I got a 30W one from Farnell - each colour channel was 10W (I checked the driver and it says it's 30W - 10W for R, G & B). White and mixed colours were 10W too. My guess is that it's so all the colours are the same intesity. At least it's properly grounded and comes with CE mark (proper one too!). It also had a similar style all-in-one driver/controller.
This is very common with rgb drivers. They run a constant current pe color, which means if two colors are combined, the current doesn't double as it should. Some LED strip controllers can drive these 10w LEDs to full power if you add the proper resistors. Heat does become an issue at 10W so surely they put the 4W limit to save on proper heatsinking
you should measure the current and voltage going to the actual led itself not the power drawn from the wall because the power supply is inefficient so it makes some watts more on the 220v side. i believe that this led is 3watts .
nice video, i really like your teardowns of cheap/faulty products. What wattage meter are you using? cheap ones are really not meant for anything under around 10-20W and can be really inaccurate (10% and +/- 3W or so)
I thought i'd mail you here instead of bothering you in your inbox.... anyhoo, I bought a few of these 10w rgb floods ages ago, and the ones that have the all-in-one transformer and rgb controller (like in your video) have a failure mode of just dying (possibly overheating) but not tripping anything, whereas the other ones from a different batch with the dodgy 240V>12V kapton tape-wrapped transformers have a failure mode of the bridge rectifiers failing/shorting and blowing many many fuses & circuit breakers. so upon seeing the same led flood but in a 12v version for sale - often with a wall wart as well - i was thinking of converting the remaining rgb floods (and the ones where although the mains transformer had blown but the leds and their drivers had survived) to running off a 12V supply. would the resistors on the led driver board be enough to stem the current flow from (eg) a 12v 1000mA wall-wart supply? (the ones that are about 12 and 22 ohms respectively?) Or should i be looking to fit (eg) a 100R 10W resistor in-line with the PSU?
Clive, I've watched all of the RGB flood videos over and over again. Do you reckon you could slice out all of the control circuitry and drive the RGB LED directly from 12v? Would you need any current regulation etc?
+JoeRKsChannel You would need something to limit the current. In the case of an RGB LED you would probably use a 10 ohm resistor for the blue and green channels and a 20 ohm one for the red channel.
+bigclivedotcom Thanks! Planning on repurposing some of these along a parallel chain of around 5 units. I want to strip out the circuitry and have them run back to some 3 channel DMX decoders. Our whole garden system runs with DMX (it's what I know!) and I have made RGB floodlights before by creating panels of 5050 RGB strip inside floodlight shells. Very time consuming and messy however, this looks like a potentially better option!
Clive, obviously these resistors would need to be pretty beefy (around 4W) and would dissipate a lot of heat. Do you reckon a few LM317s would be up to the job?
I have had 6 Different RGB bulbs from Magic Lighting and so far 2 Didn't work at all, 2 work Improperly and 2 function okay (Albeit Extremely Dim...) The lower brightness modes though flicker like mad and can make you feel sick or give you headaches after long exposure... Overall they are quite simply junk!
I would like to use one of these lights in combination with a home automation system. There are typical 12V PWM dimmers available for LED stripes. Also with 3-4 channels special for RGB(W). Can you give me an advice what's the best or easiest way to drive this LED with them? Just to use resistors with a suitable power rating or maybe some sort of constant current source?
+hurz h Those dimmers are just FET switches driven by a PWM circuit. So they just chop 12 volts, they don't reduce the voltage. If the power dissipation isn't a problem, use a resistor. If it is, you need a variable current output circuit. I've seen them on eBay cheap.
Why does the IR receiver need to talk to the resin blob using three, RGB wires? I did wonder if all of the control was in the IR chip and those wires were perhaps driving the blob inputs as pwm - which might be convenient for your controller?
can you give me a bit of advice please,? I bought new photography bulbs from eBay and 2 blew after 10 mins they sent a replacement but they done same today only 2 have been OK! one bulb just blew first and the second went after it about 5 mins but blew fuse in plug? can you tell me if I can put in bigger fuse or lower it has a 5A
+Horticulture and Bonsai est2005 (Doug) The high power compact fluorescent type photography lamps are notorious for failing quickly. They seem to overheat easily.
+bigclivedotcom I've heard some of the cheaper ones will overheat if you leave any oil from your skin on the bulb. Not sure if that's true, although I do know that happens if you touch headlight bulbs.
+DanJBMedia The oil issue usually relates to tungsten halogen lamps. They operate at such a high temperature that they require quartz glass globes. The oil in the fingerprint causes devitrification of the quartz, causing lots of tiny hairline fractures and ultimately lamp failure.
bigclivedotcom Thanks for the explanation. :D I didn't fully understand why that happened until now. Also, if you're brave you should check out some of the nightmare tablets on Ebay from China. Some are actually quite good. . And the rip-offs of those are so poorly built it's scary xD I bought one for laughs, it was about $20USD. It had two charging ports, micro USB and some strange separate one. . If you charge it via the micro USB it WILL catch fire. :D
ive found some potting compounds get soft ish with acetone and you can dig through , it takes a lot of doing though , you really need to see whats inside to go through all the agro :-)
+Alex Barlow My own RGB software does not have any remote control facility as standard. It's intended for fixed applications like mood lighting or architectural purposes. The main strength of my software is the randomiser that gives infinite variety of colours unlike the Chinese software which just loops round a few pre-programmed colours.
+bigclivedotcom Do you have a schematic of the current limited RGB controler ? I am currently trying to build something similar using Arduino and three 1W LED's.
+bigclivedotcom I got the same kind of floodlight, just received it five days ago, not working of course. Can u give me some ideas who can fix it? I'm not a hands on guy, really clumpsy and don't have the patience to fix it. Thanks for video.
+bigclivedotcom No, mine is not the remote control, its just the regular light either warm white or cool white, don't know cause it never worked. But the light fixture is exactly the same I have but its a 10watt 900lumen. Bought it online from walmart but a different company shipped it. Thanks, any ideas appreciated on how to fix.
I've been wondering why the LED flood lights have a deflector? Its my understanding that LED's are directional, am I wrong? The only reason I can think of is maybe the glass reflects some of the light back into the deflector and back out?
10W RGB Floodlight If you want to test the total power should be R + B + G total wattage, you can light up the three chips together to test I think there should be 10W, why the red power is small, because the red single Red chip voltage is only 2.2V or so, the normal chip voltage is 3.0-3.2V. If you want to know more please see www.raylighttube.com/led-flood-lights
those cheap chinese RGB lamps are total crap as they use a controller that can't do proper RGB fading (they insert white into the rainbow, which I don't like). I seems like if I want a decent RGB light I will have to get ones with DMX control
Clive is channeling the spirit of Dr Ashens.
Which is worrying, since I'm sure Stuart needs his spirit for the time being! :D
Nice video :D
I got a 30W one from Farnell - each colour channel was 10W (I checked the driver and it says it's 30W - 10W for R, G & B). White and mixed colours were 10W too. My guess is that it's so all the colours are the same intesity. At least it's properly grounded and comes with CE mark (proper one too!). It also had a similar style all-in-one driver/controller.
Surprised it has a ground wire. All the Ebay lights I have bought are have had a 2 wire cord that I had to replace for safety.
This is very common with rgb drivers. They run a constant current pe color, which means if two colors are combined, the current doesn't double as it should. Some LED strip controllers can drive these 10w LEDs to full power if you add the proper resistors. Heat does become an issue at 10W so surely they put the 4W limit to save on proper heatsinking
you should measure the current and voltage going to the actual led itself not the power drawn from the wall because the power supply is inefficient so it makes some watts more on the 220v side. i believe that this led is 3watts .
The only true 10W RGB Floodlight I'm aware of is made by Iceled in the UK. It's switch-mode current driven so has no overheating failures.
nice video, i really like your teardowns of cheap/faulty products. What wattage meter are you using? cheap ones are really not meant for anything under around 10-20W and can be really inaccurate (10% and +/- 3W or so)
I thought i'd mail you here instead of bothering you in your inbox.... anyhoo, I bought a few of these 10w rgb floods ages ago, and the ones that have the all-in-one transformer and rgb controller (like in your video) have a failure mode of just dying (possibly overheating) but not tripping anything, whereas the other ones from a different batch with the dodgy 240V>12V kapton tape-wrapped transformers have a failure mode of the bridge rectifiers failing/shorting and blowing many many fuses & circuit breakers.
so upon seeing the same led flood but in a 12v version for sale - often with a wall wart as well - i was thinking of converting the remaining rgb floods (and the ones where although the mains transformer had blown but the leds and their drivers had survived) to running off a 12V supply.
would the resistors on the led driver board be enough to stem the current flow from (eg) a 12v 1000mA wall-wart supply? (the ones that are about 12 and 22 ohms respectively?) Or should i be looking to fit (eg) a 100R 10W resistor in-line with the PSU?
Hi .Can you recomend a good RGB floodlight as im looking to buy but dont want to buy a cheap make ? Thank you Mike
Clive, I've watched all of the RGB flood videos over and over again. Do you reckon you could slice out all of the control circuitry and drive the RGB LED directly from 12v? Would you need any current regulation etc?
+JoeRKsChannel You would need something to limit the current. In the case of an RGB LED you would probably use a 10 ohm resistor for the blue and green channels and a 20 ohm one for the red channel.
+bigclivedotcom Thanks! Planning on repurposing some of these along a parallel chain of around 5 units. I want to strip out the circuitry and have them run back to some 3 channel DMX decoders. Our whole garden system runs with DMX (it's what I know!) and I have made RGB floodlights before by creating panels of 5050 RGB strip inside floodlight shells. Very time consuming and messy however, this looks like a potentially better option!
Clive, obviously these resistors would need to be pretty beefy (around 4W) and would dissipate a lot of heat. Do you reckon a few LM317s would be up to the job?
+JoeRKsChannel The LM317s would dissipate the same heat as resistors.
+bigclivedotcom I realised as soon as I posted! I wish there was a plug and play solution, much like your prototype PCB!
could you use a beefy transistor attached to a heatsink in place of a plain resistor to dissipate heat?
I have had 6 Different RGB bulbs from Magic Lighting and so far 2 Didn't work at all, 2 work Improperly and 2 function okay (Albeit Extremely Dim...)
The lower brightness modes though flicker like mad and can make you feel sick or give you headaches after long exposure... Overall they are quite simply junk!
I would like to use one of these lights in combination with a home automation system.
There are typical 12V PWM dimmers available for LED stripes. Also with 3-4 channels special for RGB(W).
Can you give me an advice what's the best or easiest way to drive this LED with them?
Just to use resistors with a suitable power rating or maybe some sort of constant current source?
+hurz h Those dimmers are just FET switches driven by a PWM circuit. So they just chop 12 volts, they don't reduce the voltage. If the power dissipation isn't a problem, use a resistor. If it is, you need a variable current output circuit. I've seen them on eBay cheap.
Why does the IR receiver need to talk to the resin blob using three, RGB wires? I did wonder if all of the control was in the IR chip and those wires were perhaps driving the blob inputs as pwm - which might be convenient for your controller?
The infrared receiver is an active electronic circuit which requires three wires. +V, 0V and data out.
Makes sense. Thanks.
I couldn't help but notice that there is a brightness up and down button which you didn't press, I assume that the 4W measured was at full brightness?
He does drop the intensity at about 1:30
+Kieran Symes ahhh so he does! missed that, thanks
+Tom Elner I'll admit I did have to rewatch it haha
I have one that looks exactly like that remote and everything but mine isn't defective like that one...
Do you happen to know of any RGB floodlights that actually do work quite well, and reliable?
would those brightness buttons change the wattage at all?
can you give me a bit of advice please,? I bought new photography bulbs from eBay and 2 blew after 10 mins they sent a replacement but they done same today only 2 have been OK!
one bulb just blew first and the second went after it about 5 mins but blew fuse in plug? can you tell me if I can put in bigger fuse or lower it has a 5A
+Horticulture and Bonsai est2005 (Doug) The high power compact fluorescent type photography lamps are notorious for failing quickly. They seem to overheat easily.
+bigclivedotcom I've heard some of the cheaper ones will overheat if you leave any oil from your skin on the bulb. Not sure if that's true, although I do know that happens if you touch headlight bulbs.
+DanJBMedia The oil issue usually relates to tungsten halogen lamps. They operate at such a high temperature that they require quartz glass globes. The oil in the fingerprint causes devitrification of the quartz, causing lots of tiny hairline fractures and ultimately lamp failure.
bigclivedotcom Thanks for the explanation. :D I didn't fully understand why that happened until now.
Also, if you're brave you should check out some of the nightmare tablets on Ebay from China. Some are actually quite good. . And the rip-offs of those are so poorly built it's scary xD I bought one for laughs, it was about $20USD. It had two charging ports, micro USB and some strange separate one. . If you charge it via the micro USB it WILL catch fire. :D
ive found some potting compounds get soft ish with acetone and you can dig through , it takes a lot of doing though , you really need to see whats inside to go through all the agro :-)
Do you ever sell those RBG software chips, and are they compatible with those remotes?
+Alex Barlow My own RGB software does not have any remote control facility as standard. It's intended for fixed applications like mood lighting or architectural purposes. The main strength of my software is the randomiser that gives infinite variety of colours unlike the Chinese software which just loops round a few pre-programmed colours.
+bigclivedotcom Do you have a schematic of the current limited RGB controler ? I am currently trying to build something similar using Arduino and three 1W LED's.
+bigclivedotcom I got the same kind of floodlight, just received it five days ago, not working of course. Can u give me some ideas who can fix it? I'm not a hands on guy, really clumpsy and don't have the patience to fix it. Thanks for video.
+Tony Garza Is it the type that is radio remote control as opposed to infra red? Does it blink briefly at power up?
+bigclivedotcom No, mine is not the remote control, its just the regular light either warm white or cool white, don't know cause it never worked. But the light fixture is exactly the same I have but its a 10watt 900lumen. Bought it online from walmart but a different company shipped it. Thanks, any ideas appreciated on how to fix.
why dont you get a power screw driver ???
Nice one as always clive
I've been wondering why the LED flood lights have a deflector? Its my understanding that LED's are directional, am I wrong? The only reason I can think of is maybe the glass reflects some of the light back into the deflector and back out?
I think it is that, and also for cosmetic reasons.
bigclivedotcom I can see in this video some reflecting of the reflector but not sure if from led side leakage or reflection.
thought you'd of got yourself a cordless screwdriver by now clive, great channel by the way keep it up
I do have one, but still tend to grab the nearest screwdriver to hand.
Wow, this one is actually earthed!
10W RGB Floodlight If you want to test the total power should be R + B + G total wattage, you can light up the three chips together to test I think there should be 10W, why the red power is small, because the red single Red chip voltage is only 2.2V or so, the normal chip voltage is 3.0-3.2V. If you want to know more please see www.raylighttube.com/led-flood-lights
RAY LIGHTING white is rgb together
hy don't you buy an electric screwdriver?
Like that meter..
Flooded with disapointment
At least its waterproof.
ya silly sot.....just bring in some sweatshop 12 year olds to crank those clive-boards out for mass marketing
those cheap chinese RGB lamps are total crap as they use a controller that can't do proper RGB fading (they insert white into the rainbow, which I don't like). I seems like if I want a decent RGB light I will have to get ones with DMX control
I own a few of these, indeed disappointing
Chinese and ebay dont mix
Mine is just a bulb at 3.8 Watts.
s33.postimg.org/bhxu7ietb/Luma_Bulb.jpg
you're never 100% sure and its tiring
Good to see your prototype using Chunky-Trax technology.
not often you are stumped Go on get the "Persuader" out
China. What did you expect?