Low priced leds, fast shipping

[JiminDenver]

I ordered 10 of these (no longer available from) on June 2cd and received them today. I couldn't wait for the sun to drop to test them out.



They are as bright or a bit brighter than the original bulb and the color is close. You can see the difference here but it is harder to tell at full exposure. LED panel is on right.





I installed this one first and after a half hour it wasn't hot yet



Here the panel is above the stove and the regular bulb is above the sink. The frosted plastic of the hood light is dimming the LED some.





Hopefully these last as I am really happy with the output and color. One per fixture is enough for us. I also ordered ten of these for use in some of the fixtures for dimmer lighting. (no longer available) but even though I ordered them within minutes of the panels they will get here tomorrow.

The seller I used no longer has these, here is a link to pick the 48 LED panels up for 10 for $17.99 clicky
I have purchased and tested these and they are near identical to the first panels I bought last year.
JinD

[mbopp]

I bought some sample LED panels from Ebay seller 2011_LED. I'm at work, but going from memory I tested the panels at 13.5 volts with the following results:

36-1210 warm white 220ma (.22 amps)
36-1210 bright white 220ma
24-5050 warm white 330ma
24-5050 bright white 440ma

I went with the 36-1210 warm white panels for most of the lighting. I left the 921 bulbs in the front pass-through for wider-angle lighting, I figured for the few times they're used I wasn't going to put COB lights in them.
I put the 24-5050 bright white panel in the outside light for the tongue hitch. The 24-5050 warm white panel went in the hood over the stove, and the 36-1210 bright white went in the amber porch light.

Edit - for reference, a 921 bulb draws 1.4 amps at 13.5 volts.

[BrianinMichigan]

I have been lurking on this thread. Been wanting to get some replacements for the incandescent bulbs. I could handle the light being whiter than the regular bulbs but I don't like the stark white light. On all of the threads and the ebay sights there is no mention of current draw on any of the various light assy's. Voltage drop is not an indicator of anything. That's all relative to the condition of the battery. Has anyone done a current check on their light assy's?

[JiminDenver]

So I have to report a failure both in the original panels and in the 120 LED porch light.

We had 3 miles of wash boards and rough roads to get to the site this time. I don't know if that had a effect or not but one of the panels had the solder to the cord fail and 3 of the LEDs started to blink and then went out on the 120 LED porch light. I replaced both to see if the second 120 LED unit would fail. The panel will be fine with a few seconds with a soldering iron.

Otherwise we went out for 6 days and lit the trailer up end to end every night.

[JiminDenver]

Thank you Ranger. I'm glad you found the thread useful. Thru the help of many the threads are a great resource

Were I to do it over I would probably go with cobs. More expensive but so much easier to deal with. No cleaning or sanding of the fixtures, no removing the tape if you wanted to change the panel and no melting tape issues to deal with. The tape melting may be biggest issue with higher voltages (see test linked above) so the cobs may be fine while having hook ups.

I think you will really like the 120s. They do a whole lotta lighting up for not a lot of juice.

[RangerEZ]

Excellent thread, Jim. After reading through this and the My LEDs thread, I went with the cobb style-68 SMD LEDS, linked in the other thread. I am very pleased with them. Soon, I will add some 120 lights for the outside.

I really appreciate your efforts here--others too.

[JiminDenver]

West

Pretty much any of the panels that have been on while I handled them. Interestingly enough I tried it with the panel that is on 24/7 right now and it didn't blink a bit. Later I'll test some of the other units I have both panel and cob and see what I find.
Of the 48 LED panels I have there is a noticeable difference in color with the 10 pack being a bit more yellow. Not enough to notice without comparison to the first set but I can understand what 4jeeperz said about skin color.

BTW on the panel in the 24/7 test. It was said if these panels were on 24/7 for two weeks that they would fail because they were the cheap ebay panels. I can tell you this one is still going strong and loving it's wall wart.

So maybe the higher voltage thing is more to do with just the tape melting due to the heat build up. All of the LEDs I've installed in residential homes require vented fixtures. RV fixtures are not vented and allow that heat to build up. I still think some vent holes in the lenses may help.

[westend]

tenbear wrote:

JiminDenver wrote:
one thing I noticed is if the panel is on and I'm handling it, it doesn't take much pressure or flexing to cause the emitters to go on and off. We may be damaging them not handling then carefully enough while installing.

You could be right. I can't remember seeing reports of similar failures with cob style lights. Pressing the panels onto a slightly curved surface may cause enough stress to weaken the soldered connections.

You guys may be on to something, here.:h

Thanks, Tenbear, for linking DaveSparky's test and the report on your experiments. I might try to duplicate your experiment with flexing the board.

Jim, I know you've had more than a few LED panels. Did you experience the diodes interrupting on all of the panels you flexed or just some? My theory is that not all Asian LED panels are built the same, some being less prone to failure, some more.

I haven't had the time or inclination to find out why but I have a variety of LED panels from different Asian sellers and even those with identical layout (36-->36 SMD, 48-->48 SMD) can have slightly different luminescence. Some, or all of it, may have to do with voltage drop across the TT's wiring and switches. BTW, none of my panels have failed and do a great job in the CB/Hilton.

[gatorjeff]

Recently retrofittted most of the bulbs in my Winnebago View w/LED replacements from LED4RV.com. Not cheap (many items were ~$20 ea), but seems quite competitive w/major retailers, service is GREAT (dealt w/Dan Brown on phone and email), received items within couple days (free shipping over $30 purchase). I placed a small 'trial' order first, then ordered the rest after being satisfied w/the first. Too soon to report durability but will be on road for ~6 mo shortly so will report back.

[tenbear]

JiminDenver wrote:
one thing I noticed is if the panel is on and I'm handling it, it doesn't take much pressure or flexing to cause the emitters to go on and off. We may be damaging them not handling then carefully enough while installing.

You could be right. I can't remember seeing reports of similar failures with cob style lights. Pressing the panels onto a slightly curved surface may cause enough stress to weaken the soldered connections.

[JiminDenver]

one thing I noticed is if the panel is on and I'm handling it, it doesn't take much pressure or flexing to cause the emitters to go on and off. We may be damaging them not handling then carefully enough while installing.

[tenbear]

Ok, part 2 of my little experiment.

I connected the adjacent contacts of 2 of the adjacent LEDs in the 3 LED string that was not lit, using tweezers with very sharp points. This bypassed the (assumed) wiring on the panel. The 3 LEDs came on, the same brightness as the other 33 on the panel.

Something was wrong on the panel, not the LEDs. I would guess a cold solder joint. No, I'm not going to remove the panel, peel off the sticky tape, try to re-solder the LEDs, etc.

I think this supports Dave-Sparky's work showing that the LEDs are good at higher voltages. The problem is the workmanship/quality control, and they don't need the higher voltages to fail. Probably the failures are accelerated by higher temperatures. The same failures will probably occur with regulated lights when more are being used.

JMHO

[JiminDenver]

I'm glad they are working out for you, thank you for posting. I avoid mirrors as much as possible so I didn't think of the color on skin.

Please do me a favor and report any failures. It's good to know both sides if there are any. As it is for the price I expect them to be fairly popular.

[4Jeeperz]

Thanks to JiminDenver,
We used your link and purchased 10-48led panels. We are very satisfied. The color seems a bit yellowish to us but we are completely happy. Can't go too wrong for $1.79 each shipped!
We did leave one 921 bulb in our two bulb bathroom fixture along with one new led panel, to help with the yellowish light color....kinda makes us look sickly when looking in the med cabinet mirror. I aint very good looking to begin with!
Thanks for sharing your results.

[tenbear]

I was playing around with an extra blue-white 36-1210 LED and discovered that my multimeter on the low ohms scale put out enough current to light one LED. I then used that to check the LEDs in a string of 3 that didn't work, and all three lit up. True, it wasn't at full brightness so maybe one of the LEDs fail at a higher current.

I tried to check the voltage at each LED and didn't find any across the end LED, but I was having a hard time making the measurement. I need to do a better job when I have more time.

The series resistor measured 150 ohms.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting that the 3 LEDs worked.

[tenbear]

Here is the link to DaveSparky's report.