A look at some LED COB light strips for cars / automobiles.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2016
- This is one of a variety of LED panels using COB (Chip On Board) mounting of LED arrays. In this case the unit is designed to directly operate on 12V by using four parallel groups of LEDs wired in series to give a combined forward voltage of 12V (4 times the typical 3V forward voltage.)
Unfortunately this unit would pass an extremely high amount of current if used in a vehicle, as the alternator charging voltage is higher than 12V and while the panel drew about 350mA at 12V (4W) it increased to about 1 Amp at 14V (14W) and that results in the metal backplate getting very hot quickly. The inclusion of self adhesive foam strips to attach the lights to a surface doesn't help much as the foam would provide extra thermal insulation.
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had these on my jeep for over three years as running lights..through car washes etc still running.
they are pretty good...and cheap as chips.
Really? I just ordered about ten of these at about 10 cent each (plus shipping) to play around with.
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I was considering some of these for aux lighting for my ute. Your information really helped me realize they are not quite ready for "prime time." I give them six months and they'll be far more robust and reliable.
I like the idea of using what I call a chopper circuit to pulse LEDs and vary the duty cycle so they don't draw current all the time. Pulse Width Modulator, used as a dimmer on my under cabinet lights.
i been using them for quite a few time in my car and they are working well just the way the came from the factory
Get back to us after you've run them for a few hours.
Love your vids and always also just as interesting is the new carnage on your hands 😂
Clive I was thinking about ordering some before I happened to watch this video and now I think I'll just skip that.
Thank You for saving me money.
Got two of these in the back of my van and they are fine. Been running for a year now. They are always on when the engine is running too.
I've got mine running while the engine is running via the original interior lamp cables & they are working real well for the little I paid for them. 6 hours constant on per day, every day for many months now.
I want to install this in my car trunk baggage. Will that work instead of stock light without a risk of burning my car?
I have one of these that was advertised as "12v to 24v", so I thought I'd see what happens at 24v.
So 4.46amps (107watts) for as long as I dared to leave it on, quite amusing as it was supposed to be 10watt!!
As you can imagine it started to smell rather hot in only a few seconds
@ELECTRONTHORP I got this installed in my car. When engine is started, it flickers very fast. However, whenever engine is off, the brightness is constant and no flickerings at all..why flickers comes??? Please kindly help.
@ELECTRONTHORP the same led strip 12 v 2 w is connected in parallel with the turn signal circuit. But it doesn't glow when turn signal is activated?? Why?
I kind of want to run one of these (on a heatsink) at 24v to see how long it lasts. I have a bunch shipping from China for dirt cheap. I just don't have anything to power it at 24v.
Every automotive LED product I've used that uses a simple series arrangement has died a rather quick death, even just off a 12VDC power supply. Usually each individual LED will develop the Black Dot of Death one by one within 2-3 weeks of constant-on application. I had one strip of 5050 warm white LEDs that failed in a very bizarre way, though: No black dots, but the LED chips got progressively dimmer the closer they were on the chain towards the power end. It was an almost perfect gradient effect. Looked really neat, but the light output really suffered! No idea why it failed like that, though...
I've got a pair of the 6W versions on my commuter bike (14.5V when the engines running) and they last a couple of years before the number of dead leds becomes noticeable :o)
I started using the 6-10w versions as fog lights and additional reverse lights (Changed out the sucky wiring they came with obviously). The only problem i have with them is that the battery/alternator affects them so what would i need to keep the voltage constant? I have them wired up via cig lighter adapters with on/off switches.
I have been looking into getting some for parking lighting, basically mount it under the glass of the headlights. I've had them sitting in my watch list on ebay for some time now..
Hey Clive! Do you have a link to this? I found them but would like to go where you did.
Use these all the time in automotive applications, so far, never have had an issue with them burning out, running them up to 16v dc. They do get warm, no argument there, we have a car with a dozen of the on the outside of vehicle in direct sun light and rain, they still work after 3 years. I have retrofitted an ambulance interior lights with these to provide more light over the traditional filament bulbs and to reduce power consumption when vehicle is off.
i use these in the caravan as under unit lighting ,they are great
Wow I just bought a pack of these and I was hoping for longer wires to reach the fuse box. ?
I have these and I made a flashlight/torch combo out of a toolbox
A small 12v battery powers an HID in a fog light housing, and then I mounted these on the outside to act as a torch if I need too.
They're very bright! and can be found for cheap on ebay
I been running some tests on these too and they get nasty hot, i bought the version with a plastic encapsulation on and an reflector at 12V the COB module reached 100c and i tried at 14.2V as what cars deliver while they are running then i reached 147c before it failed.
I got a set of these about 9 months ago $1aud and still going strong
I want to run these inside a car reflector, Im worried about the heat aspect mentioned above. Is there an alternative to these strips? I want a full bar type look instead of single led light look.
how I attache this led in interior roof? how I wired up??
Because, I'm attaching self made led strip to dome or roof it's bern...
so plz help me ...
Would they not do a decent enough job to add to the courtesy system electric loop through, so as well as the light in the headliners coming on and fading out out when you unlock your vehicle etc, these could light up the boot and foot wells for a short period - engine off so only 12v.
Are there possibel to cut and make them shorter?
Bought a pack of them last week for still life photography
My led DRL lights half part not lights up, how to fix
HI
I have been running these on both of my trucks for 2 and a half years with no problems. 1 truck I use for plowing and have some pointing to the sides between the plow and the truck, mounted on the A frame. and on my other truck is my daily driver and are used as day time running lights the a set in amber to make the front grill glow then i have a couple sets come on under the truck when the doors are open. again no problems.
So these on a 12v 1amp adapter would be ok heat wise?
What's the advantage of putting the LEDs in parallel per individual LED, instead of putting complete series of 4 in parallel?
Is it reducing PCB paths, or does it help handling rogue LEDs?
how long are they lasting on a charging boat like 13.7?
put 2 diodes forward biased in series to reduce voltage?
I have a set with a module connected and 3 wires R/B/W, just wish it came with wiring instructions to explain the white wire. I plan to mount them on a motorcycle.
I put them low in my bumper grills they've been running about 6months been thru car washes and they still work fine. Although they are in a slightly sheltered position. look cool at night
in Philippines/Thailand/Vietnam you usually see them mounted for motorcycle accessories.
Hey Clive, I bought an UV LED strip for the inside of my PC but it is running really dim now after about 6 months, how long do LED strips normally last? I'm quite disappointed with it.
These LED work fantastic on RC cars as a lightbar with 3S Lipo!
This I want it to know, Thanks.
Thanks thinking of doing exactly that. What If I run if off of a BEC at 7.4v or 6v? Do they even power on?
I actually have a pair of these in my van, not used as daytime running lights however, they're used to light the inside of the van.
I suppose they're never really on when the van is running though, thanks for the video!
I run a regulated 12 volt circuit in any vehicle and this gives them huge reliability and a long life.
Looks like it'd make sense as a trunk or glovebox light. Bright so you can see what the heck you're doing, but not intended to continuously run longer than a few minutes.
how much Volts and Amps needed to light 2 led lights together?
can I do connection in dome circuit??
at what voltage you use and how long it last?
I wired a pair of these to my car's Dome light. most of the time these are on when the car is off (when I get in and out of my car). a couple of days ago I accidentally left the dome light on (and therefore, the LEDs on) for about 16 hours (3:30 PM to 7:20 AM the next day) and they were fine. The car did crank a little bit slower, so the battery voltage probably dropped a little bit, which likely helped them survive. These are meant to be used as DRLs but I think that would kill them quickly (constantly on while engine is running). But using them for interior illumination (on for short amounts of time, mostly with engine off) they should work just fine.
Nice to fit on RC scale trucks.
Being a nomad at heart, and attempting to live in our RV most of the year, I look at these from a slightly different angle. IE. Where can I mount these on my RV that will do some good, yet allow the heat to travel to the body of my rig. Haven't figured out where I would use these yet so they go on a back burner till a thought hits me and China gets a few more of my dollars. Thanks for the wonderful reviews though, it seems I do purchase many of the items you review though, and many of them are in boxes and unused at this time.
Consumer US vehicle voltage while running is 13.8 VDC considering the voltage regulator is not going bad..
I have these in my tube light fixtures as backup lights for power failures, mounted right on the ballast covers in the center.
How do all of these led lights work off an unregulated supply if there's no current limiting? Are they just assuming that at 12V the current will be low enough to ensure a reasonably long lifetime?
Being a daytime running lamp on the outside of the car the temperatures would be very cool whilst in motion.
Yup. I posted on another video about the COB 194 leds I had to modify because they were overheating at 14V. It had a 75ohm resistor in series and I added another 22ohm resistor. I wanted more, but I only had 1/4w resistors and that was pretty much at the limit for it. But that was per COB and each board had two of them.
I've used these for interior lighting with an adjustable voltage regulator, 11.6v is a nice voltage on temperature/brightness. 14.6v when the vehicle was running turned the foam into smoking blobs of black mess!
Hi mate i wonder where ibcan get on like that?
Best regards
do ineed another adapted for the other one ? or can I connect it in series/parallel to use the same power supply?
You can connect them in parallel.
looking for info on how to cut a COB strip like this, its linear with 40 led's on it, the power instead of being on both ends, comes out offset on the top about 10 led's down. is it possible to cut anything like this?
Whether it can be cut depends on the exact circuit configuration on the panel.
I am wondering how long these would last if attached to the car bodywork via thermal glue..... That's one mighty big heatsink! I am wondering this as next week I am having my custom MG painted and a strip of these either side would look nice on the jet black I have chosen. Thinking of side ones low down and front as a running light or maybe even a driving light on dark country lanes. Any thoughts?
Whatever you stuck something like this on with, I'd want to be able to remove them again in the future if they did fail.
+bigclivedotcom Now that is a very very good point. 450v to the testies for me, I should have considered that! now its blue phase to left and yellow to right I think!
My only advice is to ask yourself, "How straight-from-PepBoys will it look in 5 years. Source the LED set up from an OEM or research for a top quality aftermarket solution. I think they could really give your MG that updated resto-mod style with some tasteful wheels and tires.
+Stephen Bianchi Thanks for that. I am thinking of getting very good quality full led system so all lights would be led. I allready have 17" alloys and Pirelli tyre. she is my baby. :) The car has a name to lol.. its called liquid as I have liq within the reg no. I know... I'm a geek. sadly I cant work on her much myself anymore as I have had a spinal fusion operation. :(
oddly perhaps but car panels are lousy heat-sinks...too thin and too rough
Can it starts with mobile charger adapter?
I've been using these on my ridding lawn mower for a couple of years now without a problem, and they get blasted by the heat of the engine. The ones to avoid are the ones that have the small round "eagle eye" lenses. I tried them twice and both pairs lasted about one week on my car until the road salt ate them up. I don't know how well these would hold up to salt either, but I wouldn't risk it.
Any chance to run it at 14V for prolonged time and see what happen?
I did a test on another type of cob led lights it is built in to a enclosure with a plastic lens and a reflector in front of it i could get it so hot that the lens melted. did as i stated above a test and at 12V they reach around 100 degrees centigrade and at 14.2V then they reach 147 degrees before they failed. So without a proper current limiting driver they are crap.
It would waste less time to just run it at 20V and see what happens. :)
I have 2 of these that are 4W replacing the olld dome light in my Jeep. It's been running fine for 6 months now, longest runtime was around a half an hour. It's a great deal brighter, I used a cheaaaap lux meter to check and it went from 4ish with the old bulb to over 60 with the COBs. I don't have the lens cover on, as I intend to make a clear vented one.
Running in my father's car INSIDE the headlights (along with heat from the xenon lighbulbs), they work fine for over 6 months of driving (in 35 degrees hot summer). They are running on 13.9-14.2V from the car alternator and have not burnt, even without any heatshield
You do realize it's quite trivial to add a series resistor to limit current to an appropriate level, and that such resistors cost only a few cents each, right? Do a web search for "LED resistor calculator" (without the quotes) and use a magnifying glass to count the # of LEDs in series and parallel to input into the resistor calculation.
i use these for dome lights. i love them... There is a video on my channel showing them in action.
if you have crap lighting in your boot then these are excellent. I put some in my old ford focus. I could actually see what was in my boot in winter nights.
Ironically I had ordered a half dozen of these with the intention of installing them as interior lighting in my bus when I happened to notice this video before I installed them :p Thinking of just adding a resistor to make them happy at 14.5V, but wondering what value you would suggest..
LDO or.....boost-buck
i had a set of these and some others like it mounted to my car, they last for quite a while before failing, even though they heat up like crazy you shouldnt forget a car is usually in motion and the driving wind will cool them down
The phosphor on these seem to yellow quite quickly, they're really made down to a price.
The metal enclosures has no protection to keep it shorting out where the wires are connected to LED strip, 1st thing I did was dispose of the metal frames. I did a test to see how much pressure it took to press down and make the frame contact the wire connections...it only took slight finger press, the little wires feeding the circuit immediately got hot enough to melt all the insulation off.
I used these to make custom lights for the grill of a KIA Soul, the first set (three of these strips) lasted about an hour. Rebuilt with three more strips they lasted about a day. Then I put a LED driver that provides a constant 12 vdc to strip and they have been working for over a year.
I have bought some for use on my car.. at 12 volt they get too hot. With engine running they would last only a few min.
What resistor would I need to add to cut them back to an acceptable running temp?
Multiply the desired current by 2 to get a rough resistor value. Lower current is better to reduce LED and resistor heat dissipation.
What if you use them as indicators? The current wouldn't be long term so there would be chance for them to cool down. Also, indicators are used only for a limited time. So they should be ok running off a standard battery right?
yes the voltage on a vehicle is all over the place! I have seen over 15v in newer vehicles. I guess a DC converter is a must if you want them to last!
I've got some Lidl under kitchen cabinet LED strip as interior lighting in the back of my car (because there isn't any otherwise) and that's got three LEDs in series then a 150R resistor, so at 12V you're looking at about 20mA per section and at alternator volts more like 30mA. Not completely silly in either case.
Interesting; I've been looking at this sort of thing and been surprised/not surprised to see how many are claimed to be "waterproof" and then you see big gaps where the wires go in and exposed solder connections, etc. I've got a need for something that's *actually* waterproof and finding such a thing seems ... difficult. ;) [In my case, I would be using a regulated power supply, so the issue you point out won't be a problem.]
I use these on my bike and they dont seem to hold up to rocks very well. There are a couple of dead sections within the 15 led strips. Not something I would put on a vehicle.
IP68 might last longer, else a channel
Do they daisy chain?
It would seem that this issue could be resolved with the addition of an appropriate voltage regulator
Cars normally run at up to 14.4 volts at which point the vehicles alternator cuts in, the normal vehicle battery voltage is around 12.6 volts stationary and up to 14.4 volts engine running, therefore it is vital thet both voltage and current are regulated before using these items in a vehicle application.
I know people say this a lot to you, but this is timely. I am looking at some of these for "uprated" interior lighting for my car, specifically the back is a dark hole... due to being a poverty spec corsa. I already found door switches that fit, was gonna fit these to the b or c pillars (or both)... will invest in a 7812 or low dropout equivalent now!
dynamo 6volt lights it?
Thanks for the info.
I would like to use something like this to light an old Chevy emblem. Could I use some like this and cut it to fit? Of course keep connections in tact? Could you suggest something please. Thank you.
Take a look at 12V LED tape. It can usually be cut every three LEDs.
Hi Clive. Someone mention running them in series. They look like they might be nifty as courtesy lights and wondered about running them in series-pairs. Would the brightness be acceptable and heat manageable at 14V?
I think they would struggle to light at all if run in series.
I can confirm these do not work in series
these strips are actually quite good heat conductor.
I have many of these and im using one as a desk lamp right now! its been reliable for the past 7 months but I am slightly under running it power wise, never run them over 12v if you want any long life from them. I just wish they came out in warm white
what is the lowest voltage I could usefully run these at? I don't need anything more than 2W per strip.
The 12V ones will start glowing at around 10V but won't reach full intensity until 12V.
Im not someone who knows anything about electricity
But if I understand, these LED strips want 12v but cars give 14-15v.
Is there anything I can do to make my car "give" them only 12v ?
Hi, interesting, as you said :)
Thinking about buying a dozen of those and run them from a spare PC power supply in order to shed some light here and there in my home studio.
Or may be there are some more interesting items already...
Just a thought :)
Do you think these would be safe to use directly with a PC power supply at 12V?
Yes, that should be OK since it's a regulated supply.
So would a few of these drain your car battery pretty quickly when its not running?
As the voltage drops the current drops a lot too, so they shouldn't be too bad.
How to install that lights to electricity
I think if I were using this in my car I would probably want to mount it on the inside as a dome light. That way they're only on while the car door is open. Plus I would want to use some sort of thermal compound for mounting them because the cars body will be a huge heatsink.
Are they dimmable ?
Might seem like a stupid question but I couldn't find the answer anywhere.... can you trim those strips? For example if it's 17cm and I need to trim it down to 13cm. Will it work?
These ones may not be trimmable as each section of the series circuit is usually in a clump of parallel LEDs. You could probably do it with a simple single circuit 3V COB.
Clive, have you thought about looking at the USB persistence of vision style led clock fans yet?
Lol. The iPad is going to go crazy over that.
just wondering; how big are you exactly?
I installed them on my car today for parking lights actually. They work great, but after a minute i saw they were very very hot to the touch, and also because of the heat and vibration on the road, the glue tends to unstick so i have them mounted and i will use silicon probably to glue them better, also i left them on to take a pic without the engine running. And ALMOST drained my battery when i went to start the car. I was lucky. I Drive a fiat seicento suite 1998 and it had broken parking lights when i purchase it.
Do you still have link?
@bigclivedotcom: The theories are sound, but I feel like the olden day Bigclive would have ran them at 15v, attached by the adhesive foam tape to a bit of vehicle plastic or vinyl to see just how spectacularly they fail. Bit let down. :)
'
wow 60 LEDs lights on the stripe...
that is alot of brightness LEDs lights...
i put LEDs light on the velleman kit with 9 volts...
very good
Can you not join two of these together in series? would it work?
say what? in series??? or parallel?
Cob led or 5730 led diodes?
I'm not a 100% sure how to contact you Clive, but I'd really like you to do a video on USB charging of devices and charging speeds. There seems to be many factors affecting the speed, like the data pins, cable quality and more. TH-cam needs a video which clears things up from a trustworthy source! (that would be you)
Would these require a current limiting supply if you planed on running them for any length of time?
They'll last a lot longer if you use some sort of current regulator or even a resistor with them.
Lovely, but it boils my blood to think that someone designs lights and advertises lights for automotive use-but if you want them to last more than 1 day you have to use a regulated supply or current limiting. Imagine buying light bulbs for your home, and the moment the supply voltage exceeds 220V RMS every bulb in the house is ruined because you did not install "bulb driver" circuitry. Does it make sense? lol...
+pillsnotbills Every high power LED I've worked with has always required current regulation, that's why I asked about these. So I was not surprised. When LEDs heat up they have a nasty effect of drawing more and more current eventually burning out. I imagine if you way under power them you could get away without regulation perhaps. But that kind of defeats the purpose...
So how can I fix this problem? I agree my alternator kicks 14.9V when current demand is high. I have used various units like these and strip led and about 30% failed leds (they are sealed up totally, so no damp) Some still light up with raised voltage, I think they are fatigued by the high voltages/heat. Can I measure current and build something simple or is a regulator board the only solution? Then if I drive them at 11V will they live longer? Great content Thx
Under running LED will always make them last longer. For low current loads, adding a few 1A diodes in series with each light can drop the voltage by a decisive amount. You can also use resistors, but they would need some calculations.
Is this product flexible? U want to male it curve shape
I rather like the concept.
I am working on a van rebuild and need desk work lights for the inside.
Also my radio room at home needs 12 volt lighting in case of power outages so I can run my radios and take notes. This is a good concept but poor execution. Wonder where I can find good ones?