Building my own "Dubai Lamps"

How to build your own "Dubai Lamp" - an LED lamp that runs LEDs at a reduced current (lower power) to improve the efficiency and prolong its life. This was my first attempt to make LED lamps more efficient.
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/ savage_danyk

[@antibrevity]

Great video and thanks for measuring the total efficiency of the modified lamps as I haven't seen anyone do that before. It appears that simply cutting off the smallest of the resistor pair will get you fairly close to maximum efficiency as they are usually close in value. This is what I normally do. For viewers that don't know, animal vision works in a logarithmic fashion such that halving the light level causes only a small reduction in perceived light. As some lamps accept 2 bulbs anyway, running 2 at half power will be more efficient and give much longer lifespan than 1 bulb at full power. If you have a choice, try to find bulbs with the control chip accessible on the top PCB where it's easy to modify the resistors; digging the power supply out of the bulb as shown here can be very tedious and is prone to breakage. If you find bulbs that are built well and easily modded, buy extras as these products change /constantly/ in the quest to cut costs and preserve margins.

[@NaoPb]

Thanks Rob, this seems like some great advice.

[@XanderProduction]

•_•) I find that running them at a third of their original Wattage is the most pleasure for me, (due the lamp getting warm enough, not too hot when touch by hand) And coincidentally, it fit with the table that shown here, that running them at a third is the peak of efficiency when they compared across tested variant..

[@XanderProduction]

🤔 But I actually get curious about the difference when same trick applied to other LED that use more than 30watt .. Bcos from my experience, >30watt LED need to be reduced until a quarter from the original power for it to become cool enough for my bare hand to touch..

[@Langendimi555]

Suddenly this style chip pops up everywhere, it is also in the purple LED stick BigC took apart. Once again thank you for the effort! More rosin!

[@kyoudaiken]

Yep, cost reduction measures. I wonder why it took them so long to design such a chip.

[@MyProjectBoxChannel]

I'm just waiting for the current regulator type, LED light bulb with a driver chip that has the bridge rectifier build in.

[@kyoudaiken]

@@MyProjectBoxChannel That's exactly what it is.

[@kyoudaiken]

@@MyProjectBoxChannel Wait do you mean the linear regulator ones?

[@MyProjectBoxChannel]

@@kyoudaiken this is the buck regulator type LED driver. I'm taking about the linear current regulator type LED driver, but with the bridge rectifier built in.

[@LuigiRosa]

SDCM: Standard Deviation Colour Matching Basically how much the colour of the light emitted is consistent with the specs

[@TheSpotify95]

That random solar cell you are using for your testing is the one that came from the deadly lantern fan - as one would say, "there's 230V AC in my iPhone!". :)

[@BusyElectrons]

I appreciate how you think through your test methodology and come up with ways to make quantitative measurements using minimal equipment. Well done :D

[@TheSpotify95]

Nice conclusion. I'm sure that BigClive has already done some experiments with regards to Dubai style lamps, so it's good to see you do an experiment as well. Seems like the best one to go with is a single 3.9 ohm resistor, for a 6W lamp - should still be bright enough for most circumstances, and it will make the LEDs last much longer. :)

[@istvanmeszaros]

5:56 - that's one quite happy bulb :D

[@crushed1636]

Suddenly a smiley emoji appeared when you opened bulb 😃

[@prashanthb6521]

You are one of my favourite channels on KZbin.

[@Speeder84XL]

Really interesting! Good thing to actually measure the light output and not do as many others and just look at the light (since our eyes response to brightness is not linear, so it's easy to overestimate the increase in efficiency that way). The efficiency is probably related to temperature, rather than current in it self (the cooler it runs, the more efficient it get). So when the power is lowered, the increase in efficiency will probably be quite large at first (since it's most likely running quite hot at it's maximum power and just a small decrease in power will lower the working temperature significantly), then the improvements will get less and less as the power is decreased further. The decreasing efficiency at power levels below the 38.4 % in this case, was most likely, just as you say, because the "idle power consumption" of the driver circuit becoming a significant part of the total power consumption.

[@jmr]

I look forward to this series of experiments.

[@ruimvp]

The walls in my house are short. So I have the exterior led lamps on 24h. They originally have 7w but I put a 400v capacitor in series with each one and the consumption went down to 0,5W. With daylight and beginning or end of day they do not make difference. But in the dark I can see all outside by the window. I do not need timers or remember to turn off/on. Because the small consumption I can leave them 24 h on. When we use capacitive droppers in led lamps we can know the final current of the circuit by simple diving the voltage by 1/2*3,1416*50*C. The capacitor will impose that current.

[@johncoops6897]

Not sure why the height of your walls makes any difference to running your lamps 24h per day.

[@ruimvp]

@@johncoops6897 they are easy to jump inside from the street. With the LEDs everything is illuminated.

[@johncoops6897]

@@ruimvp - i think you mean a short fence around your property, not the walls inside your house.

[@ruimvp]

@@johncoops6897 yes. It is a cement and brick fence. But in my country we call fence to something that is made with light materials like wood and net. We call walls when it is made of concrete or cement and bricks.

[@johncoops6897]

@@ruimvp - yeah, that is OK. If you said _"walls _*_around_*_ my house"_ then it would have made sense. However what you wrote was "walls *IN* my house" which means something quite different 😃 I thoght maybe you had very low ceilings and doorways, too short for 1.85m person like me to stand up! LOL

[@bangbangmixxx6621]

You are very smart my teacher.... Thats why I following you my teacher

[@eDoc2020]

My guess is the reduced efficiency at lower power is due to increased switching frequency. If you increase the output inductance it should become more efficient if this is the case.

[@johncoops6897]

Yes, the output inductor value need to change if the output current is changed. The datasheet says " works in the critical conduction mode of the inductor current." There is a formula to calculate switching frequency / duty cycle based on Current and Inductor side, but they don't seem to provide the suitable Inductor values. I've posted a separate new comment with how to find the datasheet.

[@LordGryllwotth]

@@johncoops6897 Thanks for the information!

[@rhiantaylor3446]

In UK wiring practice, all lighting circuits feed via one (or sometimes more than one) 5a fuses. In the simplest case all ceiling lights route through this single 5a fuse. To achieve a similar outcome to that you describe, I have considered intercepting this fused circuit to include a 300w 18-0-18v 8a transformer. This would be wired with the mains side connected normally across live/neutral but the secondary connections wired as 36v in series with the 5a fused lighting feed but in anti-phase, reducing the voltage from nominal 230v to nominal 194v.

[@LMB222]

Why not use an auto transformer?

[@rhiantaylor3446]

@@LMB222 Already have 3x toroids.

[@johncoops6897]

Decreasing line voltage will have absolutely no energy saving effect for a "Constant Power" type circuit like described in this video. All that happens is that the driver will pull more current to achieve the LED power that it is programmed for. The LED driver will self-adjust to provide whatever LED Voltage and Current is needed from a wide voltage range.

[@justin8894]

Very Illuminating video.

[@AlexanderBukh]

thanks for the work and knowledge, Danik 🇰🇿

[@viktike]

CRI=color rendering index - it should tell the lights’ wavelength composition.

[@johncoops6897]

No, CRI has nothing much to do with spectral emission. The score "80" is probably just made up anyway, but they don't state the method used to calculate it so it will be the standard 8-sample test that is incredibly easy to "cheat".

[@CaveyMoth]

5:50 That is one happy light!

[@Paxmax]

Very nice, very good speed run thru the process DGW!

[@rafitheredfox328]

A rectifier and switching device combined in one IC package. Now I see how old I get, considering how increasingly less repairable and hackable these things seem to get (except the LED current modification shown in the video). I have already seen combined and customized ICs, like in an RGB LED lamp I bought once, which decodes the signals of the IR remote control and regulates the brightness of the individual RGB LED chips by using PWM, but that is the first time that I see essential electronics components (rectifier + switching IC) combined in one IC. I also bought a 230V LED G9 socket lamp made by OSRAM a couple of years ago that has the LED chips, full bridge rectifier and current controlling IC all mounted on a sheet of glass coated in yellow phosphor on both sides, which is inside a glass enclosure. Thats kinda amazing and concerning at the same time.

[@tossancuyota7848]

tbh its just more concerning that being amazing since one busted chip and all that working parts would be a garbage if u cant find a supplier for that same chip..

[@RoGameReview]

love this guy, great stuff

[@mirdeu4687]

i love it when he says isolation transsformer

[@NackDSP]

Reducing the power to half (removing one resistor) on a Kodak 240V LED bulb and putting a jumper wire across 1/3 of the LEDs I was able to improve efficiency 40% and run the bulb at 120 volts.

[@kyoudaiken]

Nice, please do more of modding appliances like this!

[@gabrielphilips6980]

What I learned from this video: In LED Buck circuit, change the current-sensing resistors to 2.5× more resistance. Sometimes if there are two current sensing resistors in parallel, remove the lower resistance one.

[@danielugwa6517]

you are a genius God bless you. thank you bros

[@johnhill3507]

Great video , very informative, thanks for your work..

[@danatmonst3594]

Where were you when I was in school? You're an awesome teacher and you made this so interesting. On a side note I'm still using compact fluoros coz I like BRIGHT white daylight globes inside 24hrs a day. I'm yet to find an LED bulb that's just as bright (so only one per room).

[@foreigncontaminant2015]

I just remove the plastic lids. That provides a massive boost in cooling, I've got a single failed bulb in 10 years and they were all the cheapest kind.

[@ACOnetwork]

ResistorsGoneWild 😁

[@EdwinSteiner]

The double ground pin is probably because one is used to conduct the current and the other is used as a sense pin for measuring the voltage across the current sense resistor.

[@filenotfound__3871]

Do a video on your power strip,

[@BusyElectrons]

He did a detailed write-up of it on his web site. I'm not sure that I can post a link here, but if you go to his KZbin page and look under the "About" tab you'll find a link to his web site. Then just search for "wattmeter"

[@Papinak2]

It'd be interesting to compare efficiency of the LEDs only, through external power source. Also, comparing difference between different temperatures - colder lamps should be slightly more efficient, as more of the original blue light passes through the phosphor, right?

[@lmwlmw4468]

Nice.

[@ggesdsdsdsd]

maybe just put the led circuit onto a heatsink + fan eh? that would make it last longer

Good video, I started doing this too a while ago.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

I tthougth the idea of the Dubai lamp was the same light output but twice the number of LED's running 1/2 the power. Lowering the LED current is just making a dimmer lamp last longer. I've done this to a number of lights switched by my home automation, where i just want a light to see where you are moving about. Also good for mood lighting.

[@johncoops6897]

Having twice the LEDs means half the power => same nett result as => the same number of LEDs running at half the power. Because.... half the power. The Dubai lamp gets it's efficiency gains from a very careful selection of components. Running the chips at lower power is not always transferrable to huge efficiiency gains (as illustrated here in this video). This lamp uses 2835 packages with 3 dies per LED. That is already a "compromised" performance package, with primary objective to create the lowest possible unit cost.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

@@johncoops6897 I meant that for a 8w lamp instead of having one 8w string of leds, you have two 4w strings in parallel. Still have 8w lamp but leds are running at 1/2 the power.

[@johncoops6897]

@@TheEmbeddedHobbyist - Yes, I know. However half the power (per chip) is still half the power. Halving the LED power does not necessarily result in massive efficiency gains... it also requires LED chips that are highly efficient and that respond favourably to reductions in current. It is my full tine job designing LED lamps and selecting the best chips for each application. If it was as simple as using twice as many chips (to share the current), then everyone would do it. Whilst many generic chips (like in this video) will show at least some degree of efficacy gain at reduced current, there are many other factors to getting a lamp over 150lm/W. Because of the triple dies in the 2835 chips used in this video's lamp, I know that these have been chosen on price reduction rather than performance. Of course that is perfectly justified in a cheap supermarket lamp! To get really good efficiency, the binning of the chips is absolutely critical. However, high efficiency LED packages add a lot of $$ to the BOM Cost. It's as complex subject, but amazing gains are possible if buyers will pay the price... but generally the market is very small (unless driven by regulatory measures) because we all tend to buy the cheapest $h!t we can find.

[@ilSySTeMli]

I do this trick to most of my lamps ,though I never dared to try a Potentiometer instead of resistors :D I Guess you could try if for us (Dimmable LED) ;) Tnx

[@kmetijabiscak]

In regards to efficient E27: Tracon has a lamp that does 1500lm at 12W and V-Tac has one that does 1500 lm at 9.5W. If anyone has any even more efficient models, please do share.

[@Phoenix88.]

Well of course the new philips ultraefficient line of bulbs at 210lm/w (1535 lm at 7.3W) MODEL: LECL100E27CL30A

[@Azaakiel20]

at 5:57 the lamp seems to have a face like design. smile face :D

[@celsoneves2368]

Great!.

[@arturtrzebinski2112]

5:55 That smile. That damned smile.

[@cncdaddio]

How did you attach the cable back up to the side of the socket?

[@filenotfound__3871]

It is just in series with the socket.

[@BDYT1422]

4:00 why does that solar cell look familiar?? if you dont know where its from, it was from that lantern where you charge your phone and charge you lantern, the metal body of the phone goes live

[@saalkz.a.9715]

5:56 😃

[@ayyadew]

5:55 that look like a happy face

[@Bruno_Noobador]

that -is- looks like*

[@1marcelfilms]

So modding lamps to 1/3rd of the original is the best

[@psanmuk]

Thank you

[@oleksii.zagorskyi]

Would be interesting to see/hear how capacitive dropping power supply is god or not when powered from a modified sine wave. I.e. powered from cheap inverter which produces not pure sine wave.

[@Gengh13]

I did modify the lamp I put in my microwave because the normal ones weren't lasting that long and I really didn't need that much light.

[@RixtronixLAB]

Nice video, thanks :)

[@blacknight793]

amazing

[@octavianconstantintudora9804]

If connect two lamps in a series, will not do the same effect?

[@ahmedjalout1154]

Dear sir Would you please explain in a single video how did you build your own nice pc power supply tester? The one that you can also turn it on with? Please?

[@ghamor7590]

I use this kind of led lamp in my house and its lifetime is too short it doesn't last more a year and when i open it i find an open in at least one the LED do you think it is not well thermally dimensioned

[@imnotbeluga007]

3:07 Bloody hell! These bulbs are efficient as F!

[@HowaroHans]

There was some changes with the energy markings in the European Union

[@gordonwelcher9598]

I notice the capacitors have "LED" marked on them. Is this the manufacturer of does it mean something else.

[@warifaifai]

I was wondering why transformers have dual wire for better inductance and speakers don't? Wouldnt that be better?

[@ertepla1]

Ty jsou z eshopu EVA :D Taky jsem je koupil, svítí zatím skvěle za ty peníze. Dřív měli 12W (100W), ty jsou ještě lepší, mají běžnou velikost a stály 33 Kč. Hlavně neblikají jako jiné levné, takové to divné třepotání světla, nejspíš kvůli rušení v síti nebo tak něčemu. Za mě jsou však nejlepší EMOS Filament, jen teplá bílá je až moc žlutá. Dřív dělali Filament 10W jako náhradu za 100W v běžné velikosti A60. Teď je mají myslím jen A67 nebo jak to je a to už se do některých světel nevleze. Je to škoda, nevím proč už je nemají, svítí přes rok naprosto spolehlivě. Koupil jsem podobné od Osramu a jedna přestala svítit za týden a druhá za 2 týdny, samozřejmě účtenku jsem vyhodil... Když chce člověk hodně světla třeba na zahradě, tak Emos Filament 17W 😁 Jen je to zase ta velká A67...

[@DiodeGoneWild]

Já je mám z kamennýho obchodu. Maj několik výkonů. Já beru vždy ty největší :D. Před tím měli Ecolite 20W 2100lm za 65, těch mám 5ks, šel jsem tam pro další, ale teď už tam nejsou. Ale ono 16W 1800lm za 49 taky není vůbec špatný. Vzal sem jich 18ks. Oproti tomu Bellalux 10W 1060lm z kauflandu za 80 je nic moc. Nadávám si, že sem jich tam vzal 10ks :D. Tohle používám na natáčení (momentálně asi 28 LEDek, všechny studený bílý), zatím neodešla žádná.

[@ertepla1]

@@DiodeGoneWild Ty 20W musí být úplně žhavé :D Tam musí být pořádný chladič, že? Studená bílá je na natáčení asi dobrá, ale na normální svícení se mi to moc nelíbí. Ideálně bych bral něco mezi 3000 - 4000k, ale to nikdo nevyrábí :D Takže buď 3000k jako klasická žárovka nebo těch cca 4000k. 2700k mi přijde až moc žluté i proti klasické a halogenové žárovce. Za mě prostě ideální byly ty 12W, 125lm/W už je dost slušných a za ty prachy až neuvěřitelných :D snad je brzo naskladní. Mohli by začít nabízet i skleněné filamentky za tak slušné prachy, přeci jen to svítí 360° ne jen v tom malém úhlu, bohužel když se montovali světla nikdo nad tím nepřemýšlel a půlka z nich s těmi obyč plastovými ledkami svítí spíš tak akorát do zdi :D

[@omsingharjit]

6:00 it seems 😀🙃

[@filenotfound__3871]

I modified a cheap 7W lamp to 2.5W and after a while, the light kind of flickers, what could cause that?

[@johncoops6897]

You wrecked it. If the light is flashing on and off, then you have broken solder joint or loose bond wire inside one LED package. If it is flickering quickly, then you may have upset the switching frequency of the power supply (if there is one).

[@filenotfound__3871]

@@johncoops6897 It is not really flashing, the brightness goes up and down slightly, the lamp never turns off. I don't think I broke something because it is the type of lamp that you don't even need to take apart any more than removing the cover to take off the resistor. I don't care about the specific lamp, I just want to know why that happens as this is not the first time I did it and got the same result. My current theory is that the linear regulator drops too much voltage or is running at too low of a current.

[@filenotfound__3871]

After further investigation, turns out I demaged the current sense resistor.

[@johncoops6897]

@@filenotfound__3871 I usually replace the SMD resistor with a small 1/8W axial lead (through hole) resistor. Apart from being more reliable, they are much easier to solder and I have a fantastic large collection of values to choose from. Also keep in mind that the low value resistors (

[@filenotfound__3871]

@@johncoops6897 I will probably do that too

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Dubai lamps also have double filaments too. I just received a bunch of 300mm bendable filaments of different colors which happened to arrive in a uae mail bag. Haha They look very cool, there's like 285 leds per 100mm or something. I'll check their current draw later and edit my post. They are 3vdc per segment and add up 3v for every one you add in series. A cr2302 battery makes them almost too bright

[@alex_lightning4523]

Dubai lamps are available in german hardware stores, made by philips

[@fumthings]

provide a link please...

[@jkobain]

CRI - maybe color rendering index?

[@KeritechElectronics]

Soldering SMD components with a soldering gun and obscene amounts of rosin - that's mad, bad and totally rad, I'm nowhere close! LOL

[@matthewday7565]

0.05W in the 330k, that will be 1% when power is 5W, and 2% at the lowest

[@PM-wt3ye]

No "heatsink" for 17W? The efficiency is about 112 lumens / Watt, maximum for white is about 350lm/W so for this lamp efficiency is close to 33%. This mean, 2/3 of 17W is lost in heat, 11W. This lamp would not live very long. :D Your improvement is very handy!

[@-yeme-]

ah thats the solar cell from the super dodgy camping lantern that put maims voltage on the USB socket

[@lukezaa10]

Where You can buy such lightbulb. Yesterday i brought 1500lumen 20W LED lightbulb in Green Obi (Leroy Merlin) :/ And it suck..

[@Zebra_Paw]

Isn't that solar cell from the deadly lantern? In a LED bulb 99.999% of cases, the converter dies before any of the LEDs do. I had Philips 3452lm lamps for a while, they would start blinking and getting unstable until they really die. The issue is a too small inrush resistor! But so much resin, absolutely impossible to open without destroying it!

[@daveamerion8177]

I don't agree with you. I opened the burnt LED lamp several times, from different brands, all of them had burnt LEDs, and by connecting the two burnt LED pins, the lamp was healthy again.

[@stanimir4197]

>In a LED bulb 99.999% of cases, the converter dies before any of the LEDs do. Totally disagree, I have lots of lamps (20+) with burned LEDs due to being overdriven and just one where the buck converter choke failed. Replacing the said LEDs tend to put them back in action. No clue where the 1 of 100 000 number has come from to claim the drivers fail 1st. And to top it up: " they would start blinking and getting unstable until they really die" - this is a classic LED failure, since all LEDs are in series they blink. You can open if and even identify the faulty LED.

[@Zebra_Paw]

@@daveamerion8177 Never seen that.

[@westelaudio943]

The blinking is from bad bond wires of the LEDs causing intermittent contact I think.

[@gordonwelcher9598]

KZbin should require every video to show a cat.

[@hosseinebrahimi3451]

In the end i couldn't understand is it wise or stupid to temper with those current sensing resistors. If i drop the output i need more bulbs and those bulbs have inefficient regulators and then again they suppose to last way longer. So was it wise or dumb?

[@stanimir4197]

16W in this body is too high and it will heat too much, so reducing the current is quite ok. The real issue is that e27 is just a terrible form factor for LED, if you wish efficient and lasting lamps, buy the near ceiling type. They can be large enough to produce enough light, and simultaneously dissipated the heat. Pretty much all e27 you can buy in the shop are likely to be overdriven, having short life span. The 'original Dubai' ones are low powered but still have horrid power factor.

[@user-uq4ly2lk1n]

How expensive is your new digital storage oscilloscope?

[@stalkerfromvoronezh4493]

Bucket of RoSiN!!!!

[@DigitalBhangari]

5:58 :D

[@thisisdvd8094]

5:57 it looks like :D

[@johngarritzcx6733]

It Just smile.swhen you open te LEDbulb😊😊😁😂😂

[@MiamiMillionaire]

👍

Isn‘t the „random cell“ from a death death dalek lamp?

[@DiodeGoneWild]

yes it is :)

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Newb question. What is a common mode choke used for? I've never messed with mains yet. I've had my isolated transformer and variac for almost a year and have yet to wire up the transformer. So I haven't experiment with mains.

[@LMB222]

Filtering out high frequency distortion caused by the chip. Theoretically the capacitors should suffice, but those are electrolytic "capacitors".

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@LMB222 cool. Thank you.

[@arduinoatolyem2121]

I want to donate a dodgy looking phone charger which the live pin is melted but it still works. But how can I do it? I'm coming from Turkey and the charger is bought from a well known gas station on Turkey.

[@nortenhardenberg1598]

WHAT?: Are You still using Czeska Korona in 2022?

[@cuf_]

Comment number 6 (great video as always)

[@Todestelzer]

I had to switch out my kitchen hood led lamps ever 1-2 year. After modifying it they run since 5 years now…. It’s just disgusting how this companies are creating e-waste by driving these led lamps way to hard. :(

[@Purple431]

"The lamps you are not supposed to have" kind of lamps

[@michaelblack5011]

no need that thing bug regulator or whatever is called is not regulating anything is useless why need that for ? input is 220 AC , output 128 DC with load , tray power in no loud , I'm sure it will be 309 v DC

[@widyahong]

Maybe its synchronous buck converter

[@DiodeGoneWild]

synchronous one doesn't make much sense for higher voltages, but maybe it is... maybe it's easier to build a mosfet into a chip that a diode.

[@piconano]

A capacitive dropper will be much more efficient imo.

[@user-uq4ly2lk1n]

Are you Russain?

[@ernstoud]

Only USD 2,20. How they make any profit in the chain from parts factory, lamp factory, transport, wholesale and shop is beyond me.

[@piconano]

Modern slavery.

[@RomanoPRODUCTION]

I am turned on when I hear isolation transformer 🤣🤣🤣

[@davey2k12]

Chip shortage my arse It was that container ship blocking up the river 🤣🤣🤣

[@tvtruck5350]

You can put a legends, in english, to better comprehension ?

[@jason200912]

Why do you end your sentences like thiiiiiiiiisssssssssss

[@THEMFORMATION]

LEDs are not good for your health

[@publicmail2]

or put on a dimmer at 85%

[@stanimir4197]

A triac type of a dimmer is likely to ruin the buck converter, while doing absolutely nothing to reduce the emitted light (and heat). The buck converter is running in constant current mode. Only if it has edge detection to honor the dimmer it'd be of any use at all. Overall a standard dimmer is a bad idea.

[@publicmail2]

@@stanimir4197 not on dimmable bulb, if you chop the output down there less current driving LEDs and less heat to shorten cap and components.

[@johncoops6897]

@@publicmail2 - THIS IS NOT A DIMMABLE BULB, dummy.