LED bulb teardown 2019! We take apart a CREE and Philips bulb | Basic Electronics

[@puikepuck]

What's the voltage the LEDs use? You mention the 220v conversion but I'd like to know into what voltage it's converted

[@mokahless]

Fascinating. I had always assumed they'd just throw in a capacitor designed to fail to limit the hours. But - at least from your two samples - it appears they used purposeful lack of heat dissipation to cause the components to fail over time. The LEDs themselves are designed for 50,000-100,000 hours. There used to be 50,000 hours bulbs on the market but now they seem to be 7,500-10,000 hours by designing other components to fail sooner. That's also what the glue is actually for. To keep you from repairing it.

[@CircuitBread]

That is something I don't like about what I've been seeing in the stores. The prices have dropped a lot, which is great, but the rated hours have also been dropping. That is frustrating.

[@philvanduyn]

I would like to disassemble a bulb and wire it into my under microwave (failed) light switch. Any suggestions?

[@paulnavara7127]

Great job! Very interesting!

[@CircuitBread]

Thanks Paul!

[@Big74Mike2012]

@ 1:57 That's not a "thicker glass" on the leds, it's a rubbery (silicone?) phosphor layer that changes the blue light being emitted from the individual blue leds to a cool white.

[@CarsSimplified]

It's interesting just how many different housing shapes/designs exist just in the isle of one home repair store. Expand that to the whole market, and there can't be many designs left to manufacture. My house has at least 10 different shapes, not even including different sizes/bases.

[@CircuitBread]

Yeah, I've been buying LED bulbs for over 10 years and the variety in styles of bulbs is surprising. Even from the same manufacturers. It feels like CREE has been very experimental, trying new shapes and styles, not just for style's sake itself but also for keeping the electronics in the base cool and offering incandescent-like features. But the majority of my premature LED failures has been with CREE bulbs so... that's a trade-off.

[@frowin2]

You we‘re wondering why the pcb is not connected to the metal housing. I think the circuit itself is very efficient and does not dissipate a lot of heat. But the LEDs do! A lot!

[@CircuitBread]

That's a good point! Even though they're very efficient, they still use a lot of power.

[@angelgkd]

Yes, that is correct, LEDs are the big power dissipates, not the board.

[@DraigoRose]

Would have liked close up of the components to see the specs

[@CircuitBread]

Thanks for the feedback, we'll do better in future videos!

[@ElementaryWatson-123]

It's a typical switched power supply working at high frequency to lower the voltage from 110v to a few volts that LEDs run on. A large electrolytic capacitor reduces the flicker, and it's the most likely part to fail.

[@Sloyment]

I was expecting some reverse engineering and some analysis what went wrong and how to fix it.

[@worldofenigma1]

It seems to me that there is not much protection from surges in LED bulbs. The packaging for these often claim they will last for many years, but I have had some LED bulbs break. One that recently broke was marked as having a life of 25 years but based on only 2.7 hours per day (??!), and 25000 hours. I had not recorded when this one was fitted but it might have only been in for 1-2 years. I can only imagine that they have been affected by spikes/surges on the mains supply from lightning or other causes. It is not the first time this has happened either. All I can think of is that manufacturers are making false claims for their LED bulbs. The recent time, one bulb completely went and had to be replaced, and another still comes on but now flickers. Would the capacitor act as protection from surges? Maybe not enough for big surges, like lightning, though?

[@CircuitBread]

I agree 100%, particularly with newer bulbs. I live out in the middle of nowhere and our electricity is not the cleanest. A few months ago we had a minor brownout where all the lights in the house dimmed and flickered for several seconds. We lost several LED bulbs around the house from that. I still love the actual LED technology but I feel like the drive for more inexpensive bulbs has led to them cut corners on the circuitry supporting the LED, leading to flickering and premature failure even in normal use. One reason I believe that is that all my LED can lights (much bigger, more expensive, and better electronics) always have worked great with no flickering (under normal conditions) or failures.

[@worldofenigma1]

@@CircuitBread I have been watching a few videos talking about having surge protectors in the consumer unit. It is not law to have them in the UK (yet) but from what the videos are saying, they think it might become more common. So I wonder if that will help to stop the LED lights burning out/failing. Obviously it would initially add more cost to the consumer unit, but maybe save on having less equipment burning out. In the past I had a PC power supply break as well, and that was shortly after a time when there was a massive bolt of lightning and thunder that must have been very close. That was very inconvenient as at the time there were lockdowns, and I had no way to get to an internet cafe to order a new part (all closed) and the public library was closed, and no other way to connect to the internet, other than a really ancient PC.

[@LostInLeiden]

How about going into more details on how these are powered. It's a sort of Switched Mode Power Supply inside to bring the voltage down to whatever those LEDs need, you skipped over this and just talked about rectification

[@CircuitBread]

Yep, you need to put that ASM file into the IDE that is discussed in an earlier tutorial. From there you can create a hex file, which you can upload to the PIC. I highly recommend starting at the beginning of the series and if there are any questions, Sergey usually has them answered in his written tutorials on CircuitBread.com

[@DwAboutItManFr]

Using a better capacitor and radiator would probably help durability.

[@CircuitBread]

Yeah, it's all about the cost savings...

[@mokahless]

@@CircuitBread Nope. It goes further than that. It's all about designing them to fail. Don't kid yourself - they've probably calculated exactly how long it will take for the heat exposure to cause the driver components to fail.

[@informationandmotivation6638]

love from india

[@hydaryvlogs1480]

Great new here

[@drywallpuncher1882]

Shouldn’t smart bulbs just have built in batteries just for when the power goes out and it can keep the house lit.

[@CircuitBread]

I've heard of those, but they're expensive and the batteries in them, like any rechargeable batteries, have limited lives before they go bad (likely shorter than the bulbs themselves).

[@mikethebloodthirsty]

All that crap looks in there really good for the environment doesn't it.