Philips LED bulb teardown

[TheWelly888]

The One Hung Low cheap LED lamp jobbie that I mentioned earlier in the thread, here are the pictures:

It has no brand marking whatsoever. My father got them from an ebay seller for only £2 each! The electrolytic caps are rated for 105C but they did not appear to have gone bang. Note the complete absence of any EMF suppression component or potting. The actual LEDs were white and they no longer work.

[SeanB]

I used 2 39K resistors in series to drive one of the then new ultrabright red led's.Current was around 2mA, and it was bright enough at that current to light the opposite wall in low ambient conditions.

[reagle]

re: Remote phosphor. Lighting Science Group also  seems to be using that in their Definity A19 bulb (I call it a flying saucer on top of a cactus model). The weirdly shaped plastic top is what emits light omni-directionally, though I am not sure whose LEDs are in it.
(http://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Science-Group-A19-Non-Dimmable/dp/B004W8EVMO)

[reagle]

The One Hung Low cheap LED lamp jobbie that I mentioned earlier in the thread, here are the pictures:

It has no brand marking whatsoever. My father got them from an ebay seller for only £2 each! The electrolytic caps are rated for 105C but they did not appear to have gone bang. Note the complete absence of any EMF suppression component or potting. The actual LEDs were white and they no longer work.

Yikes  what a mess, especially the burned up power leads! Quite a contrast to a clean Philips build I must say. The LEDs might be Chinese as well. While at the last years Lighting Fair I've seen a lot of lights that used their own knock-off LEDs in them.

[SeanB]

I bought the 3W 12V MR16 versions of those. Ripped them apart and remote mounted the nice little ballasts, so I could use them as bench lights. Work nicely, and the ballast now does not get toasted, and as well I added some ferrite beads to reduce EMI. Added a third lead to ground the metal heatsink as well, something that is sadly missing on all of these, and I doubt if they would pass if I was to do insulation testing on them. They do have a nice heatsink though, quite effective if not enclosed.

[reagle]

It appears many SSL fixtures these days are still mainly DIY thing- get it, tweak it and then it may last. Case in point- I use nice looking Utilitech undercabinet lamps. they come with a substantial metal case/heatsink. The LED strips are on metal substrate as well. Sounds good, right? Well, except the strips attach to the heatsink with a few screws and leave most of the contact surface open to a large air gap. Nothing a bit of thermal grease can't fix, but what if I did not open it when purchased??
See http://www.lowes.com/pd_102996-2120-29125_0__  for an example.
I may have to do a blog post on silly things found in SSL at this rate

[SeanB]

Oddd?

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.lowes.com/" on this server.

Reference #18.1f4d212e.1344183700.55696f5

[T4P]

The One Hung Low cheap LED lamp jobbie that I mentioned earlier in the thread, here are the pictures:

It has no brand marking whatsoever. My father got them from an ebay seller for only £2 each! The electrolytic caps are rated for 105C but they did not appear to have gone bang. Note the complete absence of any EMF suppression component or potting. The actual LEDs were white and they no longer work.

Yikes  what a mess, especially the burned up power leads! Quite a contrast to a clean Philips build I must say. The LEDs might be Chinese as well. While at the last years Lighting Fair I've seen a lot of lights that used their own knock-off LEDs in them.

The leds are chinese
But as always, pay peanuts and get peanuts

Speaking of LED fixtures my town council decided to retrofit the previous E14 18W globes
with a 40W LED in the shape of a 20W tube ... from optiled (chinese company!)
Remote phosphor or not i don't know but they cost 80$ each and i don't really understand why they want to do so
1) My CFL's i used in the past that i did not pay peanuts for can last 2 years 24/7
2) There might be power savings but electricity isn't a few bucks/kwh ...
3) CFL's that aren't peanuts cost AT MOST $10
and i doubt the driver will be able to last more than a CFL can ... 50,000 hours?
Case in point, because everytime they swapped out the CFL
they are spending 20 bucks plus these LED's are supposedly 2 times stronger
so if they wanted that much lighting in the past they had to spend 40 bucks, 2 times of 1 year half pays for the LED
AND as expected they increased the amount we have to pay as "conservation fee", They said living in the government flats you don't have to pay the town council ... ya right, it's like living in a condominium where you also have to pay a "conservation fee"

[SeanB]

2 years on a CFL. I use PL lamps and magnetic ballasts. They last at least 5 years on 24/7/365. Then you replace the cheap, easy to buy and simple to change lamp, and the expensive wound ballast starts the new lamp with no problems for another 5 years plus. The ones on a daylight switch did over 10 years minimum.

[T4P]

2 years on a CFL. I use PL lamps and magnetic ballasts. They last at least 5 years on 24/7/365. Then you replace the cheap, easy to buy and simple to change lamp, and the expensive wound ballast starts the new lamp with no problems for another 5 years plus. The ones on a daylight switch did over 10 years minimum.

Oh yeah, i don't normally condone CFL for anything permanent, i have a magnetic ballast'd PL on top of my head too
Those things last forever ... i change them 2 years once, when it begins to dim to 80% or so i think, don't have a luxmeter don't know.
But it's worth getting

[FenderBender]

Oddd?

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.lowes.com/" on this server.

Reference #18.1f4d212e.1344183700.55696f5

Lowes is an American home improvement chain. They might only allow people to view their site from the US. I'm not sure why.....

[reagle]

Oddd?

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.lowes.com/" on this server.

Reference #18.1f4d212e.1344183700.55696f5

Do they block by country?! Screw them here is the picture

[flolic]

Do they block by country?! Screw them here is the picture

I am in Croatia and can access their server just fine.

[SeanB]

They just do not like ZA, must be because we beat them in swimming........

[T4P]

They just do not like ZA, must be because we beat them in swimming........

Well that's unfair ...
Oh by the way, did china win swimming?
where's my axe

[FenderBender]

They just do not like ZA, must be because we beat them in swimming........

Well that's unfair ...
Oh by the way, did china win swimming?
where's my axe

China win swimming?  Overall?

[WorldPowerLabs]

The thing conveniently decided to stop working, so naturally I had to take it apart!

It looks like they are using their Rebel LEDS. How many hours did it run for before it failed ?
They quote 50,000 hours +
I've tested the rebels and not many make 3000 hours.
I think the 50,000 hours is when they are switched off 

Agreed on the Rebels... they were promising, on paper -- but failed to deliver longevity (even with a very satisfactory heatsink).

The thing that gets me is this:  the alternative-bulb makers (non-incandescent) all promise long life, in exchange for a high initial purchase price.  In my experience, most fail to deliver.  My overpriced CFLs fail at about the same frequency as the incandescents they replaced...

[M. András]

anyone tried the cree plugin led lamp modules or heck one together using bridgelux mega led arrays? 4500lumen light output at 4k color temp while consuming 5x watts datasheet says its around 106lumen/w. i know a forum member did a room lightin using the cree cxa2011 arrays driving them at their test numbers

[FenderBender]

The thing conveniently decided to stop working, so naturally I had to take it apart!

It looks like they are using their Rebel LEDS. How many hours did it run for before it failed ?
They quote 50,000 hours +
I've tested the rebels and not many make 3000 hours.
I think the 50,000 hours is when they are switched off 

Agreed on the Rebels... they were promising, on paper -- but failed to deliver longevity (even with a very satisfactory heatsink).

The thing that gets me is this:  the alternative-bulb makers (non-incandescent) all promise long life, in exchange for a high initial purchase price.  In my experience, most fail to deliver.  My overpriced CFLs fail at about the same frequency as the incandescents they replaced...

Very true. I think initially when CFLs were first coming out, companies might have been producing good quality ones because the technology was still new and had to prove itself...but over the years, they've been cutting costs left and right. Real crap quality today. I don't know if anyone makes a good CFL these days. Maybe some of the big brand American companies like Phillips or Sylvania...but no promises with them either.

[madworm]

Well, in the beginning incandescent bulbs lasted quite long too. But there was a global 'conspiracy' to limit lifetime to about 1000 hours. Bulb manufacturers even had to pay a 'fine' to a consortium if their bulbs lasted for too long.

I think the documentary that covers that is called 'Pyramids of Waste (2010)'.

We'll have to pay attention to the lifetime hours that the LED bulbs claim to last.

[FenderBender]

I agree. Ahhhhh consumer electronics. What a bunch of rubish. Now we can't even buy a good lightbulb for heaven's sake.

[A Hellene]

Well, in the beginning incandescent bulbs lasted quite long too. But there was a global 'conspiracy' to limit lifetime to about 1000 hours. Bulb manufacturers even had to pay a 'fine' to a consortium if their bulbs lasted for too long.

I think the documentary that covers that is called 'Pyramids of Waste (2010)'.

Exactly! The documentary is called The Light Bulb Conspiracy (2010):

There is a fairly new documentary about planned obsolescence, called The Light Bulb Conspiracy (2010) and it can be watched on YouTube:



The documentary begins with an extended reference to the first organised successful attempt of planned obsolescence by the Phoebus Cartel in 1924, whose members, that were manufacturing light bulbs, 'fixed' the life expectancy of their bulbs at less than 1,000 hours.
[...]

Now, I have recently purchased for €7.50 an E14 2W LED lamp with 36 5050 SMD LEDs and a promised average lifetime of 40,000 hours, for my kitchen extractor-hood. Well, the LED lamp failed in less than a month's time, with a couple of LEDs having fallen off their PCB(!) and clinking within the lamp bulb! I cracked the lamp open to solder the LEDs back in their position, only to find out that not even one component was properly soldered: All the PCB solder joints were unacceptable in terms of solder quality and quantity, already showing cracks, while the LEDs were only needed to be touched lightly in order for them to fall of the PCB... Of course, a reflow using regular 60/40 alloy solder-wire fixed the problem. I am sorry, though, I did not take any photos of the product and the procedure.

What a waste of the finite earth resources in the name of profiteering...


-George

[nukie]

The Rebels are tough units, how are you testing them and not making 3000 hours. How are they mounted? Are you using the recommended layout and have you included vias in your board for better thermal performance?

I have white Rebels from 2008, they are still working and I over-drive them by 30%. They are not mounted on silly MCPCB, they are mounted on the recommended layout in the datasheet. With the PCB mounted on a passive heatsink with thermal epoxy. Most high power LED failure are due to lack of proper heat dissipation. If the Philips bulb had more fins it would work longer.

The thing conveniently decided to stop working, so naturally I had to take it apart!

It looks like they are using their Rebel LEDS. How many hours did it run for before it failed ?
They quote 50,000 hours +
I've tested the rebels and not many make 3000 hours.
I think the 50,000 hours is when they are switched off 

Agreed on the Rebels... they were promising, on paper -- but failed to deliver longevity (even with a very satisfactory heatsink).

The thing that gets me is this:  the alternative-bulb makers (non-incandescent) all promise long life, in exchange for a high initial purchase price.  In my experience, most fail to deliver.  My overpriced CFLs fail at about the same frequency as the incandescents they replaced...

[T4P]

My LXML-PW11 on a 10C/W under-drived by 10% didn't last long either ... 4000 hours and it just quit working
But my XM-L T6 at 700mA lasted far longer ....

[bilko]

The Rebels are tough units, how are you testing them and not making 3000 hours. How are they mounted? Are you using the recommended layout and have you included vias in your board for better thermal performance?

The leds are bonded onto  aluminium PCB which are then mounted onto aluminium extrusion, all with silver thermal epoxy bonding. They operate at 40 deg C above ambient temperature. Design spec is in excess of manufacturer requirements. All led lamps are manufactured identically using modern pick and place machines and reflow.

So why do some last up to 3000 hours and some fail long before that ?
Is this a led quality control issue ?

All leds were purchased in the UK from Future electronics so I would be extremely surprised if they are fakes.

Show me a rebel led that's survived over 10,000 hours running 24/7/365, ambitious specs, yet to be proven, similar to hard disk drive manufacturers quoting in excess of 150,000 power on hours.