IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
Same here.
LED Bulbs
- Thread starter catbird7
- Start date
onetonjohn
Full Access Member
Sorry to hear that. I suppose there's still time. I'd Leave out the car jackings and go strait for the hot chicks.
BeastMaster
Full Access Member
Hot wimmin? Seen em occasionally, but haven't had one in ages.
onetonjohn
Full Access Member
You're in the OC. Smokin hot down there.
EDIT: My bad Orange is Santa Ana county. Still. So-Cal has it goin on in that department.
EDIT: My bad Orange is Santa Ana county. Still. So-Cal has it goin on in that department.
BeastMaster
Full Access Member
The ones I keep meeting are like Mercedes Benz Sprinter vans.
Gorgeous to look at, but the maintenance costs are too high. They are finicky and always needing something expensive.
My neighbor actually had one.... The wimmen, not the van, and that little soiree cost him his house.
California wimmen are way outta my league.
I'll take the next best thing... A dog and a good truck.
Gorgeous to look at, but the maintenance costs are too high. They are finicky and always needing something expensive.
My neighbor actually had one.... The wimmen, not the van, and that little soiree cost him his house.
California wimmen are way outta my league.
I'll take the next best thing... A dog and a good truck.
Well fellas, serve me up a big ol piece of "humble pie", the LED bulbs are an official bust! Last evening I used an infrared thermometer to measure temperature of both LED bulb and typical 1156 while lit. I was surprised at the temps,,,,,,, 1156 reached 218 degrees, LED 286 degrees! While this doesn't measure actual energy consumed, higher thermal reading clearly indicates these particular LED's are less efficient than a typical 1156. I'll chaulk it up as a $20.00 lesson, and check out superbright.
Superbright is good. I've got another quality supplier, when I get a chance, I'll see if I can find the name. We live off grid. Our power is supplied by 6 180W 12V solar panels split into two separate 30A charge controllers for redundancy. The solar array feeds a 440AH 12V battery bank. We have two high quality inverters but I runs much as I can directly powered by 12V DC to reduce parasitic loss and keep it simple. LED'S get a bad rap, I've been running them in the house for more than five years and have not had one failure. The cheap stuff is crapp and the good stuff works. I've also replaced all the interior lights in Raylan except for the main gauge cluster with LED, so far it's all working as it should...
Just use them anyway. A few will last long term and they do use a tiny amount of power. I just buy more of those junk LEDs annually because it's cheaper and better than needing more batteries for incandescent bulbs. One incandescent pulls more than 6-8 LED bulbs.
jrollf
Full Access Member
I've been running LEDs for a few years now. I like the look and brightness but have to admit, even using 'high quality' LEDs, the failure rate is much higher than the 'old fashioned' incandescent bulbs they replaced. Annoyingly when they fail one or more LED chips usually start flashing /flickering... really irritating especially when it is a dash or interior light.
1993 F350 Crew Cab Dually
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5spd Manual
BeastMaster
Full Access Member
If they are trying to get ungodly brightness from tiny die, they won't last for long. But damn near everyone does it.
It's just the way we think these days. Short term. Maximal return. Enforced obsolescence. So the customers buy more.
I end up buying raw chips...the ones I solder in place. Yes, solder. Because I have no intent of ever replacing them. They will be there for the rest of my life in need be.
But I have to design and construct my own LED drivers. I have found very few that are designed to last and protect the LED from power surges... And the 12 volt power in my van is really nasty.
Especially during starting. I also get nasty alternator load dumps during air conditioning clutch cycling.
LEDs are far more sensitive to voltage spikes than incandescents are. And the run voltage is about 14 volts in my van.
A lot of commercial LED light bulbs are rated 12 volts, and they mean 12, not 14.
LED lamps have a VERY nonlinear current draw vs. voltage. Which is why we have " ballasts", and usually don't connect the LED directly to power.
But it's cheap to connect the LED directly to power, or use a small series resistor.
That's the MBA way to do it. It makes for something that works great, but not for long.
The way I do it is dimmer, and I and up using at least twice the number of lamps to get the same lumens. But my lumens per Watt is the same. Also, I make damm sure I mount my LED on good heat spreaders.
LEDs are a wonderful technology, but the economic incentive for cheap-ass design that still works is more than most businessmen can stand up to.
And we drive these cheap-ass designs by purchasing them, just as a lot of us buy cheap-ass glow plugs. If you saw my designs next to the commercial designs at Home Depot, mine would cost more. But then, twenty years from now, mine would still be working.
I was happy to see my city replace our old sodium streetlight fixtures with LED, and looks like they got the good ones... Lots of emitters, and not driving them so hard.
You can see that just looking at them...it's not like an arc light. When those LEDs are driven so hard they blind you like a welding arc,. Well I have observed those LEDs don't last long.
It's just the way we think these days. Short term. Maximal return. Enforced obsolescence. So the customers buy more.
I end up buying raw chips...the ones I solder in place. Yes, solder. Because I have no intent of ever replacing them. They will be there for the rest of my life in need be.
But I have to design and construct my own LED drivers. I have found very few that are designed to last and protect the LED from power surges... And the 12 volt power in my van is really nasty.
Especially during starting. I also get nasty alternator load dumps during air conditioning clutch cycling.
LEDs are far more sensitive to voltage spikes than incandescents are. And the run voltage is about 14 volts in my van.
A lot of commercial LED light bulbs are rated 12 volts, and they mean 12, not 14.
LED lamps have a VERY nonlinear current draw vs. voltage. Which is why we have " ballasts", and usually don't connect the LED directly to power.
But it's cheap to connect the LED directly to power, or use a small series resistor.
That's the MBA way to do it. It makes for something that works great, but not for long.
The way I do it is dimmer, and I and up using at least twice the number of lamps to get the same lumens. But my lumens per Watt is the same. Also, I make damm sure I mount my LED on good heat spreaders.
LEDs are a wonderful technology, but the economic incentive for cheap-ass design that still works is more than most businessmen can stand up to.
And we drive these cheap-ass designs by purchasing them, just as a lot of us buy cheap-ass glow plugs. If you saw my designs next to the commercial designs at Home Depot, mine would cost more. But then, twenty years from now, mine would still be working.
I was happy to see my city replace our old sodium streetlight fixtures with LED, and looks like they got the good ones... Lots of emitters, and not driving them so hard.
You can see that just looking at them...it's not like an arc light. When those LEDs are driven so hard they blind you like a welding arc,. Well I have observed those LEDs don't last long.
79jasper
Chickenhawk
Just look at recon. 9.9 out of 10 reviews are bad. Short life, no customer service.
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The sbl cool white LEDs for the obs dash have a very clean look and are fully dimmable.
Yep. And I like the green.
I have a set of those waiting for me to put them in the dash, when I am done with everything else.
