What kind of light bulbs are best to install at home? Threaded base E

Due to low energy consumption, theoretical durability and lower prices, incandescent and energy-saving lamps are rapidly replacing them. But, despite the declared service life of up to 25 years, they often burn out without even serving the warranty period.

Unlike incandescent lamps, 90% of burnt-out LED lamps can be successfully repaired with your own hands, even without special training. The examples presented will help you repair failed LED bulbs.

Before you start repairing an LED lamp, you need to understand its structure. Regardless appearance and the type of LEDs used, all LED lamps, including filament bulbs, are designed the same. If you remove the walls of the lamp housing, you can see the driver inside, which is a printed circuit board with radio elements installed on it.

Any LED lamp is designed and works as follows. The supply voltage from the contacts of the electric cartridge is supplied to the terminals of the base. Two wires are soldered to it, through which voltage is supplied to the driver input. From the driver supply voltage direct current supplied to the board on which the LEDs are soldered.

The driver is an electronic unit - a current generator that converts the supply voltage into the current required to light the LEDs.

Sometimes, to diffuse light or protect against human contact with unprotected conductors of a board with LEDs, it is covered with diffusing protective glass.

About filament lamps

In appearance, a filament lamp is similar to an incandescent lamp. The design of filament lamps differs from LED lamps in that they do not use a board with LEDs as light emitters, but a sealed glass flask filled with gas, in which one or more filament rods are placed. The driver is located in the base.

The filament rod is a glass or sapphire tube with a diameter of about 2 mm and a length of about 30 mm, on which 28 miniature LEDs coated in series with a phosphor are attached and connected. One filament consumes about 1 W of power. My operating experience shows that filament lamps are much more reliable than those made on the basis of SMD LEDs. I believe that over time they will replace all other artificial light sources.

Examples of LED lamp repairs

Attention, the electrical circuits of LED lamp drivers are galvanically connected to the phase of the electrical network and therefore care should be taken. Touching bare parts of the circuit connected to electrical network may cause electric shock.

LED lamp repair
ASD LED-A60, 11 W on SM2082 chip

Currently there are powerful led light bulbs, the drivers of which are assembled on SM2082 type chips. One of them worked for less than a year and ended up being repaired. The light went out randomly and came on again. When you tapped it, it responded with light or extinguishing. It became obvious that the problem was poor contact.

To get to the electronic part of the lamp, you need to use a knife to pick up the diffuser glass at the point of contact with the body. Sometimes it is difficult to separate the glass, since when it is seated, silicone is applied to the fixing ring.

After removing the light-scattering glass, access to the LEDs and the SM2082 current generator microcircuit became available. In this lamp, one part of the driver was mounted on an aluminum LED printed circuit board, and the second on a separate one.

An external inspection did not reveal any defective soldering or broken tracks. I had to remove the board with LEDs. To do this, the silicone was first cut off and the board was pryed off by the edge with a screwdriver blade.

To get to the driver located in the lamp body, I had to unsolder it by heating two contacts with a soldering iron at the same time and moving it to the right.

On one side of the driver circuit board, only an electrolytic capacitor with a capacity of 6.8 μF for a voltage of 400 V was installed.

On the reverse side of the driver board, a diode bridge and two series-connected resistors with a nominal value of 510 kOhm were installed.

In order to figure out which of the boards the contact was missing, we had to connect them, observing the polarity, using two wires. After tapping the boards with the handle of a screwdriver, it became obvious that the fault lies in the board with the capacitor or in the contacts of the wires coming from the base of the LED lamp.

Since the soldering did not raise any suspicions, I first checked the reliability of the contact in the central terminal of the base. It can be easily removed if you pry it over the edge with a knife blade. But the contact was reliable. Just in case, I tinned the wire with solder.

It is difficult to remove the screw part of the base, so I decided to use a soldering iron to solder the soldering wires coming from the base. When I touched one of the soldering joints, the wire became exposed. A “cold” solder was detected. Since there was no way to get to the wire to strip it, I had to lubricate it with FIM active flux and then solder it again.

Once assembled, the LED lamp consistently emitted light despite being hit with the handle of a screwdriver. Checking the light flux for pulsations showed that they are significant with a frequency of 100 Hz. Such an LED lamp can only be installed in luminaires for general lighting.

Driver circuit diagram
LED lamp ASD LED-A60 on SM2082 chip

The electrical circuit of the ASD LED-A60 lamp, thanks to the use of a specialized SM2082 microcircuit in the driver to stabilize the current, turned out to be quite simple.

The driver circuit works as follows. Supply voltage alternating current through fuse F it is supplied to a rectifying diode bridge assembled on an MB6S microassembly. Electrolytic capacitor C1 smoothes out ripples, and R1 serves to discharge it when the power is turned off.

From the positive terminal of the capacitor, the supply voltage is supplied directly to the LEDs connected in series. From the output of the last LED, the voltage is supplied to the input (pin 1) of the SM2082 microcircuit, the current in the microcircuit is stabilized and then from its output (pin 2) goes to the negative terminal of capacitor C1.

Resistor R2 sets the amount of current flowing through the HL LEDs. The amount of current is inversely proportional to its rating. If the value of the resistor is decreased, the current will increase; if the value is increased, the current will decrease. The SM2082 microcircuit allows you to adjust the current value with a resistor from 5 to 60 mA.

LED lamp repair
ASD LED-A60, 11 W, 220 V, E27

Another ASD LED-A60 LED lamp was repaired, similar in appearance and with the same technical characteristics, as above, renovated.

When turned on, the lamp came on for a moment and then did not shine. This behavior of LED lamps is usually associated with a driver failure. So I immediately started disassembling the lamp.

The light-diffusing glass was removed with great difficulty, since along the entire line of contact with the body it was, despite the presence of a retainer, generously lubricated with silicone. To separate the glass, I had to look for a pliable place along the entire line of contact with the body using a knife, but still there was a crack in the body.

To gain access to the lamp driver, the next step was to remove the LED printed circuit board, which was pressed along the contour into the aluminum insert. Despite the fact that the board was aluminum and could be removed without fear of cracks, all attempts were unsuccessful. The board held tight.

It was also not possible to remove the board together with the aluminum insert, since it fit tightly to the case and was seated with the outer surface on silicone.

I decided to try removing the driver board from the base side. To do this, first, a knife was pryed out of the base and the central contact was removed. To remove the threaded part of the base, it was necessary to slightly bend its upper flange so that the core points would disengage from the base.

The driver became accessible and was freely extended to a certain position, but it was not possible to remove it completely, although the conductors from the LED board were sealed off.

The LED board had a hole in the center. I decided to try to remove the driver board by hitting its end through a metal rod threaded through this hole. The board moved a few centimeters and hit something. After further blows, the lamp body cracked along the ring and the board with the base of the base separated.

As it turned out, the board had an extension whose shoulders rested against the lamp body. It looks like the board was shaped this way to limit movement, although it would have been enough to fix it with a drop of silicone. Then the driver would be removed from either side of the lamp.

The 220 V voltage from the lamp base is supplied through a resistor - fuse FU to the MB6F rectifier bridge and is then smoothed out by an electrolytic capacitor. Next, the voltage is supplied to the SIC9553 chip, which stabilizes the current. Parallel connected resistors R20 and R80 between pins 1 and 8 MS set the amount of LED supply current.

The photo shows a typical electrical circuit diagram, given by the manufacturer of the SIC9553 chip in the Chinese datasheet.

This photo shows the appearance of the LED lamp driver from the installation side of the output elements. Since space allowed, to reduce the pulsation coefficient of the light flux, the capacitor at the driver output was soldered to 6.8 μF instead of 4.7 μF.

If you have to remove the drivers from the body of this lamp model and cannot remove the LED board, you can use a jigsaw to cut the lamp body around the circumference just above the screw part of the base.

In the end, all my efforts to remove the driver turned out to be useful only for understanding the LED lamp structure. The driver turned out to be OK.

The flash of the LEDs at the moment of switching on was caused by a breakdown in the crystal of one of them as a result of a voltage surge when the driver was started, which misled me. It was necessary to ring the LEDs first.

An attempt to test the LEDs with a multimeter was unsuccessful. The LEDs did not light up. It turned out that two light-emitting crystals connected in series are installed in one case, and in order for the LED to start flowing current, it is necessary to apply a voltage of 8 V to it.

A multimeter or tester turned on in resistance measurement mode produces a voltage within 3-4 V. I had to check the LEDs using a power supply, supplying 12 V to each LED through a 1 kOhm current-limiting resistor.

There was no replacement LED available, so the pads were shorted with a drop of solder instead. This is safe for driver operation, and the power of the LED lamp will decrease by only 0.7 W, which is almost imperceptible.

After repairing the electrical part of the LED lamp, the cracked body was glued together with quick-drying “Moment” superglue, the seams were smoothed by melting the plastic with a soldering iron and smoothed with sandpaper.

Just for fun, I did some measurements and calculations. The current flowing through the LEDs was 58 mA, the voltage was 8 V. Therefore, the power supplied to one LED was 0.46 W. With 16 LEDs, the result is 7.36 W, instead of the declared 11 W. Perhaps the manufacturer has indicated the total power consumption of the lamp, taking into account losses in the driver.

The service life of the ASD LED-A60, 11 W, 220 V, E27 LED lamp declared by the manufacturer raises serious doubts in my mind. In the small volume of the plastic lamp body, with low thermal conductivity, significant power is released - 11 W. As a result, the LEDs and driver operate at the maximum permissible temperature, which leads to accelerated degradation of their crystals and, as a consequence, to a sharp reduction in their time between failures.

LED lamp repair
LED smd B35 827 ERA, 7 W on BP2831A chip

An acquaintance shared with me that he bought five light bulbs like in the photo below, and after a month they all stopped working. He managed to throw away three of them, and, at my request, brought two for repairs.

The light bulb worked, but instead of bright light it emitted a flickering weak light with a frequency of several times per second. I immediately assumed that the electrolytic capacitor had swollen; usually, if it fails, the lamp begins to emit light like a strobe.

The light-scattering glass came off easily and was not glued. It was fixed by a slot on its rim and a protrusion in the lamp body.

The driver was secured using two solders to a printed circuit board with LEDs, as in one of the lamps described above.

A typical driver circuit on the BP2831A chip taken from the datasheet is shown in the photograph. The driver board was removed and all simple radio elements were checked; they all turned out to be in good order. I had to start checking the LEDs.

The LEDs in the lamp were installed of an unknown type with two crystals in the housing and inspection did not reveal any defects. By connecting the leads of each LED in series, I quickly identified the faulty one and replaced it with a drop of solder, as in the photo.

The light bulb worked for a week and was repaired again. Shorted the next LED. A week later I had to short-circuit another LED, and after the fourth I threw out the light bulb because I was tired of repairing it.

Reason for light bulb failure similar design obvious. LEDs overheat due to insufficient heat sink surface, and their service life is reduced to hundreds of hours.

Why is it permissible to short-circuit the terminals of burnt-out LEDs in LED lamps?

LED lamp driver, as opposed to power supply DC voltage, the output produces a stabilized current value, not voltage. Therefore, regardless of the load resistance within the specified limits, the current will always be constant and, therefore, the voltage drop across each of the LEDs will remain the same.

Therefore, as the number of series-connected LEDs in the circuit decreases, the voltage at the driver output will also decrease proportionally.

For example, if 50 LEDs are connected in series to the driver, and each of them drops a voltage of 3 V, then the voltage at the driver output is 150 V, and if you short-circuit 5 of them, the voltage will drop to 135 V, and the current will not change.

But the coefficient useful action(Efficiency) of a driver assembled according to this scheme will be low and power losses will be more than 50%. For example, for an LED light bulb MR-16-2835-F27 you will need a 6.1 kOhm resistor with a power of 4 watts. It turns out that the driver on the resistor will consume power exceeding the power consumption of the LEDs and it will be placed in a small case LED lamps, due to allocation more heat will be unacceptable.

But if there is no other way to repair an LED lamp and it is very necessary, then the resistor driver can be placed in a separate housing; anyway, the power consumption of such an LED lamp will be four times less than incandescent lamps. It should be noted that the more LEDs connected in series in a light bulb, the higher the efficiency will be. With 80 series-connected SMD3528 LEDs, you will need an 800 Ohm resistor with a power of only 0.5 W. The capacitance of capacitor C1 will need to be increased to 4.7 µF.

Finding faulty LEDs

After removing the protective glass, it becomes possible to check the LEDs without peeling off the printed circuit board. First of all, a careful inspection of each LED is carried out. If even the smallest black dot is detected, not to mention blackening of the entire surface of the LED, then it is definitely faulty.

When inspecting the appearance of the LEDs, you need to carefully examine the quality of the soldering of their terminals. One of the light bulbs being repaired turned out to have four LEDs that were poorly soldered.

The photo shows a light bulb that had very small black dots on its four LEDs. I immediately marked the faulty LEDs with crosses so that they were clearly visible.

Faulty LEDs may not have any changes in appearance. Therefore, it is necessary to check each LED with a multimeter or pointer tester turned on in resistance measurement mode.

There are LED lamps in which standard LEDs are installed in appearance, in the housing of which two crystals connected in series are mounted at once. For example, lamps of the ASD LED-A60 series. To test such LEDs, it is necessary to apply a voltage of more than 6 V to its terminals, and any multimeter produces no more than 4 V. Therefore, checking such LEDs can only be done by applying a voltage of more than 6 (recommended 9-12) V to them from the power source through a 1 kOhm resistor .

The LED is checked like a regular diode; in one direction the resistance should be equal to tens of megaohms, and if you swap the probes (this changes the polarity of the voltage supply to the LED), then it should be small, and the LED may glow dimly.

When checking and replacing LEDs, the lamp must be fixed. To do this, you can use a suitable sized round jar.

You can check the serviceability of the LED without an additional DC source. But this verification method is possible if the light bulb driver is working properly. To do this, it is necessary to apply supply voltage to the base of the LED light bulb and short-circuit the terminals of each LED in series with each other using a wire jumper or, for example, the jaws of metal tweezers.

If suddenly all the LEDs light up, it means that the shorted one is definitely faulty. This method is suitable if only one LED in the circuit is faulty. With this method of checking, it is necessary to take into account that if the driver does not provide galvanic isolation from the electrical network, as for example in the diagrams above, then touching the LED solders with your hand is unsafe.

If one or even several LEDs turn out to be faulty and there is nothing to replace them with, then you can simply short-circuit the contact pads to which the LEDs were soldered. The light bulb will work with the same success, only the luminous flux will decrease slightly.

Other malfunctions of LED lamps

If checking the LEDs showed their serviceability, then the reason for the light bulb’s inoperability lies in the driver or in the soldering areas of the current-carrying conductors.

For example, in this light bulb a cold solder connection was found on the conductor supplying power to the printed circuit board. The soot released due to poor soldering even settled on the conductive paths of the printed circuit board. The soot was easily removed by wiping with a rag soaked in alcohol. The wire was soldered, stripped, tinned and re-soldered into the board. I was lucky with the repair of this light bulb.

Of the ten failed bulbs, only one had a faulty driver and a broken diode bridge. The driver repair consisted of replacing the diode bridge with four IN4007 diodes, designed for a reverse voltage of 1000 V and a current of 1 A.

Soldering SMD LEDs

To replace a faulty LED, it must be desoldered without damaging the printed conductors. You also need to remove the replacement LED from the donor board without damaging it.

Desolder SMD LEDs with a simple soldering iron, without damaging their body, it is almost impossible. But if you use a special tip for a soldering iron or put an attachment made of copper wire on a standard tip, then the problem can be easily solved.

LEDs have polarity and when replacing, you need to install it correctly on the printed circuit board. Typically, printed conductors follow the shape of the leads on the LED. Therefore, a mistake can only be made if you are inattentive. To seal an LED, it is enough to install it on a printed circuit board and heat its ends with the contact pads with a 10-15 W soldering iron.

If the LED burns out like carbon, and the printed circuit board underneath is charred, then before installing a new LED, you must clean this area of ​​the printed circuit board from burning, since it is a current conductor. When cleaning, you may find that the LED solder pads are burnt or peeled off.

In this case, the LED can be installed by soldering it to adjacent LEDs if the printed traces lead to them. To do this, you can take a piece of thin wire, bend it in half or three times, depending on the distance between the LEDs, tin it and solder it to them.

Repair of LED lamp series "LL-CORN" (corn lamp)
E27 4.6W 36x5050SMD

The design of the lamp, which is popularly called a corn lamp, shown in the photo below is different from the lamp described above, therefore the repair technology is different.

The design of LED SMD lamps of this type is very convenient for repair, since there is access to test the LEDs and replace them without disassembling the lamp body. True, I still disassembled the light bulb for fun in order to study its structure.

Checking the LEDs of an LED corn lamp is no different from the technology described above, but it must be taken into account that the SMD5050 LED housing contains three LEDs at once, usually connected in parallel (three dark dots of the crystals are visible on the yellow circle), and during testing all three should glow.

A faulty LED can be replaced with a new one or short-circuited with a jumper. This will not affect the reliability of the lamp, only the luminous flux will decrease slightly, unnoticeably to the eye.

The driver for this lamp is assembled using the simplest scheme, without an isolating transformer, so touching the LED terminals when the lamp is on is unacceptable. Lamps of this design must not be installed in lamps that can be reached by children.

If all the LEDs are working, it means the driver is faulty, and the lamp will have to be disassembled to get to it.

To do this, you need to remove the rim from the side opposite the base. Using a small screwdriver or a knife blade, try in a circle to find weakness, where the rim is worst glued. If the rim gives way, then using the tool as a lever, the rim will easily come off around the entire perimeter.

The driver was compiled using electrical diagram, like the MR-16 lamp, only C1 had a capacity of 1 µF, and C2 - 4.7 µF. Due to the fact that the wires going from the driver to the lamp base were long, the driver was easily removed from the lamp body. After studying its circuit diagram, the driver was inserted back into the housing, and the bezel was glued into place with transparent Moment glue. The failed LED was replaced with a working one.

Repair of LED lamp "LL-CORN" (corn lamp)
E27 12W 80x5050SMD

When repairing a more powerful lamp, 12 W, there were no failed LEDs of the same design and in order to get to the drivers, we had to open the lamp using the technology described above.

This lamp gave me a surprise. The wires leading from the driver to the socket were short, and it was impossible to remove the driver from the lamp body for repair. I had to remove the base.

The lamp base was made of aluminum, cored around the circumference and held tightly. I had to drill out the mounting points with a 1.5 mm drill. After this, the base, pryed off with a knife, was easily removed.

But you can do without drilling the base if you use the edge of a knife to pry it around the circumference and slightly bend its upper edge. You should first put a mark on the base and body so that the base can be conveniently installed in place. To securely fasten the base after repairing the lamp, it will be enough to put it on the lamp body in such a way that the punched points on the base fall into the old places. Next, press these points with a sharp object.

Two wires were connected to the thread with a clamp, and the other two were pressed into the central contact of the base. I had to cut these wires.

As expected, there were two identical drivers, feeding 43 diodes each. They were covered with heat shrink tubing and taped together. In order for the driver to be placed back into the tube, I usually carefully cut it along the printed circuit board from the side where the parts are installed.

After repair, the driver is wrapped in a tube, which is fixed with a plastic tie or wrapped with several turns of thread.

In the electrical circuit of the driver of this lamp, protection elements are already installed, C1 for protection against pulse surges and R2, R3 for protection against current surges. When checking the elements, resistors R2 were immediately found to be open on both drivers. It appears that the LED lamp was supplied with a voltage that exceeded the permissible voltage. After replacing the resistors, I didn’t have a 10 ohm one at hand, so I set it to 5.1 ohms, and the lamp started working.

Repair of LED lamp series "LLB" LR-EW5N-5

The appearance of this type of light bulb inspires confidence. Aluminum body, high quality workmanship, beautiful design.

The design of the light bulb is such that disassembling it without the use of significant physical effort is impossible. Since the repair of any LED lamp begins with checking the serviceability of the LEDs, the first thing we had to do was remove the plastic protective glass.

The glass was fixed without glue on a groove made in the radiator with a collar inside it. To remove the glass, you need to use the end of a screwdriver, which will go between the fins of the radiator, to lean on the end of the radiator and, like a lever, lift the glass up.

Checking the LEDs with a tester showed that they are working properly, therefore, the driver is faulty and we need to get to it. The aluminum board was secured with four screws, which I unscrewed.

But contrary to expectations, behind the board there was a radiator plane, lubricated with heat-conducting paste. The board had to be returned to its place and the lamp continued to be disassembled from the base side.

Due to the fact that the plastic part to which the radiator was attached was held very tightly, I decided to go the proven route, remove the base and remove the driver through the opened hole for repair. I drilled out the core points, but the base was not removed. It turned out that it was still attached to the plastic due to the threaded connection.

I had to separate the plastic adapter from the radiator. It held up just like the protective glass. To do this, a cut was made with a hacksaw for metal at the junction of the plastic with the radiator and by turning a screwdriver with a wide blade, the parts were separated from each other.

After unsoldering the leads from the LED printed circuit board, the driver became available for repair. The driver circuit turned out to be more complex than previous light bulbs, with an isolation transformer and a microcircuit. One of electrolytic capacitors 400 V 4.7 µF was swollen. I had to replace it.

A check of all semiconductor elements revealed a faulty Schottky diode D4 (pictured below left). There was an SS110 Schottky diode on the board, which was replaced with an existing analog 10 BQ100 (100 V, 1 A). The forward resistance of Schottky diodes is two times less than that of ordinary diodes. The LED light came on. The second light bulb had the same problem.

Repair of LED lamp series "LLB" LR-EW5N-3

This LED lamp is very similar in appearance to the "LLB" LR-EW5N-5, but its design is slightly different.

If you look closely, you can see that at the junction between the aluminum radiator and the spherical glass, unlike the LR-EW5N-5, there is a ring in which the glass is secured. To remove the protective glass, use a small screwdriver to pry it at the junction with the ring.

Three nine crystal super-bright LEDs are installed on an aluminum printed circuit board. The board is screwed to the heatsink with three screws. Checking the LEDs showed their serviceability. Therefore, the driver needs to be repaired. Having experience in repairing a similar LED lamp "LLB" LR-EW5N-5, I did not unscrew the screws, but unsoldered the current-carrying wires coming from the driver and continued disassembling the lamp from the base side.

The plastic connecting ring between the base and the radiator was removed with great difficulty. At the same time, part of it broke off. As it turned out, it was screwed to the radiator with three self-tapping screws. The driver was easily removed from the lamp body.

The screws that fasten the plastic ring of the base are covered by the driver, and it is difficult to see them, but they are on the same axis with the thread to which the transition part of the radiator is screwed. Therefore, you can reach them with a thin Phillips screwdriver.

The driver turned out to be assembled according to a transformer circuit. Checking all elements except the microcircuit did not reveal any failures. Consequently, the microcircuit is faulty; I couldn’t even find a mention of its type on the Internet. The LED light bulb could not be repaired; it will be useful for spare parts. But I studied its structure.

Repair of LED lamp series "LL" GU10-3W

At first glance, it turned out to be impossible to disassemble a burnt-out GU10-3W LED light bulb with protective glass. An attempt to remove the glass resulted in its chipping. When great force was applied, the glass cracked.

By the way, in the lamp marking the letter G means that the lamp has a pin base, the letter U means that the lamp belongs to the class energy saving light bulbs, and the number 10 is the distance between the pins in millimeters.

LED light bulbs with a GU10 base have special pins and are installed in a socket with a rotation. Thanks to the expanding pins, the LED lamp is pinched in the socket and held securely even when shaking.

In order to disassemble this LED light bulb, I had to drill a hole with a diameter of 2.5 mm in its aluminum case at the level of the surface of the printed circuit board. The drilling location must be chosen in such a way that the drill does not damage the LED when exiting. If you don’t have a drill at hand, you can make a hole with a thick awl.

Next, a small screwdriver is inserted into the hole and, acting like a lever, the glass is lifted. I removed the glass from two light bulbs without any problems. If checking the LEDs with a tester shows their serviceability, then the printed circuit board is removed.

After separating the board from the lamp body, it immediately became obvious that the current-limiting resistors had burned out in both one and the other lamp. The calculator determined their nominal value from the stripes, 160 Ohms. Since the resistors burned out in LED bulbs of different batches, it is obvious that their power, judging by the size of 0.25 W, does not correspond to the power released when the driver operates at the maximum ambient temperature.

The driver circuit board was well filled with silicone, and I did not disconnect it from the board with the LEDs. I cut off the leads of the burnt resistors at the base and soldered them to more powerful resistors that were on hand. In one lamp I soldered a 150 Ohm resistor with a power of 1 W, in the second two in parallel with 320 Ohms with a power of 0.5 W.

In order to prevent accidental contact with the terminal of the resistor to which it fits mains voltage with a metal lamp body, it was insulated with a drop of hot melt glue. It is waterproof and an excellent insulator. I often use it to seal, insulate and secure electrical wires and other parts.

Hot melt adhesive is available in the form of rods with a diameter of 7, 12, 15 and 24 mm in different colors, from transparent to black. It melts, depending on the brand, at a temperature of 80-150°, which allows it to be melted using electric soldering iron. It is enough to cut off a piece of the rod, place it in in the right place and heat. Hot-melt glue will acquire the consistency of May honey. After cooling it becomes hard again. When reheated it becomes liquid again.

After replacing the resistors, the functionality of both bulbs was restored. All that remains is to secure the printed circuit board and protective glass in the lamp body.

When repairing LED lamps, I used liquid nails “Mounting” to secure printed circuit boards and plastic parts. The glue is odorless, adheres well to the surfaces of any materials, remains plastic after drying, and has sufficient heat resistance.

It is enough to take a small amount of glue on the end of a screwdriver and apply it to the places where the parts come into contact. After 15 minutes the glue will already hold.

When gluing the printed circuit board, in order not to wait, holding the board in place, since the wires were pushing it out, I additionally fixed the board at several points using hot glue.

The LED lamp began to flash like a strobe light

I had to repair a couple of LED lamps with drivers assembled on a microcircuit, the malfunction of which was the light blinking at a frequency of about one hertz, like in a strobe light.

One instance of the LED lamp began to blink immediately after being turned on for the first few seconds and then the lamp began to shine normally. Over time, the duration of the lamp's blinking after switching on began to increase, and the lamp began to blink continuously. The second instance of the LED lamp suddenly began blinking continuously.

After disassembling the lamps, it turned out that the electrolytic capacitors installed immediately after the rectifier bridges in the drivers had failed. It was easy to determine the malfunction, since the capacitor housings were swollen. But even if the capacitor looks free of external defects in appearance, then the repair of an LED light bulb with a stroboscopic effect must still begin with its replacement.

After replacing the electrolytic capacitors with working ones, the stroboscopic effect disappeared and the lamps began to shine normally.

Online calculators for determining resistor values
by color marking

When repairing LED lamps, it becomes necessary to determine the resistor value. According to the standard, modern resistors are marked by applying colored rings to their bodies. 4 colored rings are applied to simple resistors, and 5 to high-precision resistors.

Any lighting device is incomplete without lamps. Nowadays there are many light bulbs with different characteristics available in stores. For some, the advantage is efficiency, for others - the brightness of the lighting.

Lamps should be selected based on their individual characteristics and your needs.

Energy saving

These are new generation lamps, they do not contain mercury vapor, are compact, have a long service life (8-12 thousand hours), have an electromagnetic interference suppression system and provide flicker-free light.

LED

Very economical (consume 12 times less electricity than incandescent lamps), they have a record long service life (up to 50 thousand hours). Manufacturers provide a warranty for these lamps for up to three to five years. Products may have different shapes and colors.

Incandescent

The glow of this lamp (known in our country as the Ilyich lamp) is ensured by heating the tungsten filament. Incandescent lamps are the most common in Russia and the CIS countries; they are used mainly for outdoor, local and general lighting in everyday life. They come in different capacities and have a transparent or frosted flask.

Halogen

The light from such lamps is pleasant to the eye and safe for vision. They are used in offices, production, etc. These products are relatively economical, have excellent color rendering, and are characterized by a high level of ultraviolet radiation.

When choosing lighting intensity, you need to pay attention to all the characteristics of the lamps you buy, and not just their power. This is the only way to ensure optimal light for any room.

The idea of ​​switching to LED (in common parlance - “ice”, from the abbreviation LED, Light Emitting Diode) lamps for home use are gradually winning the minds of consumers. The process, it should be noted, is proceeding at a decent speed - the era of brutal prices is already behind us, the price gap between LED and energy-saving lamps has today narrowed to an acceptable level. Maybe it's time?

Sylvania LED lamps

Quite a lot has been written about the advantages of such lamps; at 3DNews we already examined all the main technical aspects of these complex electronic devices. There are so many things that LED lamps can’t count as advantages: and almost eternal work(up to 50,000 hours), and environmental friendliness, and energy consumption tending to zero... only they don’t brew coffee.

The most interesting thing is that almost all of this is indeed true, but with some reservations and point by point. However, when listing the advantages, it is customary to diligently hush up the disadvantages, which, unfortunately, even such super-wonderful lamps have.

⇡ Cons

For example, service life. 50 thousand hours is an ideal, which is currently unattainable, at least because no one can practically confirm whether the lamps of a particular brand and series of the manufacturer of today will really burn continuously for almost six years without switching off.

Next is the color spectrum of the glow. Unfortunately, not all manufacturers can really provide honest “warm” light with a temperature of about 2700-3000K. As a result, you can buy both 6000-kelvin monsters with an unearthly dazzling white light that fades to blue, and lamps that give a dull yellow light. Not warm, but bright yellow. Many Chinese manufacturers are guilty of this today, but we’ll get to that today.

GU10 form factor spotlight

As for the form factors and overall appearance of LED lamps, they are produced for all the most common sockets: E27, E14, GU10 and MR16. Moreover, there are options with a light-scattering bulb, and simply with “bare” LEDs on the top of the head, and even unusual-looking “corn lamps”. Here it’s a matter of taste and area of ​​application: if the lamp is hidden by decorative lampshades or just covers, even a simpler option with open LEDs will do. For chandeliers, the choice with bulbs and reflectors looks more decent.

And here is the notorious “corn lamp”

The disadvantage of lamps with a flat surface is that the angle of diffused light is not wide enough, generally no more than 120 degrees. They are usually intended for spot lighting (for example, in the bathroom) to replace traditional halogen lamps. Lamps with a bulb are generally free from this drawback, and even manufacturers of simple “LEDs” have already realized this, which now gives new lamps the appearance of a traditional incandescent lamp. Which, by the way, cannot be said about energy-saving lamps - they are compact fluorescent lamps(CFL) which still look like ugly spirals.

⇡ Pros

The advantages of LED lamps are numerous, significant and obvious. Firstly, low electricity consumption: the average power of an LED lamp is from 1 to 7 W. Secondly, an even luminous flux and full power from the very first second (no need to wait several minutes for the lamp to warm up, unlike many CFLs). Thirdly, and importantly, unlike CFLs, LED lamps are much more environmentally friendly: if such a lamp is dropped and broken, you will not have to worry about toxic fumes of dangerous chemicals, as in the case of an old lamp.

When choosing LED lamps, you also need to pay attention to the aperture ratio, expressed in lumens. Most lamps provide an average of no more than 250-400 lumens, and this is only sufficient if a small room is illuminated without pretensions to the quality of lighting in every corner, for example, table lighting or a toilet (though in the latter case excluding lovers of self-education in this cozy office). In old Russian kitchens you can also still see antediluvian single-arm lamps: away with them! If the chandelier has 3-6 arms, this issue can be safely ignored.

Externally, this OSRAM LED lamp is distinguished by the absence of a radiator

In terms of reliability, alas, everything is still about the same as with energy saving lamps: in theory, tens of thousands of hours, but in practice everything directly depends on the crookedness of the assembly, on the quality of the original components and, in total, on the integrity of the manufacturer. In other words, it will have to be checked in practice.

Don't be surprised if one lamp lasts a long time, but another from the same batch fails within a few weeks. Therefore, it is with such lamps that the notorious warranty comes to the fore: when purchasing, make sure that the free replacement under warranty of a failed lamp is at least a year. Even better - three or more, but this is for serious brands like OSRAM or Philips.

⇡ Brands and “China”

At the dawn of the popularity of LED lamps (and the dawn was only one and a half to two years ago), inexpensive “seven-buck” light bulbs in Chinese online stores like Banggood or DX.com were in great demand, since in ordinary “offline” stores they cost 2 -4 times more expensive, and that’s at least.

Any Chinese online store will offer a variety of corn

But it’s not for nothing that they say that the miser pays twice: these are the Chinese light bulbs, unfortunately, from good quality did not suffer, and failed (and continue to fail) even earlier than other energy-saving ones. They could go out in a month or six months. And there are a lot of problems - complete chaos in the quality of light, complete unpredictability of the color temperature of light even in one batch. You could easily have been sent “cold” instead of the “warm white” you ordered, and the headache over replacing the product would have lasted for weeks.

LED lamp on E27 base without bulb

As for brands, we repeat, in terms of reliability it is too early to talk, too little time has passed since the cost of such lamps became cheaper and mass use, too little practical information has been accumulated. Here, apparently, you will also have to check everything from your own experience. For example, my experience says that IKEA sold excellent CFL lamps (albeit with a slow starter) that last up to seven years (in fact: tested on myself), and it is quite possible that the Swedish concern orders LED lamps that are no worse. And, of course, the aforementioned OSRAM and Philips.

But you can get by with nameless Chinese ones for 90-150 rubles in online stores, or with the Russian Cosmos brand for the same price. Their CFL lamps were not distinguished by quality and reliability, but they were cheap. Chinese lamps, purchased in Russia, are preferable to the same ones purchased from DX.com: at least because for warranty service you do not have to wait for the weather by the sea for a month or more.

Don't neglect Russian manufacturers: Recently, individual companies have ensured high stability of their products and thus demonstrate a significant interest in increasing customer confidence. Over time, we will definitely return to this topic and try to study LED light bulbs from various domestic companies in more detail.

Russian LED lamps "Era"

To summarize, we can summarize the following. Of course, even now the transition to LED lamps is already economically profitable (unlike last year), their cost is already more or less acceptable, and the price/quality balance, as usual, is something everyone decides for themselves. However, the final, more or less reliable statistics on the reliability of LED lamps from different manufacturers we'll have to wait some more.

Unlike conventional incandescent lamps, which differ only in power and workmanship, LED lamps have many parameters that affect the quality and safety of lighting. I will talk about the main parameters of LED lamps and recommend which lamps are best suited for your home.

Power

LED lamps should not be selected based on power - the efficiency of different lamps is different and lamps with the same power can vary greatly in brightness: lamps replacing a regular 60 W pear bulb can have a power of 6 to 10 W, lamps replacing a 40 W "candle" can have a power from 4 to 7 W.

Power equivalent

Most LED lamp manufacturers indicate the equivalent wattage of an incandescent lamp. For example, the packaging may indicate that the lamp has a power of 6 W and shines like a 60 W incandescent lamp. Some manufacturers indicate this equivalent rather incorrectly, so I recommend that you always pay attention not to the power equivalent, but to the luminous flux.

Light flow

The brightness of a lamp, or rather the amount of light that a lamp gives, is determined by the “luminous flux” parameter, measured in lumens (lm).
For ordinary lamps (pears, candles), you can approximately estimate the required luminous flux by multiplying the power of a conventional incandescent lamp by 10: 40 W - 400 lm, 60 W - 600 lm, 100 W - 1000 lm. So, if you're looking to buy an LED bulb to replace a 60-watt incandescent bulb, look for bulbs with a lumen output of at least 600 lumens.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers overestimate the luminous flux value. In reality, it may even be half as low as stated, and a lamp that should shine like a 60-watt incandescent lamp will only shine like a 25-watt one. The actual luminous flux values ​​can only be determined from the results of independent testing.

Colorful temperature

Incandescent lamps emit a warm yellowish light with a color temperature of 2700-2800K. If you want an LED lamp to produce light as similar as possible to incandescent lamp light, choose lamps with a color temperature of 2700-2800K. Many LED lamps have a color temperature of 3000K - this is whiter, but no less comfortable light. Light from lamps with a color temperature of 4000K is called “neutral white”. This light is more suitable for office spaces. It is believed that white light helps improve performance, and yellow light helps to relax and unwind, so at home in the evening the light should be warm with a color temperature no higher than 3000K. Lamps with cool white light 5000K and above are intended for use in utility rooms. There is no place for them at home.

Voltage

LED lamps are produced that operate from a 220-230 V network and from 12 volt power sources.

LED lamps use drivers (electronic boards installed in the lamp base) different types. Many lamps use stabilized drivers. The brightness of such lamps does not change when the network voltage fluctuates within very large limits. Some of the lamps shine equally brightly when the mains voltage is reduced from 230 to 70 volts. Unfortunately, manufacturers often do not indicate the actual voltage range: the lamp packaging may say 220-240 V or 230 V, but in reality the lamp burns at a much lower voltage.

12 volt lamps are available with sockets E27, E14, GU5.3, G4 and can operate on both direct and alternating voltage. Most microlamps with a G4 base and some spot lamps with a GU5.3 base, when operating on alternating voltage, have a very high light pulsation, which is harmful to the eyes and well-being in general. In order to avoid pulsation of such lamps, you will have to replace the transformers with DC power supplies.

Color rendering index (CRI, Ra)

The light of an LED lamp differs from the light of an incandescent lamp in terms of spectrum. Although the light appears white, it contains more of some color components and less of some. The color rendering index shows how uniform the level of different color components in light is. At low Ra, shades are less visible. Such light is visually unpleasant, and it is very difficult to understand what is wrong with it. Incandescent and solar lamps have Ra above 98, good LED lamps have more than 80, very good ones have more than 90. It is better not to use lamps with Ra below 80 in residential areas.

Unfortunately, some manufacturers overestimate Ra: on the box they write Ra > 80, but in fact it only slightly exceeds 70 and it is better not to use such lamps in residential premises.

Working with a switch with an indicator

Many LED lamps do not work correctly with switches that have an indicator light or LED. When the switch is turned off, these lamps flash or glow dimly. Only a few manufacturers indicate whether their lamps work with such switches.

Dimmer support

Most LED lamps cannot work with brightness controls (dimmers), but special dimmable LED lamps are available that support brightness adjustment. These lamps work with most conventional incandescent dimmers, but the minimum dimming level can be quite high (about 20%). In order for lamps to dim to almost zero brightness when dimming, it is necessary to use special dimmers for LED lamps.

Light pulsation

Light pulsation leads to eye fatigue and a general deterioration in well-being, so it is very important to use only those lamps that do not have visible pulsation. According to SNIP, for various types of premises, light pulsation is normalized in the range of 5-20%; in fact, pulsation up to 35% is invisible to humans. Only some manufacturers write “pulsation-free” on the packaging of lamps. Other lamps may have a low pulsation level, but this is not indicated in the lamp parameters. The presence of pulsation can be checked using the “pencil test” or by looking at the light of the lamp through a smartphone camera (if there is pulsation, stripes will be visible on the screen).

Illumination Angle

Conventional incandescent lamps shine in all directions, while halogen spots provide a narrow beam of light. With LED lamps everything is more complicated.

Many LED lamps that replace conventional incandescent lamps have a hemisphere-shaped cap of the same diameter as the body. Such lamps practically do not shine back and if they are directed downward, the ceiling will remain dark, which can be uncomfortable. Fortunately, recently many lamps have appeared whose transparent cap is larger than the body and due to this the lamp shines a little backwards.

LED filament lamps have the same wide illumination angle as conventional incandescent lamps.

Most LED spots (suspended ceiling lamps with GU10 and GU5.3 sockets) shine with diffused light with an angle of about 100 degrees and are blinding due to the too wide angle (halogen spots give a narrow beam of light with an illumination angle of about 30 degrees). Only some LED spots have such a narrow lighting angle as halogen lamps. Such lamps are easy to recognize by the presence of lenses in front of the LEDs.

Lamp type

In a conventional LED lamp, several LEDs are covered with a cap (usually frosted). Sometimes you can still find outdated corn lamps, the entire surface of which is covered with many small LEDs, reminiscent of corn kernels on the cob. A new type of LED lamps is filament lamps (or LED filament lamps). Such lamps are very similar in appearance to incandescent lamps - they have glass flask and wide lighting angle. Inside the lamp there are LED filaments - ceramic or metal plates on which many small LEDs are placed in a row.

Such lamps are more efficient than conventional lamps (they produce more than 100 Lm/W) and their light is as similar as possible to the light of incandescent lamps. Most filament lamps are clear, but some are matte. The disadvantage of such lamps is their lower service life compared to conventional LED lamps.

Life time

Manufacturers indicate lamp life from 10,000 to 50,000 hours. In fact, no one knows how long a lamp will actually last, because technology is improving very quickly and all service life is calculated theoretically. I recommend paying attention not to the indicated service life, but to the warranty period, during which you can exchange a lamp that has failed.

Guarantee

All LED lamps have a warranty of 1 to 5 years. Stores are required to replace lamps under warranty during this period if they fail. In addition, according to the consumer protection law, you can return the lamps to the store within 14 days after purchase if you do not like them, provided you have intact packaging and, if possible, a receipt.

How to choose good lamps

Selecting LED lamps is not an easy task. Even from the most famous manufacturers, there are lamps with unacceptably high pulsation. Some manufacturers have some good lamps, and some not so much. In order to know exactly which lamps are good and which are not, I created a project for independent testing of LED lamps http://lamptest.ru. I test lamps and publish the results of measuring all the main parameters. Now more than 1000 models of lamps from 75 brands have been tested and the work continues. Therefore, the easiest choice is to find the lamp you are interested in on lamptest and look at its measured parameters:

The ripple factor should not exceed 35% (or better, it should be less than 10%);

The color rendering index must be at least 80 (for utility rooms possible from 70);

The luminous flux must be no less than that of the incandescent lamp that you want to replace with LED;

If you have a switch with an indicator, make sure the lamp can operate correctly with it.

If you have a dimmer installed, make sure the lamp is dimmable;

If you choose spotlights, pay attention to the lighting angle. Lamps with an angle of more than 50° will be blinding when installed in the ceiling of a large room.

If the lamp you are interested in is not yet available on lamptest.ru, I recommend following the following selection criteria:

If the package says “no pulsation”, there is a high probability that the pulsation of the lamp light will be less than 5%. If this is not indicated and it is possible to turn on the lamp, look at its light through the camera of your mobile phone. There should be no stripes across the screen. Try twirling a pencil or other long object in front of the lamp. If the contours of a pencil are blurred, there is no pulsation; if you see “several pencils,” there is a visible pulsation and such a lamp is not worth buying.

See what the skin of your hand looks like under the light of a lamp. If the color is grayish, the lamp has a low color rendering index and it is better not to buy it.

Compare the brightness of the lamp with the brightness of an incandescent lamp or other lamp whose brightness you know. A rough comparison can be made using the light sensor of most Android smartphones. Install any light meter application (for example Sensors Multitool and select “light” there). The sensors of all smartphones are not calibrated, so the values ​​​​of all smartphones will be completely different, but for comparison this is not important. Take a matte lamp at home in advance of the same shape as the one you want to buy, launch the application and lean the smartphone with the sensor against the lamp (the sensor is located above the screen on the left or right, bring it to the top of regular lamps and to the center of the side of candle lamps). Write down the resulting value. In the store, turn on the lamp, wait at least a minute (as LED lamps warm up, they lose up to 12% of their brightness), launch the application and place the sensor against the lamp. Compare the value with what you measured at home. Now you will know almost exactly whether the measured lamp is brighter than the one that was measured at home, or dimmer.

Pay attention to the production date of the lamp (for most lamps it is indicated on the body). If a lamp was produced more than two years ago, it is better not to buy it - progress is very fast and modern lamps are better than those that were produced before.

Please note the warranty period. If the warranty is long (3-5) years, the probability of lamp failure is much less.

After purchasing, take a photo of the receipt. If the lamp fails, this photo will help you get it replaced under warranty if the regular receipt gets lost or fades.

I wrote this article for Yandex Market. I hope it will help a lot of people avoid making mistakes when choosing good LED lamps.