Testing a large LED COB.
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- These are very common on eBay at a low price considering that they have 112 LED chips on them. Although sometimes described as being 12/24V they have no current limiting and rely on the combined LED forward voltage to regulate the current. This means that at 12V they are already exceeding their stated power of 10W and as the voltage goes higher the current becomes excessive. If using on a vehicle supply I'd suggest adding a 5 ohm or 10 ohm resistor (rated 3 to 5W) to keep the current at sensible levels to maximise LED lifespan.
Here's a general eBay listing that should find some:-
www.ebay.com/s...
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of UA-cam's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Funny isn't it, you watch BigClive for ages and though you realise fairly early he has had lots of experience and knows his stuff...You think at first (well I admit I did), blimey he doesn't half choose some boring cheap uninteresting stuff....Untill you realise the occasional genius in some of it, the various choices made by different makers of the same type of item and the different design criteria for money saving and performance - and the poor choices with the good. The materials etc etc.and the stuff you took for granted is really very interesting..and of course the guiding hand of BigClive safely and reassuringly delivering the goods with humour and authority.
Keeps getting better. Hats off.
It's important to note that the guillotine is NOT your standard, everyday paper cutter. Standard paper cutters slice the paper starting at one end and progress to the other. The PCB will 'break' ahead of the actual cut point as the cutting blade passes the support surface. You want something to keep all the PCB stresses evenly distributed along the length of the cut and limited to the cut itself. Even tho Clive's guillotine has a progressing cut, the additional leverage allows for a quick cut to reduce the 'breaking'. I wonder if I can convince someone that theirs needs to be replaced ;-)
The iron in the vise trick is how my cabinet maker heats up his Dinty Moore Beef stew can.
Dear Clive....a question: our outdoor string of LED lights, transformer failed 31v...(it got wet) i bought a LED driver transformer...20-45v ... plugged it in...the string of LEDs now flash super bright ...not what we hoped for,we want them to be on with no flashing....there is no circuit to make them flash...its just a transformer...so i suspect the power supply is over loading and keeps cutting out?? any ideas???? and please ignore me if you are too busy...many thanks...Dorothy and Simon in France.
It does sound like it's being overloaded. It may also be damaging the LEDs by overdriving them. If the transformer is labeled Jutai then it will be a very common type sold with a wide range of lights. It may be easiest to get a new set of lights just for the transformer.
If anyone is going to use them on a 12V lead acid battery (car), a 6 ohm is not that readily available, use a 5.6 Ohm, also it will need to be a 5W to 10W resistor as it will dissipate 3W of heat. Use a metal cased resistor and bolt it to the car chassis somewhere so the heat can go somewhere. Great channel, watch it often!
I actually have a pair of these exact modules in my cargo van. I found that they will get particularly hot when supplied with sufficient current (nice sizzling chicken effect). However, they seem to run quite happily with a 15 ohm resistor ahead of two modules. I've got roughly six months on mine so far, no failures.
guitarstitch why not use a buck converter ? More efficient what you think ?
Ammar Abotouk And of course they cost next to nothing
Do they give out enough light after putting in the resistors?
I tried to learn something new every day. This video taught me at least 3 things. Winning!
I bought a bag of these the day the video came out. I can confirm that the iron technique works marvelously. Rather appropriately on the “Synthetic” setting.
I've bought some of these off amazon as "car running lights" and they make good lights for use in what I can only describe as 'piano lights' for small bench/desk lighting. They probably aren't as good with price as the one you showed (Mine were $3 per 6W COB). I've run them off a 12V computer power supply and it worked fine, even without any heatsinking.
I've got smaller versions of this light cobbled together as uplighters in my kitchen and found that if you add cooling in the form of a PC fan aimed at the heatsink, the current drops.
They also perform quite well as plant growth lights for the early stages of the plants life.
Nice modules. Also like the iron heatbed idea. Cheers.
That looks great for use as an interior light in a car, using a current regulator circuit
i watched this when you posted it, ordered some for my camper trailer. Was just playing around and decided to re-watch. I did have a bit of trouble soldering but will bring out my 200Watt Weller gun with the 10 guage wire tip and try next time. Good stuff. Will look to replace the inside incandescent bulbs, probably with a couple of power resistors and a switch to give a dim and high setting.
You can use a clothes iron on a low setting with the plate facing up to pre-heat the panels slightly. It makes soldering much easier.
I've missed your Cob LED videos so much!
Thanks Clive, just ordered up 10 units to make some ambient garden lighting. Just need to fid some good clear potting compound.
That tip about the iron is awesome! That should make some soldering jobs much easier!
John Bäckstrand
Yes, but I envision hobbyists everywhere burning themselves on hot irons as they attempt to keep them upside down whilst wielding a hot soldering iron!
Damn I am using those Cobs as a replacement for track lights. I take 24v AC down to 12V DC. Sitting behind the buck converter and a bridge rectifier seems to limit the current. I put a thermocouple on the back of the aluminum and it did not go over about 50 degrees C. What size resistor would you put in front of the unit. Oh damn you mentioned it in the video. I might bring the voltage down to 11.5? what do you think is 12v ok?
Arnold Horshack
If the module is only producing 50°C then it seems that 12V is fine. However, the cooler the LED's run, the longer they should last, at least according to conventional wisdom.
thanks Pete.. I am glad the big guy reviewed these leds.. I am mostly new to tinkering with electronics and Clive (and Julian Marco Reps and Afro Mods) have all helped me to revisit something I did as kid (build radio shack kits) at a higher level. I did notice at 24v these things were pulling 3amps I said nooo..
The 12v produced from the buckconverter is not ramping up to 14v. The converter is probably experiencing the 24-28 volts but steps that down. Then the 12v is good enough
FWIW, in Amurrica, generally, "biscuits & gravy" is a popular breakfast entree. So, peeps visiting the USA will know ordering such a meal won't end up with meat gravy spread over Oreo cookies. Also, UA-cam is recommending I view the very-entertaining "Should I stick this electrode up my butt?" video from BCDC. The classics are great to revisit.
I've bought a few of these, and I'm pretty sure the 10W rating is just arbitrary nonsense. They appear to be about 30 mil dice, and it'd be a fair assumption that they'll survive 150mA (about typical for 1/2W rated parts). With 28 columns, that'd be a total capacity of 4.2A or about 50W. The whole thing has more thermal interface area than most 34mm cob emitters do, so I don't know that it's unreasonable.
Then again, who knows what the thermal resistance of the die attach & substrate insulation is like. That, and the ones I have are quite mottled (low-quality chips?). I'd still be tempted to at least provide a bit of resistive ballast to lower the current slope, but on such a wide array, there really isn't a way to enforce current distribution.
Of course, all of this is moot because I imagine 90% of these things will get shoved into an application where the only heat sinking they'll receive is being loosely screwed to something with the thermal resistance of a postcard.
Well, so much for my plan to mount these on postcards.
Yes, it's crucially important to have enough heat sink area for the emitter. For something this big, you should use at least an A4 sheet of cardstock.
Use a stack of daguerreotypes.
Not sure they'd need a heatsink if you run them at 12v like there suppose to the metal on the back should be enough to stop them heating up. I was thinking of sticking them to my car and just limiting the voltage down to 12v and let them eat whatever current they wanted (current only seems to go up after 12v anyway).
At 12V, with no series ballast, the COB will draw about 370-380mA. That's about 4.5W. Considering that you'd want the substrate to stay below about 80C, you'll need about ~8K/W thermal resistance to ambient. For a simple modeling of the COB as a plate suspended in air with natural convection flow across the faces of the plate, estimates for thermal resistance are in the ballpark of 10-30K/W (i.e. too high). The variation depends on what the ambient temperature is assumed to be and how you consider the insulating behavior of the silicone phosphor coating. At 14.5v, the power will be much higher.
Will mounting it to a relatively small bit of sheet metal suffice? Perhaps in some cases, but in an automotive application, the things that it might be attached to may already be at 70C (e.g. a metal plate or strut in the vehicle roof).
Will shifting the operating point with a series ballast help? Sure -- as long as it can stay below Tjmax within the range of environmental temperatures at the selected operating point. If you have an appropriate thermal design for a 12v operating point, you still have to keep in mind that your ballast will be shedding about a watt itself.
Just because manufacturers push components well outside their SOA, doesn't mean it's smart to do yourself without accepting the potential consequences.
I use these COBs too, without proper heatsink they got too hot so I added 2 diodes and now they run cool and reliable for over a year now.
Series diodes are a great way of nudging the voltage down to stuff like this. I use them with LED strip.
I just got a couple of these in the mail and my god they're bright. I've only got a cheap universal power supply set to 12V and it's running at about 0.45 to 0.5 amps and it's ridiculously bright even at that current, can't even imagine doubling that. Definitely need to figure out an elegant way to mount/power them and put them to use, absolutely brilliant for the price
Clive, 12v alternatore will routinely have an upper limit of 14.4 volts. 13.8 is just idle speed power, fwiw.
Yep spot on, sometimes a tad more ,but point is 12v cars arnt, safer to build fir 15v
Против Глобал EU, US, Japan, the trandient spikes thrown by starters as they disengage run up to 600VDC and truvks run to 2000VDC but that is only for milliseconds. Spike protection is a separate matter from operational voltages though.
My BigClive drinking game is to knock back a shot everytime Clive says the word "modest"
These would certainly be useful in Caravans / RV's. Bond a half-decent heatsink to the back, and that's a useful and more than bright enough light. Highly tempted to buy a few for trial purposes.
The arrangement for those LEDs is very similar to the backlights for most monochrome LCD displays on the market
I was looking at the data sheets for some fair grounds rides and noticed most the power goes towards running the light. I'm wondering how they balance loading as rides turn on and off throughout the course of the day. Thanks
Big thumbs up for the automotive maths, no test at 24v best buy 2 of them, could be nice headlights for my mobility scooter project.
Standard alternator voltage (max) is around 14.4 Volts.
Thin oreos are the best ! .. and now I have ~1 month to figure out what I’ll do with my 1000lm cob
I was cringing as you went to cut that COB in half, but, I'm actually impressed that it survived, well, the one half at least, the other half still needs testing... :D
What would break exactly? You could possibly have a short circuit at the very edge, but that's about it. I'd be more worried about long term reliability due to corrosion where moisture can now enter.
As it has busbars and solderpoints at the other end, it should be fine aswell.
stop kissing ass
They‘re like earthworms!
Hi, I'm quite impressed with these little strips, I'm going to use a few of these in a project with a 12v laptop supply with a Buck transformer and run them at a modest (cooler) current, maybe 500ma a peice...11.5v ish.
My question is to reduce flickering (if any) would it hurt adding an electrolytic to each one just to guarantee no flicker? If so, what value would you suggest on a 16v cap?
This may be irrelevant as long as the laptop supply is smooth anyway but if I wanted to make sure, is there a sweet spot regarding caps or is it bigger the better?
Thanks, your avid subscriber.
Thanks for the Oreo Thins tip. I shall shoplift some soon!
We have that kind of cutter at work for cutting paper near the printers. I'm sure one could find some for almost free when they are discarded from companies. Very useful things.
Oh and does the chopped off bit light up too if you wire to the connectors on the other end? I suppose it would, looks like they can be daisychained via those contacts.
Pentti, I think paper cutters probably don't have nearly as much rigidity as the PCB shear.
The other bit should light too. And if you divided it further you could still scrape and solder the tracks at the sides.
I have one of the Paper cutter things you mention. It has never been the same since i tried to cut PCB with it.
I've a paper cutter, the blade tends to flex even on thin PCB.
I have a paper cutter and the blade flexes if I try to cut 2 sheets of cardstock at the same time.
Recently noticed that the "driverless" cobs have also made quite the jump on ebay. Now up to 200W! Based on how hot the 50W ones get I'm pretty sure you could heat a home with one of those! :P
I bought a pair 2 years ago. I converted a cfl floor lamp by gutting the high voltage circuit and replacing it with a 12v 4a power supply. Then put a 10ohm resister to limit the current. It is almost as bright as a 60w spotlight. I used a pentium heatsink w a small fan to keep it cool. It never gets above body temp.
These are much better than the smaller 10W chips, much more built-in heatsinking in these! I like!
I want to build something with these and the Tradfri LED driver from IKEA, which is 24V.
A dark and stormy is my favorite drink. I'll be enjoying many after my last final.
I bought a few of those 300mA drivers, albeit for some room lighting LED modules that required 60-90V. They work surprisingly well. No humming either.
We have the super thin Oreos in America, as well. We also have the super thin Lemon flavored Oreos. I hope they expand further and include birthday cake, and chocolate.
That's a very neat little light.
Yay! Thanks! I was wondering when I could start my "Drunken Engineer" channel! Thanks for the inspiration!
do you think you could wire 10-20 of these together to make a growlight?
No, they only need to be red and blue.
Moose chuck is right in saying that green plants only need red and blue - they reject (reflect) green, which is why they look green. But white light contains red and blue, so you can use white light for a grow light. Sunlight (white) suits them okay after all. You're just using more energy than you need to. It comes down to cost of equipment and running.
No, white sunlight contains the entire spectrum, artificial light is made up of a set of wavelenghs. You either need a bunch of luck or a real growlight.
I would use an LM2596 DC-DC module, to run them in a car or RV. The modules are $1 Canadian, on eBay.
Resistors are cheaper. And if you only need ten hours of life out of the LEDs, you don't need a resistor.
James Van Damme Believe it or not, 3 watt resistors are about the same price as these modules.
Против Глобал what's the function of the diode? Something beside reversed polarity?
I live in USA Texas. And we have the thin oreos but they are a new thing but I do like them.
I wouldn't mind trying those ultra thin Oreos! As I grew into an adult, I found that I became more interested in the chocolate wafers rather than the creamy stuffing.
How warm was the back plate getting? I'd be mounting then with double sided VBH tape to a fiberglass hull.
Thanks Clive, bought a couple of these.
Wouldn't mind getting a few of these COBs.
Oreos still taste like dog biscuits glued together with goop. Yuk :)
First I've heard of seen of the Oreo Thins, just Oreo breakfast cereal (I kid you not) and Oreo minis (same thickness, but roughly half inch around).
Not a fan of them, don't like the sugary paste, or the bitter chocolate cookie/biscuit.
I've got some of these and plotted the voltage and current from Clive's video. They fit well to I = 2 40* (V - 9.9)^2 with current in mA and voltage in volts.
Clive, is your M-830b had to be re-adjusted lately for voltage?, the pot can move a tad.
Heat sink problem if you have to seal the COB from road grime or weather, if you designed fog lights or caution lights.
you dont look like the kind of fellow who cares all that much about how many cookies you eat :)
In the US, we have double stuff oreos, which is the exact opposite of the oreo thins :P
Why does that not surprise me?
Richard Smith They are also quite common in Europe^^
Just what we need to help the obesity problem here in the states. Time to start hiking insurance rates on them like they did to smokers.
Richard Smith
In the UK we have Fox's biscuits, which I consider far more superior than any Oreo.
I love those, 4-5 of them and I'm a happy guy.
I just got mine today and did some testing and math. The ones I got used 800ma at 12.37 to 12.5 volts the voltage could be decreased as the led's got hot. I did some searching and found some specs for these, they indicate that they can be run between 600ma and 1000ma 12-14 volts. that comes out to 3 to 3.5 volts per LED and 20 to 35ma per column of 4. Mine did not attain a good brightness until they hit 800ma. so mine pull 10 watts at about 12.5v 800ma. The light output is close to a 75 watt incandescent light bulb.
would recommend using 18.75 v at 700ma using this cob
Clive, if you want to heat it up to solder, just give it power for a few tens of seconds lol. What would've been really nice is if it had a low profile buck regulator on it for vehicle electrical systems, or at least offered both versions.
112 leds is wow and I like it.
I have an off grid solar system. I use these all thru my house for lighting, running right off the battery bank.
I have several of these in various shapes and wattage.
Soldering without heating it is indeed very difficult, but the light of the neutral white versions are quite good value.
However, I do think they are pretty inefficient seeing how incredible hot they get for the amount of lumen they produce.
If it really is 1000lm at 10 watts then it works out at about 100lm/w which is very good for a COB light. Efficiency probably drops at the higher currents. As a comparison, the best virtual-filament lamps (Dubai Lamp) come in at 200lm/w and you can buy virtual-filament lamps from Tesco for about GBP5.00 which work out at about 130lm/w.
Could you pleeease test the COBs for light efficiency as well? :)
Awesome brightness. How many milliamps can these cob lights take before they pop or burn out? And why did it not die when you gave it the chop.
It's construction is two main power tracks with strings of four LEDs in series between them. I cut it between two rows of LEDs so both sides worked. I didn't push it too hard as the life of the LEDs will be much shorter if it is pushed too hard.
Wouldn't an variable voltage LDO regulator style current source be a better bet than a simple resistor to deal with the varying car voltage?
These cobs and other variants are also sold with "protector". And the advice in the listing was that that improves the lifespan alot. But that "protector" looks alot like a resistor to me ;)
Could you run a bunch of these in series as under cabinet lighting?
Can you bend it (a bit) and it still work?
It might allow a slight curve.
I feel like buying everything you test. Must resist. 😂
In the Netherlands we have the thin Oreo, I like them 👍🏼
After all this time mine arrived today messing around with them now wondering what to mount them on.
Here in the US I saw cherry cola Oreos today. I like the original and Lemon creme flavors.
I purchased some smaller cob modules that were advertised for car use, and came with 3 different bulb adapters so they were effectively plug and play. I tried one in the interior light cluster in the car and after about 5 minutes it got so hot the solder melted releasing the power wires, perhaps a good thing really. From China of course.
Richard Dobson
Perhaps they were intended for use with a heatsink of some sort?
I bought 4 of these from two different ebay sellers and all of them are suffering from wire bond failure now they've got leds out which will come and go as you press on the panels ...and they're being very much underdriven mounted on large metal sheets with thermal compound so are not even warm to the touch when on for some time....probably a product to avoid .
clive, how does one measure resistance of chip like this with built in controller circuitry?
i would suggest to also fix the voltage across them with say a (high power?) zener in paralell as the vi curve of a diode (so also a led) drifts with temperature leading to a higher current as the leds get hotter and thus only heating the leds even more
Yuji sell something very similar to that. 20W 90CRI 6500K and you get two for $30. I wonder what those are like. $30 for 2 is quite cheap compared to other Yuji leds.
"BC Series High CRI COB LED - Mini Portable Panel - 20W - Pack: 2pcs"
Hi Clive . Just a quick one . Been watching all of your vids for a while and absolutely LOVE THEM . Very informative and interesting. (I picked this one to comment on as it's your latest and I figured you'll see this soon) . I LOVE Leds , and pretty much anything that lights up. I make neon , It's a lifelong love and hobby and also my job / living . Lots of other stuff too.
I use a lot of Leds and Led lamps (my daughter makes traditional Japanese lanterns and I use a variety of the little E12 "bulbs" , the "covered" type mostly from Japan) You did a mod on a very similar BC one. I do your mod by fitting a lower value capacitor to make them lower power / long life.
ANYWAY - Thanks for all your vids they are great . Feel like I know you . I'd like to e-mail you / get in touch soon . I 'd like to send you a few bits and pieces , including some Led watch modules. (Something else I am into - Led watches) .
I am going to be in Japan for a while , (my partner and daughter are from Japan) , soon as I'm back (a few weeks) will get some bits and pieces to you. Might find some interesting stuff while I'm there , I always do . (some excellent electronics stores! Good quality components that are almost free , they are so cheap!)
Regards , Jerry :-)
If you're involved in making neon, are you aware of a dedicated mailing list for the industry?
mailman.prismnet.com/mailman/listinfo/neon-l
Thanks Clive. I don't know this but I will subscribe now , looks interesting. I am still pretty new to being online a lot , apart from a few e-mails for work , and facebook page my daughter set up years ago. I'm new to this (youtube) , and only just started a youtube channel.
if you had to provide cooling for this cob, how would you go about determining what size fan/heatsink to additionally use with the stock hardware?
those oreos have the entirely wrong ratio of filling to cookie. But as an american, I'm proud they crammed the same caloric content into a more efficient package. **tears of justice**
Do you happen to know if cool white, about 4000K LEDs produce UV light? I want to light my pictures using neutral white 4000K, but I've been seeing warnings of cool white producing UV light which can cause damage.
Hi, i love your videos ! I have a question for you : do you know if it's possible to cool down led cob with a Peltier module ?
The peltier itself would require cooled. It might be better with a heatsink/fan on the COB itself.
thanks for the quick answer ! Yes of course the peltier would require cooling, but have you ever tried it ? Maybe the cooling ratio is better ? I doubt it if we stick to the most simple sandwich structure (led/peltier/heatsink/fan), but maybe there is a way of taking advantage of the peltier ?
can you do a video on how LED's and laser diodes work? i have to admit i understand the BASICS but i would love to hear your side of it..
I learn more from these short videos than anything else I do all week
Now you know about thin Oreos. Yay!
Stuart Arnold eat enough of them they make your poop black... Now you learnt something too 😂
I'd have to hold my nose while eating them (not to my pallet). I'll stick to beetroot making my pee red.
Stuart Arnold that ain't beetroot 😂
Oreos eh? Give me a bourbon cream any day of the week.
So how warm do they get when driven with 12v ? and can it be cooler if you have a current limit on it, maybe a XL4015 can be used? or is voltage control is enough using a LM2596?
Current limiting is recommended, as is a suitable heat dissipating surface. With a regulated DC supply a simple resistor would work.
If I wanted to run these on my car what do you suggest to keep the voltage at 12v?
Put the two modules in series. May be enough to u see e on a car
Get a hotplate. Helps with huge ground planes.
Thank you for not making the masticating noises! 😉
I've never seen Oreo Thin in the States. However, we do have "double stuf" (misspelled on purpose, it's actually about 1.6x stuff) and "mega stuf" which is slightly more than 2x. We don't want less filling. We want more. This is because more corn syrup is needed to sustain our many fat cells.
The thin oreos are somewhat common here in america, often sold in 100 calorie packs for "health conscious" folk. Honestly I don't understand it, if you're going to eat cookies eat cookies.
Maybe use a 3d printer heated bed instead of an iron. They are pretty cheap these days.
@bigclivedotcom
I've bought a small collection of these 12volt COB LED's at ebay. Plan was to make several lamps to install in my cabin using solar powered energy from a 260Ah battery. Occasionally the battery will be topped of by use of a generator and a digital battery charger. Peak voltage will be around 15volts during charging.
My question is: What is the best way to control the voltage / current that is easy to build and waste a minimum of energy trough heat.
(asking because the linear regulators using LM317 i bought on ebay gets baking hot when feeding them 15volts and pulling out around 12volts over 1 COB LED)
I have access to RS Components account at work and found this LED Driver IC : LM3404MR/NOPB
I assume that would be a perfect choice for controller build?
What happens when an LED quits? Is it internally shunted or does a row go out. Diodes can both open and short when they fail.
LEDs can go open, short or flicker.
yes here in the states we have many different versions of oreos
Clive, you forgot to light up the other half!
No leads attached. But it worked fine.
I expected it would, and I trust that you didn't crop through the leds randomly!
Can't beat LED's and ginger beer!...
The thin Oreo's are a world-wide thing apparently, only in America they also sell them dipped in fudge :D Just for that extra fatty chocolatey goodness! And yes, the thinness doesn't stop the gluttony!
But you could just eat one..... (Not really.)
I don't think I have that level of monk-ish willpower. I don't even think I have poker-player level will power when it comes to fudge-dipped biscuits :D
I was also thinking there are automotive flashing units that run LED's (usually in an amber and white configuration) to signal caution for work trucks and the like. I think taking one of those modules (which you can find from Chinese sellers without the actual LED's) and hooking it up to a set of these would make for a fantastic light show! (if not slightly epileptic) Something like this: www.ebay.com/itm/6pcs-DC12V-3W-18LED-Car-Amber-Strobe-Emergency-Flashing-Warning-Grill-Lights-Kit/173030553410
*takes bite out of Big Mac while fighter jets fly overhead, dropping crates of Bud Light* 'Murica!
Damn you. I'm going to have to get some of these to replace the horrible dim incandescent bulb in the camper now. Any chance of a link?
I has a sad. I have migraine-induced vertigo, and have found that LED "bulbs" (incandescent replacements) trigger INTENSE vertigo and sickness in me, so I've had to get rid of mine and actually order incandescents (rough service is the only kind available). It sucks... LED lights strobe even worse than CFLs, that's what causes it. I love the idea of LEDs, so green, energy caving, etc. The issue is that although non-strobing household LED lamps COULD be made (dc for example) nobody makes them. Migraine and Epilepsy groups have put out warnings about this... I would think that some maker would come to our rescue! Sadly not so far. The excess blue wavelengths that some put out also contribute to the problem. Someone needs to make "eye-safe" LED bulbs. They would cost a it more, but be worth it for those of us with these afflictions.
Jafafa Hots
Low voltage DC LED's already exist and it's also possible to get ones that emit specific wavelengths of light, so you could solve your problems. The main problem causing the strobing is the power supply for dropping from mains AC to DC. They often either only use a capacitive dropper or cheap out on properly smoothing the output from a switched mode power supply. If you are able to use low voltage bulbs then you can choose a quality power supply to avoid this.
I figured something like this was possible. Unfortunately despite the fact that I enjoy Clive's channel, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about electrical matters, and since I've become disabled, my days of tinkering around with tech are over. I used to build my own PCs, now it would be a large effort for me to even upgrade my memory or swap out a video card. Hell, I need help doing my laundry. :( I actually need help just replacing a light bulb if it's overhead.
Jafafa Hots
I can sympathise as I'm also disabled!
Perhaps try buying some LED bulbs from a major manufacturer, like Phillips, to see if they're any better.
Otherwise, it sounds like you're better off sticking to incandescent bulbs for now.
Regards.
The Philips ones are the ones that triggered my vertigo so badly, Pete.
Not bad! You could actually use those with one of those cheapo LED drivers inside some cheap lamp fixture, the thick aluminum backing plate could make them a better alternative than those standard COBs.
Please actually stop using the word actually where it actually isn't actually needed actually. Regarding cheap lamp fixtures, it'd be reinventing the wheel. A legacy lamp fixture is meant for a certain bulb format and most of those are now covered by inexpensive drop-in LED replacements, with a certain level of tested reliability, and safety if you buy a major brand. Instead you could create your own artistic version of a lamp, optimized for the form factor of the LED(s) used.
Something is not right. based upon the 10w spec, each LED is .083w so it takes 3 rows (12.8 LED's) to = 1w ??? The math does not add up. Then observe that at 12v/1a =12w and then at 13.7v/3a =41w...It would be nice to know the true specifications of the device.