LED not working now ... ideas?

[specialk]

Hey all

So have Ocean Revive lights. Some blue's burned out and I am replacing them. This has happened before, and OR sent me some replacement blue lights. Got them in and changed and all went fine.

Well fast forward a few years and same issue, although OR did not have the lights for them, so I ordered standard royal blue lights from China ... got them all in and sautered and now all of a sudden I went to turn the lights on and NONE of the blues work (I only replaced half of them that were burned out).

I checked the power, switched the power cords and all that to make sure all was working ok and all the power cords and supplies see to be fine ... just no blues

Would the lights I installed and ordered from China have any effect on this....? Do I have to have specific lights that OR has for this type fixture? I can't figure out why they are all of a sudden not working....

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Hey all

So have Ocean Revive lights. Some blue's burned out and I am replacing them. This has happened before, and OR sent me some replacement blue lights. Got them in and changed and all went fine.

Well fast forward a few years and same issue, although OR did not have the lights for them, so I ordered standard royal blue lights from China ... got them all in and sautered and now all of a sudden I went to turn the lights on and NONE of the blues work (I only replaced half of them that were burned out).

I checked the power, switched the power cords and all that to make sure all was working ok and all the power cords and supplies see to be fine ... just no blues

Would the lights I installed and ordered from China have any effect on this....? Do I have to have specific lights that OR has for this type fixture? I can't figure out why they are all of a sudden not working....

One possibility is how you have the LEDs soldered in. I have ordered some Chinese 3w leds for black box light that needed to be repaired and if you did not have them aligned right (think + and -) they would not work, or they would kill all of the other leds in that series. You could try to swap the led terminals around on the ones you replaced and see if that fixes it. I have always done light replacement with the light on lol. Probably not the safest, but a little low voltage is not too bad lol.

 

[LiveWire]

I believe that the longer wire in LED's is the positive one. I also know that some Chinese LED's require a resister placed inline but from what I remember the resistor size depends on how many you have in series.

 

[specialk]

One possibility is how you have the LEDs soldered in. I have ordered some Chinese 3w leds for black box light that needed to be repaired and if you did not have them aligned right (think + and -) they would not work, or they would kill all of the other leds in that series. You could try to swap the led terminals around on the ones you replaced and see if that fixes it. I have always done light replacement with the light on lol. Probably not the safest, but a little low voltage is not too bad lol.

Ok this is what I was actually thinking/wondering ... if I accidentally (which there is a good possibility this happened) mixed up the - and + if that would then make them all not work ... so this can happen then I am assuming?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I just looked at a couple I have in my desk. The LEDs I am looking at have a + and a minus stamped into the terminals. Granted, once soldered, you cannot see them. It also appears that if you look at the led assy., the positive (+) terminal is the one lower on the led housing and the negative is higher up.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Ok this is what I was actually thinking/wondering ... if I accidentally (which there is a good possibility this happened) mixed up the - and + if that would then make them all not work ... so this can happen then I am assuming?

From what I have seen, one misplaced LED doesnt work, but a few makes the whole series not work. Granted, this is on black box lights, but I would assume the same design methodology goes into all lights using bridgelux style leds.

 

[specialk]

I just looked at a couple I have in my desk. The LEDs I am looking at have a + and a minus stamped into the terminals. Granted, once soldered, you cannot see them. It also appears that if you look at the led assy., the positive (+) terminal is the one lower on the led housing and the negative is higher up.

Yes mine have these as well ... I am going to re-do all of the ones I did and try to correct it that way ... I have a good amount of replacements so I am just going to use the new ones to be sure I am getting them on right

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@dantimdad . Have you ever worked on an Ocean Revive light? I know you have piddled with a ton of lights over the years. Maybe shed some light (pun intended) on anything I might have missed.

 

[specialk]

Well this is fun ... I threw away the "map" I drew of the bulbs that needed to be replaced...so now looking at all the lights, I have no idea which ones I changed out ....hahah....grrrr

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Well this is fun ... I threw away the "map" I drew of the bulbs that needed to be replaced...so now looking at all the lights, I have no idea which ones I changed out ....hahah....grrrr

That just means you did an awesome job soldering everything, or the original soldering was not that great to begin with lol.

You should be able to see a slight difference in the plastic cover for the diode. The older ones should have a slight tint to them. A white led flashlight should help you see it.

 

[specialk]

That just means you did an awesome job soldering everything, or the original soldering was not that great to begin with lol.

You should be able to see a slight difference in the plastic cover for the diode. The older ones should have a slight tint to them. A white led flashlight should help you see it.

ok.. thanks. But also ...

...looks like on the board there is a "B" above some of them and you don't have to be Dick Tracy to figure out that these MIGHT just be the blues... I sure hope so. Going to replace them all

 

[specialk]

Here's another question... would it matter if I just replaced them all blue?

 

[dantimdad]

@dantimdad . Have you ever worked on an Ocean Revive light? I know you have piddled with a ton of lights over the years. Maybe shed some light (pun intended) on anything I might have missed.

One, but it just had two bad LEDs. Was a quick repair.

 

[dantimdad]

ok.. thanks. But also ...

...looks like on the board there is a "B" above some of them and you don't have to be Dick Tracy to figure out that these MIGHT just be the blues... I sure hope so. Going to replace them all

I am thinking B is the channel. Not necessarily the color.

 

[specialk]

I am thinking B is the channel. Not necessarily the color.

Annnnnd you are correct! lol

I replaced them but I don't even care ... I got the blues working and that was my main goal. Later I can replace all the non "B's" with the white, red and green lights that will then complete the light and take it back to normal.

Hey learn something new all the time in this hobby