Shop lights

[JSinMO]

Well I guess I’m on the bandwagon too now, kind of! Mrs Clause snuck a present under the tree for me.

Rechargeable led lights. Not quite the shop lights you guys put up, but my goodness they’re bright! Says 3000 lumen for an hour or 1000 lumen for 3.5 hours before they need a charge. They claim it has a 5 year warranty so we’ll see how long they last. Can’t wait to try them out!

[Eugen]

Niiice present! Welcome to the club of bright lights Jeff!

[ras101]

Well, I guess I have an opinion here too. I always bought 4 ft florescent dual tube lights in the past, never gave a thought to type/quality,/ etc and my only thought was "how cheap can I get them! That has changed soo much since LED lights... I Only buy dual lights LED for basement/workshop! I always buy the best! yes I know that means I only buy from places like Home depot, Lowe's or a lighting store. Why? because I am looking for longevity and light output! I know, its a hard mix but that is what I want! period. Buying cheap (I tried that) only gives me a product I will replace very quickly as it fails but also I am fed up with having to rewire in the new fitting. Following that principle has worked for me.

[Harry]

Yesterday I sold all of my 8’ fluorescent lights that I replaced with LED. I found these out at the curb with bulbs awhile ago. Fourteen lights most with bulbs for $80. The buyer drove for 1.5 hours to get them. Very interesting guy who restores cars. He showed me pics of some of his collection which are all Ford Model T’s. Harry

[FUTZ]

Well, I guess I have an opinion here too. I always bought 4 ft florescent dual tube lights in the past, never gave a thought to type/quality,/ etc and my only thought was "how cheap can I get them! That has changed soo much since LED lights... I Only buy dual lights LED for basement/workshop! I always buy the best! yes I know that means I only buy from places like Home depot, Lowe's or a lighting store. Why? because I am looking for longevity and light output! I know, its a hard mix but that is what I want! period. Buying cheap (I tried that) only gives me a product I will replace very quickly as it fails but also I am fed up with having to rewire in the new fitting. Following that principle has worked for me.

I agree. I think everyone and their brother are making LED lights and going to market with an unproven design. I will look for a good heat sink in future purchases.

I bought two tube type LED lights that failed within a year. I wonder if I could fix them. A Google search came up with repairing the standard screw-in LED's instead, but I thought I would give it a try.

A bulb failed recently so I thought I would try what I learned.
First I took off the diffuser

That revealed the "Black Dot of Death"

I Scraped off the silicon or whatever it is, and cleaned the metal. And then added a blob of solder to bypass defective junction

That's it. I left diffuser off because it is the major cause of retaining heat. It's been working for two weeks. The control board regulates the voltage (constant current) so it works fine with the bypassed LED.

And it was fun!

BTW, my LED tubes are toast!!!

[Eugen]

@FUTZ nice to know some can be fixed. Where did you get the LED tubes so I can avoid them.

[Gordy]

Well, I guess I have an opinion here too. I always bought 4 ft florescent dual tube lights in the past, never gave a thought to type/quality,/ etc and my only thought was "how cheap can I get them! That has changed soo much since LED lights... I Only buy dual lights LED for basement/workshop! I always buy the best! yes I know that means I only buy from places like Home depot, Lowe's or a lighting store. Why? because I am looking for longevity and light output! I know, its a hard mix but that is what I want! period. Buying cheap (I tried that) only gives me a product I will replace very quickly as it fails but also I am fed up with having to rewire in the new fitting. Following that principle has worked for me.

I agree. I think everyone and their brother are making LED lights and going to market with an unproven design. I will look for a good heat sink in future purchases.

I bought two tube type LED lights that failed within a year. I wonder if I could fix them. A Google search came up with repairing the standard screw-in LED's instead, but I thought I would give it a try.

A bulb failed recently so I thought I would try what I learned.
First I took off the diffuser
no diffuser.jpg

That revealed the "Black Dot of Death"
Black Dot of Death.jpg

I Scraped off the silicon or whatever it is, and cleaned the metal. And then added a blob of solder to bypass defective junction
solder blob.jpg

That's it. I left diffuser off because it is the major cause of retaining heat. It's been working for two weeks. The control board regulates the voltage (constant current) so it works fine with the bypassed LED.
led bulb working.jpg

And it was fun!

BTW, my LED tubes are toast!!!

I watched some of those videos.Thinking the "spot of death" was something even I could fix BUT the Sylvania bulbs I opened up have the older style circuits potted into the base and reeked of smoked electronics. When I lifted the LED board a bit I see the burn/charred spot on the exposed part of the potted circuit board.

Heat; I saw some where they drilled large vent holes in the white base and the base area of the diffuser.

Another guy ID'd the two resistors on top of the LED board, they are of two different values and wired in parallel. He cut out the lower valued resistor, This showed lower power consumption and only slightly lower light output, which should extend the life quit a bit as most designs push the LED chips to the limit for max light output. I believe they call it planned obsolescence as the LED bulbs never last the rated hours


Gordy

[MattA]

The resistors on @FUTZ LED light are 18 and 33 ohms. The PCB looks like the aluminum type, very good for sinking heat away from components.

[Gordy]

The resistors on @FUTZ LED light are 18 and 33 ohms. The PCB looks like the aluminum type, very good for sinking heat away from components.

The heat can only move so far when the heat sink is surrounded by plastic with no vent holes.


Gordy

[FUTZ]

The heat can only move so far when the heat sink is surrounded by plastic with no vent holes.


Gordy

Actually the cup that the board is sitting on is some kind of heat dissipater. I drilled through to make a vent and saw that there was an aluminum lamination.