HTG 7-band LED - Repair question (pics)

Hi all,

First, thanks for stopping in and even more thanks if you can help.

I bought this HTG 7-band LED along with 2 others last year. It has seen one grow, and performed well. I just moved to a different home and had re-packed the lights carefully and moved them myself.... so I don't think this problem was caused by rough handling, but it is a distinct possibility.

Now the problem, 1/2 of the lights are kaput. So I opened her up (some bastard put a drop of glue in one of the screws... that's just mean spirited.... after all it isn't going to stop you, it just pisses you off). I verified that the issue isn't with a power source by swapping them - the lights were still dead, but the power source from the dead side drove the other side fine.

So, do I go any further with my hamfisted surgery, or do I stop here knowing I still have 1/2 of a light?

The last pic is of the silicon of the wires going into the light mount. I can't help but wonder if this had been done correctly by the mfr. if maybe I wouldn't have this problem.

You'll need to test the LEDs individually, or in small groups and identify which LED has burned out. Once you find the culprit, you'll just have to replace it.

This happened with my diamond series LED light.

If you strip the end of a usb phone charger, that works great in testing the leds in small groups

Or if you don't want to replace the burnt out LED, you could also jumper the burnt out LED

The lamp consists of a lot of LEDs in series, in two groups each driven by a single driver. The cause of the problem might be a dead LED. Looks like standard chinese constant current sources.. In that case you can either replace the dead LED it or simply short it.
Due to the drivers being constant current drivers, the remaining LEDs won't be damaged in any way.

Thanks guys!!! I'm assuming that the only way to get at the contacts to test them is to take out the million little screws on the face..... I better get started, ima be all day foolin with these little bastards.

I think I found the bad lamp from a discoloration.... at least this is the only lamp on the board that looks remotely like this. So, if this is the bad one, how do I jumper? A piece of wire and solder? Had to take a break from all those little screws.

Bubbagineer said:

I think I found the bad lamp from a discoloration.... at least this is the only lamp on the board that looks remotely like this. So, if this is the bad one, how do I jumper? A piece of wire and solder? Had to take a break from all those little screws.

Click to expand...

Yep, it looks burned!

So I soldered a piece of copper wire across the terminals..... poorly. I suck at soldering....

Anyway, that fixed it, thanks. The areas where I soldered are higher than originally. There is a chance that the soldered areas will get up against the heat sink when I retighten the one million and one screws holding it on to the board.

Worst case what would happen if I get the bare jumper against the bare heat sink? A short? A fire? *shudders*

I tightened the heat sink to the board around the heat sink and turned it on and was fine. Could be the heat sink goo is acting as an insulator?

really showing my ignorance here..

Bubbagineer said:

So I soldered a piece of copper wire across the terminals..... poorly. I suck at soldering....

Anyway, that fixed it, thanks. The areas where I soldered are higher than originally. There is a chance that the soldered areas will get up against the heat sink when I retighten the one million and one screws holding it on to the board.

Worst case what would happen if I get the bare jumper against the bare heat sink? A short? A fire? *shudders*

I tightened the heat sink to the board around the heat sink and turned it on and was fine. Could be the heat sink goo is acting as an insulator?

really showing my ignorance here..

Click to expand...

You risk getting a short, yes. I would simply just drill the hole bigger.

Thanks. Well, I got it half way back together and had the brilliant idea of insulating it with a couple of layers of tape. So I took it back apart, added the tape, put it back together again and plugged it in and the side I was working on was fixed, but the other side was out. At this point I ejected the collected pile of shit into my garage trash can.

So, at what point does a cheap piece of shit become a blessing? Well, when my old lady is coming in the garage at the same time that I was heaving the piece of shit, whilst giving it a judicious piece of my mind.... and she says why don't you just go buy a better light

WOOT!!! gonna buy me another agro elite lamp.

thanks a lot for the help bro. +rep

Bubbagineer said:

Thanks. Well, I got it half way back together and had the brilliant idea of insulating it with a couple of layers of tape. So I took it back apart, added the tape, put it back together again and plugged it in and the side I was working on was fixed, but the other side was out. At this point I ejected the collected pile of shit into my garage trash can.

So, at what point does a cheap piece of shit become a blessing? Well, when my old lady is coming in the garage at the same time that I was heaving the piece of shit, whilst giving it a judicious piece of my mind.... and she says why don't you just go buy a better light

WOOT!!! gonna buy me another agro elite lamp.

thanks a lot for the help bro. +rep

Click to expand...

Anytime There's a saying.. "buy cheap, buy twice"

Have you ever used cfl?

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why would he change to cfl? if anything i'd change to led, and i am.

slick50500 said:

Have you ever used cfl?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Rollitup mobile app

Click to expand...

I wasent asking him to change......I was looking for sugestions

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sent you a pm, don't want to hijack anybody's thread

slick50500 said:

I wasent asking him to change......I was looking for sugestions

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Rollitup mobile app

Click to expand...