Recently my recessed light failed
iseries
Posts: 1,490
I decided to take my recessed light apart and see what was inside. I thought the power supply would be the first think to go in these LED lights, but that's not the case.
It looks as though all the LED's are in series and the power supply maybe a simple bridge rectifier.
I assume these are 1.5 volt LED's and if I had a heat gun I could re-purpose them. Maybe make a flashlight out of some of them.
It looks like I have enough LED's for every pin on my P2.
It's a shame to have to throw these thinks out.
Mike
Comments
Kinda looks like something Run DMC might have worn, back in the day !!
They are current regulated (Instead of voltage) power supplies. Max voltage can be quite high but likely still within the "extra low voltage" class, below 120 Vdc. Which means the device (The LEDs) powered by the power pack doesn't need the same safety criteria as the power pack itself.
From my own experience, these are most likely higher voltage LEDs. The ones I repurposed where around 8V treshold. The easiest way to check these is to go one by one with the current limited PSU (set the current limit between 5 and 20 mA) and go up with the voltage from, say 3V).
The likely cause of failure is a thermal stress resulting in internal structure break so no current goes through. That was the case with three out of four bulbs I happened to tear apart.
edit - the second lower one in the middle row is a likely candidate - I can see a dark spot on it in your picture.
But you can order 50 White SMT LED's for 67 cents from LCSC .... https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/LED-Indication-Discrete_XINGLIGHT-XL-3216UWC-FB_C3646935.html