Very tacky eBay LED filament bulb 

Clive makes a good point. Peripheral vision doesn’t have high resolution, but the retinal cells there tend to be more motion sensitive. That is pretty good adaptation - it is important to be able to sense something angry is lunging at you, not so important to know exactly what it is … at least not initially. Constantly triggering the limbic system’s innate self preservation response by having flicker tantamount to unknown motion in the peripheral vision is probably unhealthy by keeping the body constantly in heightened alert state.

The image fusion rate varies between people. Some LED Xmas lights annoy me because they flicker (60 Hz here in the US) when my eye moves. I had a girlfriend who absolutely could not see the flicker and thought I was nutty. The same goes for some LED car tail lights. My old work supervisor could see even faster flicker and couldn’t stand computer monitors unless they were set to at least 70 Hz refresh.

Thanks Big Clive. Glad there's a little relief in a friendly lamp teardown and it's a cool one we haven't seen (I don't think)

I'd like to see what is inside the Tru-Tone Christmas filament LED bulbs. They're the nicest looking bulbs because they're old school painted glass.

@4:46 Avalanches in the household are usually the result of a catastrophe. My cat, named Astrophe.

Literally 90% of what you’re talking about goes over my head. But I literally watch every second of every video. Thanks for the great content sir!

You are absolutely correct about LED flickering, thanks for mentioning that. If we thot flourecent lights were bad flickering at the mains freq, LEDs are far worse if they're not filtered.

Hi Clive. Another way of opening up a lamp like that is with a controlled breaking of the glass. Here's a trick I once picked up: wrap a little cord around the bulb. Soak it in a flammable fluid and light it. When it's almost extinguished, dip the bulb in cold water. The thermal shock often makes a nice crack in the glass and it comes right off.

Big Clive, your my favourite. You have helped me so much over the years both with electric, and getting to sleep. Please never change ❤️❤️

The flickering always bothers me too. But on a side note I was having camera exposure issues when taking short exposures with all these blinky lights. Camera kept giving a flicker warning. I found a setting in there that lets the camera delay the shutter until the light is on the bright part of the cycle to take the picture. It was designed for florescent but works for led. Kind of neat that camera manufacturers have had come up with solutions for the all too common unsmoothed light.

Usually when measuring leaky cap, or one with resistor in parallel, it usually measures higher. So it may be 220n even.

These are a common shape of bulb for lamps for dining room cabinets, lamps for paintings, etc. I haven't seen this shape of bulb in LED until this video.

Hey Clive! nice tear-down! I was wondering, around UK the line frequency is 50Hs, it being fully rectified should bring up the flicker frequency to 100Hz, right? So you shouldn't be able to see that, unless the rectifier is like half broken maybe.

These LED lamps will always mean we would have a supply of "FULL WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER's" 🤣

I found the lamp cement seems to soften when you soak the lamp base in water overnight. Then the base can be pulled off with relative ease by gently squezing it all the way round using vise-grips

Bayonet easier to open as you have the pins you can pull out, giving that small edge to grab and peel the base off. Lamp itself is probably still using the old lamp making machinery, just they have disabled (or it just broke) the vacuum side of the massive carousel assembly line, with probably a half dozen workers sitting there with the formed filament bases spot welding the LEd bars on, and then placing them into the machine manually, where it runs and seals the base, before it melts off the pinch. Of course they use the old dumet feedthrough, as replacing it with something likely is going to be expensive, and that wire is not expensive at all, especially if you do not care too much about the seal being good all round, just has to hold and accept the spot weld.

The filament supports remind me a lot of the ones used in lower wattage smaller size high pressure sodium lamps.

Filtering ("smoothing") in a circuit like that is a bit of a challenge because the LED string acts rather like a zener that has a soft characteristic (rounded "knee" on the V-I curve and quite a bit of slope above the knee). There will definitely be some moderate difference between the voltage at which the LED string begins to conduct and the peak voltage across the string but it won't be huge. It would take a fairly substantial amount of capacitance to keep the valleys of the voltage high enough to keep the LED chips constantly emitting enough light to keep perceptible flicker low. Adding a resistor between the filter cap and the LEDs helps, but of course that reduces efficiency. Phosphor persistence MIGHT be a player. It would be an interesting exercise to actually measure the forward voltage swing in those LED strings in normal operation. That of course requires an appropriate line isolation transformer, an oscilloscope with "floating" input with adequate rating or a differential probe with adequate rating. Some high-end multimeters can sample and record fast enough to be useful. Measuring the voltage at which perceptible light begins to be emitted would also be interesting, but not everyone has a suitable adjustable DC power supply around. One could be cobbled together with a variac, a bridge and a filter cap. (this stuff may all be published somewhere - I haven't looked very hard) LED lamps like that can be dimmed by using an external capacitor in series. I've seen lots of more conventional LED lamps that can be dimmed in the same way. An ordinary metalized polyester film ("MKT") type is OK because even if it were to fail short circuit nothing catastrophic would happen.

Hi Clive, even though the Lamp may have a few flickers, it is still very high-tech by comparison to the 1900's Edison Lamp. Even the Cinema Lamps were carbon back then! Onto another subject. Many people who watch your channel, may like another "project". I have just bought (from Ebay), an XY - LPWM Frequency Generator, with range from 1Hz to 150kHz. It even has a digital display for presetting the frequency and Duty Cycle. So, my plan is to utilise this device in order to set the frequency at 20kHz, and (hopefully) drive a Tweeter direct from the output of the device. We have neighbours who leave their two dogs in the backyard unsupervised. Dogs just do not stop barking!! $ years ago, I made a project, and it worked well. I even used a keyfob remote / relay to turn-on from my pocket. The whole lot runs on 12VDC Solar power. For added volume to the Tweeter, I bought a single-channel Amp, placed this at the front before the Tweeter. This blew the Tweeter - too much DC component (I think). Yes, you can buy these ready-built, but this would make a great project for the many (like me) who are forced to listen to barking dogs all day. Greetings from Australia.

Putting capacitors in series - the simple way. That ingenuity always impresses me.

nice shape lamp,the glass might be nice used for some neon bulbs. great video 2x👍

I’m surprised we’ve not seen any of the Dubai LED lamps chinesiefied for the UK or has one blinked? Another cool video. ✌️👍🇬🇧

I wonder if the phosphorus layer around blue leds could dampen the flickering from the LED, in a similar way as a tungsten filament does not flicker either? That could also make them compatible with some traditional dimmers, dimming with a capacitor in series already works very nice and makes them much more efficient and long-lived. I think that build-in load resistor to make them not glow when off (with capacitive leaking switches and or wiring) is a pity, otherwise it could be a dual purpose feature; a night orientation glow against hypnagogic hallucinations with virtually no (extra) electricity consumption when turned off and a normal light bulb when turned on! A nightlight faintly glowing effect could still be achieved with these bulbs by putting a tiny capacitor over the switch just enough to get a current that offsets the load resistor inside the bulb and make the LEDs glow with an electricity consumption that still is close to none.

Opening the metal tip reminds me of those corned beef cans that had a key to wind around the can to open it. I have a 4 watt LED bulb. It's shaped more like a bulb than long. It doesn't flicker that I can sense. Interesting video!

Would've been interesting to see the difference with a small smoothing cap across the leds (along with an inrush current limiter resistor). 👍🏻😀🇬🇧

Completely agree with you about flickering in peripheral vision, Clive! Really, really annoying. Great video as ever. All the best.

I have two of these (don't know if it's the exact same "make and model", but they have the same construction, and came in the same packaging) that I bought back in 2013 to use as a bed-side reading light. I decided to get two thinking they wouldn't last long, so I had a backup, but the first one has been going strong with no signs of quitting, even after being on for almost 12h a day (as a cave dweller, I just left it on days I didn't feel like opening the shades or lighting the main fixture because it would be too bright for my mood as I went about my business in the desk close by). They're bloody reliable!

This type of lamp is really exploding in popularity. I like that thy look warm (if indeed they are)

I really like that it somewhat resembles as SON-T (High pressure sodium) lamp.

Flickering at twice mains frequency was a feature of incandescent bulbs sometimes used to stroboscopicallly check the speed of things like record players. But the natural afterglow of the hot filament subdued the effect. Another item flickering at bass frequency and distracting people is television and video screens.

Looks like the structure of a mini 70 watt HPS lamp

I've seen this filaments being used on Boylei Hobby Time as lasers and explosions, very neat use of them.

Ceramic caps not only pickup sound, they also have a voltage controlled capacity. I would expect the cap was sold as a 220n, +-20%. Don’t think they ever will come to the idea sell such a component as a 270n. 270 would be E12, which is +-10%, don’t think they use a „precision cap“.

Nice video, with a simple schematic, to watch before sleep. (It’s 7:09 in the morning here in Sweden..)

I love Big Clive, the cheeky Bob Ross of electronics teardowns.

Another interesting video! The filament LED bulbs are the most fascinating to me. When it's lit, it looks just like an incandescent light.

Hi Clive, Sad to say I didn’t understand a word. I could still listen to you all day though 😂. Mark.

Do you think you could do a project where you buy a some cheap filament bulbs and then make a DIY Dubai lamp from the parts inside them and combine the filaments to underrun them?

Thanks Clive. Could you maybe do a video which adds to the schematic to show how the flickering could be eliminated?

That might be the smallest capacitive dropper I have ever seen. Interesting bulb.

DUDE,.. THAT WAS SCARY 😬 Always hold the Glass Wearing A Glove My Friend, if you're dismantling any bulb. Or anything glass for that matter. ... safety first 🤗 Had a 400w HPS just PoP in my hand simply screwing it in years ago. It wasn't pretty. And haven't trusted a bulb since. And, a few pop since then. Just better safe than sorry 👍 🖖

That lamp reminds me of an Sodium lamp, with that thick wire going to the other end. They probably just reused some old assembly line for this, just swapped the sodium burner with LED fillaments

Have to say your videos keep my mental health from going below 50v

Oh YEAH ! You go Clive !!! *I would LOVE, to see you 'reverse engineer' an "Raspberry Pi 4"* Or any other mini PC board !

Most of the newer led's are way overdriven. Changed an osram 13w one couple days ago, took it apart, it only had 6 chips inside, so like 2.1 w per chip. No wonder it only lasted a month, two chips have burned out. On the other hand, i have a philips bulb from 2014, that is kept on almost 24/7 still works. Took the plastic diffuser off last year, becouse condensation had gotten in, and i saw it has 32 led chips inside, a 12w bulb, so around 0.26w per chip, doesn't really get hot, it will probably last another 10 years

at my previous position, we did some research, many years ago, into sensitivity to flicker/pulses, in LEDs, and there is quite a wide variation in sensitivity, something also noted in monitor studies ...

That style of lamp was usually not meant to be seen, I removed some old shelving units from the place we moved into and there were two that were hidden up at the back behind a cover, still had working incandescent bulbs of that shape!! They were probably not used frequently enough to burn out.

I’ll never get used to how ridiculous those enormous UK plugs are 😂

Is that one of them fancy exploding tantalum capacitors? How exciting.

I have NO idea why RU-vid decided to recommend your video to me, but I'm glad that it did! Nicely done video, very informative... Keep up the great work!

You should design a little circuit board for this with smoothing to stop the flickering and upgrade the lamp and put a new Edison screw base back in it. Great video as always.

I've had a few LED filament bulbs with that little circuit board, and they never got put into use because of that flicker, not nice, and yes, they were sold as "dimmable", utter tat they were... :P

Thats the lamp from the hieroglyphs that ancient aliens goes on about

Idea for safety when nibbling next to glass.... wrap the glass in the reinforced packing tape so that if it shatters, it just kinda sits there. Teardown safety ++

I love the shape of the bulb remind me the metallic table lamp my Mom and dad had in the boudoir

They sell similar ones to this in a store in Britain called ProperJob. Energizer versions are £5 also there is Maxim and Status

This was very enlightening. Your future is looking very bright.

Petition for all lamps to be supplied with a sardine can type key for easy opening.

Love the pink bulb tester

Nice video Clive thanks, they’re getting less and less in them lamps nowadays!

The inrush current problem is a REAL issue if you have a dodgy connection, the pulse may be short but if it happens100 times a second due to an arcing contact, it will execute LED lamps in very short order

Ebay must have a pink plug for your lamp test holder, surely?

theoretically 260 nF is within 20% of the more common 220 nF standard value.

Yeah that be nice if big Clive can repurpose the glass to create a triode with more to make a amplifier.

6V should not be a issue for a Joule thief with a decent amount of windings. So you could glue that lamp in a 3d printed base with a battery holder and driver for gentle night lighting.

Best way to open lamp bases is using an adjustable plumbing pipe cutter on the base

galaxy brain method for saving even more money: using the LEDs themselves as the diodes for the bridge rectifier

Ceramic dielectric constant typically has a very high temperature coefficient.

Was waiting for you to put your hand down on those out of the way glass shards... then I remembered this isn't a movie and "Chekov's Gun" doesn't apply to real life. Thankfully.

Mother Robot: Why is Grandpa sleeping at the breakfast table? Big Sister Robot: Well. He says his flickery night-light keeps him awake all night.

My god this commentary... It's wonderful

Wiping it with a piece of bread is an effective way to clean up broken glass like that.

get a mini pipe cutter, few twists and its open without finger stabbing jaggies

Avalanche Breakdown: Just like my lab 🤣

That flickering drives me absolutely *insane* when driving down the road. So many cars these days have flickery LEDs. *WHY?!* Tail lights, running lights, brake lights, so much shimmery flickering!

Have you gone back to the old Hopi? I remember you had the newer model under the AnTai brand... Coincidence or is the older Hopi still better? (just asking, because I'm currently in the market)

Great video. Would you care to take a stab at "redesign" to get rid of the flicker and/or make it dimmable?

Clive drawing PPs on his boxes.

Hi, Nice video. In the future try a very hot Heat-Gun to soften the epoxy to loosen up all the parts and pull it apart!

3 watts is not something you would use by itself to light up a room. Perhaps they intended these lamps to be used in a fixture with lots of other 3 watt lamps, like a chandler, where the combined output of all of the lamps possibly flickering un-synchronized would create a constant un-flickering light output.

FWIW, 300kΩ is a standard E24 (5%) value. Not as common as E12 values, but still pretty common.

4 component boards are more my speed (finally figured out what a dropper cap is -always thought it was an addicted capacitor)

"something that's go avalanche, that's OK" 😂

Some more thoughts on this: It MIGHT be possible to do something useful with inductive or LC filtering in a lamp like this. Apart from inductance, the characteristics of the inductor would likely be unimportant. The frequency is low so core losses related to frequency wouldn't amount to much. It would likely be quite acceptable to run the core into saturation (which takes a lot if you use a "slug" core with what amounts to a huge air gap, versus a closed path of high-permeabilty material). The low current would allow fine wire. If a decent model of the LED filaments could be found or created (NOT a simple task) some simulations with one of the free tools could be instructive. I used to use TINA from Texas Instruments. I have no idea what is around these days. On ceramic cap failures: Surface mount ceramic caps are rather fragile though superficially they seem like they should be robust chunks of ceramic. Hand soldering is perilous because of the stresses created. I'm not sure what current views are on caps on the "solder side" of mixed through-hole and SM boards where the bottom of the board is wave soldered (i.e. whole thing gets exposed to wave vs. much more sophisticated tiny solder fountains that do one through-hole pin at a time with the SM parts reflow soldered). PCB flexing, including that due to vibration, can cause cracking of MLCCs. Snapping apart V-grooved PCBs rather than using a proper separating machine can break caps near board edges. The color of the cap in the lamp suggests to me it is made with ceramic with a moderately high dielectric constant (more properly called high relative permittivity in modern parlance). The ones with really high K tend to be darker brown in my experience. Another oddity of some high-K ceramic caps is that they tend to decrease in capacitance with age due to slow changes in the ceramic. Heating the cap above some particular temperature, as might occur in reflow soldering, restores the original capacitance and the aging starts anew. I have a vague and dubious recollection that his effect may be more serious in higher voltage types. I've been away from this stuff for several years and sort of willfully forgetting about it and returning to my roots as a biologist. Johanson used to have some good ap notes on some of the more exotic types of ceramic caps. I believe they also had some good notes on PCB design for high-voltage SM caps (issues of pad design, solder mask, etc.) I hope I'm not scaring beginners in electronics, but it is true that the array of capacitor types is immense and characteristics vary widely. Selecting the optimal capacitor for any particular part of a circuit can be rather involved.

One thing I have been pondering is whether it would be possible to use the actual leds in a light AS bridge rectifiers.. That is.. If I have enough leds so the voltage drop would exceed half the main voltage in one direction in serial, and equal amount in the other direction.. LEDs aren't supposed to take that much force, but then again.. as long as both led-ramps in both directions are fully functional the strength of the current should follow the path of least resistance.. and if one doesn't expect to use the FULL intensity of the leds (so one populates the system with a few more than needed to fit mathematical exactness) one should also limit the risk of them breaking due to spikes on the mains.. I doubt it would be a light that would have much use, but.. I always ponder the question.. "can it be done?" (viability) before I ponder whether it would be too flickery or something else, because there will probably be SOME situation where it's better to get ANYTHING going than to get something "good enough" going.

Nice vid as ever sir . I picked up someting intresting yeserday . Don't know if you have Seen the New neon led style roof tile lights . Several diffrent designs to choose from and look quite cool .

BC, I love your teardowns with great awe. But could you please, pretty please, focus a few inches/cm's up from the surface when doing zoom in work? 🙏☺ thanks muchly.

That lamp looks suspiciously like one of those HPS lamps, but with LEDs instaed of a HPS discharge tube. I live in the US so 60 Hz mains. My eyes (or brain?) are sensitive enough to flicker that those cheap LED fairy lights and cheap LED lamps (like this one) continuously bother me. I'd probably try that smoothing cap trick.

4:15 Those ceramic caps are probably +5%/-5% parts, so 260nF is in specs of a 270nF cap.

Put a capacitor in parallel with the load to dampen the output voltage should eliminate the flicker.

These should be called fight or flight lamps. Anxiety lamps. Paranoia lamps😂.

...looks like it came straight off the production line for low-watt high pressure sodium lamps. I wonder whether they filled the globe with nitrogen to aid cooling the LEDs...

I hope you picked up and disposed all the metal shards Clive, the thought of standing on one of those is worse than Lego 😵

lovely old chap

Maybe the flicker isn’t so bad where they have 60 hz power.

470nf is a very precise guess

Once again, Clive risking self-laceration so we do not have to.

Love to see what this would look like at 120 V.

I have wondered why they don't make that leakage glow switchable and advertise it as a night light feature. I've recently noticed that an led USB flashlight seems to have this glow when plugged in even though the power bank is switched off.

I've got some filament lamps with E12 bases in my bathroom that flicker badly (causing an interesting strobe effect with streams of water). Presumably they couldn't fit much more than that in those little bases.