Identify this emitter

ibuk

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
3
Hi,

I was hoping I might gain some advice here.

I purchased a 60 LED light bar from Aliexpress and it is marketed at '300 w' containing 60 x 5 w LEDs

Now I noticed it not as bright as one might expect 300w to be so decided to do some detective work before going back to the seller. At 12.4v it pulls 3.54A which I make circa 49w - a little bit (251) short of the stated output.

The optics are pretty good and give a nice pattern but like I say not quite what I would expect.

My question to you learned folk is do you know what the emitter is pictured in the images below? I decided to dismantle it to see if I can find out what emitter it is before going back to the seller.

Anyways.... over to you :)

Thanks so much in advance for taking the time to look.


rDqS1sy.jpg
 

ibuk

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
3
Thanks Illum

So would this equate to about 0.7w or thereabouts?

I raised the issue with the seller and this is the BS response I got!
Thanks for your purchasing.After we contacted with the facotry,we got to konw that the theoretical value is lower than the real value.On the one hand,to make sure the life of the led light bar long enought. you know that , it will greatly shorten the life the light bar when the light bar always work in the high power like.to take this in consideration, our designer reduce part of the power of the light bar.On the other hand,when the led light bar working, it will produce out a lot of heat and steamer, it need power to bypass to disperse the heat and the steamer, so that the led light bar can work well.Thanks.
We are looking forward to your reply.
0.gif
So basically admitting the design is poor!

I wonder whether I can modify it and replace with some more powerful emitters. Sending it back isn't going to be viable with the postage being about 70% of what it cost! (Incidentally it only cost 91 USD so I'm not in the slightest surprised with the spurious claims...)

I know it's difficult to tell but from the picture does it look like there is some regulation for the LEDs on there and not simply a resistor? The stated voltage is 10v - 30v so I would imagine there would have to be some regulation.

 

Steve K

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 10, 2002
Messages
2,786
Location
Peoria, IL
out of curiosity, was this light purchased from a reputable dealer and made by a known & trusted manufacturer? If so, you should be able to ask them about the discrepancy between the advertised power draw and what you measured. You might also want to ask about the soldering.... that wire looks like it was soldered by someone with minimal training.

Other than the lower power draw, how do you like the light? Would you have bought it if you knew it was a 50 watt light? If I was the marketing guy at the light manufacturer, I might say that it was a "300 watt equivalent" light.
 

ibuk

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
3
out of curiosity, was this light purchased from a reputable dealer and made by a known & trusted manufacturer

Not at all, a random Hong Kong seller on AliExpress so I was aware of the usually spurious claims of Far Eastern sellers - but they're not usually so far out of the ball park.

Other than the lower power draw, how do you like the light? Would you have bought it if you knew it was a 50 watt light? If I was the marketing guy at the light manufacturer, I might say that it was a "300 watt equivalent" light.

I wouldn't have bought it marketed as 300w equivalent. It is much dimmer than the 2 "72 w lights" either side of it which makes it noticeable hence why I measured it's power draw. It will have it's use but not at that price :)
 

Steve K

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 10, 2002
Messages
2,786
Location
Peoria, IL
I raised the issue with the seller and this is the BS response I got!
Thanks for your purchasing.After we contacted with the facotry,we got to konw that the theoretical value is lower than the real value.On the one hand,to make sure the life of the led light bar long enought. you know that , it will greatly shorten the life the light bar when the light bar always work in the high power like.to take this in consideration, our designer reduce part of the power of the light bar.On the other hand,when the led light bar working, it will produce out a lot of heat and steamer, it need power to bypass to disperse the heat and the steamer, so that the led light bar can work well.Thanks.
We are looking forward to your reply.
0.gif
So basically admitting the design is poor!

I wonder whether I can modify it and replace with some more powerful emitters. Sending it back isn't going to be viable with the postage being about 70% of what it cost! (Incidentally it only cost 91 USD so I'm not in the slightest surprised with the spurious claims...)

I know it's difficult to tell but from the picture does it look like there is some regulation for the LEDs on there and not simply a resistor? The stated voltage is 10v - 30v so I would imagine there would have to be some regulation.


I like the references to "steamer".... I suspect they were thinking of something other than the image that was produced in my mind. :)
I'd be more inclined to blame the marketing guys than the designers. Designing something to not cook itself is a reasonable objective.

Perhaps Illum has some suggestions for LEDs to replace these. I did a little poking around for 5050 package LEDs and didn't come up with much. You might have to pull one off and see what the footprint is, and then check with what the various manufacturers offer.
My guess is that they are indeed rated at 1 watt or so each. Unless they have a big thermal pad on the back, there's little chance of getting much more heat out of it.

You might want to open it up further and see what is used to control or limit the current. If it simply a series resistor (or multiple resistors), then reducing the resistance will increase the current, but also cause greater current variation as the battery voltage varies. Considering the cost, I doubt they got too fancy when designing the power supply.
 
Top