A look inside some eBay panel indicators. (with LED based rectifier!)

[@Ivo--]

380 Volts is what used to be the voltage across two of the thee phases in three phase supply in the 220V era, which used to be the mains voltage in mainland europe. When the EU standardized on 230V it went up to 400.

[@LakeNipissing]

+spankmeister Interesting to note with residential voltage in Europe being double what it is here, yet industrial motor voltage is 347 / 577 VAC, 3 PH

[@fabts4]

+spankmeister Yep. 99% of the population still speaks about the "220" and "230" in France.

[@shearer654]

I get 240v +-1v with 415v three phase one our low supply and 600v on our high

[@jouneymanwizard]

Those poly caps are a good deal tougher than their ratings would indicate. While I certainly would not design something deliberately outside those specs for an industrial indicator with longevity in mind, I think the rectification the LED provides makes it a sort of pulsed application, for which poly caps have far higher ratings (a quick Mouser delve for 250V Polyester caps from VIshay shows a 250V ac rated cap with a 630V DC rating and impulse ratings in excess of 1kV) and self-healing characteristics. These properties are often exploited among home Tesla coil builders to create large stable safe capacitor arrays. Interesting teardowns. For comparison, I got a hold of several Allen-Bradley LED indicators (800FD-P3N5), which contain a bit more protective circuitry for the LED, mostly well-sized power resistor, full-bridge rectification, zener protection for LED, and a bleed resistor to keep from biting you. All protecting a single LED with a cap for scattering light.

[@Comedean]

Well the 380V rating makes sense to me because I am an austrian electrician and decades ago the voltage between the phases were 380V (nowadays 400V). But I have never seen indicator lamps run at 380/400V in most cases they are powered from the low voltage supply used for the control circuit (mostly 24V) for safety reasons.

[@Bizma111]

I used to hate the idea of electrical engineering... this channel makes it interesting ans exciting to me now! thanks for the uploads

[@Ogma3bandcamp]

Clive stars in 2 chips 1 cup.

[@randacnam7321]

+InnaSoulSounds A trailer for hungry lights.

[@BillyNoMates1974]

the bridge rectifier led arrangement was very clever. never thought of that

[@rodrickbourque]

Clive, watching your videos made me go back knee deep in electronics instead of idling with unused knowledge. Thank you :) Your videos = motivation, heh.

[@teardowndan5364]

The voltage rating on film capacitors is usually AC. If the capacitor is marked 250V, that's 250V AC, not 250V peak. Even with the correct voltage capacitor, you still need that series resistor to limit inrush current when you happen to turn the indicator on during AC peak or worse: during the opposite AC peak from the one the capacitor might still be holding a charge from. The LEDs might not survive the several amps pulses for many times: without the resistor, the circuit will initially looks like a 0.1uF cap charged to ~750V. If the LEDs have 15 ohms of total combined series resistance, that's a 50A initial pulse current.

[@BigPJB]

Great to see the revue of these panel indicators as ordered 3pks of 4 to get colours I needed for panel. The two sent were surplus feel a lot happier now you've looked them over. Will be building the controller panel next week. Disappointed to see no bleed resistor for capacitor maybe install some externally. Many thanks Pete.

[@RambozoClown]

I try to make the assumption that everything is live at lethal voltage until proven otherwise. 240 volt lamp with a 400 volt cap, and 380 volt lamp with a 250 volt cap, then running half watt with what looks like an eighth watt resistor. Sounds like a typical day at the Chinese factory. Specs are what you print on the outside, nothing to do with what they put inside.

[@SeanBZA]

250VDC capacitor will withstand 560V for a while, as they get tested in production to 500VDC. Slightest spikes though will mean rapid self healing so in a short time they will be 10n capacitors, then open capacitors. As to indicators, I used to have some which used 115VAC bulbs, on a 230VAC mains. Simply used a diode and a resistor ( 5W) in the lamp holder to drop the voltage to 100VAC or so for the little 3W ES base lamp. Replaced with a neon version as those little lamps are expensive, just shorted out the diode and left the resistor in, as the screw in neon already has a built in 220k resistor. Dimmer but lasted longer, and not really needed as it was on a noisy motor anyway.

[@wisteela]

That way of rectifying really is clever/unusual

[@tdcattech]

I like the macro printed images. Nice simple idea that works really well. No dodgy focus close ups or shaky hands....just a big picture :-)

[@kevywevvy8833]

I've used rucks of the 24V DC ones from a uk importer. No failures so far. A colleague replaced all his 240V 22mm indicators with 240VAC ones from ebay and they all went bang after a few months. I told him he was taking a risk with any directly imported mains equipment. No quality control required, no comeback

[@Bigrignohio]

That is a really neat led arrangement.

[@adamcrockett3634]

I like the photo enlargements with tracing, nice touch.

[@XOIIOXOIIO]

"2 led chips in one cup" That must have been intentional.

[@gregorythomas333]

I have often wondered if that FBR made of LEDs could be done. Clive to the rescue with answers to my boggles! I'm going to have to rig some of these up myself and have a little fun with them :)

[@VaupellGaming]

I used to work as a windmill technician offshore in Denmark, and 380 was very common Onshore, offshore 400v and 680v are very common.

[@aroesblackstone1]

Yeeep I think everyone remembers every time they've ever been bit. Got a nasty but quite short 2KV hit after a cap shorted and burned through the rubber insulation on the test leads. Moral of the story is term the blasted supply off first.

[@BrokebackBob]

Excellent vid as always Clive, always look forward to them. I think I'm gonna do my support via Patreon as you suggest. 😁

[@davideldridge3686]

I once had to replace the ballast in fluorescent fixture in a retail store. I turned off the strip of lights the burnt out fixture was on and started to work on top of an aluminium ladder. I got a shock from the fixture because it turned out that this particular fixture was on separate circuit because it was one of the security lights that is left on all night when all the other lights are turned off. Like you said, always check your voltage again.

[@felixokeefe]

Here in the Netherlands a fase to neutral is 230V and the difference between fases 380V. Surprising that the ratings on the lamps are not given as 250V and 480V respectively. Manufacturers usually go for a value to appeal to the widest possible audience.

[@BrokebackBob]

Really great story of the 3 boxes!

[@1pcfred]

With neon bulbs so expensive anymore, I've been making my own mains indicator lamps out of LEDs more, and more lately. So seeing how it is done commercially is interesting to me. I must say, all of this is prepping me to just bite the bullet, and simply pay the exorbitant cost for neon bulbs.

[@bryanmassey3535]

Just found my new favorite past time, watching your videos with the KZbin auto generated closed captioning on. "to feed it is just a pastor in this case as a foreigner work faster just 100" LOL at 11:25

[@BrokebackBob]

In some Heathkits I have built, they use 1.5kv ceramic capacitor for bypass on the AC line and that's of course on 120VAC.

[@seandoofer5720]

i work in a paper plant and as part of a motion to remove all forms of breakable glass for food safety resons I replaced some indicators that used incandescent lamps. They were italian made led indicators that I fitted, and they were quite expensive. There wasnt a dropper cap, just a resistor (they were the larger indicators), and nearly all of them failed, the resistor got so hot the solder melted and the wire came off, yes they were the correct voltage rating. There are some of these that arent very good, and not necessarily the cheap ones.

[@1pcfred]

+sean doofer before I knew what I was doing I made an LED indicator with just a dropping resistor. Well, that and some rectifying diodes too. I used one of those 5 watt cement block wirewound resistors. It gets smoking hot. Although my calculations indicated that I could have gotten away with just using a 2 watt resistor? Yeah, no, I don't think I'd want to even see what that'd be like. That 5 Watt block gets so hot I've thought to change it out for a 10 watt resistor on more than one occasion already. But I have that resistor mounted on a terminal lug strip in an enclosure with some free air, so I guess it is OK? It does in fact work. Still pretty sketchy as far as I'm concerned. So yeah I can see your resistor limiters basically being solder heating elements. When stuff gets that hot you have to crimp connections. Solder just doesn't cut it anymore.

[@mxslick50]

@@1pcfred Changing to a 10 watt resistor will only give the illusion of less heat dissipated...the amount of heat dissipated is a constant, and going to a larger rated resistor only spreads that same amount of heat on a larger area. The only way to reduce the heat dissipated is to go to a larger resistance value, which reduces the current flow, which makes less heat. Of course the brightness of the LED goes down, but you will also gain the benefit of longer life on the LED.

[@1pcfred]

@@mxslick50 larger resistors do not attain as high temperature as smaller resistors do. So to me that is less heat. Or less hot.

[@grahamrdyer6322]

So shit is creeping in, god I'm Glad your out there.

[@oriole8789]

As you've alluded to in the vid, the AC RMS rating of film/bipolar caps corresponds to Vpeak of the AC (not to be confused with peak to peak, which would be double that.. and relevant if you're gonna look at AC on a scope for instance). So for a 63VDC film/bipolar cap, it's 63V * 1/sqrt(2)=44.6V AC, which I see manufacturers derating to 40Vrms AC for that example. 1/sqrt(2) assumes that the AC waveform is a pure sine. But, I suspect things are more complicated than that because film caps are also derated for frequency. The higher the frequency, the lower the permissible AC RMS. So the question is, if the input waveform is totally non-sinusoidal, such as a modifed sine from inverters, which is just a series of sharp steps that in themselves contain extremely high frequencies, even if the repetition rate is still 60Hz - would this significantly change the picture as far the need to uprate film caps? But then, the integrated energy from the pulses would still be the same as in a pure sine? Or would it? In the end, afaik, the frequency limit is determined by the temp rise from the dissipation factor of the caps, as calculated for a 10C max permissible rise. Since you've done a vid on the effect of self-healing for film caps, I wonder how much a non-sinusoidal AC waveform would affect the longevity of film caps....

[@AlfaGTA156]

Inducing an inverted flux capacitor with a nano-compressor in parallel would resolve the issue.

[@oriole8789]

Hahahahha. I'll get right on that and hopefully don't end up in the future lol~ :'D

[@kennmossman8701]

I make my own as they can be a bit pricey and often aren't at the desired voltage. Get a sizable switch with a plastic body and make a hole large enough for the LED. It does need a bit more extra wiring and circuit but one has more flexibility in brightness, colour, light effect (ie flashing), and voltage.

[@sebimoe]

Hi Clive, would you able to do a video showing around your workshop? You always seem to have everything on hand, I'm curious how it looks

[@johnf3326]

You have a fascination with lights! I have too but led lights for my classic motorbike. Been so hard to find bright amber indicator bulbs and bright stop/tail, never mind a headlamp bulb that will dip/high properly

[@kierankay100]

these would be cool to use in a project ..... im doing a new aquarium build would be cool to make a small panel underneath with all the filtration with these like green lights showing everything is ok and red for if the temp is too high/low ... filter is getting hot and some temp displays voltage displays to show whats taking power and if a device fails theres a red light and a buzzer plus a green orange and red on a timer green for a month then goes to orange .. then half a month later to red to show when i should do maintenance.... would be a cool project and not really cost much to do just a few switches and indicators and some know how !

[@Gameboygenius]

As clever as that arrangement is efficiency-wise, it does mean that the inactive rectifier diodes will see a reverse voltage of 5*Vled. Let's contrast that to the classical arrangement where, as you said, sometimes you see bridges to make sure any LED at any given time won't see more than 1*Vled in reverse. If one of the rectifier diodes pops, the other on the same AC side will surely pop too from reverse breakdown. In this case, to use a couple of EEVBlog memes, the light won't even be a poor imitation of Tiffany Yep, but will be dead as a dodo.

[@chrischeltenham]

I have had a few Vodka's tonight but I keep trying to find out how to forward things to you for testing because you are great at pointing out good from bad with your taking apart. I would love to purchase things and forward to you to find out how crap they may be. Got to love China's junk.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Chris Glos Don't worry I've got tons of stuff to take to bits.

[@mcgyver272000]

As some follow up to the never assume tip: A electrical contractor came around my facility to replace PCM filled transformers. He did not verify all the name plates and assumed all the transformers had 480v secondaries. Half the facilty's old transformers had 208/277 secondaries. The cost of the repairs to the facility was several times the cost of the bid to replace the transformers. The contractor had to cover the costs.

[@AMD1]

I've never heard of tiny tungsten lamps operating at those high voltages O.O. The high voltage indicator lamps I'm used to seeing(Allen Bradley) have a built in 24v stepdown transformer. After seeing the inside of the tiny one, neon seems to be the best option for an indicator of that size.

[@dailydog5378]

We want 80,000 subs celebration video

[@gamerpaddy]

you != we

[@lolman123401]

+gamerpaddy LOL

[@QlueDuPlessis]

+gamerpaddy I'll second +super awsome minecrafter's proposal! :P (that makes it 'we' even if it doesn't include everyone.) ;)

[@moth.monster]

80,000 volts for 80,000 subs!

[@Jsu0234m]

We use those led indicators made by Allen Bradley and they look and work well compared to regular indicators.

[@Miko_Jones]

+John Williams well for the few extra ¢ i would expect the Allen Bradley versions ho have better rated capacitors than these unbranded types.

[@gazzaka]

a brightly lit factory ? ! You must be posh...I bet you can afford underpants too... ;-)

[@spockmcoyissmart961]

I have bought these and use them for various commercial applications. I set up a test of all 5 of the LED's on 120 volt. 1.5 years has passed with 24/7/365 application. here is my conclusion. The red and green remain as bright as originally installed. The white is the dimmest, followed by blue and yellow. Those 3 have dimmed dramatically. I have used the red/green on motor control distribution boards. The white/blue/yellow for other 'load on' applications on alternating motor systems, remote loads, etc. .

[@pmcKANE]

Glad to see I'm not the only one to have gotten a mains zap from easily avoided errors of judgement. Well, maybe "glad you got electrocuted" isn't exactly what I want to imply...

[@tasherratt]

Using the LEDs as the bridge rectifier is such a good idea why don't we see it more?

[@jusb1066]

+Timothy Sherratt from my experiments, led's die faster when they have to do reverse voltage

[@TheChipmunk2008]

+jusb1066 oh yeah, good point, the LED's would be seeing the fwd voltage of 4 LEDs as their rev, voltage. If the central one was just ONE led, it'd probably be safer (from a reliability point of view)

[@tasherratt]

+TheChipmunk2008 Three out of five would still be a more efficient use of LEDs than four out of 8 from a component standpoint, not that they are expensive components especially in China.

[@44R0Ndin]

+TheChipmunk2008 Because its a bridge rectifier, each LED in the bridge would only be seeing half the reverse voltage of the string in the middle, or double the forward drop of the center LEDs (because there's 4 of them). That's not bad at all, and putting the diodes in the center in any kind of series-parallel arrangement (or just all in parallel) might send the bridge LEDs into over-current.

[@kingjames4886]

probably because of that annoying flickering.

[@juniorocicat9573]

The Bandaid is back.

[@RODALCO2007]

Interesting LED bridge rectifier design. very clever to use the LED's this way. That 250 Volts rated cap was probably for a 110 Volts lamp and misplaced in a 380 Volts fitting. Poor Chinese quality control.

[@Blank-n7c]

Interesting led indicators

[@Bigermanchris]

Thanks for all the fascinating vids Clive, you do a lot with LEDs, can you please sometime make a video explaining how they actually work?? Thanks

[@lezbriddon]

wow, even solves the led PIV problem.

[@Blowcrafter]

I've been using ones looking quite similar to these for a long time, but mine were much brighter and had multiple chips inside every color

[@ElectraFlarefire]

The 12v AC ones just replace the dropper capacitor with a another resistor. And apart from that, seem to be pretty much the same. I think right down to the same LED layout.

[@michaelardai9703]

380V is 347V + 10%, where 347 Is the line-neutral voltage on a 347Y600, which is common in Canada.

[@melgross]

360-380 volts is fairly common as a machine voltage here in the US.

[@JasperJanssen]

I totally thought your story was gonna go "I measured the go,take across them, but I forgot to measure relatively to ground...."

[@JasperJanssen]

*voltage

[@FlumenSanctiViti]

I always found it funny how in Star Trek, whenever there was a power surge, someone operating on ship's consoles died from electrocution. Could be they used those cheap Chinese control panel indicators hooked directly to 12.75 exawatts Warp Core.

[@crystalsoulslayer]

One thing's for sure: None of those connections were earthed. I'll go now.

[@TRS-Tech]

I ordered a multipack of 230v indicators wired as a bridge rectifier and ended up powering them with a dc supply but with a flip/flop circuit and npn / pnp transistors to swap the polarity at about 2hz and it makes for a very atractive indicator. The yellow one looks great. It does worry me that these things are being wired to 240v and 450 (shudder) Thats just and accident waiting to happen when it fails and someone thinks.... ooh its off !!!!! neee goood

[@ChrisFredriksson]

Great video (as always)! Just an idea, could you repurpose these to say 12V or 5V, or even make a better mains version of them? Funny, I've been looking at the exact same bulbs for a while and I just want to buy them because I love their looks. Haven't got around to do so yet, but will probably get some soon. Would love to see a repurpose if you find the time and interest for it =)

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Chris Fredriksson The combined forward voltage of the red and yellow versions will be a bit high at around 12V, but the green, blue and white versions that use a single LED should work on 5V and up with a suitable series resistor.

[@Blowcrafter]

there are already some 12V and 5V versions available if you don't want to modify them

[@robertwheeldon6526]

Clive, wow do I hope I get these LED indicators at my next place of work which is currently being constructed. No more rack of indicator incandescent lamps and little bits of rubber tube to get the little blighters in and out after weekly lamp tests?.......

[@carlzimmerman8700]

We need bigclive.com branded merchandise, I want a hammer with "I'm really not sure" written on the side of it.

[@gigabytex64]

Clive you can get a tester for led or any light source, I got mine through alibaba its called a lumens or MCD tester I have sen them on ebay as well. I got it because I buy my LEDs but voltage, amps and lumens.

[@gigabytex64]

Sorry there you can buy not but

[@hamandwine]

Hi and well done! I just wondered if the little 250V cap in the 380V LED arrangement might be at least mathematically correct as it has only to withstand the voltage dropped across it. So I did a quick calculation with the reactance X=1/(2*Pi*f*C) and I get 32k at 50Hz on a 100nF cap. So given it is a white LED with 6 * 3V chips in a row, you have 100nF -> 5x3V -> 1k. The voltages are equivalent to the resistance, so with 230V across the whole thing, you have 205V at the cap, 18V at the LEDs and 7V at the 1k resistor. The current flowing should be about 6.4mA. With 380V the cap has to carry 351V, LEDs take 18V and the resistor takes remaining 11V, all at 11mA. And as the white LEDs had only one LED chip, the voltage shifts up again about 15V more... The capacitor with 250V is clearly underrated. (Reference www.electroschematics.com/5678/capacitor-power-supply/)

[@stormtrooper2645]

I'm pretty sure three phase power in China is 380V phase to phase.

[@pinterelectric]

Most panel indicators in the US are 24vdc

[@akkudakkupl]

There are VERY similar (I'd even say IDENTICAL) LED indicators with Schrack Technik branding.

[@drewpayne9408]

I have 600v lights. Am I able to run 240v to them and will they work?

[@bigclivedotcom]

If they are LED then they should be fine. If anything they will last longer.

[@drewpayne9408]

bigclivedotcom yup they are LED. Cheers.

[@Jenny_Digital]

+bigclivedotcom some years ago one of my team connected a test box into an invertor output and got quite a surprise. The invertor had a high frequency component which blew the hell out of this type of indicator. He hadn't considered how the capacitor was used.

[@the3odo1721]

just recently found your channel absolutely great stuff. I especially enjoy the work you do with the LED spotlights. I was curious if you ever considered doing a tear down and analysis of any of the off road led spotlights scattered all over Ebay? some of them seem to make pretty auspicious claims being that they're based on 12 volt system.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+matthew knowles Thge power and intensity values are all sales driven. I've featured at least one jeep light in a video.

[@twocvbloke]

Neat little lights, just a shame they suffer from cheap syndrome with the lower voltage caps (but what LED device doesn't suffer that issue??)... :) The moral of the boiler story is, never be complacent, and always chastise the people who made modifications but didn't leave notes... :P

[@MasticinaAkicta]

Mmm those look pretty neat. I could make a robot with them, at least robot eyes. Or put them on a mask.

[@stonent]

Not bad price, about 72 cents US on Ebay for these lights. I guess we are lucky in the US in some respects, the cheap chinese tat is likely to be 220/240 stuff running on 110 at half brightness so we're a tad safer.

[@stonent]

+stonent In noticed the attempt at catching people wanting Allen Bradley parts in the title "Hot Sale LED Pilot AB Panel Indicator Signal UC Warning Light Lamp AC/DC/AD"

[@jakelong4271]

stonent If it runs on 110, wouldn't the amperage be increased though?

[@gary851]

there is an old electrician saying/rhyme in polish "elektryka prąd nie tyka tylko z dala napierdala" It goes something like - electricians wont get hit by an electricity often, but when it gets you it will fuck you up :)

[@jusb1066]

whatever was wrong with using small neon indicators! i had a few items with whitish neon indicators, they seemed to only last a week before dying!

[@jpalm32]

+jusb1066 I have neon indicators in my light switches at home, going on 52 years.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

+jusb1066 Neons just use so little power, they're awesome. I agree with you. And they don't fail dramatically usually, just get dimmer and dimmer so you get plenty of 'change me' warning. Oddly that kinda ties in with what clive was saying about MES light sockets with 240v on them: When I worked for a university, they had switch panels for the lighting on squash courts outside the court (obviously) and they had a neon to warn you if the light inside was left on (so the caretaker could see at a glance if any had been left on). The indicators were MES neon bulbs, complete with a resistor for 200-250v operation. On a torchbulb sized socket :-O

[@kierankay100]

+jusb1066 ive always preffered the older technology too things .... i do theatre lighting and use big dimmer packs and 15 amp cable with 15amp duraplugs going to big par 64 cans using 1000w bulbs and the way the stage is lit up it looks really natural ... now theyre trying to replace all these with led ... but theres no natural light no decent power output and i just really dont like the fact there replacing it all its stupid

[@rocketman221projects]

Neon lamps are often overdriven in cheap chinese products, that kills them pretty quickly.

[@Uxcis]

buy a VERY cheap china gamepad, look inside. mayby you'll find a few coils or motors :D

[@moth.monster]

I have one... I should try and take the vibrators out!

[@mastertravelerseenitall298]

Can you please "Hipot" one of these indicators? I'd love to see a high-voltage catastrophic failure.

[@bgdwiepp]

i think the 380v indication was possibly a miss packaged 110v indicator, so 110v with 250v cap, 220v with 400v cap, 380v with 630v cap? maybe i shouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt though... 220,230,240v single phase is 380,400,415(420) 3phase

[@realflow100]

what I don't get is why they dont use surface mount capacitors and resistors!!!! Then you could just hook it directly up to mains with no worries. Whole thing enclosed in epoxy/resin with just the wires coming out of it. No more risk and much safer than having an entire circuit board dangling from the back of an LED circuit board attached with leads! Why not just make the whole thing encased in resin/epoxy with surface mount miniature inductors and surface mount components. That would surely be neater and more compact!

[@pkacc1]

Why does everything have to be LED. Stick with good old neon for mains voltage indicators. Never seen one fail.

[@XOIIOXOIIO]

+Xibalba You must have never seen a power bar with a neon indicator, or a switched power bar with neons on each switch. They seem to fail quite a lot.

[@timramich]

+Xibalba Because you can't see them in a bright production environment.

[@LakeNipissing]

+Xibalba They go dark over time, and flicker , or sometimes explode. In the industrial facility I work at, we have hundreds of neon indicators, so we have seen all kinds of things happen. They do run much cooler and last much longer than equally-small sized incandescent bulbs, but color options are limited to red, orange, green and blue for neon indicators.

[@paulstewart3216]

+Xibalba Tomorrow's CBA job is to replace the neon in our oven's control panel, as if I leave the oven going after drunken dinner one more time I think the GF'll brain me.

[@SigEpBlue]

As long as they're high quality and the current through them is *_always_* well-controlled (read: metal-film series resistor of proper resistance and power rating), I agree that neons are better for mains indication, as long as it's not a brightly-lit shop floor, which most industrial environments are not. New neons are ridiculously cheap: I paid about $20 for a sack of 100 type 1MH neons recently, and they run so cool you can use rubber grommets to hold them.

[@Novel_Poe]

I once made a prototype panel indicator once, it wasn't anything special, only just to see if i could get it to work

[@geppettocollodi8945]

I bought a 6mm indicator rated 240V I figure there was no way to have a ballast cap or a ballast resistor in that size. I measured at 20VDC ant it took 10 mA = 200mW I did not dare to put 240V across it was bright enough for me at 10mA so added a 5W ballast resistor.

[@drfix2020]

Hi, Would the white led's work on 120 volts ac? like to use it for a night light in a lamp I'm making, I was looking for a round led, where is it sold? thanks!

[@nraynaud]

I might be mistaken, but in my mind, LED have a quite low reverse voltage tolerance, making them not really suitable for rectification. Am I wrong? a quick googling tells me it's about 5V max on the datasheet, and we can get away with 15V

[@ib9rt]

+nraynaud1 It's not such a problem in this application though, because the reverse polarized diodes never see more than the forward voltage drop of the other diodes that are conducting.

[@milksheihk]

I wonder if those come in 415 volt & 500 volt? Those are the two voltages used in 3 phase in Australia, 500volt is very uncommon though.

[@RambozoClown]

+milksheihk Well based on these, all they have to do is print the new spec on the outside and just use the same insides and Bob's your uncle.

[@OmarAlvi]

Pls explain this resistor and capacitor network. How they replace the transformer?

[@jimlarsen6782]

Interesting how current flows backwards in the U.K...from pos to neg.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I tend to use conventional current flow to make understanding schematics easier. Electron flow is for the scientists.

[@amirhouseingholinia2023]

I want to plug in a SMALL led indicator light directly to 120 V to show when a recirculating pump is on. Can you please help me to order the right led light

[@patrickdelafon8618]

I wonder... Do they flicker? Single alternance rectified 50 Hz gives a 25 Hz pulsating voltage, the flicker of which can be visible and annoying for some sensitive people (like me)... I have often dreamed of special high light persistance LEDs that would act as if a capacitor was smoothing the supply... Would not some sort of phosphor layed on the LED chip do the trick?

[@bigclivedotcom]

The indicators do not flicker perceivably to the eye

[@jimmybaldino5026]

I see "LED rectifier" Is it possible to make an entire LED lamp where the LEDs themselves are the rectifier? Like, one set of LEDs points in one direction, and a second set points in the other so that it alternates between the two with each wave?

[@bigclivedotcom]

You have to be careful about leakage through some diodes exceeding the reverse voltage of others. The gallium nitride LEDs don't really like being reverse biased with too high a voltage.

[@jimmybaldino5026]

That could be countered by using multiple LEDs in either direction, right? The voltage would be split evenly between them.

[@fabts4]

I probably didn't listen well enough in school to understand but.....why do you by-pass the cap when using 12 V ?

[@JohnDoe-qx3zs]

It's often 12V DC, and without the cap, it's a reasonable 12V design instead of a 220V design.

[@Kevinthomaswatson]

Clive, have you looked at similar indicator lights that detect amperage?,

[@Kevinthomaswatson]

22MM AC 60-500V 0-100A LED Current Meter Indicator Ammeter New

[@bigclivedotcom]

I didn't spot those. I've ordered a round and square one.

[@Kevinthomaswatson]

I have ordered one as well to be used for a block heater indicator. Curious as to how they make a dc led work off ac current flow.

[@kenyon337]

I was looking at your web site bigclivedotcom Asking for dollars for cake ..YOU know it would be spent on gin and wiskey. Hahah love it

[@mohammedmreh1985]

Link to buy the easy click three wire connector box? Thanq.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Mohammed Mreh Search my videos for the word quicktest. It has its own video.

[@nlghtcrawler5]

How much ink do you usually go through a week or so?

[@numberyellow]

2 Chips 1 Cup..... i smell an internet sensation.

[@Synthematix]

great for pc modders like myself

[@viperz888]

huh didn't know they had electricity in scotland yet

[@PhattyMo]

If you've gotta use diodes,why not make them LED's too? Makes sense,to me. It's kind of a "freebie".

[@randacnam7321]

+PhattyMo High brightness LED die chemistries tend to not take kindly to reverse bias or reverse breakdown conduction and tend to haul off and die on you when so treated.

[@07350z]

congrats bigclive, you just played yourself

[@JoshKilen]

do you got a link for the seller item?

[@rajkumarkushwaha3485]

भईया मेरे घर में दस पंखा दो मोटर बल्ब करीब पच्चीस पीस 7 वाट का और दो टीवी होम थियेटर और कूलर फ्रिज वाशिंग मशीन इतना मेरे घर लाइट का खर्चा है तो मै कितना एम्पियर का चेंजर लगाऊ प्लीज भईया जल्द बताइए

[@Fizzbin25]

Hey Clive, don't be mean mate, those poor wee leds can get medication for being bipolar you know, it's not their fault.