Repairing LED FloodLight
Last week my friend sent to me couple units of LED floodlight for repair. His company is dealing with all sort of products and one of the products is the LED floodlight. This is high end LED floodlight costing more than USD200 per unit. For your information I have never repair any LED floodlight before.
My first move was to analyze the power and the LED board and just after 15 minutes I could roughly know how this thing operates. It consists of a power supply board that produces 24 VDC and this voltage is sent to the LED board. In the LED board the 24 VDC is needed by 5 SMD driver ICs to drive 25 pieces of high powered LEDs. This means each driver IC drives 5 LEDs.
Since my friend is the importer for this product (this is a made in China product) thus he brought along some of the components provided by the manufacturer. The repair was not that difficult because the common fault was a bad bridge rectifier and a fuse. There was a unit with a burnt Varistor and bulged main filter capacitor (10uF 400V). It seems that the power IC is quite robust. The secondary side filter capacitors looked very quality too.
In of the repairs, there was one row of LEDs did not lighted up. Upon inspection found the driver IC AP 8802 burnt and a replacement brought the light back again. This SMD IC AP8802 underneath has a layer of heatsink. You cannot use a normal solder gun to remove it because you may break the IC. You need to use a rework station. Within seconds the IC was easily removed by the hot air from the rework station.
Conclusion-Overall the repair was quite easy and straight forward. This is an opportunity for repairers because nowadays more people are using LEDs light. Try approach the lighting shop to see if they have any LED lamp for repair. I’m actually referring to the high end LED lights and not those cheap LED lights. This can also add more products to your business. Just yesterday, he sent to me another batch of LED lights but this time was not floodlight, it was high end downlights. They were not much different in the boards between the LED floodlights and the LED downlights.
Hope you have enjoyed this repair article and please give a support by clicking on the social buttons below. Your feedback on the post is welcome. Please leave it in the comments.
Jestine Yong
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walid
May 21, 2013 at 11:16 pm
The collections are great can do it step by step good work the beautiful are when some give us here experience this reduce a lot of times thanks Mr Jestin Yong!
Edwin Alejandro
May 23, 2013 at 9:04 pm
Hi Jestine,
thanks for the very nice, very clear and easy to understand explanations on how to fix this kind of electrical equipments. thanks again and more power...
celestica
May 22, 2013 at 12:09 am
thought the article was brilliant and very clear in its explanation but more importantly i can see it can aid me financially thanks again
José David López López
May 22, 2013 at 12:14 am
Muy bueno el artículo, el problema es que aquí en Nicaragua los repuestos de ese tipo casi no los traen y si lo mandas a traer al exterior te sale muy costosa la reparación. Saludos
Jestine Yong
May 22, 2013 at 8:53 am
Hi Jose,
You can order online for spare parts. You can try Utsource.net
Jestine
Israel
May 22, 2013 at 11:35 am
That was helpful Justin. down here in Zimbabwe these downlights are fast growing to be the only source of lighting. Thats becoz pple turn to using solar power coz electricity is supplied 3times a week. So they brought the some bad lights to me,but ddnt have an idea as to where to start,most cases i'd return them back,claiming these chinese things are'nt repairable. Bt now i have an idea. Thank you my man
Jestine Yong
May 22, 2013 at 3:33 pm
Hi Israel,
If any set that use electronics then it can be repaired.
Jestine
Pieter Haasbroek
May 22, 2013 at 12:22 am
Thanks again JestineYong.com for sharing !!!
Andre de Villiers
May 22, 2013 at 1:04 am
Hi Jestine
Thank you very much for always sharing your electronic repairs. I learn a lot from your website.
Just a question: what is the correct method to solder the new driver ic; I am specifically referring to the heatsink tab underneath the ic.
Keep up the good work!
Kind regards
Andre from South Africa
Jestine Yong
May 22, 2013 at 8:52 am
Hi Andre,
Use the rework station to melt the underneath heatsink first then only solder the legs.
Jestine
Birendra Kumar Sahu
May 22, 2013 at 1:06 am
Dear Sir,
Thanks for sending some thing different, I enjoy this month news-letter.
With Best Regards
Birendra Kumar Sahu.
SAHUCOMPUTERS LAB
SAMBALPUR
ODISHA
INDIA
Raghu B M
May 22, 2013 at 1:55 am
Hi Jestine it enhanced my confidence. Thanks to share it.
Nidup Dorji
May 23, 2013 at 2:04 pm
sir,
I have lots of problem with LED lighting in my Parliament building. Thank you for sharing
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Hi Nidup,
You are welcome!
Jestine
Malcolm Clenton
May 22, 2013 at 3:24 am
Excellent newsletter. Keep up the good work!
abdulazeez
May 22, 2013 at 5:14 am
THANQ SIR
Imraz
May 22, 2013 at 5:17 am
Mr Yong Nice work and thanks for this repair guide. As LED's are mostly avail everywhere so its very handy to keep with the repairing techniques.Thanks
mahmoud_tajpour
May 22, 2013 at 5:32 am
dear Jestine thanks a lot from your information i used and enjoyed
Mark Rabone
May 22, 2013 at 7:03 am
Hey Justine,
Thanks for another informative and interesting article. I always look forward to seeing them arrive in my inbox.
I might see if I can get some broken lights to repair as well. It's a good opportunity to keep your repair skills up to date.
Keep up the good work.
Mark
samir edarous
May 22, 2013 at 8:40 am
you are a good man,as you I like to try any thing and I can feel your happiness at the success to repair the floodlight
Jestine Yong
May 22, 2013 at 8:49 am
Thanks to All
Jestine
rom rocima
May 22, 2013 at 9:03 am
Thanks a lot for sharing this article.
Best regards,
Roms
Andre Gopee
May 22, 2013 at 9:39 am
Jestine, as usual great work. I enjoy reading your tips, it motivates me and propels me to be a good electronic repair person. It's great to do and read about something that is so passionate to you. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Andre
adel
May 22, 2013 at 9:52 am
hola jestin gracias ,todos tus articulos son muy claros y faciles de entender,en tu sitio he aprendido muchas tecnicas de reparacion.exitos
jayarajankb
May 22, 2013 at 4:48 pm
thanks for the information,
awaiting more
jayarajankb
hassan
May 22, 2013 at 11:05 am
good work , I enjoy it a lot.
zed
May 22, 2013 at 11:52 am
Thanks sir for sharing the repair. Your generous.
Zed
sefu
May 22, 2013 at 1:13 pm
Jestine
Thanks for this newsletter.Currently I'm working more with LED flood lights for our TV studio.So this is of great help...Thanks!!
teboho
May 22, 2013 at 1:26 pm
hi Mr Jestine thanks a lot for this month article it will help in future couse here in my country mostly in winter we face ppower black outs thanks may gog be with you
Belew
May 22, 2013 at 2:42 pm
THANKS ALOT!
Gerald Musy
May 22, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Hi Jestine,
Thank you for this very interesting article. A friend of mine is manufacturing high end LED lamps for shops, restaurants etc… He told me that one of the challenge is to pair LEDs having the same (or similar) spectrum, so the lights all look the same. This makes it a problem for the end user to source a replacement lamp with the same light spectrum when one is faulty. Because of this particularity and the high price of the lamps it becomes economically viable to get them repaired.
Definitely a good business opportunity for your members.
Cheers,
Gerald Musy
Jestine Yong
May 22, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Hi Gerald,
That was a good tip. Infact that day I have repaired about 10 units and all the LEDs lamp were good and the problem were mainly no power and burnt driver SMD IC.
Jestine
Gerald Musy
May 22, 2013 at 8:36 pm
Hi Jestine,
Judging by the number of comments, your article is going to win the most popular article of the year award 🙂
You are right, the LEDs are quite reliable, and it’s the electronic that fails. The main reason is heat (50% of the energy is dissipated as heat) but also use of lower quality components. Designers are constraints to use as less space as possible for the drivers and the lamp, because of design specification, size, weight, appearance etc… hence not enough ventilation or/and heat sink.
An interesting article at: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/when-good-lights-go-bad-led-breakdown/6204
Cheers,
Gerald
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 10:46 am
Hi Gerald,
Ha-ha, infact i need to thanks to those who take the time to comment on my post or any post in my blog. With comments it will make the blog more lively. Yes you are right the LED floodlight after running for about 10 minutes you could feel the heat at the big heatsink located at behind LED floodlight. If prolong without good ventilation the components somehow will breakdown. By the way, thanks for the link.
Jestine
Waleed Rishmawi
May 22, 2013 at 3:32 pm
as always, very clear and very simple to understand. you have a great talent in that area. thanks for sharing..
Waleed
Jestine Yong
May 22, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Hi Waleed,
You are welcome and your articles are great too.
Jestine
Hamouda Néjib
May 22, 2013 at 4:51 pm
our congradualtions my best friend.
frederic
May 22, 2013 at 8:15 pm
I think you have the time to repair these things...thank you very much.
moshood
May 22, 2013 at 8:29 pm
thanks Mr Jestine Young though it is brief and is to follow but how do we from Nigeria have access to components to carry out the repair.
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 10:41 am
Hi Moshood,
You need to buy components from online store like UTsource.net.
Jestine
Tana
May 22, 2013 at 9:46 pm
Dear jestine, that was a good Article , but I am still puzzled soldering back the IC with the heat sink . Does the new IC come with the heatsink soldered to it . The heat sink must be soldered to the board first and later the IC to the board .What is what, Please clear up this issue .
Thank you.
Tana
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 10:40 am
Hi Tana,
You need a rework station to solder such ic back. Using the normal solder gun will give some problems unless if you use two solder gun to heat up on the two heatsink area first ie the ic heatsink and the board heatsink.
Jestine
RIDO
May 22, 2013 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for sharing that valuable tips. Infact I had repaired LED downlight and other lighting that use LED. Anyway thanks again and hope this will benefit all the technician outthere who are still in doubt in repairing electronic equipment.
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 10:39 am
Hi Rido,
Noted and I believe it is not tough to repair those LEDs lighting.
Jestine
BASHEER KHAN
May 22, 2013 at 10:57 pm
WELL DONE MY FRIEND,KEEP IT UP,IT WAS VERY INTERESTING TO KNOW HOW THE LED FLOODLIGHTS WORK.
BASHEER
leonard williams
May 23, 2013 at 9:19 am
thanks mr young for all those good info i am now mastering repairs in my area a little island call jamaica
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 10:36 am
Hi Leonard,
Good to hear that-keep up the good work.
Jestine
Kelly Fraser-Parle
May 23, 2013 at 9:36 am
Thank you Jestine. I really appreciate the knowledge that you impart.
Kelly
jmgldsmth
May 23, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Justine; great article but, can you spend some time on how to read a laptop schematic?
thank you;
jg
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 2:08 pm
Hi Jg,
It is not easy to read laptop schematic. It takes great effort to learn how to read it. You may have to download many schematics and carefully study how each section or circuitry works.
Jestine
Samir Das
May 23, 2013 at 4:20 pm
I Am Always Thankful to you sir, Your Newsletters really very good & I can learn many things from here So thank you again......... Sir I Am very eager to learn mother board repair but in India no good book available.
Jestine Yong
May 23, 2013 at 5:28 pm
HI Samir,
You are welcome and yes it is hard to find good book about motherboard repair.
Jestine
Mark Tembo
May 24, 2013 at 12:12 am
Hi Jestine,
This is an encouraging article and I have noticed that your publications ( books/reading materials on electronics ) are also helping a lot. I have managed to repair a few electronic devices, especially those with power probems. Thanks a lot for that, and also the cost of those materials are quite affordable.
Thanks once again,
Mark in Zambia.
Jestine Yong
May 24, 2013 at 10:52 am
Hi Mark,
You are welcome and glad that you have successful in repairing few electronic devices.
Jestine
karlo
May 25, 2013 at 8:41 pm
This is true...usually for LED lamps that are cheap and low quality, the 50K burning hours of LEDs are not achievable. Supposedly it will last for years but same thing that is happening here, after 3 months or so, the unit is busted and it's always the power supply.
If you have the budget, go for branded LED lamps. Although they cost above others, at least the quality and reliability is good compared to the China made, China brand LED lamps.
jorge ramirez
May 26, 2013 at 2:55 am
hi jestine
thank you very much, for your many articles, my main field is the computers, but I repair tvs as lcd and plasma, I have subscriptions in all your blogs and guide repair sites, from where can I download the schematics for laptops?
GOD BLESS YOU
Jestine Yong
May 27, 2013 at 1:22 pm
Hi Jorge,
Not many places you can download the laptop schematic because lots of them charge some fees for the schematic. Try eserviceinfo.com
Jestine
Bougrine
May 26, 2013 at 6:58 pm
good job Jestine.
have a nice time
Jestine Yong
May 26, 2013 at 9:19 pm
HI Bougrine,
You are welcome. Long time never hear about your news. Is your business good as usual?
Jestine
faisal khan
May 27, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Hi Jestine
Thank you very much for always sharing your electronic repairs. I learn a lot from your website.
I would like to start my own electronics repair business soon,
faisal khan
Jestine Yong
May 27, 2013 at 1:21 pm
HI Faisal,
You are welcome and good to know about your plan-all the best.
Jestine
Leung Wing Kai
May 27, 2013 at 3:32 pm
I'm glad to read the article. From my own experience of fixing those power supply, it's likely those components of high current burnt out suchas the recifier, the elctrolytic capacitor, the vararistor and the power transistor & IC etc.
Sometimes it's not hard to local the fault the components. You can "see" or even "smell" the burnt components. But you must clean up the carbon by thorough cleaning before the replacement. On the other hand you have better measure the neighbour components to see if they are short (burnt) as well otherwise the newly placed component may be burnt again!
It's easy butcautious.
Jestine Yong
May 28, 2013 at 9:29 am
Hi Leung,
Thanks for the tips.
Jestine
ricardo m palileo
May 28, 2013 at 3:29 pm
its been a long time since i knew this article of sir jestine yong but due to my financial problem it took me so long to purchase your product and im very sorry for that but still i keep on reading your articles sent on my yahoo account and to tell you the truth i feel very sorry for my self since i understand and have background on electronics that i think i have missed a lot in my life since i was with your articles almost three years or two without complying and im very sorry very very sorry but dont worry ill try to produce the money sooner the better sir good luck n god bless more power
Jestine Yong
May 29, 2013 at 7:34 pm
HI Ricardo,
No worries-is okay. Being a reader does not mean you must by anything from me.
Jestine
Phumlani Manyathela
June 1, 2013 at 2:58 am
Thank you sir,it means a lot to me. and sorry for late replying.
onen
June 1, 2013 at 2:27 pm
thanx yong, i hope our fellas in our country import more led lights and guess what i will then be in things as all your lessons are saved properly for guidance, great life for you.
Jestine Yong
June 1, 2013 at 2:41 pm
Hi Onen,
More and more countries are using LED light now. Newly built apartments, lamp street, traffic lights all are using LEDs now.
Jestine
sasi
November 29, 2013 at 12:00 am
Hi Jestine,
This is an encouraging article and I have noticed that your publications are also helping a lot. I have managed to repair a few electronic eqpts especially those with power supply problems. lot of thanks for that.
regards
sasi
Jestine Yong
November 29, 2013 at 12:25 am
Hi Sasi,
You are welcome!
Jestine
Samir Edarous
December 11, 2013 at 9:27 pm
HiMr Jestine
This articl is very benefit,I enjoy it,thanks for this share
Abdul Haleem
January 12, 2014 at 1:42 am
Hi Jestine,
Could you please tell us what settings of temperature in ºC and air-flow (1-6) you select when you use SMD re-work station? What is the maximum safe temp. for SMD components??
Thanks in advance
Jestine Yong
January 13, 2014 at 8:23 pm
HI Abdul,
Working on SMD components (not IC) I usually set to 3-4 for airflow and temperature varies from 150 to 300 depending on the sizes of the SMD components.In certain cases I set even higher.
Jestine
Keith Ford
February 6, 2014 at 1:12 am
very nice commentary! I really enjoyed this one.
Keith Ford
February 6, 2014 at 1:18 am
What is you farvorite method to remove the carbon from the circuit board?
Jestine Yong
February 6, 2014 at 8:11 pm
HI Keith,
Just scrap it off and clean with thinner.
Jestine
Sherwin Baptista
May 9, 2014 at 10:50 pm
Hello sir Jestine,
This seems to be an interesting article.
I am in this electronics line since long. I have opened different power supplies just to get their components especially the inductors and other components. I believe that the inductors (ferrite based) are not so eaisly available in the market,i searched damn hard,wasn't lucky enough. i haven't shopped online as yet. Just broke open power supplies and get those rare components that suite my project well.
I've bought myself an old power supply from one of the paper recycling stores they said it was a bad one. Actually i wanted to repair it but i found it too tough since they were high wattage ones.
Previously, i'd purchase old power supplies the PC ones for sure just to get those rare components, but i will not let go off with the repairing idea. I would rather try hard and work at my best, for there could be a great saying ''success is at your hands until you work hard''.
To conclude with, i would say yours was a really interesting article
All round the world DIYs would really benefit from your article.
Keep up with the good work and may god bless.
Regards,
Sherwin from Mumbai.
Jestine Yong
May 10, 2014 at 8:17 am
Hi Sherwin,
Glad that you liked the article-thanks.
Jestine
Amagunba Stephen
July 12, 2014 at 7:51 pm
Hi Jestine. Am much grateful with this news letter of yours, keep on doing the good works. Truely i was even thingking of quiting. But you have really really giving me hope. Thanks a trillion.
Jestine Yong
July 12, 2014 at 9:49 pm
HI Amagunba,
You are welcome!
Jestine
Mash
December 27, 2017 at 5:22 am
hi, i have 50 Watt LED Flood Light IP66 and some leds are burnt, how should i reduce the voltage reaching the good leds (if i by-pass the burnt leds using a wire)?
Jestine Yong
December 27, 2017 at 9:58 pm
Hi Mash,
You need to replace the burnt LEDs because shorting it will put pressure on the other LEDs. Most smps nowadays does not have preset to tune lower down the output voltage thus it would be hard to do the modification. Try search from aliexpress to see if you can find the type of LEDs for your flood light.
Jestine