baden87 Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Hi I am wanting to buy some good quality 12volts leds , the ones that come on a roll, I have bought some from a Chinese guy and some individual leds have stopped working or flickering . I need some that are reliable ,any recommendations guys Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Paul, Try Aten Lighting https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/ I bought several meters from them a few years ago to replace all the fluorescent tubes over the lockers in our MH and they still look as good as when I fitted them. If you see them at one of the shows they normally offer a discount. Keith. PS And if you specify exact lengths they solder on the flyleads for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 I support Keith’s recommendation. Aten Lighting’s flexible LED strip products are advertised on the following webpages https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/caravan-motorhome-lighting/flexible-led-strip-lighting https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/caravan-motorhome-lighting/flexible-led-strip-lighting/cut-to-length-led-strip (It’s perhaps worth noting that the 5m LED reels have been discontinued.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hi Thanks for Aten lighting , but I checked there website and it says “ discontinued “ Not sure if this is permanent or am I missing something ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keithl Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Only 5m rolls are discontinued, cut to order lengths are still available in different power and colours... https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/caravan-motorhome-lighting/flexible-led-strip-lighting/cut-to-length-led-strip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 IKEA sell LED strips. Example here: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/lighting/integrated-lighting/ledberg-led-lighting-strip-multicolour-art-70302674/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgnbuk Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Did you connect your unreliable 12v Leds directly to the van "12v" supply ? If so, they probably died through overheating, as the 12v supply for the Leds needs to be no more than 12v & not the 12.8V, 13.2V or 14.4v normally seen on the van "12v" supply. Leds are not like incandecent lamps - they do not get brighter if fed more than their rated voltage, they just pass a lot more current and get hot. And the increase in current does not appear to be linear, so a small excess of supply voltage has a disproportionate effect on current flow (and thus heat generated). Heat is the enemy of electronic components & drastically shortens their life. Unlike most domestic appliances, which are designed to operate over a range of input voltages, unregulated Leds need the specified voltage and no more. A cheap and easy solution is to use a regulator (like this, for example eBay item number: 162592582599) that can be set to give a steady 12v (or slightly less) from the somewhat variable van supply. The van supply goes to the input side of the board, the Led is connected to the output side & the output voltage is adjusted with the potentiometer on the board while measuring the output voltage with a meter. Aten state their Led strips are to be connected to "a 12v leisure battery" - it is possible that they have optimised their strips to work at 12.8v or higher, rather than 12v exactly to limit excess current consumption &overheating, as being a bit under voltage does not have great effect on brightness. If you look at the round, multi-led devices Aten sell, they state a voltage operating range (10-30v for example) indicating that these units have built in regulation & the extra components can be seen on some boards. HTH Nigel B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 mgnbuk - 2018-03-19 11:25 AM ...Aten state their Led strips are to be connected to "a 12v leisure battery" - it is possible that they have optimised their strips to work at 12.8v or higher, rather than 12v exactly to limit excess current consumption &overheating, as being a bit under voltage does not have great effect on brightness... I asked Aten Lighting abut this at one of the NEC shows. If I remember correctly, I was advised that their LED strips were ‘optimised’ for 14V and a voltage below that should be OK. I said that my motorhome’s aternator would put out over 14V, as would the onboard battery-charger and was told that a lot of motorhome and boat owners had bought their LED strips and none of these had complained that the strips had failed due to being subjected to over-high voltage. It was suggested that - if I were really concerned about the effect of 14+V - fitting a regulator would be the sensible approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaven Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 It’s been about 4 years now since I converted my old fluorescent fittings to LED strips in the van supplied in bespoke lengths from Simple Lighting in Liverpool, and added further self-adhesive strips in the kitchen area and I’ve had absolutely no problems despite having no voltage regulator in the circuits. I think it pays to sourcefrom a reputable dealer and not from eBay. Very happy with the result. The main problem is deciding whether you want a cool or a warm light in relevant areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plwsm2000 Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Sorry Derek, but I think they may have misled you about "14V optimised LEDs". As mentioned in a previous thread, these strips are made up of banks of 3 LED devices in series with a current limiting resistor. A single LED behaves a bit like a zener diode in that it "clamps" the voltage across it. If you try to increase the voltage, it just takes lots of current. For a white LED, this voltage is just under 3V (1.8V for red LEDs) so 3 in series will give just under 9V. The balance of the voltage is dropped through the current limiting resistor. At 12V input, the resistor drops around 3V (12V-9V) and a typical value resistor of 150 ohms gives a current of 20mA in each bank of the 3 LEDs and resistor. At 15V the same resistor will have nearly 6V (15V-9V) across it and so gives a current closer to 40mA. It they changed the resistor value to give something like 20mA for a 14V input, the reduced current at 12V would give a significant reduction in light output from the LEDs and so I think it is unlikely they would do this (but it is possible) . The only way of fixing this is to use a constant current device in each bank. These cost far more than a single resistor (don't forget there could be 100's of these banks in a single LED strip) and although I wouldn't say these are never used, I have never seen anything like this advertised anywhere. The problem with driving the LEDs at a much higher current is that they will fail sooner. This is due mainly to the elevated temperature of the actual LED "chip" (the die from the semiconductor wafer). If anyone is interested in the heavy maths and physics theory and has a few weeks spare, just google "Arrhenius electronics" As others have said, if you are running these any higher than 12V, use a dimmer or drop the voltage somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 plwsm2000 - 2018-03-19 1:26 PM Sorry Derek, but I think they may have misled you about "14V optimised LEDs”... Hence my use of quotation marks around the word “optimised”. My use of the Aten Lighting LED strips was to experiment with illuminating my Ducato’s instrument cluster during daylight conditions. This experiment was successful but, in practice, I rarely turn the LEDs on. I bought two 1-metre strips, one with side-lit LEDs and the other with conventional ‘straight down’ LEDs. I ended up using part of the former for the instrument lightng and the second strip to augment the motorhome’s garage lighting that I only switch on infrequently and then only for a few minutes. So if the LEDs fail sooner than they might if I had originally fitted a voltage regulator I’m not really concerned. If I had the LED strips on a lot more I’d add regulators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 I bought a 5 metre strip from Hong Kong on Ebay in 2011 and changed all my strip lights and exterior lights (not vehicle lights). I also bought some flat G4 LED's to replace the halogens at the same time. All still working perfectly now. The strip was £9.00 - I recall the G4 bulbs were about £1.50 each? I have also made up a few spare strips in case of failure but they are still unused. Maybe I'm lucky? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Hi any idea where you got them Laimeduck ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 baden87 - 2018-03-19 7:44 PMHi any idea where you got them Laimeduck ? Paul - no sorry, Ebay & PayPal only keep 2 - 3 years of data. I may have a receipt but if so it's filed somewhere in the loft due for shredding after 7 years or more likely under B for bin! Jeremy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 Thanks laimeduck I overlooked how long ago it was lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Look for ones that are 60 LEDs per metre, the cheaper more common ones are only 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baden87 Posted March 21, 2018 Author Share Posted March 21, 2018 Ok Charles thanks for that , it’s a minefield , there are so many out there it’s hard to sort out the good from the bad, like I said earlier it’s frustrating to have replaced some in my Autotrail , only to find them flickering after a short while Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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