inside a linear LED light with Samsung LEDs.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ค. 2019
- This seems to be a very common style of linear light as an alternative to traditional fluorescent fixtures. The construction is incredibly minimalist with a universal plastic extrusion that manages to incorporate the guides for retaining the aluminium LED strip, the solid white reflector and the translucent diffuser all in one single extrusion. The circuitry is minimalist with token gesture filtering. It does at least have smoothing on the input and output for flicker free operation.
The termination is via a very short tail of two core flex that pops out the back at one end. It means that the only locations that this style of light can be used are where there is room for a small junction box behind them.
This light came from a large UK electrical/electronics supplier, so it's designed for 240V. It does light on 120V but only runs at 13W.
A thermocouple placed between the aluminium LED strip and case showed a temperature of 61C (about 44C above ambient).
Here's a link to the range of sizes and colour temperatures. (UK retailer.)
cpc.farnell.com/search?st=led...
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of TH-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
The lens and body are co-extruded so they are literally the same piece of plastic, just two different polymers. That's why they are so seamless.
You basically have two different extruders feeding two different polymers into one die. The two polymers go through different channels until they come together at the face of the die where the shape is determined. The polymers then flow together right before they cool enough to freeze into the desired shape.
Clive didn't perform the flammability test. :(
Like striped toothpaste.
@@RFC3514 Exactly.
There are some places that do tri-extrusions
@@gerbilmajor Very true, and some lines are set up to do much more than two or three layers. Some drink bottles may have five to seven different layers, all from different injection extruders feeding into a single preform die.
The resistor parallel to the inductor is there to suppress resonance. Think of it as the shock absorber in a car suspension, while the inductor is the spring.
Sometimes you will get a resonant peak in the conducted emissions and the resistor can fix it, but it's not always beneficial.
I ordered a bunch of these V-TAC lights, and then went off to TH-cam to look for reviews. I had a nice warm fuzzy feeling when I found my favourite scotsman had a teardown review :) Thank you Clive
There's another video showing a slight hack that reduces intensity, but will result in lower operating temperature and longer life.
R across inductor may be to damp down any resonant ringing, possibly for EMC compliance
Yes. Common practice.
Ah the (mostly bad) memories of complex time-domain LRC circuit analysis in first year university!
I was an early adopter, fitting LED lighting throughout my flat 9 years ago in 2011.
In 2012, I retro fitted a 5 foot LED tube in my kitchen fluorescent fixture. The tube is daylight and contains almost 500 LED chips! It works perfectly 8 years on, with no LED failures!
One often sees failed LEDs in street lights, but they do have a high duty cycle.
Thanks for taking this apart for us. I fitted one of these in my neighbours kitchen (a 6ft version) and you've put my mind at rest about the brand.
I was considering this too.
How is the light output on that unit?
@@ro63rto I chose the warm white (daylight) version, and I've got to say I'm impressed. Instant on, no more flickering. I have no stats to hand, but I would guess it's also a power saving over traditional fluorescent tube light fittings.
@@beachcomberbob3496
Thanks.
My kitchen just has one small fixture off centre that I have Tesco's brightest led bulb mounted and it's not bright enough. Might have to get three 4ft units, since they're so cheap, mount them in a U pattern with the base of the U over the sink area.
Just wish they were dimmable so as to avoid extra wiring to control them separately from each other.
The reason the diffuser is set into the other part so flawlessly is because its co-extruded. You have two extruders sharing the same tool and pushing plastic like play-doh through the star pattern.
Among us that grow indoor plants, Samsung leds are well-known to be in the absolute top for amount of photosynthetic active light per watt you get. It's something like 2.4umol per joule for their better binned leds and their new ones are supposed to reach 3 umol/j, though I've not seen them in the wild yet.
One of the few manufactures of leds that actually deliver those amazing specs that they're promising in the marketing. Put a couple of strips under your kitchen cabinet and put your herbs there. They'll love it!
I keep the 20w 6400K on either side of the cabinets and it is my microgreens stations, it is so so handy and it also looks amazing. They are the basis of my grow lights for my indoor winter garden in the basement too, but also in 4000K and both 20w and 40w.
V-TAC kicking in, yo.
Said what i was thinking
Epic.
🅱️tac
Vtec vtec vtec
Yo
I have a dollar tree led bulb, its only been off during power outages, (about 10 hours total) and been going over 3.5 years and still working! I have another that's been going for 2+ years! Not bad for a $1 bulb! LED's are amazing! Great video!
IP20 basically means you can't shove a finger in it lol
If you have fat fingers...
My first thought was, "well, that'll keep the squirrels and larger chipmunks out, but...". lol
Before anyone complains, yes I know IP20 means it'll keep objects larger than 12.5 mm out.
@@SigEpBlue And fingers! IP20 is objects not only protected from things larger than 12.5mm but also live electronics are not reachable with a finger. This was actually not a joke.
Max Power An artificial mechanical finger of a specified size. This is the same rating as a power socket without safety shutters, or an Edison lamp socket with a light bulb screwed in. Unscrewing the light bulb of cause would be IP10 because you still can't touch live mains with a clinched iron fist (simulated by a big ball of steel).
@@SigEpBlue No good for keeping my willy out then.
I love the amount of light these put out. I replaced two fluorescent tubes in my utility room with these (120v version) and it's like walking into an operating room. They should last for years since they're only on for a few minutes at a time.
I was in the commercial sign industry for 30+ years. Neon and florescent lamps was our go to for lighting up until around 2000. We started using LED for channel letters and most were modules made by GE and CREE. I remember saying at the time that LED was going to be the wave of the future for consumer lighting. Of course prices had to drop by a factor of about 90% and the output had to go way way up. It's fun watching Big Clive tear these things apart and seeing all the simplicity now days.
Please design a tshirt that says
"Let's stick it in the hoppi"
Or
"Let's take it to bits"
Or
"One moment please"
😛😛
The big Clive picture with one moment please in a nice fandango pink would be a purchase by me
@@Liberator975 oh yes!
"One moment please" too!!
Don't forget the "I'm not (entirely/quite) sure"
A t-shirt with the BigClive logo and one of those sayings on it? I'll order 2 of each with express shipping please!
Does Clive sell merch at all?
I´ve bought some V-TAC VT-1259 SMD for a basement / my washroom and I think they´re great Value. Similar construction with extruded materials (full plastic) and glued on endcaps with a removable section to connect the wireing. They send these out with the same shady connectors, I would definetly replace those with some real Wago lamp connectors. My only complain for ussage is, that they can humm a little bit and on some instances they seem to flicker on camera. I like the design of the version you showed, my complain would only be, that the room for connecting the wires is maybe a little bit too small and it would be hard to then put these lamps up on the sealing, when they are (in my usecase) 6 wires floating arround. But I would definitly buy at least one to see if they are suitable to replace some 1960´s 600mm flurecend lamps in a hallway.
The moulding and diffuser will be RF welded together. It's not a new technique, but it is being used more widely nowadays. My father worked at a factory in Parramatta in 1970, where they welded plastics with RF to make such things as spectacle frames and handbags.
Thanks Clive, just bought a 4-ft one of these for my shed.
I Love ya Clive! I have this vision of everything in your house having spludger marks on it! You Rock!
Spudger
I picture it with a skip out the back full of poundland eBay and poundworld gadgets that got ripped apart. But seriously big Clive is a legend....👑👑
I changed my bathroom light to one of these last year . I am in Bulgaria. Very Impressed with it.
Just bought the long version of this VTAC - still made the same way 3yrs on. It came with a "wago" type connector which is actually very good.
Me too, its blinding me when I look into it but nice to have in the kitchen in these dark norwegian winter days. I am thinking about modifying it for less LED current.
I think these strip lights are very common. I recently refitted my T8 -48" fixtures in my garage with the LED 6000K retrofit kits. I removed the ballast from each fixture and wired the line to the tombstone sockets on each end. Insert the tubes and you're done. Very, very bright light.
I'm considering doing my office the same way.
What can I do with old ballasts. and tubes ?
@@highpath4776 I have no idea--when you figure out something, let me know! Really old iron ballasts might well contain PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls) which puts them into the category of "toxic waste". Some types of fluorescent tubes are still valuable as UVC sources as sterilizers (Clive had a post some time ago on one of the UVC lamps).
Imagine that. A 20W light product that puts out 20 watts of light. Imagine that you chinesium people.
Lol
That is a very nice light...going to look around for some that I can get here in the US.
Been using these on property refurbs as lightweight, simple, great light and are great for kitchens. Oh yeah, and cheap!
An idea to check flickering, as this is probably one of the most important factors for LED room lights: Get a photodiode and connect it to an oscilloscope. I did that once and it seem to have worked ok.
I did that with a Silicium solar cell from an old solar powerbank, terminated with a 1K Resistor (Parallel). Quite interesting to see the high frequency effects in some CCFL and LED lamps on the scope screen. The Scope on AC, and you truely can see the ripple (Scope on AC disregards the DC offset, so the ripple is perfectly visible)
Try a Remote control :-D
V-TAC is also a heart rhythm condition that leads to death without medical intervention within about 15 minutes.
Good choice of name in the Part-P era.
Couple of observations about the 6400k version. I got a 4' for my workbench and because I liked that - a 6' for the kitchen. The hard white really makes edge detail POP. Having used them for a couple of weeks now I suddenly realised that you can't see the GAS burners when they're lit, the usual blue glow is just wiped out.
Then I got caught short in the bus station - and they've changed the lighting to what look like 6400k there too. Except there's a really weird lighting effect going on in there.
I made a couple of calls and apparently it's an initiative with the local authority, police and hospital trust - the hard blue/white LEDs (illuminate bodily fluids - such an attractive term!) for cleaning while making it almost impossible to find a vein thus discouraging the local druggies who inject. It's greatly reduced the number of addicts who used what are the last public toilets in the town. Makes punters look like they are special effects in TRON
I hadn't realised the stalls are all lit with a mix of 6400k and UV black lights which makes veins invisible and further adds to the overall eeriness.
My city is slowly upgrading street lights from HPS to LED. Usually on roads they're doing major repaving on. Most of them are supposed to be 4000k neutral white.
However several of them have had a defect. According to Clive the phosphor failed. Either was never applied, or was applied badly and came off.
This means that the affected LEDs shine a VERY cold, harsh blue that's unnerving to walk under. I actually thought it was UV, and brought a pen filled with UV-reactive ink to test!
Some fixtures have had all LEDs fail in this way, while others have only some panels, or even some chips on a panel, have the problem.
Around the house I usually favor 5200k "Daylight" lamps, which are a popular bluish hue here in the US.
Clive, I do hope you realise that companies now have whole departments whose sole reason for being is to defeat Big Clive.
😂
They're wasting their time. Nothing can defeat the Vise of Knowledge and the Spudger of Inquisition.
@@gcewing Indium solder can defeat those two, but not the Heat Gun of Anticipation. ;)
Reminds me of that scene in Yellow Submarine where someone remarks "Maybe it's Beatle-proof", and someone rejoins, "NOTHING is Beatle-proof!"
I have a 50W LED flood light of the same make which replaced the old 300W halogen. Working very well so far after a few months.
I love that feeling when the V-TAC kicks in.
I got several V-TAC floodlights from CPC as well recently, quite pleased with them so far.
Yeah, I was looking so long for an intense light to film with a DLSR.
Tried different bulb form LEDs but even two 15W bulbs are too weak.
One floodlight for ~30€, 8000 Lumens and intensly bright at 100W power draw.
A blessing.
@@FutureChaosTV Do you notice any "strobing" effects with your DSLR and the LED floodlight? With my compact camera (Canon Powershot) I get quite a significant strobing which unfortunately makes it difficult to shoot video under it!
Ripping the protective film off .... what a brutal defloration!
That is pretty sweet light.
I like these better than the COB lights because you can jumper the ones that get the black death.
@@johncoops6897 It increases the likelihood of a cascade failure, correct.
Precision co-extrusion- what a tweest!
Nice walk through
Thanks for sharing :-)
cpc and rapid favourite companies. rapid because they're just up the road and they have a retail counter , cpc because they are so good (RMAs no problem etc etc.) . I called them once for technical support , a question about a product, the guy on the phone says 'hang on' a couple of minutes later he's back having gone to the warehouse to find the product , open it and read the instructions to me over the phone, great service IMHO.
I've had some strange comments from the returns department. I was told that CPC is a wholesaler and not a retailer, so they didn't need to comply with the Consumer Contract Regulations. I think one of their staff keeps an eye on my activities and intervenes if I need to contact them. I began using Farnell in Leeds back in 1987.
That's a neat little LED.
that is a nice light,be nice for over a workbench mounted high up on the wall
Samsung offers a series of similar LED modules consisting of an aluminum printed circuit board and one or two rows of LEDs, which are available through Digikey.
This looks very similair to the V-TAC 120 centimeter tubes I took apart last year. Almost same circuit (but then ridiculously small because it had to fit inside the diameter of a standard fluorescent tube) and same power.
5 groups parallel, each group with 24 LEDs in series. LEDs are most likely types that can handle more power: the power supply just can't handle it.
I cut the glass-fibre PCB (one piece of about 1 meter and 1 piece of about 20 centimeter) into smaller parts and made a replacement-light for my circular-TL light at my desk. From 22 Watt of TL-light, I went to about 20 Watt of LED-light...
The 4000K color temperature is a very nice choice between daylight and tungsten.
I’ve grown quite fond of V-TAC products lately. They seem to last a long time.
V-TAC seems to be new at my local electronics retailer.
100W floodlight, ~30€, 8000 Lumen, sturdy metal frame -> great!
As far as I know, modern LED's are usually rated for operating at up to 85*C. Some manufacturers even provide separate ratings for 25*C / 85*C operating temperature as the temperature affects the LED's performance *and* characterics.
P.S. Some LED's are even binned at 85*C but those are usually high power as opposed to these mid power LED's intended for general lighting etc.
Since i am a HAM radio operator, the question i have first does it transmit RF into the air or back into the mains wiring? Everything you bring into your radio station these days has a chance to screw up your noise floor. its usually after you added a month's worth of new stuff that you find a big RF spike on some frequency that you now want to receive on, then you go back and try to remember what new crap you plugged in and start turning stuff off to try to find the offender. Clive you need to add a spectrum analyzer to your act.
Nice video Clive! 😎
CPC is one of my favourites too, I'm a regular visitor there as I live about 10 minutes away from the trade counter l :-)
Simple and quality. I like it.
Great presentation as usual but I am not too keen on the noise gate (downward expander) you are using on the audio. Never noticed it before. Maybe it`s on the camera without you knowing. Other than that, you are one of my fav TH-cam channels. (Nearest competition - Mr Carlsons Lab).
It's the one major problem with this recording device. The gate is baked into the firmware. I have a new recording device on its way.
@@bigclivedotcom Hello Clive, I didn`t mean to take anything away from your videos as they are just great. I sometimes work in the audio field (Broadcast) and these downward expanders do have a place when properly implemented. However, the cut-off point on some of them is so abrupt, it makes it sound like the audio stream is cutting in and out. Great job Clive, keep those vids coming.
I have a previous version of these under my kitchen cabinets and in my garage - they're exactly the same, apart from the white plastic housing on yours is aluminium on these older ones - it gets warm, but not hot, and they've been fine for about 2 years - so I wonder how well the all plastic ones will fare without that extra heat dissipation.
Clive - the resistor across the inductor dampens the response at the inductor's self-resonant frequency. It doesn't appreciably affect the inductor's unloaded Q but does prevent strange things happening close to the SRF (which may be surprisingly low, in the hundreds of kHz region, for some higher value inductors)
looks like only in the uk right now be nice replacement for under cabinet lights with the sealed defuser cleaning would be a lot easier
Oooh I just bought 6 of these for my Garage from Stax! Hope its a good Investment!
John Gildert I believe they are. I purchased a bunch of V-Tac LED (all types - ceiling, wall, linear) for my apartment last spring - they works perfectly. They are by far best price/performance LED manufacturer distributed in Europe.
We've got about 10 of a different brand with exactly the same design, and they are fantastic lights with a nice spread of bright light. We started with 2, but we buy more every time we need to switch out a light now 😂
I've got 2 in the garage, bright as F and easy to hang with those clips.
Have you ever considered doing guides for electricity basics because I feel like you are pretty good at explaining things to the point that even I might understand them. If not, are there any TH-camrs you suggest that do so?
If you have them, you'll have to excuse me if I just didn't notice them. There don't seem to be any playlists.
Cheers, interesting review.
Neat light, and 4000k too, my favourite colour temperature range... :D
And as for the Not-WAGO connectors, I got a set of 10x of the 2-way ones from Banggood, which arrived today, and they're so damned useful for inline connections, such as between solar panels and batteries... :D
Those WAGO clones are pretty awesome. Very well suited for "quick and nasty" lash-ups when trying to repair things, but as BC has noted, the levers are a bit hard on the fingers (especially after many open / close cycles).
The levers have a nasty nip to them too if you don't keep your finger out of the way as I found out, several times (absent-minded idiot me!), they snap down hard and really hurt!!! :S
Why is all the writing in Chinese except for BPS confidential
because the Chinese don't stop for copyright. pointless to write it in a language only Chinese people will understand
Think of that "BPS confidential" stamp as a decorative background, in the same way that someone might use random Chinese characters on a shirt.
I absolutely love it when Clive says stuff offhand like around 8:37 like “I’ll whip this out and we can take a closer look at it”... The wife was watching tv while I was watching this and inside her dirty mind, that one phrase was all she heard and she looked at me and asked “what exactly are you watching?” Too funny.
Did you tell her you were watching a fella named Big Clive? And that he was known for his enormous ......
Clive, Why not get an isolation transformer for when you work on these things live? I use one when working on the old AC/DC radio that were made in the 30's and 40's that have a live chassis.
I've suggested that in the past. Clive likes to live dangerously.
Great suggestion. I've got one I use on occasion, too. Mine actually was used inside an old B&W tube set.
There are knock offs of these with slightly different profile and two separate strips slid into tracks and diffuser being just a sheet of plastic wedged into the extrusion. I wouldn't dare to use as it is with 120v running through them but they are great base to convert them to 12v strip with led tapes. I also created a module that slides into one side and has IR sensor and turns it on when needed. Works great over the sink. If you put on one side warm and on the other side cold leds itlooks almost like a proper fluorescent tube :-)
I've finally got round to ripping out 4 touchy budget starter type 100W 8ft fluorescent fittings from my shed and replaced them with 5 x 48W 5ft fittings (VT-1549, also from CPC all for £89 ) that look of similar construction to yours. Brighter yes, will they last? The ends are seemingly bonded on, but your video gives me some confidence if ever I attempt a break or bust repair. Thanks.
I know you mentioned but the light diffuser, I have to say they get a 10 out of 10 with that. The one thing I notice alot with LED lights is when you can see the chip thru the defuser, when I had my 99 f350 I slowly but surely switched all the bulbs on the vehicle over to led, all the bulbs replaced looked great, except the dash. The Oem lights would light up the whole dash not really being able to tell where the bulbs were located when I switched to led you could clearly tell the placement of the bulbs, I even changed bulbs at one point. Still I could tell. So I wonder if the defuser is designed different for led lights.
@Matt Quinn thanks for the info. If n u r Merican happy 4 th of July if not have a good one.
"I'll whip this out and we can take a closer look at it." sounds like dialog from the urologist's office.
9:40 re soldering/working on very tiny things , given the ubiquity of microscopic surface mount stuff I'm surprised you haven't got yourself a headband magnifier thing. I find mine indispensable, and I dont even wear glasses for regular work/reading/anything. the cheap and cheerful ones on ebay are surprisingly good and well made.
These seemed great, so a bout two of them one 20W as show here ... but in warm white (really nice color) and one cold/neutral white 40W with the part number VT-8-40 which I mention cause I think that one would make a entertaining video as well. Since I discovered it has two drivers and passes the power for the second driver through two tracks on the LED board. (labeled L and N).
I had a go at these to look if I can modify them. No it is clear I can't the with larger one. (not enough space) ... aside from maybe making two lamps out of it (hook the 2nd driver to a separate plug).
The "LED provided by Samsung" branding has been popping up on various name brand home appliances (fridges, light fixtures, etc) sold at hardware stores here in the states, including a couple ceiling fans we just bought. Wonder if that logo will be the next Chinese seller branding stuck onto anything and everything like "Cree" was. The one on the fans we got are a driverless platter with a 9-pin IC doing all the work (no results for chip - n7d6475). The LEDs themselves are things of beauty. About 1mm x 1mm, the phosphorous coating wraps around all 5 sides with no visible pads.
EDIT: Just realized I'm sitting under one. Here's some photos:
i.postimg.cc/rpW18Vbb/20190702-223040-1-2.jpg
i.postimg.cc/YtnTCYd7/20190702-225435-2.jpg
what do you print you pictures with, they're always amazing
It's an Epson ecotank printer, it uses refillable ink reservoirs. I have one myself and have totally stolen Clives' photo and print trick when I'm doing electronics ;P
I was thinking how expensive it must be to print those out when he could just cut the pictures into his video using Premier but I still like his way it makes it a little more tangible if that makes sense
@@ADR69 the ink is super cheap for the Epson, I'm still on the ink I got with the printer and have printed approx 150 full-color photos and 300 regular A4 prints, I think I have used 20% of the ink. A full set of ink is about 45$ so really cheap pr print.,
The magic I believe is in the good illumination when taking the pictures.
@@Gengh13, In general, it's just easier to get one good sharp macro photo, compared to video capture from a microscope camera as EEVBlog does. and for macro small sensors cameras, like the smartphone clive is using, tend to be very good.
That feedback diode reminds me of the line boost diode in my vintage TV sets, variously known there as "efficiency diode" - "boost diode" - "flyback diode". In your lamp, I'd say efficiency diode comes closest, taking advantage of the collapsing magnetic field, which induces a current in the coil windings, by 'steering' the resultant DC back in to the circuit where it can do useful work, rather than being simply dissipated as waste energy in some form or other (noise/heat etc).
Thanks Clive for another great review I wonder can you advise me I've just purchased a new 55 inch smart tv do you think I need to buy a surge protecter to plug it into ?
Surge protectors (or spike protectors as they should be called) are a waste of money, they protect nothing.
A surge protector can make a difference for a low level transient spike, but areas with a high number of lightning strikes to overhead lines might not benefit much.
@@bigclivedotcom That's true, if you are only worried about power surges. Adding protection to the antenna cable will help as well. BUT...That's a discussion for a different thread.
CPC is a good place to go. A little like Maplins used to be, before they went daft and started selling cheap 'toys' instead of components. Rapid Electronics isn't bad either.
Don't mention the Consumer Contract Regulations if you contact the returns department. They get shirty with you.
@@westinthewest I've been dealing with them both commercially and privately for over 15 years and can't remember having a problem with them.
Do you spend much time in the toilets in Douglas, Clive?
Good video. Thanks.
hi clive i wounder if the resistor across the inductor is to damp any ringing in the inuctor?
It could well be. I can recall someone saying what it was for, but can't remember what they said.
A light featured on this channel that actually outputs the wattage stated on the label?? Wow!
I’ve fitted 2 of these in parents kitchen only thing I didn’t like is fittings to hold them to Ceiling not a flat surface an be a pain been up over 6 months there happy and a nice light it gives off
13:00 Isn’t the resistor in parallel across the inductor intended to shunt the current when the field collapses after power off? Similar reason for having a discharge resistor across your power capacitors - brings the electronics back down to a safe power off condition quickly without nasty back EMF hammering the circuitry.
Inductors don’t store charge the same way a capacitor does. When the current stops flowing in an inductor, the magnetic field collapses and a pulse comes out whether you want it to or not. Snubbers are generally diodes to clamp the voltage of that pulse to a low value to prevent blowing transistors. A resistor across the inductor will lower the Q of the inductor, making it less resonant but wont really limit the pulse much. This is likely to prevent it oscillating or radiating RF for electromagnetic interference reasons. Resistors across capacitors bleed the charge off quickly after voltage has been removed.
My fav LED is CREE XPL-2 NW (neutral white) 80+ CRI. I don't like high CRI (too much yellow). Gotta love balance 😋
These recently became available in my local home-improvements store quite cheaply and I bought one for my garage. Mine has aluminium plates in place of the first plastic ones that you removed so I was concerned about the lack of an earth wire. The lamp cannot be flush mounted without creating a channel in the surface to allow for the cable and there has to be some sort of junction mounted immediately adjacent to the light fitting due to the stupidly short length of cable supplied. I opened it up with a view to converting it to end feed by punching a hole through the endcap but I was deterred by the soldered connections and the apparent fragility of the circuit board.
I will take another look after seeing this video.
Just bought two and immediately realised same as you, can't be flush mounted without cutting a recess or piece off the side. There should ideally be enough space in the unit for the connector too. Poor design really. Have been designed for a cavity mount not joists in a garage,
Well, to fit it from the other end, you could just turn it 180°...
Or just turn the whole fixture as it is symmetrical...
no mom its not a normal civic its a type R it's a sports car, it has V-TAAAAACK
Quite nice looking light. I'd think about getting one, but I am not an electrician. I know I'd be able to wire it in perfectly safely, but if something went wrong elsewhere in the house, the insurance could still have words to say. So I wonder if it could be modified to take a figure 8 plug. What kind of circuitry am I looking for to determine if it can be reverse input or not? I seem to remember that some power supplies cannot have the input leads reversed, even though it is AC. If this unit can't tolerate reverse input, I suppose I could just use a cloverleaf connector and leave the earth disconnected/floating.
Don't let the red tape brigade put you off adding a light to your house if you know how to do it properly.
Have fitted loads of the ansell version of these, not too bad,had a few failures where half goes out, the supply lead is a lot longer than that though,
Very nice light
"I'll whip this out, and we'll take a closer look."
Let's hope nobody's just listening to this, without watching as well. 😁
What would you say were the advantages of these over an LED replacement tube? You can buy tubes at around 170lm/watt efficiency nowadays for example, compared to the 120lm/watt for the lamp tested here. That's 30% less electricity and around half the heat produced for the same light, and therefore potentially much cooler running.
This has the advantage of being low profile. The LED tubes have the advantage of being easier to replace.
That cable securing method is sometimes called a "torturous path".
It should also be called torturous termination.
13:30 I think they put a resistor on the inductor in case it fails and the circuit gets lost there. Instead it would flow through the resistor and still provide the resistance the inductor had whilst sacrificing that inductance in order for the light to continue operating.
Is the housing self-extinguishing in case of fire ?
I had a set of almost identical, unbranded lamps from a cheap Chinese seller. The extrusion was bare aluminium. When the lamp was clipped to an earthed garage roof the internal circuitry was shorting to ground and flickering. Ripped them straight out.
I did exactly the same thing, except with no ground wire I'm hesitant to even install them in the first place.
@@fanbladeinstruments if the extrusion is plastic it'll be fine. If it's aluminium then don't trust it. Every one of 10 of mine would flicker and arc if the aluminium got grounded.
It looks as though there is but is there room in the end caps to drill a 20mm hole and install a 20mm female conduit fitting? Or a 20mm gland?
Seems like the cable termination is the only thing really letting these down.
It's not big enough at the ends for full size conduit.
I have similar design 18W lamp which has bigger power supply with delay at startup(it filters voltage).VTAC has cheap and bad power supplies in their LED bulbs.
Clive those little UV pen lights used for hardening glued/epoxies as advertised? Are those actual UV lights or just colored LEDs? And are they dangerous?
They would need to be UV or near UV for them to cure a UV curing epoxy... by definition really. Usually if you look at the holder it will have a guard that blocks the UV. It is probably no really harmful unless you were exposed for a very long time. A long time ago i bought some real UV leds and was just testing them and even casual exposure left quite a mark in my vision moreso than the brightness alone would cause. A very shortwave UV LED will appear not very bright pale purple. Anything appearing bluish is less dangerous.
See bigclives UV light bulb explanation of UV A, UV B, and UV C for colours and danger warnings.
I have used CPC since around 1986 ish they were really good for components, but this no longer the case.
I do not know if it happened before or after Farnell bought them out.
Me too. I still have old receipts from Farnell when I lived in Headingley in 1987 - 1990 studying electronic engineering.
CPC is still useful for various things, but there are some strange attitudes in the returns department. They told me that LEDs were considered as consumables because they are light bulbs, and so they could not accept returns.
I think that is the same light as my mother's main kitchen light
It is indeed very bright
The inductor and resitor is an LR Series Circuit.
I like the Mercedes logo on the capacitor tops lol. Nice one Clive. Thanks
I bought a bunch of cheaper lights almost identical to this but with a diffuser removable from a chassis made from extruded aluminium - and still no ground wire. Trying to work out if they're safe to use, I doubt it.
I recommend treating all ungrounded metal frame lights as potentially live. That includes the LED fluorescent tube replacements with aluminium rears. Best not handled while powered.
A friend of mine had a couple of the aluminium chassis type and neither were working on arrival, found the inductors rattling about loose inside when I took them apart...
6:30 nice a light dangling from its electrical cord :-)
I'm not going to ask what you were doing in the Villa Marina toilets. ;)
Anyway, if I understand correctly, the uninsulated aluminium strip of LEDs at 110 volts sits on the uninsulated aluminium housing, which might be screwed via metal brackets to a metal wall or ceiling? Hmm. Or is the entire housing made of plastic to keep the heat in?
It's all plastic.
i NEED something like this, shame i can't find anything like this one where i live, just LED tubes and regular bulbs.
11:10 A capacitor and an inductor in series surely makes a tuned circuit. I wonder what the resonant frequency is?
1/√LC
I don't think they're making a tuned circuit, it'll be to remove an undesired parasitic from the inductor.
You could run them in a string, just run a wire along the back channel where the mains wire comes out, maybe that's how it was designed.
Not a lot of room for making connections in that channel. Maybe they do a version that can plug end to end.