LED Strip Repair?

[Galant]

Hi Guys,

I have an LED Strip light that has one LED that doesn't come on.

Ideally I'd like to repair it as it doesn't look too complicated and I have some basic electronics skills but I wanted to see if anyone here had some insight. Is it feasible? What might be the cause?

Here are some images - https://imgur.com/a/UijNlr2 - the bad led in question is the one closest to the power source. I took it apart and found that that first section has the actual LED strip coming away from the aluminium bar it's attached to.

To my eye the aluminium bar it's irrelevant to the functioning of the lights, so it doesn't matter if it's coming away, but maybe I'm wrong? If so, then it must either be the LED itself or the connection that's bad, right? In which case the unified nature of the strip might make it tricky to repair.

Can anyone confirm any of this? Any approach I should take? Anyway to test this?

Thanks.

[oldboy47]

If it is of any help, model train enthusiasts have been adding LED strips to their running stock and a number of videos exist on youtube that might be of some help. In particular look for Johns amazing trains adding lights to carraiges.

[Galant]

Thanks.

I'll take a look.

I've now added some images - sorry for the less than stellar photography.

https://imgur.com/a/UijNlr2

[Ttaskmaster]

The Aloooo-minum bit should definitely be irrelevant.
I believe you're on the right lines of reasoning... and that it will be a PITA to repair.

[cheesemp]

The Aloooo-minum bit should definitely be irrelevant.
I believe you're on the right lines of reasoning... and that it will be a PITA to repair.

I'll disagree there. Its probably acting like a rudimentary heat sink. I watch a lot of bigclive electronics videos on youtube where he does tear downs on this sort of product and these higher power LEDs need some form of heat sink. You may find where the strip has come off from the aluminium its just very slowly cooked it (I assume its on for long periods of time). In theory you could replace it *if* you can find an basically identical LED and can do SMD soldiering (might be able to do it with a reflow station hot air gun if you're lucky). I wouldn't suggest it was worth it unless your desperate as getting an LED with the same brightness and colour depth will be ultimately impossible (and looks rubbish if it doesn't match).

[Ttaskmaster]

I'll disagree there. Its probably acting like a rudimentary heat sink. I watch a lot of bigclive electronics videos on youtube where he does tear downs on this sort of product and these higher power LEDs need some form of heat sink.

I'd concur if the strip was attached directly to the U-channel, which actually does look like it'd work as a heatsink...
However, the strip appears to be glued to a metal bar (possibly aluminium), and that bar is then attached to the u-channel. So that's at least two layers of material between the strip and the heatsink, neither of which may be especially heat-conductive. Kinda hard to tell from just the photos, though...

Also, there are plenty of high powered LED strips these days that don't make use of heatsinks. There's a load inside our Klix vending machine, to the point where I'm considering half-inching 'em!

[cheesemp]

I'd concur if the strip was attached directly to the U-channel, which actually does look like it'd work as a heatsink...
However, the strip appears to be glued to a metal bar (possibly aluminium), and that bar is then attached to the u-channel. So that's at least two layers of material between the strip and the heatsink, neither of which may be especially heat-conductive. Kinda hard to tell from just the photos, though...

Also, there are plenty of high powered LED strips these days that don't make use of heatsinks. There's a load inside our Klix vending machine, to the point where I'm considering half-inching 'em!

I guess ultimately it doesn't matter - its just not going to be a feasible repair due to issues matching the LED (unless your prepare to accept an uneven light and potential for another burnout).

Are you sure there is no heat transferring substrate in your Klix vending machines? From some of the videos I've seen they just laminate the board to aluminium and paint it all white so you can't really see the aluminium. LEDs are however getting more and more efficient though so maybe the heat is manageable?

[Ttaskmaster]

Are you sure there is no heat transferring substrate in your Klix vending machines? From some of the videos I've seen they just laminate the board to aluminium and paint it all white so you can't really see the aluminium. LEDs are however getting more and more efficient though so maybe the heat is manageable?

I had a nosey when the refill chap had it opened up. Looks to me like they're just stuck directly on to the internal panels. That's why I was (jokingly) considering having them. They look like a generic adhesive LED strip like you'd get in a PC.
Dunno... maybe the unit refrigeration keeps it cool enough. The only time I've known heat dissipation to be a factor is with my LED torches, but even then it's only the brightest 1000lm one that needs it.

[cheesemp]

I had a nosey when the refill chap had it opened up. Looks to me like they're just stuck directly on to the internal panels. That's why I was (jokingly) considering having them. They look like a generic adhesive LED strip like you'd get in a PC.
Dunno... maybe the unit refrigeration keeps it cool enough. The only time I've known heat dissipation to be a factor is with my LED torches, but even then it's only the brightest 1000lm one that needs it.

Don't get me wrong most LEDs don't need much (although these look fairly high power) but a little really improves life times as the heat just slowly kills them (bit like CPU/GPUs - the cooler/less current you can run them the longer they'll last). How old is the light Galant? 8 to 10 years is pretty good for a high power LED (just look at cars with LED brake lights about this age - 1 or 2 are usually dead) but with cooling/pushing less current they can last a lot longer. I'll be honest I'm pretty armchair about this but I like repairing electronics myself and this move to ever miniature unidentifiable SMD components just makes it increasingly impossible to fix anything.

[cptwhite_uk]

I work with LED lighting so know a reasonable amount about them. Seems the LED has just reach the end of it's life, probably through over-heating has been suggested. The LED chip itself will have failed.

This is a good primer for the various common LED chips on the market. But colour accuracy (deviation from stated colour value) and the colour value itself vary. Cree are known to be a good quality brand.

https://www.flexfireleds.com/compari...and-5050-leds/

For generally LED supplies to the public, LED hut are good starting place.


However the underlaying issue for the damage needs addressing, good contact with an aluminium heatsink is all that required in most cases. It's where people use sLED trip on ultra thin 8mm tape without a metal heatsink that the lifespan reduces dramatically.