it never worked again, which was often my case at least
+v Rod O.k did ya get a bollacking as a youngster muka ?
dehumidifiers in the winter? i thought i had heard everything... lmao
Confirmed! they're a seasonal line in the UK and shops bring them out in the Winter. I'm sure most of Clives favorite boutiques will have small windowsill units based on hygroscopic crystals out. (poundstretchers certainly does)
Andy Merrett chill out there's nothing "wrong" with it. it just gets unbearably dry in the winter where i am so i used a humidifier in most rooms.