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What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

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Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#481

Post by graycrow »

BuildTheRobots wrote: post #475
mrb wrote: post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

I'm surprised no one has mentioned hte rise of flickering LEDs on cars - though I think in this case it's caused by PWM dimming. I mean, it looks absolutely fine as long as the light source and viewer are both static - just a shame vehicles tend to be moving :(

I don't get why DLR LEDs needs PWM at all. It 100% can be done without, even with smooth light distribution.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#483

Post by ksec »

manmal wrote: post #267
mrb wrote: post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

I only buy Philips bulbs for this very reason, or from brands that advertise being flicker-free. With iphones, slow motion mode also makes the flicker very visible without the need to transfer to a PC. Visible light impulses influence brain wave patterns (e.g. [1]), and it might not be beneficial to look at pulsed light with a frequency that is not well researched. Same thing with screens, most LEDs are dimmed with p…

>Some iPhone X users claim they get a headache when looking at the phone at the lowest brightness setting (OLED is even worse in that regard than LED, IIRC).

And on iPhone XS this is even worst. I wonder if there are any solution to PWM problem.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#484

Post by ksec »

sosuke wrote: post #274
mrb wrote: post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

I'm really happy to see you post this. Everyone else I've brought it up too just says I'm crazy. I might be crazy but not about the damn flickering/strobe. Especially when my dog bounces around it looks like she is in a strobe light. I did a couple of videos of it just to "prove" it in some fashion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DddB_0QrV_8

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#486

Post by patal »

dpwm wrote: post #336
simcop2387 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I've found to help weed out the worst of the worst is to only buy dimmable versions of the bulbs. They cost more but because they have to support dimming they're almost required to have a better power supply to handle the usual triac based control that most dimmers have.

Not sure this always holds. The worst bulbs I've personally seen for flicker were dimmable ones. The non-dimmable variant from the same range had no noticable flicker. Price paid also seems to be no indicator of quality – I've had premium LED bulbs from major makes, bought from a reputable wholesaler, that have died after 6 months within days of each other. I've had cheap no-name imports that have lasted years and ha…

A lot of "dimmable" LEDs are actually shifting the flicker pattern to dim the light (shorter on phases). This is for LEDs where the user dims per remote control. OP was talking about the older "legacy" dimming, where you have a wall-mounted knob that reduces the current. Works well with incandescent bulbs. But only few LEDs support this. If they do, their internal power converter likely won't flicker, because of their more thought-out converter?

However, there are also LEDs that support legacy dimming, but again translate less current into different flicker patterns...

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#487

Post by mcv »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #118
JohnTHaller wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend's bathroom light that is now a strobe light and the landlord has yet to replace because it requires an electrician to replace the whole fixture would like a word with you.

>requires an electrician to replace the whole fixture would like a word with you. Kind of like how replacing a gas dryer "requires" a licensed plumber to make the gas connection or you're "required" to drive no faster than the speed limit at all times. You're getting the runaround. If it was in a vacant apartment that they were showing to people it would already be fixed. If they cared about getting it done ASAP they…

Why do you even need a landlord or maintenance service to swap a light fixture? Replacing a fixture is a bit more work than replacing a bulb, but it's not exactly hard.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#488

Post by rainbowzootsuit »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #35
mikepurvis wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was more selection available of that kind of thing— when I last looked a year or so ago there was basically just one option at Home Depot, and it had the aesthetics of something you'd put in the laundry room. Worse than that, though, it was unusable with a dimmer switch; the whole thing visibly flickered every few seconds. I felt bad returning it because I really wanted it to work out, but the quality ju…

I have an LED fixture that I got from home depot that is dimmable, no flickering. It's connected to a normal dimmer switch. I bought it about a year ago. My other LED fixtures were ordered through aliexpress. The fixtures were fine, but the transformers that came with the fixtures all failed and had to be replaced (overheated, melted the plastic casing). This turned out to be tricky, because the LED drivers available…

I have had good success with, and have been happy with the quality of _MeanWell_ LED drivers and power supplies. You can get them through Mouser, Newark, Digikey etc.

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#489

Post by apexalpha »

mrb wrote: post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

+1 for Philips bulbs.

Lights is something that I used to cheap out on but no more. Not buying Philips bulbs is definitely 'penny wise, pound foolish'.

Also, Philips Hue!

Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?

#490

Post by xiconfjs »

sosuke wrote: post #274
mrb wrote: post #235

Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…

I'm really happy to see you post this. Everyone else I've brought it up too just says I'm crazy. I might be crazy but not about the damn flickering/strobe. Especially when my dog bounces around it looks like she is in a strobe light. I did a couple of videos of it just to "prove" it in some fashion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DddB_0QrV_8

I use a salt shaker and pour salt onto a plate - if I can make out single falling grain of salt on the way to the plate, I know this light source is not healthy for humans.
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