i have a question, given the sequence of events maybe you can point out the fault, my led floodlight taht was outside just stopped working instantly, it was dark we were using it and without any sound its just went black, when i plug it in i see very very little light on the LED's, even thought the light is very low i can see that the leds give less light towards middle, like right/left side leds are brighter and towards the middle its dimming down. does that mean the LEDS are fine and its the driver fault?
LEDs seem to be so unreliable. Even quality known makes. I feel very insecure about fitting them. When things fail, the engineer seems to get the blame. A classic case of; The operation was a success, but the patient died! Good video David. Thanks for sharing.
Im now on my 3rd LED security loutside lioght in as many months went out tonight just a few diodes were lit up with no light have to say i never had this problem with Halogen bulbs i think ill go back to halogen !!!
Very interesting I laughed my socks off when I saw your wire strippers I have exactly the same kind and Ive had them for 30 years or more, "borrowed" from when when I was a field engineer. I couldnt live without them. Here in chinese tool land (thailand), made of soft metal, use once then throw, I've installed all my own UK plugs and sockets (confuse the locals) and three wire mains. Just sussing out too much leakage current from these infernal SMPSU driven leds. tripping my 30ma rcbs. :-( thanks !DANGER (there's half mains V on the chassis I havnt got my rubber boots on yet to suss out why but it looks like capacitors may be used in the power units to filter out noise connected to earth/case, and if the central point of these is deck then an unearthed chassis may be 120v (mains /2) Now if that's the case (no pun intended) if YangTong capacitor goes out short curcuit then the case could become live. Velly nasty...One last point I ALWAYS use copperease on the screws or they merge corroded into the case. Normal grease washes off. (old naval systems installer trick)
I bought a similar flood light for photography, but decided to change the cheap chips with higher quality Led chips. I am worried that the light might get too hot since they don't have a heat sink/fan. The new led chips were expensive so I don't wanna risk damaging them. What are the things i can do just to be safe.
They’re obviously pre wired to Joe public don’t have to buy a load of cable they’ll never use, or strip the light to wire it and make a mess of it. I’m lucky my junction boxes are with 2m inside my garage so the pre wired cable reaches. I just had a LAP 10w die, looked dry, I’ve not inspected it yet. But up another cheapo MIEKEE I think the spelling is. 20w. Will see if it survives a Scottish winter under a soffit. Cheers 👍🏻
Perhaps you can help with this. I have replaced all the lighting in the home with LEDs and over the years I have "repaired" many of the blown LED lamps by replacing the black spot LEDs with solder. Which works pretty well and extends their life for a couple more years. But I'm trying to figure out what the causes the black spots in the individual LEDs. I'm guessing they burnt out. But why do they burn out? Is it poor materials in the die or heat sink issues or a power spike? I have noticed that in many blown LEDs from China the blown ones lack heat sink compound.
I can't say for sure, but I suspect failure of the individual elements is down to poor quality of construction, either with the individual LED elements, or with inefficient heat dissipation. While shorting out an individual element with solder may work, an LED is a diode and there would normally be a 0.6v drop across it. I myself 'repaired' some early LED cluster lamps by replacing failed elements with an ordinary diodes to maintain the volt drop, otherwise the other elements in series with it may themselves fail sooner. Mind you, different LED's have different characteristics and goodness knows what rolls off the production lines these days.
@@dsesuk LEDs are usually illuminated by a constant current loop, rather than voltage. Shorting one out will usually just mean 3V less across the LED string, at the original set current level. Hence safe to do so.
Obviously David posted this a while ago but I am finding most Led flood lights are failing within two years, tried several brands. The only one that's holding up so far is the time guard pro range. The failure of some Led floods is unbelievably high how are other sparks finding reliability of the Timegaurd pro ?
It remains a problem as you say Paul, but I've not had problems with the Timeguard units I've fitted, although there have been few of them as they're not held off-the-shelf at my local suppliers. I've had good reliability from LEDVANCE models myself. The problem is that a LEDVANCE might be £45 or so, but Joe Moron wants to spend just ten quid from Toolstation and thinks I'm ripping them off by trying to flog a better model. I've just had a message from someone this afternoon who handed us a ScrewFix LAP thing to install two weeks ago which now seems to have failed. People need to spend on better brands and not assume that they're all the same! I'll only supply models I have some trust in so that I'm not bitten on the arse with warranty support, but if someone wants me to put up the Acme CackFlood 4000 they bought off eBay, then I'll do so, but it'll be chargeable if it needs replacing a fortnight later!
The LED module consists of an array of individual surface mounted LED dies which generate a bit of heat in use. The module is stuck to the metalwork of the fitting which acts as a heat sink, and the grease helps to transfer that heat from the module to the metalwork. It's the same stuff you'd use between a processor and heat sink in a PC. Without it, the physical connection between the back of the module and the metal casing of the light might have a bit of an air gap or uneven contact, the result being an overall or localised overheating which may reduce the life of the product. Although in this case they were cheap and nasty to begin with and failed anyway.
Awesome reply, very easy to understand. Thanks bud. You should get some more vids uploaded mate! I'd defo be interested in watching. I'm only an apprentice in my 2nd year and love to learn new things which I don't / won't ever learn on site (we only do new builds and all the blokes I work with are on price, so not much in depth learning as they are always in a rush lol). Channels like your own, which provide valuable knowledge are a hidden gem! Keep it up.
NeRo Kozi Thanks for the kind comments, I'm glad my nonsense is of use to someone. There are more vids I mean to record, and more articles to write for the website blog, just not enough hours in the day to do it all! Good luck with the apprenticeship - feel free to fire over any questions if I can assist with anything.
Didn't realise you had a website blog, i'll be sure to check it out! Just curious how did you / were these floodlights terminated? I've seen a few different ways such as connector block + tape, mini jb, outside ip rated socket and then attaching a plug to the light itself. Curious to know the proper way to do it lol.
Assuming there is no conduit involved and you have the mains cable coming through the wall where the light is going to be fitted, what would be the best method?
i have a question, given the sequence of events maybe you can point out the fault, my led floodlight taht was outside just stopped working instantly, it was dark we were using it and without any sound its just went black, when i plug it in i see very very little light on the LED's, even thought the light is very low i can see that the leds give less light towards middle, like right/left side leds are brighter and towards the middle its dimming down.
does that mean the LEDS are fine and its the driver fault?
LEDs seem to be so unreliable. Even quality known makes. I feel very insecure about fitting them. When things fail, the engineer seems to get the blame. A classic case of; The operation was a success, but the patient died!
Good video David. Thanks for sharing.
agreed
Im now on my 3rd LED security loutside lioght in as many months went out tonight just a few diodes were lit up with no light have to say i never had this problem with Halogen bulbs i think ill go back to halogen !!!
Very interesting I laughed my socks off when I saw your wire strippers I have exactly the same kind and Ive had them for 30 years or more, "borrowed" from when when I was a field engineer. I couldnt live without them. Here in chinese tool land (thailand), made of soft metal, use once then throw, I've installed all my own UK plugs and sockets (confuse the locals) and three wire mains. Just sussing out too much leakage current from these infernal SMPSU driven leds. tripping my 30ma rcbs. :-( thanks !DANGER (there's half mains V on the chassis I havnt got my rubber boots on yet to suss out why but it looks like capacitors may be used in the power units to filter out noise connected to earth/case, and if the central point of these is deck then an unearthed chassis may be 120v (mains /2) Now if that's the case (no pun intended) if YangTong capacitor goes out short curcuit then the case could become live. Velly nasty...One last point I ALWAYS use copperease on the screws or they merge corroded into the case. Normal grease washes off. (old naval systems installer trick)
I really wanted to hear what the fellow had to say but the audio was barely distinguishable under full amplitude.
Works great! Exactly what I needed.
I bought a similar flood light for photography, but decided to change the cheap chips with higher quality Led chips. I am worried that the light might get too hot since they don't have a heat sink/fan. The new led chips were expensive so I don't wanna risk damaging them. What are the things i can do just to be safe.
They’re obviously pre wired to Joe public don’t have to buy a load of cable they’ll never use, or strip the light to wire it and make a mess of it. I’m lucky my junction boxes are with 2m inside my garage so the pre wired cable reaches. I just had a LAP 10w die, looked dry, I’ve not inspected it yet. But up another cheapo MIEKEE I think the spelling is. 20w. Will see if it survives a Scottish winter under a soffit. Cheers 👍🏻
Perhaps you can help with this. I have replaced all the lighting in the home with LEDs and over the years I have "repaired" many of the blown LED lamps by replacing the black spot LEDs with solder. Which works pretty well and extends their life for a couple more years. But I'm trying to figure out what the causes the black spots in the individual LEDs. I'm guessing they burnt out. But why do they burn out? Is it poor materials in the die or heat sink issues or a power spike? I have noticed that in many blown LEDs from China the blown ones lack heat sink compound.
I can't say for sure, but I suspect failure of the individual elements is down to poor quality of construction, either with the individual LED elements, or with inefficient heat dissipation. While shorting out an individual element with solder may work, an LED is a diode and there would normally be a 0.6v drop across it. I myself 'repaired' some early LED cluster lamps by replacing failed elements with an ordinary diodes to maintain the volt drop, otherwise the other elements in series with it may themselves fail sooner. Mind you, different LED's have different characteristics and goodness knows what rolls off the production lines these days.
@@dsesuk White LEDs typically have a forward drop (Vf) of around 3.1V which is why drivers for ten LEDs in series are usually ~31V
@@dsesuk LEDs are usually illuminated by a constant current loop, rather than voltage. Shorting one out will usually just mean 3V less across the LED string, at the original set current level. Hence safe to do so.
Obviously David posted this a while ago but I am finding most Led flood lights are failing within two years, tried several brands. The only one that's holding up so far is the time guard pro range. The failure of some Led floods is unbelievably high how are other sparks finding reliability of the Timegaurd pro ?
It remains a problem as you say Paul, but I've not had problems with the Timeguard units I've fitted, although there have been few of them as they're not held off-the-shelf at my local suppliers. I've had good reliability from LEDVANCE models myself. The problem is that a LEDVANCE might be £45 or so, but Joe Moron wants to spend just ten quid from Toolstation and thinks I'm ripping them off by trying to flog a better model. I've just had a message from someone this afternoon who handed us a ScrewFix LAP thing to install two weeks ago which now seems to have failed. People need to spend on better brands and not assume that they're all the same! I'll only supply models I have some trust in so that I'm not bitten on the arse with warranty support, but if someone wants me to put up the Acme CackFlood 4000 they bought off eBay, then I'll do so, but it'll be chargeable if it needs replacing a fortnight later!
Totally agree sticking with TimeGaurd pro. Great work on here BTW real world stuff
what did you find was wrong with the driver?
Sparky: "£230 to tax the van? Robbing wankers!"
Customer: "£230 to change a socket? Robbing wanker!"
Hey Dave, possibly a silly question but what is the purpose of the thermal grease behind the LED? cheers.
The LED module consists of an array of individual surface mounted LED dies which generate a bit of heat in use. The module is stuck to the metalwork of the fitting which acts as a heat sink, and the grease helps to transfer that heat from the module to the metalwork. It's the same stuff you'd use between a processor and heat sink in a PC. Without it, the physical connection between the back of the module and the metal casing of the light might have a bit of an air gap or uneven contact, the result being an overall or localised overheating which may reduce the life of the product. Although in this case they were cheap and nasty to begin with and failed anyway.
Awesome reply, very easy to understand. Thanks bud. You should get some more vids uploaded mate! I'd defo be interested in watching. I'm only an apprentice in my 2nd year and love to learn new things which I don't / won't ever learn on site (we only do new builds and all the blokes I work with are on price, so not much in depth learning as they are always in a rush lol). Channels like your own, which provide valuable knowledge are a hidden gem! Keep it up.
NeRo Kozi Thanks for the kind comments, I'm glad my nonsense is of use to someone. There are more vids I mean to record, and more articles to write for the website blog, just not enough hours in the day to do it all! Good luck with the apprenticeship - feel free to fire over any questions if I can assist with anything.
Didn't realise you had a website blog, i'll be sure to check it out! Just curious how did you / were these floodlights terminated? I've seen a few different ways such as connector block + tape, mini jb, outside ip rated socket and then attaching a plug to the light itself. Curious to know the proper way to do it lol.
Assuming there is no conduit involved and you have the mains cable coming through the wall where the light is going to be fitted, what would be the best method?
Good job
Turn your mike up! I can hardly hear you!
like the vidio sorry to say you talk too quiet please turn your sound up