Driverless 50W LED teardown and schematic. 

God I'm glad there're people like you out there giving us school drop-outs a free education. I loved all this (and science in general) at school but I had far more pressing matters to consider back then. Cheers man.

Clive, might i suggest, that rather than attempting to solder onto those pads with a soldering iron, you instead use a hot-air wand and solder paste. It works much better, and faster, just be sure to place an angled aluminum piece to act as a shield to prevent the hot air from damaging the LEDs. Oh, and you need a much larger calculator, my nan couldn't read that from her house a few miles away :D

"The silicone rubber is a bit rubbery" - priceless! Thanks Clive!

Thanks to Clive for the led info. I am a retired electrician and have s huge interest in these. I retired just before the industry changed. Now I am also a radio ham and the floods I bought on eBay wiped out the HF band's. No suppression of harmonic squarewaves at all from the driver. Due to your video of driverless LEDs which I knew nothing about I have now bought some to test and will swap over if ok. Glad to say totally quiet. The two 20 watt ones check out as 20 watts on my power meter but the two 50w chips way below ,one at 17 w the other 25 watts. They are perfectly useable still as after 30m still running ok with no signs of any problems. I mounted thst one on a heat sink for a lengthy test. Thanks again Clive for your wonderful information videos. I will never buy these floods again . They came from a UK based company hoping they are legit, but No.

Hi Clive, I'd just like to tell you how interesting and informative I find your videos. Although I've had some peripheral involvement with electronics in my life it's only now that I'm in my dotage I've started studying it more closely. After watching your dissection of various things I'm starting to understand the circuitry of the objects more and more. Thank you so much, keep up the good work. Best regards!

Quality video mate! Your thoroughness and excitement are very fun to watch.

Dear Mr. Big Clive, I am a recent subscriber to your channel and have been enjoying your videos immensely, in spite of the fact that I am a lowly software engineer and have a paucity of erudition and experience when it comes to matters electronic. I find your attention to detail, combined with your casual in-passing remarks on the deliterious affect of mains voltage on the kind of day one could end up having, to be educational, informative and entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the Fishocutor video. Last week when checking the Sunday roast to see if the juices ran clear I noticed they hadn't, I said, in accent that approximated yours, "That's not good." and promptly returned the beastie to the oven.

I ordered a bunch of these in 50w 110v to replace halogen bulbs on work lights. Payed $2.39 a piece from Alixpress. Love them

I love you, you are basically my wikipedia for LED and electronics

Thank you for this very nice detailed video, with the good zoomed hires printouts.

Thanks for these videos. You got me hooked on COB LEDs now. I bought a few of these 50 watt units myself, but wanted to improve efficiency while reducing heat. I was thinking of disabling one of the 5 driver chips to knock power down by 20%.

Awesome teardown. Didn't expect to see teardown below the LEDs ! NICE!

Wow, I just learned more in 28 min than the last ten weeks of the analog devices class in college...

Too bad there are no solder pads for connecting an external smoothing capacitor. Those things are so cheap that they would make very nice lights if the flickering problem could be solved. Of course a bit of scraping and tagging leads directly to the output of the rectifier might be possible, but not very easy.

One of your best videos in a while! Thanks, Clive!

Really cool design. Just went on ebay and bought 8. One of each power and color temps. Thank you BigClive!

You should definitely get some proper tools to measure light emission, because your reviews are very interesting and getting the lm/W value would be the cherry on top.

hi clive, excellent video!! can you just add a big cap to make it better?

thank you for making this excellent video, you're on my daily list of favorite uploaders to watch! Electronics for dummies like me!

Clive, thanks for this video which is still relevant. Just acquired 6 of these for growlights. It occurred to me that connecting the mains to a bridge rectifier and say a 50uF electro capacitor and feeding the smoothed DC to each of the chips in parallel would avoid having to add a capacitor to each chip.

Go on BigClive, you know you want to add a smoothing cap just to see how much better it runs

Makes you wonder whether the next generation of these devices will include some form of on-board smoothing? As you note, electrolytics do have their own lifespan problems, but having an easy-to-change "Capacitor module" might be attractive to Municipal users? Alternatively the chips might be used to drive a thin phosphor layer with a modest decay profile, so eliminating a lot of the flicker? If there is the will to use these VERY simple devices, a way WILL be found to cost-effectively overcome their limitations.

I really enjoy the picture enlargements. Very helpful.

I installed 5 of these in my shop today after seeing this video a couple of weeks ago. 120v in USA. Have no flicker at all. Will be installing a lot more. I like the 180 degree angle. Thanks for the video.

A Metcal or JBC iron with a fat tip would solder those with no problem.

There's actual specs on these chips. Color Rendering Index:Ra85 Lumen: 980-1680LM Color Temperature: Warm White 2800-3000K/ cold white 6000-6500K

Its not easy to understand everything. BUT I LOVE IT! You help me with my depression.

recently discovered your videos. thank you from Chicago

Hey Clive, great videos, just ran today into them! Something crossed my mind - could you dimm it via the current limiting resistors at the CS pins?

So....it's not a driverless LED but an LED with an integrated driver.

Liked this vid a lot... though you teased us with the thermal regulation of those brightpower chips without testing it. also wondered if they were supposed to be used in special fittings where contact was made by conductive wiper onto the board - looks like it'd be a pain in the ar$e to try replacing one in situ with a soldering iron - I'd guess access to these will be by cherrypicker or scaffolding tower in most typical applications.

BigClive, I have a way of getting silicon off if you don't have silicon solvents or other stuff, a soft wire brush will remove the silicon and leave the components virtually undamaged, Just a tip. Many thanks and great work.

Was anyone else hoping he'd try to power up the stripped carcass at the end?

I'm a bit suspicious those chips are the same as in 5mm LEDs. I also have a couple of those LEDs and the chips are sooooo tiny! The 20W, 30W and 50W versions all seem to have the same chips (and the same number of them), this is weird.

Best vid I've seen in a while and boy do I spend time on youtube. Awesome work man! *Subs*

Very nice presentation. Please continue to do this type of exploring. I have learn a lot from your presentations. 😁 California, USA

With the flicker and using for street lights, if you put each light on a separate phase of the the 3, would they flicker in sequence, as the sine wave is offset from each other?

Could you explain power factor?

Thank you very much, Clive! I have been waiting for this video ;) Greetings from Latvia

I understand about 10% of this! Love your vids Clive!

Clive, have you tried shimming the gap between the heating element and tip? My chinese hakko ripoff can solder to these things with no troubles at all, and thats while they're stuck down to a heatsink. Also curious, what happens to both power draw as well as thermals if you bridge an electrolytic across the bridge rectifier?

Can you put a capacitor on the output of your bridge rectifier to solve the flicker?

I've a couple of these warm whites, cooled with cheap CPU coolers, growing some "flowers". The plants love them, they don't care about the flicker. They last long with minimal heat when running with active cooling. Heat them first on a clothes iron to assist with soldering.

The flicker might be an issue for home lighting, but they look simply perfect for grow lights, I'm buying some of them right now, thank you!

so is this really driverless or is it more that the driver's been integrated.

The calculator is too small to see

I just ordered one along with a heatsink. Hopefully it works well

I appreciated the action of your new cutting tool.

Now you can make the Tick-welding video again.

A "Dremel" wire wheel brush, one of the brass bristle ones works pretty good and removing the silicone with out hindering the SM stuff.... Just messy to do...

I just ordered a driverless cob from a Chinese company . My brother told me he saw a u tube video where a guy bought a cob and glued it to a heat sink and got he wrong glue by mistake causing the thing to melt thru the granite table top and into the floor due to a over heat. I know you would know if this was possible or not? I have learned allot from watching you videos. I have been taking thing apart since the age of 4 .I have always marveled at how electronics are put together.I wanted to become a electric engineer but lost interest when I got older but still love to take things apart . Thanks for making these videos the way you do they are very illuminating .

Thank you for this useful tear down.

You use the word 'cheap' when we who deal with Chinese understand 'Westerners' are actually gdtting overcharged aka RIPPED OFF.

Those sound like horrible Radio Frequency Interference generators, which would concern me as an amateur radio operator.

So much passion, i love it bro!

good information and i always enjoy your videos, thanks.

I'm not an electrician, nor do I understand anything he is on about, why am I subscribed?

It's 3:15am here in NZ... Who needs sleep, anyway?

I have that exact one! I got it a month ago. Mine was 10 cents less, and so far has worked well enough, albeit with some strobe. that was some great analysis ripping it all apart to see the traces. perhaps I'll go rip apart my 120V one and see what I can find. could you tack a large capacitor right across the +/- output on the bridge rectifier? considering how cheap these are and how expensive LED arrays are for streetlight modules are, someone could corner the streetlight industry with these. One 50W chip would be enough for most applications. perhaps two for more light and redundancy.

Hi Clive! Love your videos!!

Ordered 5 x 20Watt 120V Can't pass up that price.

5:31 haunted lights? Move out NOW Clive!

Standard 0603 metric (0201imperial) size led by the looks of it. Typically they are about 5-10mA current depending on colour. Nice teardown by the way. :-)

I've used these with big copper slab CPU coolers and they are flawless. If I use them with a copper plug CPU cooler that only encompasses the middle diode and they get hot/die. you have to sync the whole array properly or else. Thanks Big Clive love ur channel.

BigClive supporting the Chinese economy since 1979.

I have a challenge for u..I went to my local pound shop and found a pack of 3 lighters for £1 ,they have leds on them.quite powerful.powerd by 3 small disk batteries..my challenge is could u make a small led grow lamp using these..

That's an interesting product! I wonder how flickery it seems by eye, that is hard to estimate from video. For video use you can always use a suitable frame rate to get rid of flicker. 1/25 or 1/50s frame timing should give no flicker but any random value (like 1/60s in the EU) should give a huge flicker with non-smoothed lights. (For US you'd like to use 1/30 or 1/60 frame rate to beat flicker). Use aperture and/or ISO value to adjust camera exposure.

It is a very nice design, Please explain power factor. Good video for knowledge, And designing our own led light.

Excellent exam. I suggest a capacitor across the pulsating DC to eliminate the flicker.

Could you not add a smoothing capacitor to the rectifier to stop it flickering?

Hello I have been running a 50 watt one for about twelve months it runs from a time clock for eight hours every night!👍

Try putting a cap at the output of the chip, as regulator chip datasheet recommended. Might able lower the flicker but brightness will go low/high and add will add extra load to the chips. worth the try

Love the videos especially the led ones! Been buying some from China too except the 90w smd ones which measure about 170mm/130mm (they also flicker like mad).

Many thanks for this video/intro to using COB LEDs. I'm working on a DIY cine film scanner project and have so far been using an array of 10 rectangular LEDs as a light source. These COB LED packages look like a good solution for packing lots of LEDs into a small area. So I'm looking for a light panel area about 10mmx10mm. My project already has an Arduino and some stepper motors too, so there is already a 9Volt Maplin power supply powering the rest of the project and I'd like to use this to power the light source too. I've only just found out about COB LEDs today and have been looking to get something to try. I'd like the most 'neutral' white (4000k colour temp) and High colour accuracy (High CRI) would be nice if possible. I think 1W or 3W units would be OK, I probably don't want any more power and I do want to be able to run off the 9V PSU. It seems that the 1W ones are usually very small beads so may not have a large enough light area. I've seen a few 3W ones that might be large enough, but I'd worry more about heat/burnout issues. So can anyone help me spec/source the right COB LED for this project please (I'm in the UK.) Many thanks, Chris.

Glad you made this video. I have a bunch of these on order with plans to convert some outdoor 150w T-3 halogen fixtures​. They only run about 15 minutes a day (while I let the dogs out at night), but will report lifespan either way.

Hello I replaced a drive and a led with a driverless one about a week ago it runs every night for about eight hours and so far it’s been ok 👍

Clive, use a small wire brush on the silicone, smd parts usually handle it fine. I want to say soaking it in warm lacquer thinner (toluene) to make the silicone softer and less rubbery, but that doesn't work in all cases. it's nice when it works though.

Nice investigation of these LEDs. I had wondered why they were so cheap.

Hi clive i am really glad i found this channel, especially tgis very informative and educational video on this cob led. Lately i have been spending alot of time on these and ultimatly getting them burnt in quicker times, probably because i used higher wattage cod leds in lower wattage metal casing flood led lights, thanks for clearing many of my ambiguities and confusions regarding these. P.s. i burnt 3 cobs even today, thats why found this channel due to. But i am really lucky to hace found your channel- subscribed.

“ And That Goes Down “into Thart Bit Clive”😂❤

So, what happens when you give these things rectified and smoothed AC to DC? I guess if the chip relies on the sine wave to mantain power they would not work very well.

I'm honestly satisfied that there's a led light out there for that price where the only problem is flicker- it could be worse, after all.

I have recently purchased these for around $1.75 for the 20watts but wow do they get hot, i suppose I just learned something, i plugged one in against a piece of aluminum din rail and i turned it off around 130c. I wasnt sure how long it could last like that. It did start dimming, but cooled down and got bright again like you said. I also recently tried a coffee cup heater for soldering under these aluminum pcbs from the thrift shop in town for a fiver

If you ever do a live show, you should call it Big C Live. Hehe.

Great video very informative, thank you.

i got the same led chip and the way i got the led to just glow wasnt using 2*1M ohm resistor, its way simpler than that. Just used those old power testers which have that carbon rod in them which limit the current and make the bulb in it glow, in series with one of the mains wire, it will dim down the led to same level to be able to take a photo. Good method if u dont have resistors or a variable power supply.

Now that you know what the circuit looks like I wonder if you could hack it to add a smoothing capacitor to help prevent or at least reduce the flicker?

For my bench light I used three 30W 110V COBs in series to my 230Vac rectified and smoothed by a 50µF electrolytic cap. The do get quite warm but not really hot with a medium black heatsink passive cooling.

my favorite channel

Love that flicker, far out man!

Awesome video. Thank you.

Dam that was a good video clive :-D, what a neat pcb :-D.

Very well done analysis. When desiging similar things for the TX PAs for the mobile radio market, for soldering leads on it helps to heat the whole thing with an electric hot plate. .. ALSO, It would be nice to actually see the current waveform on a scope. A 0.1 ohm resistor in series with the neutral side. ... -- Regards

Very thorough, thanks!

I think I might try using one of these to light my aquarium. I've made lights for plants with 3w and 5w LEDs and the hardest part of the proccess has always been finding an appropriate driver. These might be cool to experiment with for the aquarium application... Has anyone else used anything similar to these for aquarium/plant lighting?

I don't have a fraction of the electronics knowledge you have, but I have been experimenting with both the DCV LEDs, and the integrated power supply LEDs for use as shop lighting in my fab shop. I have had NO problem whatsoever with flicker. I've tested everything from 20W to 150W integrated, (at 120vAC), and have been operating individual lighting implementations around the house, and in the shop, as trials. The only problem I have had is with early failure in some 'full spectrum' integrated LEDs I built for my wife's plants. I enclosed full spectrum because the LEDs were actually so damn red, they made the entire house glow red during the day! So much for full spectrum. I ended up mixing them with equal wattage cold whites at a ratio of 6 red to 4 cold whites to get a decent color that wouldn't make the plants continually what to flower. The problem I've had is the lights are failing at about a 25-30% rate after two months of daily use. Have you tested any of the integrated/driverless LEDs at 120vAC to see if the flicker still exists? Some of the eBay chips I've looked at have 110-250vAC, and some have either 120vAC or 240vAC inputs. I've tried some of each, at different wattages. Something I was told, and verified, was some brands, and sellers on eBay sell a better quality LED; gold vs copper conductors, and copper vs aluminum bases. They are not more expensive, which is confusing. The early failure 'full spectrums' were not the gold/copper type. I've had no failures in the gold/copper LEDs. Any thoughts on this? Thanks for your vids...

Love your video 🎥

I don't have a clue what you mean by most things you've said here. But this is extremely entertaining

I ordered a few of the 110 volt 50 watt versions of this for my shop lighting needs and found this to be one of the more helpful videos I've found. After watching this I ordered a bunch of 20's just to keep the heat down. I have one simple question after seeing Clive add the two 1 meg ohm resistors. Can I add a resistor to the 110 input to lower current? I have a variety of 1 watt resistors I could use. The differences between my chip and Clive's are 144 LED's and the addition of two HEL-70271k varistors. I know the varistors are there to keep the current or heat at a minimum but I would like to throttle them back a little more. Any suggestions? They will be heat sinked but even then they are over 85c

I wonder will putting a capacitor (X2 or mains rated electrolytic) put in series with live connection will help with flicker. Or maybe going with external bridge rectifier and capacitor is the way to go?