@@dcallan812 My last handpiece lasted over 4 years. And I abused it quite a bit. This time I am a bit more careful. Should last me a lot longer. I got another one spare and I think I don't need to buy any more for the rest of my life.
@@kyoudaiken great. 👍👍 you made me smile and thats hard, Im a real grumpy old man. Take care with your tools and they will take care of you by not falling apart. 👍Thank you for the reply
good advice all around. I bought a set of those 12V camper style rectangular LED lights you had shown earlier. One of them I wired up with an ebay TP4056 and MT boost converter but instead of outputting 12V I use 11V. Still wicked bright but near half the current. With a 2000mAh lipo all taped to the underside it makes a handy flashlight when I need to go looking for things in the dark. It's amazing how a drop of a volt or two can make for LED current/temp/lifespan. Cheers!
It would be very informative to use a light meter to see what the drop in illumination is when going from 11W to 5W to 2.3W as I doubt that it is a linear relationship.
The light output of LEDs is quite linear with current. As the voltage is constant (LED forward voltage doesn't change much at different currents), current is mostly proportional with power (as measured by the HOPI), and so is light output (ignoring thermal effects on efficiency; the change in light output due to that is negligible compared to the change due to the different current). The thing that isn't linear is your eyes! Perception (for sound as well) is logarithmic.
@@superdau the efficiency drops as the temperature goes up. You get about 40% more lumens per watt with a cold bulb. In the video linked above, cutting the light output by half cut the power draw from 11 watts down to 3.7 watts. So if you use a fixture that holds two modified bulbs, it will produce the same amount of light, but only draw 7.4 watts instead of 11 watts. The bigger win is that the bulbs will last much longer.
@@superdau It's not even close to linear in reality. This is because of the resistance of the LED and all sorts like gunn diode effects and all sorts. For example at 20mA an LED has a resistance in the ball park of 5R some a bit more some a bit less. IIR gives us 2mW dissipated as hear from the DC resistance alone. Reduce the current to 10mA and you get 1/4 of that value. Take it down to 1/3 and your resistive power dissipation is 10% which leaves more power for light output.
@@superdau it's not linear that's why their efficacy is listed at lower sometimes much lower than max current in the data sheet. They drive them hard at reduced efficacy to reduce chip count. The warranty is marketing wankery printed on the box. They know the % of failures other than infant mortality that get processed as warranty is essentially nadda.
Thank you for that Clive. In the past, I didn't pay much attention to the power consumption of my lighting circuits. However, having just received notification from my energy supplier, that the tariff for electricity is about to be raised from about 20 pence per KWh, to over 30 pence per KWh... I feel an intense session of 'Doobying' is imminent! Many thanks for the information Sir!
I have this one really old led bulb that has been running over 12 years when all the others died at 3-4. Noticed it was for 220v mains and didn’t really seem much dimmer from the short lived “correct” 110v bulbs
The manufacturer thought we will stop everyone using Clive's method of cutting off one of the resistors, Clive now shows how to just replace the one resistor. Manufacturer's are now pulling their hair out lol. Well done Clive saving these bulbs from quick landfill
@@bigclivedotcom The proportion of people who will care is vanishingly small. That said, old electronics is supposed to be recycled in most advanced societies.
😠 - while me and dad continue to replace the GU10 LED spot lights in our kitchen - mum has them on all day due to how poorly lit it is with natural/sun light ☹️.
@@samuelfellows6923 I've realized over time that better homes have their kitchen windows for all day lighting a this increases the UV exposure which santizes items as well.
@@samuelfellows6923 I've replaced all GU10s in the kitchen (8 of them) with hacked Lepro LE 5.2w / 400lm GU10s from amazon. They have the exact same regulator and sense 2 resisters. They now only get mildly warm and I've not had to replace one since. Previously, LED GU10 would only last about 6 - 12 months
I can confirm that this is an easy hack. Even I could do it, and I'm a moron! Ever since Clive taught me about this trick, I've just been buying the cheapest high-power bulbs (e.g. 14W) available, hoping that I'd get the most LEDs per bulb possible nowadays, and then modding them down to 4-5W, which is plenty for ordinary illumination. I have yet to see one of them fail, which I cannot say for the unmodded control group.
Great as always! However I would go the other way and try to double up those LED chips so half the current to each effectively getting close to dubai lamps in efficiency and longevity with also making them last longer Maybe even mix in LEDs with higher temperatures. Can't stand dim lights
I can't stand dim lights either, but I guess the best solution would be to just use a light fixture with 2 or 3 bulbs to get an overall power of over 10 watts
I always enjoy these videos. I had a similar lamp konk out in my house the other day. I shorted the dead LED and then chopped off a resistor to lower the power I think around 40%. The difference in brightness between the repaired light and the bulb right next to it was almost indistinguishable.
2 года назад+23
Back once again for the renegade master, D4 damager, power to the people. You've made my day.
My GU10 outside down-lights have been Clive'd down to 1 watt , they still give a lot of light and run cool . I expect they will last virtually forever .
How do you manage to "Clive" a GU10? Also, the only 1W style ones I've seen are those really low power ones with the 5mm style LEDs soldered to a surface, which really don't give out anywhere near enough light to be useful.
This has to the best/most applicable real life hack i've seen on this channel in all the time watching I am so sick and tired of my "energy efficient" LED bulbs blowing so quickly and at a minimum of £3.50 for a 1 bulb this will save me loads ... Thank you !!!!!!!
Inspired by this, I picked up a pack of the Kodaks in Poundland today. They do get hot quite quickly, run at full capacity. I found a 25 ohm resistor in my junk box - with that, it was still very bright (and still got pretty warm). Tried 100 ohms too and it's quite acceptable as a desk lamp (and only just barely warm after 10 mins). Very nice.
Sadly Kodak (Poundland) is another brand along with Polaroid (Asda) that has been licensed to have their once trusted name put on any product from China. Hitachi and Qualcast (Argos) are two others. People think they’re buying products made by these brands but they’re not. It’s so wrong. I really don’t understand how this deception is allowed under UK Consumer Law.
It’s amusing isn’t it, this is the kinda shit trademark law was meant to prevent, back when trademarks were literally stamped into products. Doesn’t do much when people are willing to debase their own branding for the sake of a quick buck. Brand names mean nothing nowadays, each product has to be judged individually.
@@SkigBiggler That's one of the reasons 'always buy reputable brandnames!!' is a non-argument. Crosley used to be a great-yet-affordable brand that produced everything from radios to cars, but now they're a damn joke stamped on bad plastic shit.
I hope that Mr. Edison was watching as well. It was so good to see how a glowing tungsten filament in an evacuated glass bulb is replaced by solid state components. It is amazing that we get so much light with these complex lamps. It is awesome. Edison by the way had to call the glassblower for doing a hack !
Honestly I've found those "60W equivalent" LED bulb to be too dim to use just a single bulb in a regular room. They're brighter than the equivalent CFL, but I also thought a 100W equivalent CFL was also too dim. However, with the hackability of those cheap linear regulated LED bulb, it might actually be an advantage that they're not as bright as expected. You could instead bump them down to 50% of their rating and switch the light fitting from a single to a dual lamp fitting. It would be brighter not only because LEDs are more efficient at lower power levels, but also if the single LED fixture is pointed in the wrong direction for providing even lighting. That's the case with the light in my room. The wall opposite my desk is well-lighted, but my work surface is fairly dimly lit. With a dual lamp fixture, the room would be more evenly lit. This modification may also be useful for desk lamps. At least the older ones that actually take the full sized bulbs. 15W of direct LED lighting would be fairly eye-searing, but 4-5W should be more than enough for most tasks.
It's possible your 100w equivalent was low CRI. Just because it's a lot of light doesn't mean everything is visible--you can stand under a low pressure sodium vapor street light and still be blind to anything blue, for example.
According to MIL-HDBK-217 (now public domain and downloadable) for each 10C reduction in temperature you should see a doubling in life. If it lasted 18,000 hours MTTF before under-running, then reducing from 11W to 2.3 should ball park give you near 100,000 hours MTTF. There are electrolytics that can do that if you run them cool. Alternatively use a high temp one (+125C) with a life of 2000 hours and by the time you are running it at 65C it will work for 128,000 hours or a bit over 14 years.
@@bobraible Yeah I have an LED lightbulb that stopped working. I've been saving it because I'm betting the LEDs are still good. I want to just apply DC power to it and see what happens.
Around here most of them say if they run only for 3-4 hours a day. My hall light bulbs are on a building wide timer so they get like 16 hours a day in winter.
I think that 99.99% of buyers will never go back to the store with the package, recite and the broken bulb to get the money back even if it was within the 3 year warranty. And with todays crazy inflation, they would probably even break even if everyone returned the product a few years after!
The only meaningful way to do this on camera (other than metering their luminous flux) is to show one lamp at a time illuminating a room and having the camera at the very same fixed exposure settings for both shots. Putting them side by side and then filming them doesn't tell you anything other than one being brighter than the other.
But aren't those ungodly expensive by now? ( around here every one seems to be throwing away their 3 way capable light fixtures. I often reuse them with a normal bulb then use a different controller. Sometimes I put in a new bulb socket meant for regular light bulbs. )
Here in Canada, I have received replacement LEDs that did not make the 3 years a few times! I know that the packaging here has a disclaimer as to how many hours a day make up the 3 years. One company that sells their bulbs only in a 6 pack sent me another 6 pack to replace the 1 bulb that I was claiming warranty. I was very happy. As to this hack, looks easy to do for sure!
My brother asked me what the point of this channel was after I showed him this video. I told him “The channel is a man taking apart electronics to tell people how they work.” I certainly learn more than I think I will each time I watch a video.
Big Clive i just fall in love with you when you hack such leds for low power. Infact i repaired a few of my household leds which go bang and now its running like charm and infact i keep it on all night long to keep my yard light up. Thank you
I never thought about changing out the resistor... such a simple change to reduce the power consumption. I have also discovered that is you use these lamps out of the box in any type of enclosure, (ceiling fixture, or outdoors walkway or porch lamp), it reduces the life of the bulb because there is no escape route for the heat. By reducing the wattage, (possibly the lumins also?), you lower the heat factor and extend the lamp life greatly.
I thought a resistor just "wasted" electricity as heat? Like how heat generated by running electricity through a wire is called "resistive heating". How does using a resistor save power? I'm clearly wrong and would like to fill this gap in my knowledge.
@@zig131 The resistor does "waste" power but it's somewhat insignificant. In this case it's probably 67 milliwatts. By swapping the resistor for a larger one it wastes less power, probably only 10 milliwatts. The reason the resistor is needed in the first place is that the current through the LEDs is set to the same amount of current that flows through the resistor.
Nice, I'm just wondering how much brightness you lose in the mod. Due to increased efficiency it should be more than 25% brightness at 25% power, right? Would be interesting to also compare the lumens or rather lumens per watt for the modified lamps...
That's what I was wondering a few videos back. Is there a datasheet chart out there showing us where optimal brightness and efficiency meet w/o overdriving the LEDs?
i remember on an older video where he said that the watts to lumens isnt exponential and the more power you give it it wont necessarily get the same amount brighter if it is being over driven. so they are infact more efficiant if run at their rated current or less.
Fortunately perceived light isn't linear, and neither is efficiency. To get a brighter bulb, at some point you either burn out or more than double wattage for a noticeable change. So going the other way, even a little lower wattage doesn't dim much, but it saves a good bit and stresses the circuits less. I had dimmable bulbs that were too bright, at lowest brightness, at 9watts, 6watts, and even 3watts. Eventually got to 2.5watts to dim enough to see at night, without disturbing people sleeping, while also not tripping on furniture.
Love your stuff, always interesting. Lots of us nowadays are looking at how to make things last longer but eventually things fail beyond repair. I'd love to see you highlight good and bad design when it comes to recycling as well as repairing.
Great video! Just the hack I've been looking for. I would like to add, the bulb naturally loses a lot of brightness because of the translucid dome. If you could replace it with a clear one, would be ideal. I will look into cutting old bulbs to source the clear dome, and glue it with bathroom silicone.
@@MichaelBeeny Yes, once digital and video tape started to make inroads in to the film market I think someone thought they would all be out of a job. But Kodak had been at the cutting edge of digital photography with a camera made by Canon The EOS D2000 so who knows why they sold off the name to shoddy tat
@@MichaelBeeny It's not their fault in this case. Chinese companies make random stuff and use known company names to attract more people. You see lots of lenovo and hp stuff being sold online and even in lots of stores and these products don't exist on their websites. I don't know if said companies gave permission for their names to be used or not. It's normal to see fake stuff on random chinese websites, but these products are sold on "legit" stores.
Damn, the printout got me once again! I first thought exchanging an SMD resistor for a throughhole one will get quite cramped. Then you pulled out the leaded resistor and I thought "oh no, that fits easily!" Took me until you dropped the resistor and moved the printout to snap back to reality XD.
Hey Clive, can you explain the 94V-0 stamp on the PCB, and what does it mean? I've been seeing it on many parts lately, from home appliances to computer parts, and I wonder what it is. Google didn't do much. Thanks!
I have always wanted to do this, along with replacing the caps as they seem to be the thing that fails. You have taken much of the guess work out. Thanks.
From the US I bought some Kodak bulbs from Spain. As they were 240V bulbs they have very robust power circuits. I had to put a jumper over about 1/3 of the LED string to get it to light at all on 120V. I experimented moving the jumper until it lit up. I then removed one of the two paralleled resistors to get the lower drive current. The 240 V, 15 W bulb now draws 120 V, 4 Watts and doesn't even get mildly warm. I expect it should last longer than I will. It has lots of LEDs in there. Two parallel strings and two regulators with 400V capacitors. Buy the Kodak 240V lamps if you can find them.
Once again a very interesting and inspiring video¡¡. I really learn a lot from these videos. Quite practical knowledge. Want to add a few thoughts: The linear regulator has to have some power dissipation, which of course depends on the leds current but also on the voltage drop. I have the suspicion that to save a big capacitor and avoid high current surges, the DC voltage has quite a ripple and the power dissipation of the regulator is important beacuse it is absorbing most, if not all of it. Deduced from above is that, if the leds are flicker-free, they should run at significantly lower than peak voltage.
The LEDs are chosen to be close to peak voltage. The little regulator dissipates very little heat, but if it does heat up too much it self regulates to a lower current.
Life hack: I have a complete set of incandescent and LED lights for the house. In winter the incandescent lights are 100% efficient at light output and heating the house. In the summer LED lights are technically less efficient because they must get cooled down by the AC system. Even though it’s a minuscule amount of WA.
Incandescent lights are more efficient at heating than a HVAC system because the heat doesn’t have to travel through ductwork to get to where you’re sitting.
They may be 100% efficient but you still may be paying more for the same amount of heat if your main heating source doesn't use electricity (gas, etc). Sometimes that's not always true depending on how much things cost.
@@androiduberalles Thats true if you have cheap gas and can tolerate it. My HVAC is also a heat pump so it’s very efficient. It’s more of a personal preference this is really just a few dollars a month.
I was half expecting a near-identical board to that of the Tesco mini-globe which I ripped apart the other day. A similar design (making use of those push-fit connectors for supply and capacitor) but a different regulator (BP5131JC) and obviously a different LED count. I'm surprised to see Kodak's name on the box as the company still seem to be a "thing" and not just a gobbled-up brand name like Polaroid or Ferguson.
Did you ever measure Lux before and after a modification? Would love to know if there's a kind of sweet spot between power consumption and the amount of light emitted.
It's not just kodak. The chinese seem to feel it fine to sell anything under any name that even looks like a brand name. I have a Campbell Haufeld branded headlight that is now like a decade old. If I try to refind this "brand" it usually gives me some name that looks similar. The chinese make a joke out of our brands.
I've cut the resistor out of every bulb in my house literally the day after you posted that first hack. No blow outs yet, they all run cool to the touch, and not a single house fire yet 👍🏼
0:38 Has anyone tried returning lamps which failed the guarantee? I've been pretty lucky (even with the Poundland ones). The only ones that ever failed were some old ones from AliExpress.
One IKEA lamp failed, but they have discontinued that particular dimmable SKU. Not bothered with returning it as want to tear it open for inspection 😅 Have returned to ASDA couple failed LEDs (made by TCP) that barely lasted a year, can't say they were the cheapest ones.
@@Siniad Disappointing, because I saw TCP CFLs last for at least a good while, they were still fine when I last checked, back in 2016. I got them in December, 2010. But I don't have them, they got left at my former place. (March 5, 2008-April 15, 2016, so 8 years was how long I lived there)
I’ve been repairing LED bar lamps with 50-80 little LED chips. Couple busts then scraped to just short them with solder. The problem is, less chips means more power through each LED which makes ‘em even more vulnerable. Now I can reduce whole power so that I can squeeze more life out of them. Thanks.
It's almost funny how brands began as small manufacturers putting their name on their wares so customers would know they standby their work and so trust it... and now it's become managers who make nothing, putting a company name they don't work at, on a product they will never inspect made in a place they will never visit and selling to a customer who decides based on that magic word what is best to buy.
Hey there, you are pretty awesome. Thanks for the videos. I have a push button 'toggle' switch that turns an old (about a year or two) vape off and on. I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Anything interesting you (or anyone) can think of that I should try to connect it to? I know it's a broad question. Thanks either way
I bought one from Tesco as they claim 1500 lumens. Put it in the bathroom globe and boy is it bright. Decided to buy one for the kitchen and it only lasted 10 months by which time I had lost the receipt. These things don't like being closed up inside a globe light. Time to rethink what I can get for the kitchen. Maybe a 4ft led panel?
Heat is death, maybe consider cutting some air holes in your globe. Carbide cutter and lots of water or a shade that has built in gaps for airflow. There are quite a few options available for light replacement. I do this everyday, even insulation contact rated lights benefit from cooling.
If you're okay replacing the entire light fixture then a large panel _is_ the best way to go because the large surface area means it can effectively dissipate heat. Unfortunately many panels are just edge lit by strips but this is still quite good.
I've started doing that to lamps I occasionally grab out of the lamp recycling bin at a local supermarket - just swap out the burnt LEDs, and then tame them down to about half the power. Usually they're so standardized I can just use one lamp as a parts donor to get the appropriate LEDs to put into the other ones. Now I have lots of free LED bulbs that are probably going to last a way longer than before they were thrown out in the first place ;P
For a choice of hobbies, I'd say it rates as broadly useful. It's a handy skill to keep fresh too. I sharpen knives but bringing lights back to life seems like it would be cooler.
@@jonanderson5137 I find it very relaxing to listen to music while tinkering with those, figuring out what's worth repairing and what isn't. Most of the time you can just desolder the leds over a candle flame, it's really amazing how much heat they can tolerate
I have found that LED lights open easiest with a bench vice. Throw a shop towel over the jaws so they don't mark the dome. You just squeeze it until the sides are displaced about 13mm (1/2"). Unclamp, turn the bulb 90 degrees, and do it again. At that point, you should be able to just give it a twist. It's a *LOT* easier than the spudger/knife/razor way, and once you have the feel of it, you won't damage anything. I have taken apart a ton of them, to write Amazon reviews including showing the LEDs, and to see what controller they use. The ones using ESP8285 or ESP8266 are easy to convert to ESPHome or similar. Even if they aren't easy to do, you can pop the whole assembly out and connect up a TTL adapter to flash with. I haven't done a tutorial video on that, mostly because I think it didn't really need it, and I'm really really lazy about making RUclips videos. :)
... I have a bench vice and some shop tools by my electronics workbench. That has made it easy to do everything from making/repairing small boards and modifying lightbulbs, to rebuilding car alternators and power steering pumps. I just move my silicone mat, and lay cardboard down, to do dirty work. I don't have to do that work outside in the heat (Florida's always hot), and there's excellent lighting at my electronics workbench.
For most of us, the time we would spend hacking the light isn't worth our hourly rate. But if you enjoy hacking the light as hobby that's something different.
That would depend on your time management, if it takes you an hour to do the hack, than maybe, however, this is a 10 minute hack at the most, providing you have the resisters. If it extends the life of the bulb a significant amount, that is less time buying and installing bulbs which probably works out to be quite a bit more than just doing the simple hack. What I am saying might not be the case, just something to consider. I have bought led bulbs that did not last very long and that in of itself is annoying.
It also depends on where you live, in most of the US electricity is fairly cheap, so people can quite happily ignore LEDs and stick with old incandescent, however as of recently price has been going up it could be as little as 10 cents per kwh now but in some places it could soon be up to 50 cents per kwh, so yeah even saving as little as extra 5 watts would make a far more significant difference when you start paying over 20 cents a kw.
The wattage you save alone should justify more than your hourly rate. And if these lights last like 600% of your regular bulbs then you've saved 5 visits to the store to buy replacement bulbs. Plus the time it takes to buy those 5 more bulbs. Some years ago I hacked some clearanced pre-CFL outdoor fixture bulbs into 2 indoor lamps and I figured, after the fact, that I saved a megawatt over the time they ran. A million watts. Let that sink in to your head for a moment.
I wonder if the board of Directors at Kodak now rue the decision to sell their name to China .... now that 35mm film photography has a huge worldwide resurgence and they are back producing film and cameras ... hhmmmm....
I have done side-by-side tests for these bulbs claiming their 10 watts is equal to 60 watts incandescent or whatever...they are NEVER equal...the LEDs are ALWAYS way dimmer. Factor in how much extra garbage these things create in the landfills...especially since I have not had a single one last more than a year so you have to buy way more. So the initial cost of 10x the price...plus a shitty power factor so more costs there...and you have buy more because they fail much quicker...they are NOT so eco-friendly after all.
Most LED bulbs I've used have lasted for years, and many of them are still going strong. Don't buy the cheapest ones - Philips and Cree have worked out well for me.
My house is full of LEDs and I hardly remember one giving out over the last few years. Have bought more expensive name brands and then these 3 for 5 euro combo box types and all last just fine. Maybe if you have spiky voltages or something they might break more. I would not use them in fully enclosed light fixtures though, where the heat can just build up inside.
I see people complain all the time that they don’t get a notice when a new video comes out. I never really had that problem but lately I don’t get any notice when big Clive puts out a new video. I have the bell clicked for all notifications. Sometimes it’s because you don’t watch that channel very often but I watch every new video and I go back and watch a lot of old videos. Oh well I just got to keep an eye out.
I don't know whether it's different in 240V-land, and I don't know those Kodak bulbs specifically, but based my anecdotal experience with LED lamps in the US, that 3 year warranty sounds perfectly reasonable to me (maybe even a bit conservative). In fact, I have quite a number of 10-ish watt LED bulbs (mostly Phillips) in my house which I installed roughly 7 years ago (when I moved in), and aside from a couple which failed within the first couple of months (manufacturing defects seem to be fairly common with LED bulbs, I've noted), I think only one of them has has actually burned out and had to be replaced in that time. (Keep in mind that these warranties are also done with the assumption that people are going to be turning them on for only a few hours each night, so 3 years comes out to really somewhere around 1000 hours of expected use. If you're leaving it on continuously, obviously, that will not last nearly as long, but most people don't do that.) I do agree that it seems like these bulbs are being driven awfully hard, and should not last very long, but apparently the robustness of the modern LEDs and associated components are really impressive these days, because they really do seem to be able to hold up surprisingly well under those conditions, from what I've seen (which means if you mod them down like this, they'll probably last basically forever.. you could potentially be handing them down to grandchildren as family heirlooms :) ).
Hey Clive, I haven’t been able to find the purple or brown screwdrivers anywhere. I’ve got all the others though. Care to swap yours for any other colour??
Hi Clive, at least the the soldering iron didn't go on fire like my Weller one did when the .047uF capacitor across the thermal switch assembly went short circuit and I was out of the room at the time *** Cheers Dave.
I use the same style handle. I added a half inch wide solid copper wire coil to the bit that goes over the tip. Wrap it around then double back over and add some high temp heat shrink to hold it in place. It adds a bit of thermal capacitance to these and helps them considerably. Either that or I just think it does. It feels better to me.
I had the thermocouple conk out on an iron once... The heating element would not turn off. The iron cooked itself 😭😭😭 RIP Dick Smith Electronics soldering station, you served with distinction for 18+ years ❤
You have inspired me. I think i am going to create a 3d printed 1:3 conversion mount for my ceiling fan fixtures to use some of these hacked PCBs. I should be able to get more useful light out of the fixtures by aiming them at a wider area, while reducing the glare when looking at them. I think i might thermally couple the PCBs to some aluminum foil on the back of the mount for a little extra cooling.
@@bigclivedotcom oh, where's the fun in that? I only let the smoke out on my of my hack jobs, repurposing a power bank to fit into a contraption of pvc fittings to power a plasma globe. I just gotta not touch two circuit boards together during the glue up when one has 6 fully charged cells attached is all. 😁
My stepfather was the advertising manager at Eastman-Kodak during the seventies and eighties, but they went partially out of business with the advent of internet. Anyways I was wondering if you have used or knew about the "Korst 191" soldering gun/pencil thermometer? For all those soldering utensils, there's an awesome machine for exclusive tear-down and observation and it is immensely helpful at keeping the soldering gun under temperature control. Check it out!
Would it be worth trying the valley-fill network you covered recently, on these hacked lamps, Clive? Capacitor-diode, diode-capacitor, bridged together in the middle with a diode? Power factor might become as much of an issue as wattage; or is there an easier way to correct it, maybe?
The valley fill circuit has an output voltage with _tons_ of ripple. As such it really only makes sense when followed by a switching regulator. One way to make a bulb like this have better PF is to remove the main filter capacitor and put it across the LEDs instead.
I got some more expensive led bulbs free from my local council as part of an enviromental scheme that were meant to last 5 years, the one in living room lasted under 18 months, the one in bedroom which was almost never used last 12 months! another in hall used even less lasted under 18 months too
I think you’ve said this in an earlier video. But you can always combine multiple of these to get more light. There are these splitters (some better than others) that let you use multiple lamps in a single (open) fixture
In 2014 Cree reached 300lm/W LED´s. Today the standart lamps use LED´s with only 70-100 lm/W. It is technical easy possible to get 2000lm from 10W. More light less heat. If you want this you have to build your own lamps.
Okay here's more scientific approach: remove the cover ant operate the lamp for about 15 minutes to reach equilibrum and measure chip temperature with a thermal camera or with an probe coated in thermal paste, call it tChip. If it's below 65-70 celsius the lamp is good. Otherwise calculate tDelta = tChip - tAmbient, that's your "degreed per whatever watt". You want to keep tChip below 70 degrees (below 65 if aiming 100K hrs), then subtract average air temperature (upper temperature is usually higher, measure at ceiling) and call it tMaxDelta. Since delta scales nearly linearly with power you need to reduce power proportionally, pwrNew = pwrOrig * tMaxDelta / tDelta. Refer to driver chip manual for the resistor formula or figure out approximate nominal by trial and error.
I bought at discount a pack of 12 generic LED bulbs because the ones that I used (the cheapest ones) were dying after 3-6 months of normal usage. So, armed with the new ones, I changed the wires in the most fixtures (I mostly have double fixtures in the house) to connect them in series. The new ones and some of the old ones that lasted work happily now, after 2 and half years, I didn't changed a bulb since then. About the simple fixtures (bathroom, hallway) I changed with double ones and did the same trick. They give the same perceptible amount of light and as I see, they last longer. BTW, they are 3W and 5W warm white LED light.
Nicely done! That should greatly improve the lifespan of the light bulb. :) I would personally drop the power to (say) 6W or 7W, so it's still bright enough to be used as a main room bulb, but still lowered in power so that it won't overheat as quickly. So maybe I'd go 27 ohms or 33 ohms?
"The soldering station says...what the heck?" It's nice that they're giving systems such clear error messages these days.
its when you just get 🤷♂️ from your iron you need to buy a new one. LOL
@@dcallan812 Got the same station Clive has. For 50 EUR. Replacement handles cost 30 EUR a pair here.
@@kyoudaiken SO is it worth just buying a new one with the warranty?
@@dcallan812 My last handpiece lasted over 4 years. And I abused it quite a bit. This time I am a bit more careful. Should last me a lot longer. I got another one spare and I think I don't need to buy any more for the rest of my life.
@@kyoudaiken great. 👍👍 you made me smile and thats hard, Im a real grumpy old man. Take care with your tools and they will take care of you by not falling apart. 👍Thank you for the reply
good advice all around. I bought a set of those 12V camper style rectangular LED lights you had shown earlier. One of them I wired up with an ebay TP4056 and MT boost converter but instead of outputting 12V I use 11V. Still wicked bright but near half the current. With a 2000mAh lipo all taped to the underside it makes a handy flashlight when I need to go looking for things in the dark. It's amazing how a drop of a volt or two can make for LED current/temp/lifespan. Cheers!
It would be very informative to use a light meter to see what the drop in illumination is when going from 11W to 5W to 2.3W as I doubt that it is a linear relationship.
The light output of LEDs is quite linear with current. As the voltage is constant (LED forward voltage doesn't change much at different currents), current is mostly proportional with power (as measured by the HOPI), and so is light output (ignoring thermal effects on efficiency; the change in light output due to that is negligible compared to the change due to the different current). The thing that isn't linear is your eyes! Perception (for sound as well) is logarithmic.
He did a video measuring that recently, there is a sweet spot in efficiency
edit: was actually 11 months ago ruclips.net/video/biEZ1TbdhhU/видео.html
@@superdau the efficiency drops as the temperature goes up. You get about 40% more lumens per watt with a cold bulb. In the video linked above, cutting the light output by half cut the power draw from 11 watts down to 3.7 watts. So if you use a fixture that holds two modified bulbs, it will produce the same amount of light, but only draw 7.4 watts instead of 11 watts.
The bigger win is that the bulbs will last much longer.
@@superdau It's not even close to linear in reality. This is because of the resistance of the LED and all sorts like gunn diode effects and all sorts. For example at 20mA an LED has a resistance in the ball park of 5R some a bit more some a bit less. IIR gives us 2mW dissipated as hear from the DC resistance alone. Reduce the current to 10mA and you get 1/4 of that value. Take it down to 1/3 and your resistive power dissipation is 10% which leaves more power for light output.
@@superdau it's not linear that's why their efficacy is listed at lower sometimes much lower than max current in the data sheet. They drive them hard at reduced efficacy to reduce chip count. The warranty is marketing wankery printed on the box. They know the % of failures other than infant mortality that get processed as warranty is essentially nadda.
Thank you for that Clive.
In the past, I didn't pay much attention to the power consumption of my lighting circuits.
However, having just received notification from my energy supplier, that the tariff for electricity is about to be raised from about 20 pence per KWh, to over 30 pence per KWh...
I feel an intense session of 'Doobying' is imminent!
Many thanks for the information Sir!
Wow that's expensive, I'd be telling them where to put their supply.
Are you in a city, or is that nationwide? Where I'm from, we're charged 0.10 USD.
I have this one really old led bulb that has been running over 12 years when all the others died at 3-4. Noticed it was for 220v mains and didn’t really seem much dimmer from the short lived “correct” 110v bulbs
Oh, now this is interesting. I also live in the US, and I'm wondering if I could just buy 220v LED bulbs now
Theres a light bulb thats been on never off for 100 years. In s fire station
The manufacturer thought we will stop everyone using Clive's method of cutting off one of the resistors, Clive now shows how to just replace the one resistor. Manufacturer's are now pulling their hair out lol. Well done Clive saving these bulbs from quick landfill
It wouldn't surprise me if they set the current value internally in the future to prevent hacking.
@@bigclivedotcom The proportion of people who will care is vanishingly small.
That said, old electronics is supposed to be recycled in most advanced societies.
😠 - while me and dad continue to replace the GU10 LED spot lights in our kitchen - mum has them on all day due to how poorly lit it is with natural/sun light ☹️.
@@samuelfellows6923 I've realized over time that better homes have their kitchen windows for all day lighting a this increases the UV exposure which santizes items as well.
@@samuelfellows6923 I've replaced all GU10s in the kitchen (8 of them) with hacked Lepro LE 5.2w / 400lm GU10s from amazon. They have the exact same regulator and sense 2 resisters. They now only get mildly warm and I've not had to replace one since. Previously, LED GU10 would only last about 6 - 12 months
I can confirm that this is an easy hack. Even I could do it, and I'm a moron!
Ever since Clive taught me about this trick, I've just been buying the cheapest high-power bulbs (e.g. 14W) available, hoping that I'd get the most LEDs per bulb possible nowadays, and then modding them down to 4-5W, which is plenty for ordinary illumination. I have yet to see one of them fail, which I cannot say for the unmodded control group.
" Back once again with the renegade master " that cracked me up! 😂
Brilliant as always Clive
Or as Styx would sing " You renegade you got it made, they finally found you" .............
Ditto there Rich, I thought it was "d for damage" though. Nonetheless it made me chuckle too!
@@danriches7328 Yeah it's 'd4 damage' but the fact he quoted almost all perfectly i think we can forgive the fella!
...came here to say this too
I'm outraged that he got the lyrics wrong. Outraged I tell you.
Great as always! However I would go the other way and try to double up those LED chips so half the current to each effectively getting close to dubai lamps in efficiency and longevity with also making them last longer Maybe even mix in LEDs with higher temperatures. Can't stand dim lights
I can't stand dim lights either, but I guess the best solution would be to just use a light fixture with 2 or 3 bulbs to get an overall power of over 10 watts
@@ChronicMechatronic while that achieves the brightness it won't make them more efficient at those chips are being driven hard.
@@Will-sc3hw I mean put 3 of them in one room after modding them. Then they are closer to their optimal efficiency _and_ you get enough light
@@ChronicMechatronic yeah, that works too
@@ChronicMechatronic oui is is it 8 i
I always enjoy these videos. I had a similar lamp konk out in my house the other day. I shorted the dead LED and then chopped off a resistor to lower the power I think around 40%. The difference in brightness between the repaired light and the bulb right next to it was almost indistinguishable.
Back once again for the renegade master, D4 damager, power to the people.
You've made my day.
Popped down to the comments to make sure I wasn't mis-remembering the lyrics when Clive said "Destroyer" 😅
@@turbokadett I'm here for the same reason. Great song but D4 DAMAGER Power to The People back once again for the renegade master!
My GU10 outside down-lights have been Clive'd down to 1 watt , they still give a lot of light and run cool .
I expect they will last virtually forever .
Have been 'clive'd' lol, that's what it's now known as ha
How do you manage to "Clive" a GU10? Also, the only 1W style ones I've seen are those really low power ones with the 5mm style LEDs soldered to a surface, which really don't give out anywhere near enough light to be useful.
@@TheSpotify95 The " Poundland " GU10's are basically the same inside and have the two resistors . The front pops off and on very easily .
@@royshaft useful info - thx
@@royshaft Really useful to know that, cheers Rob
Big Clive got a shout-out with the latest Slo-Mo Guys video on blowing up capacitors. Nice work, Clive!
Just watched that yesterday
This has to the best/most applicable real life hack i've seen on this channel in all the time watching I am so sick and tired of my "energy efficient" LED bulbs blowing so quickly and at a minimum of £3.50 for a 1 bulb this will save me loads ... Thank you !!!!!!!
It makes a change to see the Vice of Knowledge used for less destructive work.
Inspired by this, I picked up a pack of the Kodaks in Poundland today. They do get hot quite quickly, run at full capacity. I found a 25 ohm resistor in my junk box - with that, it was still very bright (and still got pretty warm). Tried 100 ohms too and it's quite acceptable as a desk lamp (and only just barely warm after 10 mins). Very nice.
Sadly Kodak (Poundland) is another brand along with Polaroid (Asda) that has been licensed to have their once trusted name put on any product from China. Hitachi and Qualcast (Argos) are two others. People think they’re buying products made by these brands but they’re not. It’s so wrong. I really don’t understand how this deception is allowed under UK Consumer Law.
It's probably got a lot to do with the massive kick back the Gov. get.
My favourite is Akai which states "80 years of Japanese technology" on what's basically a cheap Chinese DVD player.
JVC is another .
It’s amusing isn’t it, this is the kinda shit trademark law was meant to prevent, back when trademarks were literally stamped into products. Doesn’t do much when people are willing to debase their own branding for the sake of a quick buck. Brand names mean nothing nowadays, each product has to be judged individually.
@@SkigBiggler That's one of the reasons 'always buy reputable brandnames!!' is a non-argument. Crosley used to be a great-yet-affordable brand that produced everything from radios to cars, but now they're a damn joke stamped on bad plastic shit.
I hope that Mr. Edison was watching as well. It was so good to see how a glowing tungsten filament in an evacuated glass bulb is replaced by solid state components. It is amazing that we get so much light with these complex lamps. It is awesome. Edison by the way had to call the glassblower for doing a hack !
"I've blown up the image" I don't see the smoke, flame and blast wave usually associated.
Honestly I've found those "60W equivalent" LED bulb to be too dim to use just a single bulb in a regular room. They're brighter than the equivalent CFL, but I also thought a 100W equivalent CFL was also too dim.
However, with the hackability of those cheap linear regulated LED bulb, it might actually be an advantage that they're not as bright as expected. You could instead bump them down to 50% of their rating and switch the light fitting from a single to a dual lamp fitting. It would be brighter not only because LEDs are more efficient at lower power levels, but also if the single LED fixture is pointed in the wrong direction for providing even lighting.
That's the case with the light in my room. The wall opposite my desk is well-lighted, but my work surface is fairly dimly lit. With a dual lamp fixture, the room would be more evenly lit.
This modification may also be useful for desk lamps. At least the older ones that actually take the full sized bulbs. 15W of direct LED lighting would be fairly eye-searing, but 4-5W should be more than enough for most tasks.
It's possible your 100w equivalent was low CRI. Just because it's a lot of light doesn't mean everything is visible--you can stand under a low pressure sodium vapor street light and still be blind to anything blue, for example.
According to MIL-HDBK-217 (now public domain and downloadable) for each 10C reduction in temperature you should see a doubling in life. If it lasted 18,000 hours MTTF before under-running, then reducing from 11W to 2.3 should ball park give you near 100,000 hours MTTF. There are electrolytics that can do that if you run them cool. Alternatively use a high temp one (+125C) with a life of 2000 hours and by the time you are running it at 65C it will work for 128,000 hours or a bit over 14 years.
YMMV. In LED lamps it is often components other than the LED chip that fails.
@@bobraible not really. I had a few phillips bulbs fail by LEDs going open circuit.
@@bobraible Yeah I have an LED lightbulb that stopped working. I've been saving it because I'm betting the LEDs are still good. I want to just apply DC power to it and see what happens.
@@El_Chompo you can't just apply dc voltage to an led without risk of burning it out. You need to limit the current.
That 3-year warranty probably says that if you actually use the product in real-life conditions then the warranty is null and void.
It only says that if it says it on the pack or otherwise is communicates before you buy.
2 hours on only in 60 degree weather with 0 humidity.
That or "you pay shipping back and forth" making it more expensive than the value of the item.
Around here most of them say if they run only for 3-4 hours a day. My hall light bulbs are on a building wide timer so they get like 16 hours a day in winter.
I think that 99.99% of buyers will never go back to the store with the package, recite and the broken bulb to get the money back even if it was within the 3 year warranty. And with todays crazy inflation, they would probably even break even if everyone returned the product a few years after!
Could you show the stock and modded lamps side by side so we can see the difference between them?
The only meaningful way to do this on camera (other than metering their luminous flux) is to show one lamp at a time illuminating a room and having the camera at the very same fixed exposure settings for both shots.
Putting them side by side and then filming them doesn't tell you anything other than one being brighter than the other.
1:11 and 11:41
@@_BangDroid_ half as bright, huh. I don't mind that, easier with the eyes
It was cool hearing you get a shout out on the latest Slow Mo Guys video Clive, lovely stuff 👍🏼
It would be great to see this kind of design, or a variation on it fitted to a three-way capable bulb. Same set of LEDs but different currents.
But aren't those ungodly expensive by now? ( around here every one seems to be throwing away their 3 way capable light fixtures. I often reuse them with a normal bulb then use a different controller. Sometimes I put in a new bulb socket meant for regular light bulbs. )
@@johnpossum556 Legacy 3 way lamp sockets are still common in 120v land.
Why not use a dimmer socket?
Because a dimmer socket costs more and has more complex points of failure than an a, b, ab switch
Here in Canada, I have received replacement LEDs that did not make the 3 years a few times! I know that the packaging here has a disclaimer as to how many hours a day make up the 3 years. One company that sells their bulbs only in a 6 pack sent me another 6 pack to replace the 1 bulb that I was claiming warranty. I was very happy. As to this hack, looks easy to do for sure!
My brother asked me what the point of this channel was after I showed him this video. I told him “The channel is a man taking apart electronics to tell people how they work.” I certainly learn more than I think I will each time I watch a video.
A Wildchild quote.. off the top of his head, by an electronic nerd with a crazy beard, an overall lovable goofball..
Stunned.
Chapeau!
6:12 So here is the "Vise of Knowledge", brought back due to popular demand. Well thanks Clive, much obliged!
Big Clive i just fall in love with you when you hack such leds for low power. Infact i repaired a few of my household leds which go bang and now its running like charm and infact i keep it on all night long to keep my yard light up. Thank you
I work in B&M and they have quite a few Energizer and Eveready branded lamps. I've not tried any, but they're probably fairly standard.
I'd be surprised if those are really built by either of those 2 companies, however.
@@johnpossum556 Both Energizer and Eveready trademarks are used under license either by Supreme Imports or B&M itself (for the lamps at least).
I never thought about changing out the resistor... such a simple change to reduce the power consumption. I have also discovered that is you use these lamps out of the box in any type of enclosure, (ceiling fixture, or outdoors walkway or porch lamp), it reduces the life of the bulb because there is no escape route for the heat. By reducing the wattage, (possibly the lumins also?), you lower the heat factor and extend the lamp life greatly.
I thought a resistor just "wasted" electricity as heat? Like how heat generated by running electricity through a wire is called "resistive heating". How does using a resistor save power?
I'm clearly wrong and would like to fill this gap in my knowledge.
@@zig131 The resistor does "waste" power but it's somewhat insignificant. In this case it's probably 67 milliwatts. By swapping the resistor for a larger one it wastes less power, probably only 10 milliwatts. The reason the resistor is needed in the first place is that the current through the LEDs is set to the same amount of current that flows through the resistor.
Nice, I'm just wondering how much brightness you lose in the mod. Due to increased efficiency it should be more than 25% brightness at 25% power, right? Would be interesting to also compare the lumens or rather lumens per watt for the modified lamps...
That's what I was wondering a few videos back. Is there a datasheet chart out there showing us where optimal brightness and efficiency meet w/o overdriving the LEDs?
Read your question too late and asked the same. Oh well. :-)
i remember on an older video where he said that the watts to lumens isnt exponential and the more power you give it it wont necessarily get the same amount brighter if it is being over driven. so they are infact more efficiant if run at their rated current or less.
Fortunately perceived light isn't linear, and neither is efficiency.
To get a brighter bulb, at some point you either burn out or more than double wattage for a noticeable change.
So going the other way, even a little lower wattage doesn't dim much, but it saves a good bit and stresses the circuits less.
I had dimmable bulbs that were too bright, at lowest brightness, at 9watts, 6watts, and even 3watts.
Eventually got to 2.5watts to dim enough to see at night, without disturbing people sleeping, while also not tripping on furniture.
Clive made a video to this effect a while ago. ruclips.net/video/biEZ1TbdhhU/видео.html
Love your stuff, always interesting. Lots of us nowadays are looking at how to make things last longer but eventually things fail beyond repair. I'd love to see you highlight good and bad design when it comes to recycling as well as repairing.
You're still using that "Lead lighting, Church window" soldering iron tip I see ! LOL
Wow. I didn't even think Kodak was still a thing! :) Greetings from Canada. Thanks for the great content.
Clive has a green belt in spudgering one day he will be a spudgering master
Great video! Just the hack I've been looking for. I would like to add, the bulb naturally loses a lot of brightness because of the translucid dome. If you could replace it with a clear one, would be ideal. I will look into cutting old bulbs to source the clear dome, and glue it with bathroom silicone.
Poor Kodak getting the name used on everything now. Cupboard light? more like a damp dungeon light. interesting video 2x👍
They don't even bother using the new kodak font
@@nikkopt LOL its not hard to change the font now its not movable typeface any more.
It started way back in the VHS days. Putting there name on something they did not make.
@@MichaelBeeny Yes, once digital and video tape started to make inroads in to the film market I think someone thought they would all be out of a job. But Kodak had been at the cutting edge of digital photography with a camera made by Canon The EOS D2000 so who knows why they sold off the name to shoddy tat
@@MichaelBeeny It's not their fault in this case. Chinese companies make random stuff and use known company names to attract more people. You see lots of lenovo and hp stuff being sold online and even in lots of stores and these products don't exist on their websites. I don't know if said companies gave permission for their names to be used or not. It's normal to see fake stuff on random chinese websites, but these products are sold on "legit" stores.
Love these lamp hacks
Keep them coming
Damn, the printout got me once again! I first thought exchanging an SMD resistor for a throughhole one will get quite cramped. Then you pulled out the leaded resistor and I thought "oh no, that fits easily!" Took me until you dropped the resistor and moved the printout to snap back to reality XD.
Exactly the same thing here!!
thank you for showing that SMD soldering technique! It has been a tricky thing for me for quite some time!
The tin opener blade from a Swiss Army knife is my favourite tool for opening these
Hey Clive, can you explain the 94V-0 stamp on the PCB, and what does it mean?
I've been seeing it on many parts lately, from home appliances to computer parts, and I wonder what it is. Google didn't do much.
Thanks!
Finally someone that pronounces solder the correct way, like I say it.
It’s always the Americans who say soder drives me mad !
SODDER
Agreed and am still wondering how some countries can find an f in the word "lieutenant." 🤔
I have always wanted to do this, along with replacing the caps as they seem to be the thing that fails. You have taken much of the guess work out. Thanks.
one moment please, It's becoming part of my daily vocabulary
From the US I bought some Kodak bulbs from Spain. As they were 240V bulbs they have very robust power circuits. I had to put a jumper over about 1/3 of the LED string to get it to light at all on 120V. I experimented moving the jumper until it lit up. I then removed one of the two paralleled resistors to get the lower drive current. The 240 V, 15 W bulb now draws 120 V, 4 Watts and doesn't even get mildly warm. I expect it should last longer than I will. It has lots of LEDs in there. Two parallel strings and two regulators with 400V capacitors. Buy the Kodak 240V lamps if you can find them.
Clive, have you tried "doobieing" the WiFi colour changing LED bulbs? I have numerous and always wondered if they are worth doing a Clive-hack!
Once again a very interesting and inspiring video¡¡. I really learn a lot from these videos. Quite practical knowledge. Want to add a few thoughts: The linear regulator has to have some power dissipation, which of course depends on the leds current but also on the voltage drop. I have the suspicion that to save a big capacitor and avoid high current surges, the DC voltage has quite a ripple and the power dissipation of the regulator is important beacuse it is absorbing most, if not all of it. Deduced from above is that, if the leds are flicker-free, they should run at significantly lower than peak voltage.
The LEDs are chosen to be close to peak voltage. The little regulator dissipates very little heat, but if it does heat up too much it self regulates to a lower current.
Life hack: I have a complete set of incandescent and LED lights for the house. In winter the incandescent lights are 100% efficient at light output and heating the house. In the summer LED lights are technically less efficient because they must get cooled down by the AC system. Even though it’s a minuscule amount of WA.
Incandescent lights are more efficient at heating than a HVAC system because the heat doesn’t have to travel through ductwork to get to where you’re sitting.
Let me know what you think.
For some reason it just feels right to have old incandescent lights in the winter.
They may be 100% efficient but you still may be paying more for the same amount of heat if your main heating source doesn't use electricity (gas, etc). Sometimes that's not always true depending on how much things cost.
@@androiduberalles Thats true if you have cheap gas and can tolerate it. My HVAC is also a heat pump so it’s very efficient. It’s more of a personal preference this is really just a few dollars a month.
I was half expecting a near-identical board to that of the Tesco mini-globe which I ripped apart the other day. A similar design (making use of those push-fit connectors for supply and capacitor) but a different regulator (BP5131JC) and obviously a different LED count. I'm surprised to see Kodak's name on the box as the company still seem to be a "thing" and not just a gobbled-up brand name like Polaroid or Ferguson.
Did you ever measure Lux before and after a modification? Would love to know if there's a kind of sweet spot between power consumption and the amount of light emitted.
He recently did a video about it
edit: it was about 11 months ago
ruclips.net/video/biEZ1TbdhhU/видео.html
@@ChronicMechatronic Thanks. I only subscribed recently an missed that.
Just done this, worked a treat. Thanks Big Clive, top man 😎
The Kodak brand has been turned into a "we know we sell rubbish" brand.
i have to agree on there batteries
It's not just kodak. The chinese seem to feel it fine to sell anything under any name that even looks like a brand name. I have a Campbell Haufeld branded headlight that is now like a decade old. If I try to refind this "brand" it usually gives me some name that looks similar. The chinese make a joke out of our brands.
@@johnpossum556 I remember when they made "Rockwood" car stereo gear. Obviously a knock off of "Rockford Fosgate" and "Kenwood".
I've cut the resistor out of every bulb in my house literally the day after you posted that first hack. No blow outs yet, they all run cool to the touch, and not a single house fire yet 👍🏼
0:38 Has anyone tried returning lamps which failed the guarantee? I've been pretty lucky (even with the Poundland ones). The only ones that ever failed were some old ones from AliExpress.
I did here in Finland. They just say go get new ones. Dirt cheap stuff. Usually just too lazy, even if I have e-receipt..
@@Tsiikki You will be required to buy Russian light bulbs soon.
One IKEA lamp failed, but they have discontinued that particular dimmable SKU. Not bothered with returning it as want to tear it open for inspection 😅 Have returned to ASDA couple failed LEDs (made by TCP) that barely lasted a year, can't say they were the cheapest ones.
@@travisash8180 Yeah sure..
@@Siniad Disappointing, because I saw TCP CFLs last for at least a good while, they were still fine when I last checked, back in 2016. I got them in December, 2010. But I don't have them, they got left at my former place. (March 5, 2008-April 15, 2016, so 8 years was how long I lived there)
I’ve been repairing LED bar lamps with 50-80 little LED chips. Couple busts then scraped to just short them with solder. The problem is, less chips means more power through each LED which makes ‘em even more vulnerable. Now I can reduce whole power so that I can squeeze more life out of them. Thanks.
It's almost funny how brands began as small manufacturers putting their name on their wares so customers would know they standby their work and so trust it... and now it's become managers who make nothing, putting a company name they don't work at, on a product they will never inspect made in a place they will never visit and selling to a customer who decides based on that magic word what is best to buy.
Hey there, you are pretty awesome. Thanks for the videos. I have a push button 'toggle' switch that turns an old (about a year or two) vape off and on. I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Anything interesting you (or anyone) can think of that I should try to connect it to? I know it's a broad question. Thanks either way
I bought one from Tesco as they claim 1500 lumens. Put it in the bathroom globe and boy is it bright. Decided to buy one for the kitchen and it only lasted 10 months by which time I had lost the receipt.
These things don't like being closed up inside a globe light.
Time to rethink what I can get for the kitchen. Maybe a 4ft led panel?
Secret is to save the package and chuck the receipt into it!!
Heat is death, maybe consider cutting some air holes in your globe. Carbide cutter and lots of water or a shade that has built in gaps for airflow.
There are quite a few options available for light replacement. I do this everyday, even insulation contact rated lights benefit from cooling.
If you're okay replacing the entire light fixture then a large panel _is_ the best way to go because the large surface area means it can effectively dissipate heat. Unfortunately many panels are just edge lit by strips but this is still quite good.
I've started doing that to lamps I occasionally grab out of the lamp recycling bin at a local supermarket - just swap out the burnt LEDs, and then tame them down to about half the power. Usually they're so standardized I can just use one lamp as a parts donor to get the appropriate LEDs to put into the other ones. Now I have lots of free LED bulbs that are probably going to last a way longer than before they were thrown out in the first place ;P
That's actually... brilliant.
@@jonanderson5137 Thanks 😂
Takes a bit of time tho, so I guess if time's money, it's not free...
But it reduces E-waste 👍
For a choice of hobbies, I'd say it rates as broadly useful. It's a handy skill to keep fresh too. I sharpen knives but bringing lights back to life seems like it would be cooler.
@@jonanderson5137 I find it very relaxing to listen to music while tinkering with those, figuring out what's worth repairing and what isn't.
Most of the time you can just desolder the leds over a candle flame, it's really amazing how much heat they can tolerate
who'd have thought, the vice of knowledge is also the vice of creation. 😀
I have found that LED lights open easiest with a bench vice. Throw a shop towel over the jaws so they don't mark the dome. You just squeeze it until the sides are displaced about 13mm (1/2"). Unclamp, turn the bulb 90 degrees, and do it again. At that point, you should be able to just give it a twist. It's a *LOT* easier than the spudger/knife/razor way, and once you have the feel of it, you won't damage anything.
I have taken apart a ton of them, to write Amazon reviews including showing the LEDs, and to see what controller they use. The ones using ESP8285 or ESP8266 are easy to convert to ESPHome or similar. Even if they aren't easy to do, you can pop the whole assembly out and connect up a TTL adapter to flash with.
I haven't done a tutorial video on that, mostly because I think it didn't really need it, and I'm really really lazy about making RUclips videos. :)
... I have a bench vice and some shop tools by my electronics workbench. That has made it easy to do everything from making/repairing small boards and modifying lightbulbs, to rebuilding car alternators and power steering pumps. I just move my silicone mat, and lay cardboard down, to do dirty work. I don't have to do that work outside in the heat (Florida's always hot), and there's excellent lighting at my electronics workbench.
Hi Clive,
Another interesting video.
Could you explain what power factor means.
For most of us, the time we would spend hacking the light isn't worth our hourly rate. But if you enjoy hacking the light as hobby that's something different.
That would depend on your time management, if it takes you an hour to do the hack, than maybe, however, this is a 10 minute hack at the most, providing you have the resisters. If it extends the life of the bulb a significant amount, that is less time buying and installing bulbs which probably works out to be quite a bit more than just doing the simple hack. What I am saying might not be the case, just something to consider. I have bought led bulbs that did not last very long and that in of itself is annoying.
"the time we would spend hacking the light isn't worth our hourly rate"... your not meant to be doing these hacks while your at work..
Maybe you should abandon that always be grinding bs mindset and enjoy life a little
It also depends on where you live, in most of the US electricity is fairly cheap, so people can quite happily ignore LEDs and stick with old incandescent, however as of recently price has been going up it could be as little as 10 cents per kwh now but in some places it could soon be up to 50 cents per kwh, so yeah even saving as little as extra 5 watts would make a far more significant difference when you start paying over 20 cents a kw.
The wattage you save alone should justify more than your hourly rate. And if these lights last like 600% of your regular bulbs then you've saved 5 visits to the store to buy replacement bulbs. Plus the time it takes to buy those 5 more bulbs. Some years ago I hacked some clearanced pre-CFL outdoor fixture bulbs into 2 indoor lamps and I figured, after the fact, that I saved a megawatt over the time they ran. A million watts. Let that sink in to your head for a moment.
I am so glad you changed title, literally.
I wonder if the board of Directors at Kodak now rue the decision to sell their name to China .... now that 35mm film photography has a huge worldwide resurgence and they are back producing film and cameras ... hhmmmm....
11:19 Clive just proved that "cupboardy" is indeed a word!
I have done side-by-side tests for these bulbs claiming their 10 watts is equal to 60 watts incandescent or whatever...they are NEVER equal...the LEDs are ALWAYS way dimmer.
Factor in how much extra garbage these things create in the landfills...especially since I have not had a single one last more than a year so you have to buy way more.
So the initial cost of 10x the price...plus a shitty power factor so more costs there...and you have buy more because they fail much quicker...they are NOT so eco-friendly after all.
I have some Cree bulbs that have been running over 5 years !!
But you must feel a lot better knowing you are saving the planet by buying them 😄 /s
@@barrieshepherd7694 I don't buy them except to disassemble :)
Most LED bulbs I've used have lasted for years, and many of them are still going strong. Don't buy the cheapest ones - Philips and Cree have worked out well for me.
My house is full of LEDs and I hardly remember one giving out over the last few years. Have bought more expensive name brands and then these 3 for 5 euro combo box types and all last just fine. Maybe if you have spiky voltages or something they might break more. I would not use them in fully enclosed light fixtures though, where the heat can just build up inside.
I see people complain all the time that they don’t get a notice when a new video comes out. I never really had that problem but lately I don’t get any notice when big Clive puts out a new video. I have the bell clicked for all notifications. Sometimes it’s because you don’t watch that channel very often but I watch every new video and I go back and watch a lot of old videos. Oh well I just got to keep an eye out.
I don't know whether it's different in 240V-land, and I don't know those Kodak bulbs specifically, but based my anecdotal experience with LED lamps in the US, that 3 year warranty sounds perfectly reasonable to me (maybe even a bit conservative). In fact, I have quite a number of 10-ish watt LED bulbs (mostly Phillips) in my house which I installed roughly 7 years ago (when I moved in), and aside from a couple which failed within the first couple of months (manufacturing defects seem to be fairly common with LED bulbs, I've noted), I think only one of them has has actually burned out and had to be replaced in that time.
(Keep in mind that these warranties are also done with the assumption that people are going to be turning them on for only a few hours each night, so 3 years comes out to really somewhere around 1000 hours of expected use. If you're leaving it on continuously, obviously, that will not last nearly as long, but most people don't do that.)
I do agree that it seems like these bulbs are being driven awfully hard, and should not last very long, but apparently the robustness of the modern LEDs and associated components are really impressive these days, because they really do seem to be able to hold up surprisingly well under those conditions, from what I've seen (which means if you mod them down like this, they'll probably last basically forever.. you could potentially be handing them down to grandchildren as family heirlooms :) ).
Quoting Renegade Master, thats why you’re so awesome Clive.
Would you recommend this or the capacitor method for taming down LED lights?
Capacitor method = more flickering I think
I didn't expect a random Renegade Master reference! I should have, but I didn't. You're a hoot! Never change.
A great hack Clive, even for a very inexperienced in electronics greenhorn like myself. Is there a way to make them dimmable?
Hey Clive, I haven’t been able to find the purple or brown screwdrivers anywhere. I’ve got all the others though. Care to swap yours for any other colour??
Hi Clive, at least the the soldering iron didn't go on fire like my Weller one did when the .047uF capacitor across the thermal switch assembly went short circuit and I was out of the room at the time ***
Cheers
Dave.
Never realised Clive was a member of the very exclusive Sissy Squad. Great vid as always!
Hi Clive, sorry if this has been asked before, but where can I get a HOPI tester?
They appear on eBay from time to time.
I use the same style handle. I added a half inch wide solid copper wire coil to the bit that goes over the tip. Wrap it around then double back over and add some high temp heat shrink to hold it in place. It adds a bit of thermal capacitance to these and helps them considerably. Either that or I just think it does. It feels better to me.
The slow mo guys mentioned you in their latest episode where they blow up capacitors ; your favourite past time🤔👍
7:15 How many times have YOU reached out with your iron, and got no heat... that made me laugh, how genuine a response! 🤘😂🤣😂🤣
Sorry Clive .... seems you did not go to soldering school with me back in 1979 ... but keep the excitement burning and fun going
I had the thermocouple conk out on an iron once...
The heating element would not turn off.
The iron cooked itself 😭😭😭
RIP Dick Smith Electronics soldering station, you served with distinction for 18+ years ❤
You have inspired me. I think i am going to create a 3d printed 1:3 conversion mount for my ceiling fan fixtures to use some of these hacked PCBs. I should be able to get more useful light out of the fixtures by aiming them at a wider area, while reducing the glare when looking at them. I think i might thermally couple the PCBs to some aluminum foil on the back of the mount for a little extra cooling.
It may be safer to buy one of the many multi-lamp adaptors on eBay. They aren't expensive. You can also cascade the two way splitters.
@@bigclivedotcom oh, where's the fun in that? I only let the smoke out on my of my hack jobs, repurposing a power bank to fit into a contraption of pvc fittings to power a plasma globe. I just gotta not touch two circuit boards together during the glue up when one has 6 fully charged cells attached is all. 😁
My stepfather was the advertising manager at Eastman-Kodak during the seventies and eighties, but they went partially out of business with the advent of internet. Anyways I was wondering if you have used or knew about the "Korst 191" soldering gun/pencil thermometer? For all those soldering utensils, there's an awesome machine for exclusive tear-down and observation and it is immensely helpful at keeping the soldering gun under temperature control. Check it out!
Will lowering the wattage change the color temperature at all? Can you scrape off some of the phosphor to give a cooler light?
7:25 "One moanment pleasse" is Clive talk for WTH. Comedy gold moment. One for the blooper reel Xmas 2022.
Would it be worth trying the valley-fill network you covered recently, on these hacked lamps, Clive? Capacitor-diode, diode-capacitor, bridged together in the middle with a diode? Power factor might become as much of an issue as wattage; or is there an easier way to correct it, maybe?
The valley fill circuit has an output voltage with _tons_ of ripple. As such it really only makes sense when followed by a switching regulator.
One way to make a bulb like this have better PF is to remove the main filter capacitor and put it across the LEDs instead.
I got some more expensive led bulbs free from my local council as part of an enviromental scheme that were meant to last 5 years, the one in living room lasted under 18 months, the one in bedroom which was almost never used last 12 months! another in hall used even less lasted under 18 months too
Back once again with the renegade master. 🤣🤣🤣 That was awesome. I'm in stitches
I think you’ve said this in an earlier video. But you can always combine multiple of these to get more light. There are these splitters (some better than others) that let you use multiple lamps in a single (open) fixture
In 2014 Cree reached 300lm/W LED´s. Today the standart lamps use LED´s with only 70-100 lm/W. It is technical easy possible to get 2000lm from 10W. More light less heat. If you want this you have to build your own lamps.
Where's your video?
Every timeI hear the phrase "Back once again" my brain continues the lyric. It did that, but you did it too...I laughed out loud!
The renegade master strikes back!
Love it.
The vice of knowledge makes an appearance. 😁 another satisfying and enjoyable vlog.
Okay here's more scientific approach: remove the cover ant operate the lamp for about 15 minutes to reach equilibrum and measure chip temperature with a thermal camera or with an probe coated in thermal paste, call it tChip. If it's below 65-70 celsius the lamp is good. Otherwise calculate tDelta = tChip - tAmbient, that's your "degreed per whatever watt". You want to keep tChip below 70 degrees (below 65 if aiming 100K hrs), then subtract average air temperature (upper temperature is usually higher, measure at ceiling) and call it tMaxDelta. Since delta scales nearly linearly with power you need to reduce power proportionally, pwrNew = pwrOrig * tMaxDelta / tDelta. Refer to driver chip manual for the resistor formula or figure out approximate nominal by trial and error.
I bought at discount a pack of 12 generic LED bulbs because the ones that I used (the cheapest ones) were dying after 3-6 months of normal usage. So, armed with the new ones, I changed the wires in the most fixtures (I mostly have double fixtures in the house) to connect them in series. The new ones and some of the old ones that lasted work happily now, after 2 and half years, I didn't changed a bulb since then. About the simple fixtures (bathroom, hallway) I changed with double ones and did the same trick.
They give the same perceptible amount of light and as I see, they last longer. BTW, they are 3W and 5W warm white LED light.
Nicely done! That should greatly improve the lifespan of the light bulb. :)
I would personally drop the power to (say) 6W or 7W, so it's still bright enough to be used as a main room bulb, but still lowered in power so that it won't overheat as quickly. So maybe I'd go 27 ohms or 33 ohms?