Brian Hoskins
New Member
Hi everyone,
Thought I'd share a recent experience with an infra-red lamp I bought from China (got it through Ebay). I bought the item so that I could take down my 500W flood lamp which was irritating the neighbours. The new infra red lamp would be just the ticket, because it would illuminate my drive enough for the camera to pick out detail just fine.
I switched it on, and was pleased to see that it worked. I've got a SONY camcorder that does night-shot so I thought I'd spend a couple of minutes testing it out with that. 5 minutes or so later, I noticed an entire half of the lamp wasn't working. Then I smelled burning electronics. I took the thing apart, and you wouldn't believe it - 2 resistors (they look like 1/4 watts... maybe 1/2 watt at a push) running 140 Infra Red LEDs. Just how long did the designer of this lamp expect it to last?? Both resistors were charcoal. I'll have to make my own circuit for it now. No doubt the LED array will be the next to go, since they've wired chains of LEDs in parallel.
Brian
Thought I'd share a recent experience with an infra-red lamp I bought from China (got it through Ebay). I bought the item so that I could take down my 500W flood lamp which was irritating the neighbours. The new infra red lamp would be just the ticket, because it would illuminate my drive enough for the camera to pick out detail just fine.
I switched it on, and was pleased to see that it worked. I've got a SONY camcorder that does night-shot so I thought I'd spend a couple of minutes testing it out with that. 5 minutes or so later, I noticed an entire half of the lamp wasn't working. Then I smelled burning electronics. I took the thing apart, and you wouldn't believe it - 2 resistors (they look like 1/4 watts... maybe 1/2 watt at a push) running 140 Infra Red LEDs. Just how long did the designer of this lamp expect it to last?? Both resistors were charcoal. I'll have to make my own circuit for it now. No doubt the LED array will be the next to go, since they've wired chains of LEDs in parallel.
Brian