Might be of interest to those looking for bright LED panels for bike use: I used to use huge spiral 6400K CFL light bulbs in my living room, which actually used 105W, but they don't make those anymore so I bought this November 2020:
Like the CFL, it was very bright (much brighter actually) and a great help finding tiny dropped items such as screws bolts etc. However, after almost three years it went pop and the plastic crumbled. The LEDs might last the advertised 50,000 hours but the rest of it evidently doesn't - I expect it's planned obsolescence, to sell these LED lights more often. I have an older 3 bladed lower power version which still works, with no sign of crumbling.
The diffusers remain intact and the panels function fine - the 5 LED panels are all very bright at 36V DC, dim at low voltage, I assume they're designed for about 44V but I don't have a power supply to test this. I could weld the aluminium heatsink of a LED panel (those are bonded to the panel backs) to 2mm aluminium sheet cut to the same shape of a diffuser, add orange heat resistant acetate sheet to the diffusers, then weld another LED panel to the other side, and bond another diffuser to make a double sided indicator light. There are 4 panels I could use for this, and four diffusers, to make two dual sided indicators. As indicators, I believe they'd be bright enough to be visible in bright sunlight. There's also another bright 73mm X 73mm LED panel.
Or I could bond them with diffusers to the fronts of my Zefal end-bar mirrors. Or I could make waterproof housings to attach them elsewhere on my bike and/or bicycle trailer as running lights. I'd be reaching for a 3D printer if I had one, so it's a jolly good job I don't - I have quite enough lighting on my ebike already, and no remaining space on my handlebar for any more switches (a longer handlebar would prevent my folding bike folding, as would a waterproof switch panel with many switches). It's more likely I'll use them to light my offgrid garden shed, powered by my 36V ebike battery. Preferable to adding to mountains of ewaste.
"The WEEE says its research shows the "mountain" of electrical and electronic waste - from washing machines and toasters to tablet computers and global positioning system (GPS) devices - will grow to 74 million tonnes a year by 2030. "
Like the CFL, it was very bright (much brighter actually) and a great help finding tiny dropped items such as screws bolts etc. However, after almost three years it went pop and the plastic crumbled. The LEDs might last the advertised 50,000 hours but the rest of it evidently doesn't - I expect it's planned obsolescence, to sell these LED lights more often. I have an older 3 bladed lower power version which still works, with no sign of crumbling.
The diffusers remain intact and the panels function fine - the 5 LED panels are all very bright at 36V DC, dim at low voltage, I assume they're designed for about 44V but I don't have a power supply to test this. I could weld the aluminium heatsink of a LED panel (those are bonded to the panel backs) to 2mm aluminium sheet cut to the same shape of a diffuser, add orange heat resistant acetate sheet to the diffusers, then weld another LED panel to the other side, and bond another diffuser to make a double sided indicator light. There are 4 panels I could use for this, and four diffusers, to make two dual sided indicators. As indicators, I believe they'd be bright enough to be visible in bright sunlight. There's also another bright 73mm X 73mm LED panel.
Or I could bond them with diffusers to the fronts of my Zefal end-bar mirrors. Or I could make waterproof housings to attach them elsewhere on my bike and/or bicycle trailer as running lights. I'd be reaching for a 3D printer if I had one, so it's a jolly good job I don't - I have quite enough lighting on my ebike already, and no remaining space on my handlebar for any more switches (a longer handlebar would prevent my folding bike folding, as would a waterproof switch panel with many switches). It's more likely I'll use them to light my offgrid garden shed, powered by my 36V ebike battery. Preferable to adding to mountains of ewaste.
"The WEEE says its research shows the "mountain" of electrical and electronic waste - from washing machines and toasters to tablet computers and global positioning system (GPS) devices - will grow to 74 million tonnes a year by 2030. "
E-waste: Five billion phones to be thrown away in 2022
Billions of phones will be hoarded in drawers and cupboards or thrown away rather than recycled, studies suggest.
www.bbc.co.uk
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