LED failures.

[bigclive]

How are you guys finding LED reliability these days? All sizes and styles.

 

The early LED stuff was a bit dire, but I've noticed quality is increasing over time.

[PeterSto]

I have a couple of Thomann 5mm cheap LED pars to play with but have had a few problems

 

1. LEDs keep dying on them. Aalmost 30% of my greens have just 'gone'

2. Two screws that hold the LED PCB in place came out in transport. Thankfully they were in a flightcase so I could find them and replace them relativly hassle free

 

 

So DON'T BUY THE CHEAP STUFF. It never lasts!

[Brian]

1. LEDs keep dying on them. Aalmost 30% of my greens have just 'gone'

Are these dead LEDs or bad solder joints?

[PeterSto]

1361869685[/url]' post='466345']

1361869489[/url]' post='466344']

1. LEDs keep dying on them. Aalmost 30% of my greens have just 'gone'

Are these dead LEDs or bad solder joints?

 

I think dead LEDs or bad PCBS trace. Haven't been bothered to trouble shoot it yet. Eventually I will.

[callumb]

Chances are it will be the solder. Email thomann and they will send out new PCBs. I had some go like that a blast with a heat gun solved the issue! Results may vary.

[smalljoshua]

I've got a couple dozen of the cheap LED Par cans from Thomann. Bar a couple of dead Red and Blue LEDs, every issue I've had was dry joints or a dodgy resistor!

 

I pickup spare LEDs from eBay and fix them myself.

 

 

Josh

[gordontech]

Pick the right units and much like non-led fixtures they wont go wrong. I've got a good 20+ LED fixtures and not a problem with one of them and I abuse my kit alot more then I abuse stuff at work.

[serious_sound&light]

The Leds are connected in a number of parallel strings sharing a constant current sink for each colour. Intensity is controlled by varying the current. When an LED fails, the voltage across it increases. This causes the current in the other parallel chains to rise. This causes the demise of other LEDs. Best course is to run them as dimly as possible using a DMX controller, make a note of which LEDs are dead and replace them. High intensity green 3mm LEDs are cheap as chips from Farnell or RS. The green ones seem particularly prone to failing (I'm referring to the small LEDj fixtures. I guess the Thomann ones will be similar).

 

I should have mentioned that if a chain of LEDs appears dead, it may be that only one is actually faulty. Using a multimeter, measure the voltage across the individual LEDs in the dead group. The faulty one will have a higher voltage across it. But remember there may be more than one faulty .

[MrBoomal]

I've started changing my FOH and bars lights over to LED.

Box office is on CPC 60 x 5mm LED GU10's.

Over the bar I'm using 3w RGB MR16's from Hong Kong.

Both lots have been in about 5 months now.

Not had a problem from any of them.

Today I have ordered some 3 x 3w warm white MR16's from Hong Kong eBay.

If they are bright enough, I will be replacing all of my FOH ceiling lights with them.

I'll keep you posted when they arrive.

[ojc123]

Got some Pulse PAR 56 from CPC for eye candy/highlighting/whatever. They've stood up well to general abuse from students over the last 12 months.

[Jamtastic3]

I've found after 3 years, all 8 of my Eurolite RGB Par64's have lost blue. It was a gradual process though over time but now none of them work. So they're now used to light walls in red (which have been fine and so have the greens)...!

[bigclive]

Theoretically red should be the most reliable colour due to it being a much older and more rugged technology than blues, greens and whites.

 

I see that a few high power LED styles are starting to emerge as standards thanks to mass production applications. The 9 chip 10W LEDs in particular, which also have readily available power supplies. Interestingly they are available as 9 in series or three by three for typical voltage and current requirements of 30V at 350mA and 10V at 1A respectively.

 

You can buy little 10W floodlights on ebay that are really well made. They have a good chunky heatsink and separate housing for the standard power supply. It's easy to change the LEDs in them too, should you require a specific colour of floodlight.

[MrBoomal]

I've started changing my FOH and bars lights over to LED.

Box office is on CPC 60 x 5mm LED GU10's.

Over the bar I'm using 3w RGB MR16's from Hong Kong.

Both lots have been in about 5 months now.

Not had a problem from any of them.

Today I have ordered some 3 x 3w warm white MR16's from Hong Kong eBay.

If they are bright enough, I will be replacing all of my FOH ceiling lights with them.

I'll keep you posted when they arrive.

 

 

Just a little update.

 

 

Did eventually change all the FOH ceiling lights for the 9w Hong Kong specials. 10 x for around £25.00.

 

All the above LED's are all still working away. Not one has missed a beat.

[johnhuson]

Partially off topic but I brought some of the Chinese 6w MR16 replacements for our kitchen and replaced them all. About the same time the DAB radio in the kitchen started intermittently not receiving any signal. I didn't put two and two together until I happened to one day turn the kitchen lights off whilst the radio was still on but not receiving and it suddenly sprung into life, turn lights on goes again.....you get the picture.

 

Buyer beware! I'm now currently back on halogen MR16's.

[bigclive]

Most of the 3W GU10 LED lamps use a cute little switcher chip called a BP3102 which is usually crammed onto the smallest PCB possible. It's not super-bad in electronic terms, but most of these lamps omit any significant filtering.