WARNING - Dangerous LED Light Set Power Supplies

[David_AVD]

I received some LED meteor tubes in today's mail. They are a set of 8 tubes and come with a small mains plugpack.

The plugpack is marked as 4.2V 0.5A but measuring it showed more like 6V with the lights disconnected. While measuring the voltage, my finger touched one of the wires and I got a very unpleasant tingle.

Opening up the plugpack revealed the horror show below. There is no isolation between the mains and the DC output! It's a simple capacitive dropper circuit. This may be fine for fully enclosed lights, but not for something like this.

So, if you do buy lights like these, immediately destroy the plugpack and instead run them from a proper power supply or approved plugpack.

These light sets are cheap and the meteor tubes themselves are fine for the price but again, DO NOT USE THE SUPPLIED PLUGPACK.

 

[lizardking]

thanks mate i will be cutting mine off

 

[plasmadrive]

It is a cheap design for sure.. However, I admit to using two of them for the last two years.. I was driving about 12 tube from each one.. but mine are all up on the trees where no one can get to them. I also wrapped the supply because it is no where near waterproof..

I am adding another 40 tubes or so this year so it is a good time to do away with those cheap supplies and use some good stuff..

 

[David_AVD]

Plasmadrive, I know you know this, but I want to clarify for others.

It's not just the plugpack itself that's dangerous. The low voltage DC wires are sitting at almost full mains potential depending on which way you insert the AC plug.

So any moisture ingress into the tubes or connectors can cause your RCD (GFCI) to trip. Interestingly even though I felt the zap, the RCD did not trip. I don't feel like trying again.

Of course there is no danger when the tubes are used with a proper power supply.

 

[plasmadrive]

... snip....


.... Interestingly even though I felt the zap, the RCD did not trip. I don't feel like trying again.

...snip.....

Ahhh.. com'mon.. where's your sense of adventure mate?

 

[bluzervic]

... snip....


.... Interestingly even though I felt the zap, the RCD did not trip. I don't feel like trying again.

...snip.....

Ahhh.. com'mon.. where's your sense of adventure mate?

LOL

 

[fasteddy]

There have been several reports of people dying from electrocution using chargers made of similar quality, these are not Australian approved power supplies and rightfully so.
they are only good for playing bin basket ball and throwing them away.

 

[Goliath]

thanks mate i will be cutting mine off

The plug pack, Adam, the plug pack .....

 

[David_AVD]

thanks mate i will be cutting mine off

The plug pack, Adam, the plug pack .....

Yes, otherwise he'll have a eunuch outlook on life!

 

[Benslights]

all good advice David

 

[lithgowlights]

In Sydney a couple of years ago I found myself without a charger for my iPhone so I grabbed a $2 one at the markets. Plugged the phone in, put the plugpack in the wall and then moved the phone only to get a nice strong tingle. Needless to say that was destroyed and we dropped by a reputable dealer to get a proper charger. I dont trust the cheap ones now, and I would not be surprised if the charger was of a similar design to the one shown above, but with a 5V regulator on the output

 

[lizardking]

these are one of the other lights i got this is not acceptable the plastic cover over the board is so thin it is ridiculous these guys need to be stopped these are 240v into 12 v

 

[fasteddy]

Thats why they are cheap and nasty.

For some reason with ebay, sellers are allowed to sell dangerous junk like this that doesnt meet Australian standards, so the onus is on the buyer to ensure what they are buying meets Australian standards or else take the risk

 

[Robotjam]

Hi all new member here, My name is Jim and I wanted to read some of the forums before I started to contribute. Anyway I got these meteor lights a few weeks ago an recently I found this forum. The ones I bought have a different power supply (see pics below). The power supply is rated at 5v 500ma I had these running for 7 hours and there was no heat buildup in any of the parts. My question is this, based on the below pics has anyone heard of problems with this type of power supply?
[attachimg=2][attachimg=3]

 

[David_AVD]

Your power supply *seems* to be an isolated type due to the small transformer (with yellow tape) on the board.

A picture of the underside of the PCB will reveal more.