Fixing a dead LED lamp. (Interesting failure.) 

im so amazed about how you are able to bend youre fingers and hold everything.. Keep up the great work. Love youre videos

Darn wish i would have found you earlier. I have trashed many led lights without really understanding how they worked. I did the visual stuff checking solder and such. Thank you for the work and time to make these vids.

Great tip thanks Clive! If you scrape/melt off the faulty led and just blob the board connection with solder it's even more easy and clean. It's just a shame to throw away so many led's and components just because one small led is faulty.

"And i left it for awhile to see if it would explode... But it Sadly didn't explode." -bigclivedotcom, 2015

For those interested, I measured the power to one led in a **visually** similar bulb and using a lab power supply. Results: 2.7v @ 6ma.

Nice to see a bit of the old percussive maintenance as a first step.

I just fixed 3 LED lamps like that, thank you good man, that is quite some money saved.

One of my corn led bulb died the same way, and I have just revived it following your guide. So simple but so useful way you instructed us here. Thanks a bunch. I use a 220R resistor though.

I have two corn cob lights waiting to be repaired and you have prompted me to finally do it. I also noticed the tiny black speck on a couple of the LED's and found them to be faulty so kept the globes for eventual repair. They were fairly cheap but only worked for a few weeks then died. Hopefully the link across the dead ones will work. Thanks for the effort producing all the videos. After reading the comments it seems like a very common problem.

I have been using 7 corn bulbs in a pendant ceiling fitting and despite intermittent use after about a year they have been failing every few weeks, in one case a replacement failed within days. The failure rate is much worse than for an incandescent bulb. I have just followed this video and successfully repaired 4 of these corn bulbs. It will be interesting to see how long they last as clearly the voltage across each individual LED is now fractionally greater.

You can bridge it with 100-150 ohm resistor and it'll not change overall balance

This guy knows how to make the most out of ever finger! Great work!

Clive, I would have never thought you would actually use this junk in your house. That's new info for me.

Thanks to this video I was able to troubleshoot a dead PIR sensor bulb, identify that it had some dead LEDs and then I bought some to replace them and soldered it on. Saved it from going to landfill. Thanks!

I just "repaired" two of those. I was about to throw them away:) Thanks Clive! Also, the wire strippers you use are produced near to where i live. UNIOR is the best Slovenian brand of tools.

I have an whole batch of those exact leds that are falling like flies, I was wondering what the problem was. My soldering skills are no way as good as yours but that should be easy to fix. You made what to me was a very fiddly job very easy looking but sorted now (until another led blows)

just wanted to say thank you, I have had an electrical itch and you have helped me scratch it, Thank you Big Man. your like my electronics teacher, I have learned a lot from watching your videos.

Many thanks for sharing the fix. I have the same problem with a dead corn LED lamp. Am definitely going to try the workaround.

Very interesting how smart RU-vid is getting with its recommendations. Came from a video where you mentioned this exact failure mode and described this very fix. The banggood lamp video.

Clive, we all know that LED Lights often fail - well before their expected life! Being a bit of a Thinker, I would love your thoughts on this: Why not have an Induction Coil, which is inbuilt into the Bayonet Light Fitting - just a small (circular) torroidal transformer which could give a very low VA, and (yet) cater for all Wattages of LED Lamps. THEN, another much smaller circular coil, which is built into every production-made LED Light Unit. The whole purpose of this arrangement, is simply because there is an extremely-wide voltage range between the Domestic Mains supply (here in Australia is the same as the UK - at 240VAC and 50 Hz. Already, we have two (2) large issues: LED lights work absolutely the best on a stable DC Power Source, and also bringing down the wattage slightly using PWM.I have done this since 2005 in my home, with LED Lighting (17 individual Units) which illuminate my home from Dusk to dawn on 365 days / year, and it's so good that I could not live without it! My point is: Not ONE of those 17 LED Lights failed, but I just changed them all out last week, because I noticed that the illumination of each Unit had deteriorated over the 17 years of daily use. LED's work perfectly, at a stable current and voltage source, but more particularly if they have a well-known brand, and not a Chinese copy of the famous brands. If you are still reading this, the main objective here, is to solve the issue of the large voltage (mains supply), to the voltage that would be more suited. Lets say 12V AC. A small circular (mating) Coil which is built-into every LED Lamp, would ensure sufficient voltage could be supplied to illuminate any type of LED Array. In this way, the internal PCB and components that are currently used - could be slashed by the LED Manufacturer. I was horrified to open-up a 240V AC / 15W Light Bulb from ALDI. This was made in Germany. The PCB was loaded with 2X the number of components on the Board. Now, the worst part of all was the Cast Aluminium Heat Sink. I swear that this Casting weighed the equivalent of 20 aluminium Coke Cans!! Many or all of these failed lights end-up in Landfill. The ALDI LED LIght was also hard plastic coated. Germany has no thoughts on greening the Planet producing these. If you are still reading, my proposal would be this: Every person who uses LED Globes, could also buy a Bayonet Fitting with a circular coil. It's not Rocket Science to fit an external component (that would normally be inside an LED Light on some types), which can be used indefinitely. I would just love to see Clive make one of these - with fewer (bare minimum) internal lamp circuitry and components. Then, using a quality LED Module (such as Cree), then leave it permanently lit to log its' life. Sorry that this is an Essay, and greetings from Australia.

Thanks for sharing Clive. I've watched almost all of your videos (I love learning about electronics), and wish you would show a microscope view (or just a zoomed close up view) when there's tiny detail.

Ha! - I've had 3 of these go - I noticed the hole too, attempted to make 2 lamps out of 3 - but the LEDS keep failing - gave up. Caused by Voltage Peaks when the Arc Welder is running in the workshop?? Previous Pineapple lasted a few years before dying. You're doing a great job.

Excellent video. Good information provided in a concise manner. Thanks!

Nice video Mate. Thanks for sharing I really enjoyed it.

That particular LED would have been very easy to remove, heat one side and push it up with the soldering iron tip, heat up the other side and let it drop off. Maybe not proper, but can be easily done with damaging anything.

Hi, thanks for the tip. You need not cut wires nor use a special tester. A multimeter set on diode test function will output 2.5-3V (at 3V wear sunglasses) That's all you need to put the probes on a LED and see if it glows. If you want a multimeter, this is a good Aliexpress shopping list: DT830B 3€ or DT9205A 6.2?-8€, rechargeable 9V bat. 3.3€, AA/9V charger 3.5€ A LED shunting resistor must be 3-2.5V/100-150mA= 30-15 Ω. But I goofed and used 220Ω instead of 22Ω and there was no visible dimming. So, one can use 50-220Ω safely and I settled on 100Ω

That's a bit like the old gardener's trick - "If you leave the old bulbs in, they'll come again next season"!

I got old LED's off by lifting one end with a soldering iron to small angle and then desolder other end. If it's broken, then there's no need to keep it intact anyway. By the looks of it it's 5630 emitters in that bulb. Keep up the good work.

I recall an article comparing a LED bulb with an incandescent: the latter has one short-lived filament, the former (say) 15 LEDs in series. Point was that the LEDs and other components really need a low failure rate to be competitive because if one fails the bulb fails. I think the $1 Dollar Tree 9W LED bulbs might outlast the $0.50 Dollar Tree 130-volt 60W incandescents they're replacing, but that's 12 LED chips, their solder joints, a capacitive dropper's components and their solder joints... versus a bit of tungsten and a very few wires and connections. Sure, I'm saving a good bit of power, but there's a lot than can fail...

Thank you. had 3 of these failed kept them all and yup one led had black dot and after bypassing that led they work again. Thanks!!!!

Nice one Clive, one dead LED & the lamp fails, I wonder how many people have thrown lamps away that you could have saved.

I have managed to repair one of my dead LED bulb , Great tutorial

one of your bathrooms? the mansion of clive?

had a couple to "go" - put LED ACROSS defunct - it worked - another LED died . So added in series as a tesat series of 1k - but 1/8th watt - it worked but fumed - as a test - it worked required 1 watt at least . These are the 220 v - running on 240 volt - so in line voltage dropper of 1 k - but gets warm . These ARE expensive - but they rated at around 50 000 hours when run to spec The capacitors have bleed resistors across them - hence they run safe

I found these cheap leds work great as refrigerator lights because the cheap leds used are kept cool and don't burn out :) have had one of these in my refrigerator for about a year now!

I THANK YOU SIR for showing me how these come apart...I have a 115vAC bulb like the one you described...(longer) My Dad was in the US Navy and he said they called those peter bulbs 🥴...What ever Dad...however...those were single element tungsten bulbs...I think a lot were used to run the old reel to reel projectors back then...todays LED's are fantastic...great job...

Very helpful, thank you! ... Mine's got 51 LEDs so shortcutting one will not change the current much. I'm sure it'll work as before.

Very good idea. Learning many teqniques from you. Thank you.

That's a cute looking little lamp!

Just found your channel. Damn, your stuff is interesting. :)

Thank you Clive! I could fix all my 4 broken LED GU10!

I had one of those type lamps DOA (actually one side didn't work) and found one LED O/C. Since I didn't have a spare LED of the correct type I simply bridged it out. I expected the now shortened string to starve the other side, but surprisingly it seemed evenly bright on both sides after the bodge repair.

Nice presentation.

Success ! Thanks for your help.....................

Thanks for the video. You've saved 3 LED corn cobs from landfill and have almost single handedly saved the earth from certain destruction. Go get a biscuit!!

it works now! thank you!

I use a hot air gun. I find usually two LEDS have burned. I fix them in two seconds now ;-) also I remove the plastic case and use 3 second glue to fix every thing back together I find the bulb lasts longer - but mind your fingers 220v its not fun :-) I like the vids keep them comming

One of these days I should learn to how to solder like you. I need all sorts of clamps and shit when I do it!

thanks for mentioning corn type led which i have and if i didn't hear what you said at the end i would brainlessly just short out that single faulty led

" *I don't know if it's gonna work or not !"" **_Boy ! I love the spirit ! :-))))))))_*

I bought 3 of these, 2 of them died within 1 month. Same fault as in the video. Slightly different housing but same style. I do believe they are under rated for New Zealand's 240V mains supply

i know it doesnt matter .. but i prefer this table background (mdf im guessing) than the black one because there is no light reflecting off the table :)

Swell. Thank you. I subscribe to you. Thanks again for the awesome videos.

Thanks Clive I can fix all my faulty led bulbs now cus I'm a harder even if it's broke it might be useful someday

I've had the same fault on a couple of mine and fixed them in the same way. As they seemed to be over-running I also lowered the size of the dropper capacitor.

Why do I keep coming back to these videos, don't know what is going on in most of them...

Back in my youth the guys at work used to have a tub of failing or failed capacitors they used to charge a few up and tell the new lads to put their hands in and take one out lol

I found one like that in the garbage. This one was a big longer (more LED's) and it had failed in a way that made one led into a glowing resistor, melting the polycarbonate case around it!

i try and it's working good and great video

Another superb video Clive. Just a little further feedback on the set up for making your videos. It looks like you now have the lights more to the left and right of your workbench, which works well. A little more diffusion might be nice to further soften the light - some trace perhaps. I know you now have the exposure/ iris locked off but there has been some variation recently. This particular video is a little over-exposed. The background looks like it might be a sheet of MDF, which is so much better than the black one. Because the MDF is relatively pale and neutral the auto-colour has not picked up on it and given your hands a bluish shade. Which is good. To be on the safe side, one could probably also lock off the white balance. As for the shadows at the bottom of the shot, I wonder if an LED strip fixed just out of shot would help?

These wire cutters are from a company called Unior and proudly made in Slovenia. They have some of the best tools in the world (pliers, wrenches, snips etc,...)

There's a tendency for these to run the LEDs too hard, possibly because they're made in China and designed to run on 220v AC, but in the UK we can get anything up to 253v AC (230 + 10%). I've done this little trick on a number of LED spot light bulbs (E80) in my kitchen, but eventually another LED blows and then it cascades. I think the only long term solution is to short the blown LED and then drop a single resistor in to reduce the voltage going into all of the LEDs or preferably do this before an LED blows in the first place.

The makers and distributors of these corncob bulbs certainly vary in quality. I bought eight from one merchant on aliexpress that are all still going strong over a year later in a recreation room. A few months ago, I bought two slightly smaller bulbs and six slightly larger bulbs of the same design from another merchant on aliexpress. The two smaller ones died a month after I installed them. They were used intermittently in a water closet. It's not like they were on long enough to even get warm, because we don't linger in a water closet, eh? Now the six slightly larger bulbs are also flickering and showing signs of failure. I will never buy anything from the second merchant again, that's for sure. I'm curious if after making a fix like this whether the fixture is likely to continue to degrade and fail again.

Real Nice! Thanks

I used a "V" wire strippers some sixty years ago and I liked them much but they can nick the wires. We were told that type of p;lane had several crashes with many deaths and they traced the problem to a nick in the wires. Vibration caused the nick to grow -> be careful.

I've had some 12v ones we used in a trailer, and they didn't like the unregulated voltage at all; they'd run extremely hot if you didn't have a positive voltage regulator in series with them.

Thank you. I fixed my the same way as you.

Handy to know, I've got two huge and one large led bulbs and they are miserable things, flashing or barely doing anything. I'll check for dead leds one day if I have time but might go back to poisonous mercury as they seem more reliable

do you have a video of the tools you use?

Would it be possible to desolder the led with the hot air attatchment on the yihua station?

I’m following your vids with great interest, as I’m useless at anything electrical, but how about making something simple from scratch that I could make? Thanks, great video as usual!

I have one of the same kinds but with an E27 fitting. do you happen to remember what the wattage rating was?

I like the light sockets in the UK compared to the ones we have here in the states.

What is that thing you call a microscope called im interested in getting one.Amazing.

Hello, what is the tester that is used in this video ? Does it support thicker wires ? Thanks

Nice one

thanks very intresting

Awesome!

The Irwin vise-grip are the best wire strippers I've ever used. No need to adjust, just put the wire in and squeeze.

I do like this type of wire-stripper for small wires, for bigger ones like 1,5mm² (16-15AWG) i use an automatic one, but there are many different types of those.

Can you please, make a tutorial about how to solder correctly, flux paste, solder wick, how to keep the tip of the soldering iron clean, temperatures, tricks, etc. I would be very grateful !

This seems to be typical with those ultra cheap Chinese LED lamps, had two similar but taller, same design . . . fixed them many times finally made one into spare parts and other one I replaced with resistor little bit greater than original LED, dimmed light a bit, but it don't fail any more. :D

What do you call that kind of wire cutters? I'm trying to track them down but I'm not having much luck.

Can you tell me what I would search for on Amazon or eBay to get a pair of those wire strippers??

These type of LEDs seam to have a short life. I have found a number like this that start to flicker then completely fail. Normally followed by a black mark on the dead diode. I wonder if these enclosed types over heat? I also have a number of the open (deadly types) that work without this problem. When they do work the light output is very good.

What's the voltage you used to test led?

It will be very temporary fix. I also fixed my cheap bulbs that way and another LED burned after some time. But finally I desoldered my broken bulbs for 5xLED tabs which I power with 15V from 12V via step-up converter and they work as low voltage light source in the kitchen.

Hi Clive, I got some LED potlights from Costco - One of the LED's failed within 30 seconds of startup - I'm not going to return it as it would mean I hav to return the whole housing (and I'm not going into the attic again. Did you want me to send it over? Its a a GU10 bulb. (7 watt, Crazy bright)

Had the same fault with a 220V lamp with 8 LED's in series (or really 8*3 LEDs, since it takes about 8V to light one of them, must contain 3 LEDs). Blew another one during testing, so had to short that one too.

Say, got a link for those adjustable strippers? They look quite useful!

can u help me? I have a broken led bulb. I think I want to reuse the led inside of it. but I dont know how to power it up...like how many volts it use and if it need resistor

How many volts the output of your led tester?

I am looking for a decent 50w to a 100w pir controlled LED 2700k floodlight, care to recommend a supplier .

i get a few led gu10 flickering then going dead ,would it be the capacitor or transformer?

I had 4 pretty expensive osram led bulbs, all but one have failed in 1-2 months and the fourth one has been in my room for half a year and flickers quite often. I do wonder how that even works.

I've got an LED bulb that I think has had a similar failure. I've taken it apart and there is one led that is completely missing another that the diffusing layer has fallen off. No idea what happened to the missing led and I haven't attempted to fix it yet. I'm pretty sure if i bridge the missing led it will work but I haven't had the time.

THANKS

Hello big Clive, I actually use these type of corn style bulbs at home (the 72 LED type) and just last night one of the bulbs showed some of those black spotted LED chips. Now this bulb will still light very dim but also after cutting out the power it slowly fades until it's off, I was wondering if you could examine the bulb if I could ship it to you. I very much enjoy your detailed way of exposing the different electronics!

I have one that made a snap noise then went dim.. I flicked the light switch 4 times ( each time it would take a few seconds to come on.. but very dim) 5th time it came on to it's full brightness.. I wonder what THAT was? I think I am gonna replace it.

Clive I noticed you was using the cheap soldering iron you got from eBay I did see you clip on it. Just want to know how's it going I'm thinking of trying one out. Keep up the the good work love your channel. Regards andy