What is with these cheap piece of shit LED lights going out after 3 years of moderate or even light use?

What is with these cheap piece of shit LED lights going out after 3 years of moderate or even light use? This is a home depot brand shop light in my laundry room that strobes out after only 3 years of use. I'd imagine well below it's 10,000 hour lifespan or whatever ridiculous number they tell us.

What is the culprit in these shitty lights that I could potentially resolder and actually get a lifetime use out of it? Nothing seems loose or corroded

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  1. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    It's always the shitty power supply that craps out on anything LED before the LED's themselves die. I'm no electronics person, but surely they could make a fricking power supply for them that lasts as long as the LED modules themselves can't they? It's so bad it is laughable.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      >What is with these cheap piece of shit LED lights going out after 3 years of moderate or even light use?
      Overdriven LEDs.
      >What is the culprit in these shitty lights that I could potentially resolder and actually get a lifetime use out of it?
      Burnt LEDs. Well, what you can do is plug it in, get some insulated gloves (because not all PSUs are galvanically isolated) and short each and every LED out with tweezers. Or look for LEDs with black spot there.
      That if they are just a string for whatever LEDs in series.
      If it is series-parallel, its much harder to find a dead LED.
      >10 000 hour
      Properly designed LED light fixture should be able to last about 50 000 - 100 000 hours until 80% light output.... But you know, they aren't even trying to achieve that because they claim 10 000 hours, which is LED lifespan under insane conditions like high current and insane temperatures.

      What does it say on the driver?

      Uhh. Nope. Rarely. Its LED itself most of the time.
      And PSU in OP-pic looks pretty good. Eh, maybe it would flicker a bit, as I don't see no capacitors on 220V (110V) side.

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        >Uhh. Nope. Rarely. Its LED itself most of the time.
        > And PSU in OP-pic looks pretty good. Eh, maybe it would flicker a bit, as I don't see no capacitors on 220V (110V) side.
        >>>
        >Anonymous 02/10/24(Sat)17:59:41 No.2756989▶

        Every single time I've pulled apart a non-working LED I find all the LED's themselves are fine. The power supply is fricked.

        • 3 months ago
          Anonymous

          * Driver not power supply or transformer a DRIVER

          • 3 months ago
            Anonymous

            >* Driver not power supply or transformer a DRIVER

            Whatever you gotta call it. The thing that powers the LEDs is fricked. The LEDs are still working if you put the proper voltage to them.

            • 3 months ago
              Anonymous

              Say Driver SAY IT

              • 3 months ago
                Anonymous

                LED power supply

              • 3 months ago
                Anonymous

                >Say Driver SAY IT

          • 3 months ago
            Anonymous

            You are wrong. It's a power supply or PSU if you are lazy.

          • 3 months ago
            Anonymous

            What's the difference between AC/DC power supply and LED driver?

        • 3 months ago
          Anonymous

          That's odd. Maybe it is 110V vs 220V thing? PSUs are slightly different design for 220V and 110V I guess?
          Anyway, heat kills PSUs too. But idk, Id imagine with dead PSU it would flicker a lot or do smth funny.

        • 3 months ago
          Bepis

          This. Last one I took apart was a blown cap. It’s that same stupid flickering, and they’re built in a way that you need to replace the whole fixture unless you want to solder in new components to the driver board.

  2. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    >home depot brand shop light
    found your problem

  3. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Buy a 50w driver on ebay for 5 bucks whiner

  4. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    That power supply looks better than expected. I figured it'd just be smps. Check the output with a meter. Get some LED strips or piranhas or something. If your supply works, you'll just have to arrange the lights on a white sheet and cover the wires.

  5. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Every single component on that board can be tested and replaced

  6. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Visual inspection of the board generally won’t tell you much unless something has failed pretty spectacularly. Do you have a meter? Trace voltages through and see what you can find. Check output voltage first, if that’s okay your LEDs might be fricked but that’s less likely in my experience. If it’s not go to supply voltage and trace it through until you figure out what’s not working right. You’ll have to do some math to calculate expected voltage drops or if you have a second working light pull the driver from that to compare, easier and faster that way

  7. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Well turns out I have no inclination to learn electronics to save 50 bucks. Hopefully the next light I buy is a better brand but in my experience all home use led brands are fricking shit

  8. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    A DRIVER is cheap 4 bucks 4 fricking wires
    2 in 2 out ….lions and tigers and wires oh my.

    • 3 months ago
      Beppu

      Are those 120VAC in?

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        Yes
        Ebay my friend. Yours is probably 5 watts or less
        Thank me later

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        I buy all my electronics straight from china
        Eliminate the middleman

        • 3 months ago
          Anonymous

          Oops

          • 3 months ago
            Anonymous

            > Case prevents dissipation
            Hence ‘stable’. To get a CE or any kind of certification you must show that for the entire outside the temperature/heat dissipation are stable and well distributed. As in something like could suddenly get very hot in one single spot that could touch some plastic and start a fire. The case is there to distribute the heat and make the outside slowly warm up instead of spiking to 250F for a few seconds

        • 3 months ago
          Anonymous

          https://i.imgur.com/8M9BJpE.png

          Oops

          >cheap chink driver board shits the bed
          >replace it with another cheap chink driver board

          • 3 months ago
            Anonymous

            Its the same stuff you buy retail Einstein.
            Only much cheaper.

            • 3 months ago
              Anonymous

              The same stuff with no testing whatsoever, no protective casing for electrical insulation and stable heat dissipation, parts that are mounted out of compliance, overcrowded pcbs, caps of questionable origin and recycled balloons to insulate the transformer. And yet people put this inside their fricking walls and hope everything will go right.

              • 3 months ago
                Anonymous

                Here you go Grandma…the one op has isnt in a case either Delmer
                Dont you have some ham radio weather broadcasts to do ?

        • 3 months ago
          Anonymous

          We don’t need that X capacitor, just backfeed the switching EMF into the line.
          At least the thing is over-rated so it will last longer though.

    • 3 months ago
      Anonymous

      https://i.imgur.com/R5z1omF.png

      I buy all my electronics straight from china
      Eliminate the middleman

      https://i.imgur.com/8M9BJpE.png

      Oops

      Imagine buying this shit while €12 gets you CE rated doubly insulated SELV that will not flicker or kill the LEDs or cause a ceiling fire and actually does 10 years.

      • 3 months ago
        Anonymous

        Cool story bro

  9. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    Use a real transformer instead of this switching power bs.

  10. 3 months ago
    Anonymous

    So heres how its going to unfold.
    OP is taking my advice and buying a led DRIVER
    from EBay.

    He will easily install said driver and be elated
    He will also thank me for saving him money.

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