This isn't a question, but just a suggestion in case anyone has the same problem.
I've got several GU10 LED lights, bought from Amazon 2 - 3 years ago. A couple of months ago, one started to flicker. I replaced it and then found it contained a flyback isolated supply. It was controlled by an IC designed for that duty, which manages without the voltage sensor and opto isolator.
The main smoothing capacitor was dead. I had destroyed the casing by the time that I had found that. It seems that the capacitor is only just big enough and the ripple current had destroyed it far before the LEDs had shown any sign of age.
I found that the circuit would run fine with an external rectifier and smoothing capacitor.
More recently another LED lamp started to flicker, so I took the rectifier part of an old SMPS circuit, and added a capacitor that was much larger than the ones in the GU10 lamps. I fed the whole fitting, which takes 3 lamps, from the smoothed DC instead of AC. All three LED lamps work fine, no flicker.
Like just about all electrical devices that contain SMPSs, these lamps are quite happy on DC, and in this case it is one way of extending their life once the internal smoothing capacitor has failed, without opening them up.
I've got several GU10 LED lights, bought from Amazon 2 - 3 years ago. A couple of months ago, one started to flicker. I replaced it and then found it contained a flyback isolated supply. It was controlled by an IC designed for that duty, which manages without the voltage sensor and opto isolator.
The main smoothing capacitor was dead. I had destroyed the casing by the time that I had found that. It seems that the capacitor is only just big enough and the ripple current had destroyed it far before the LEDs had shown any sign of age.
I found that the circuit would run fine with an external rectifier and smoothing capacitor.
More recently another LED lamp started to flicker, so I took the rectifier part of an old SMPS circuit, and added a capacitor that was much larger than the ones in the GU10 lamps. I fed the whole fitting, which takes 3 lamps, from the smoothed DC instead of AC. All three LED lamps work fine, no flicker.
Like just about all electrical devices that contain SMPSs, these lamps are quite happy on DC, and in this case it is one way of extending their life once the internal smoothing capacitor has failed, without opening them up.
