LED Replacement Question- Help with (hopefully somewhat) Easy Fix (Urgent)

Hello Friends,

SO I'm hoping I can get som help on this asap because I need all the lights I can have working since I just switched to flowering... Just a little while ago I noticed my Light seemed a little less bright, and after inspection, i found that a bunch of the leds were no longer powering on. They do however have a slight glow, except as i suspected, 1 of them which seems to be the culprit is completely out. I think it is one of the white 3000 or 5000k ones. I checked the drivers which after switching them they both seem to work fine. Here are some pics of the Light... You can see that the one with the arrows is completely dead...

Image 1 - Light the still work grow setting on only
Image 2 - Both grow and bloom turned on you can see that half not working (from bottom left go 3 diodes, then up 1)
Image 3 - Only bloom turned on with the 1 Led no working at all (from bottom left go 3 diodes, then up 1) (There are 2 others thta i thought wernt working but you can see when you turn on the bloom that they do come on so I think it's just a spectrum that is hard to see when all lights on

20200321_171408.jpg20200321_171434.jpg20200321_171425.jpg



Is there an easy way just to bypass this one led by wiring straight across the + and - end with a small cable? Is it easy to replace the one led and if so where can i get 1 of them. DO I also need to replace the small resistor next to it? Only the resistor. Any help is appreciated on what the best method is for fixing this. I'm new to LEDs and this sort of thing but have a good amount of DIY knowledge so I may not know all the terminology of this particular little fix-it project but I am sure with some instruction and direction on what to do I can easily handle this...

Let me know if you need more info etc..

Thank sin advance!
 

GBAUTO

Well-Known Member
When you say 'switching' drivers, I'm assuming you mean you switched the board leads on the two and had the same results. Board is f'd if that's the case and not worth any attempts to repair. Bite the bullet and get some decent kit.
 
When you say 'switching' drivers, I'm assuming you mean you switched the board leads on the two and had the same results. Board is f'd if that's the case and not worth any attempts to repair. Bite the bullet and get some decent kit.
No i mean i switched the 2 drivers... there are 2 inside the light, 1 that runs the grow lights and another for the veg diodes. a lot of these panels with the 2 switches have 2 drivers in them... image below. @AirWalker, thank you for your constructive comment, yes , it is, I've had it a while, but its always worked and had it uses.. also grows one hell of a head of lettuce or 10. As far as its use in this grow its just a filler light that hangs at a 45-degree angle and another on the other side of the main light And everyone can argue all they want about quality and spectrums and I'm sure that if wanted to spend 500+ bucks on a grow light i could get something that is way better than all 3 of my lights combined but I'm happy with what my setup is producing atm and so until more than a filler light fails in my setup I'm chillen.... Also.... this light set on just the grow mode (which luckily still works) is great for the first few weeks of vegging ... it encourages nice and tonight internodal spacing that I dont get of lights that are much pricier. ANd I have been getting these super nice big leaves off a strain I've grown for a while that looked way different under other lights... check it.. once halfway through veg I switch lights and use white full spectrum LEDs as the main lights but still like to supplement with some burples because it cant hurt and so far has done me only good. Heres a pic from the day I moved from the burple to the full spectrum white/sunlight led.

Also Update: No the board iis not broken/useless. I found out that Mars will actually send you the spare diodes etc everything you need to take the old one off and solder on a new one... SO hat gives me hope.. So now i need to see if anyone knows where you can get these little diodes and maybe what kind it is... and still welcoming any info from anyone who has done this before themselves...... From what I found out if I get the led and resistor its just a swap.. maybe I can just use any 3w led.. guess it wouldn't matter if i had one more red or blue light instead of what was there either.

And please this is not supposed to be a discussion on whether this is a good or bad light and whose light is bigger... I'm just asking for those in the community who are moe the diy savy type rather than the throw it away and buy another for helpful input/.
20200310_193325.jpg
And i have very large hands so in my opinion that's a nice indoor leaf for a little blurple cheap light

pic.png
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
No i mean i switched the 2 drivers... there are 2 inside the light, 1 that runs the grow lights and another for the veg diodes. a lot of these panels with the 2 switches have 2 drivers in them... image below. @AirWalker, thank you for your constructive comment, yes , it is, I've had it a while, but its always worked and had it uses.. also grows one hell of a head of lettuce or 10. As far as its use in this grow its just a filler light that hangs at a 45-degree angle and another on the other side of the main light And everyone can argue all they want about quality and spectrums and I'm sure that if wanted to spend 500+ bucks on a grow light i could get something that is way better than all 3 of my lights combined but I'm happy with what my setup is producing atm and so until more than a filler light fails in my setup I'm chillen.... Also.... this light set on just the grow mode (which luckily still works) is great for the first few weeks of vegging ... it encourages nice and tonight internodal spacing that I dont get of lights that are much pricier. ANd I have been getting these super nice big leaves off a strain I've grown for a while that looked way different under other lights... check it.. once halfway through veg I switch lights and use white full spectrum LEDs as the main lights but still like to supplement with some burples because it cant hurt and so far has done me only good. Heres a pic from the day I moved from the burple to the full spectrum white/sunlight led.

Also Update: No the board iis not broken/useless. I found out that Mars will actually send you the spare diodes etc everything you need to take the old one off and solder on a new one... SO hat gives me hope.. So now i need to see if anyone knows where you can get these little diodes and maybe what kind it is... and still welcoming any info from anyone who has done this before themselves...... From what I found out if I get the led and resistor its just a swap.. maybe I can just use any 3w led.. guess it wouldn't matter if i had one more red or blue light instead of what was there either.

And please this is not supposed to be a discussion on whether this is a good or bad light and whose light is bigger... I'm just asking for those in the community who are moe the diy savy type rather than the throw it away and buy another for helpful input/.
View attachment 4510501
And i have very large hands so in my opinion that's a nice indoor leaf for a little blurple cheap light

View attachment 4510508
Just buy a decent light. The HLG V1's are a steal now.
 

end_of_the_tunnel

Well-Known Member
Hello Friends,

SO I'm hoping I can get som help on this asap because I need all the lights I can have working since I just switched to flowering... Just a little while ago I noticed my Light seemed a little less bright, and after inspection, i found that a bunch of the leds were no longer powering on. They do however have a slight glow, except as i suspected, 1 of them which seems to be the culprit is completely out. I think it is one of the white 3000 or 5000k ones. I checked the drivers which after switching them they both seem to work fine. Here are some pics of the Light... You can see that the one with the arrows is completely dead...

Image 1 - Light the still work grow setting on only
Image 2 - Both grow and bloom turned on you can see that half not working (from bottom left go 3 diodes, then up 1)
Image 3 - Only bloom turned on with the 1 Led no working at all (from bottom left go 3 diodes, then up 1) (There are 2 others thta i thought wernt working but you can see when you turn on the bloom that they do come on so I think it's just a spectrum that is hard to see when all lights on

View attachment 4510301View attachment 4510305View attachment 4510302



Is there an easy way just to bypass this one led by wiring straight across the + and - end with a small cable? Is it easy to replace the one led and if so where can i get 1 of them. DO I also need to replace the small resistor next to it? Only the resistor. Any help is appreciated on what the best method is for fixing this. I'm new to LEDs and this sort of thing but have a good amount of DIY knowledge so I may not know all the terminology of this particular little fix-it project but I am sure with some instruction and direction on what to do I can easily handle this...

Let me know if you need more info etc..

Thank sin advance!
Nice growth. I have seen similar sized leafs where lighting levels were low and the ratio of reds was higher. The combination you have, coupled with your short internode length is very nice, and I can understand why you are attached to that lamp for veg.

No matter which way I turn your images, and count three across and one up, I see working diodes.
Image 1 and 3 clearly shows from bottom 3 across, one up is bright white, and alight.

Have you confirmed the DC output of both drivers, with a multimeter. Or like GBAuto asked/suggested by swapping each pair of leads at the pcb connection point?
 

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
No i mean i switched the 2 drivers... there are 2 inside the light, 1 that runs the grow lights and another for the veg diodes. a lot of these panels with the 2 switches have 2 drivers in them... image below. @AirWalker, thank you for your constructive comment, yes , it is, I've had it a while, but its always worked and had it uses.. also grows one hell of a head of lettuce or 10. As far as its use in this grow its just a filler light that hangs at a 45-degree angle and another on the other side of the main light And everyone can argue all they want about quality and spectrums and I'm sure that if wanted to spend 500+ bucks on a grow light i could get something that is way better than all 3 of my lights combined but I'm happy with what my setup is producing atm and so until more than a filler light fails in my setup I'm chillen.... Also.... this light set on just the grow mode (which luckily still works) is great for the first few weeks of vegging ... it encourages nice and tonight internodal spacing that I dont get of lights that are much pricier. ANd I have been getting these super nice big leaves off a strain I've grown for a while that looked way different under other lights... check it.. once halfway through veg I switch lights and use white full spectrum LEDs as the main lights but still like to supplement with some burples because it cant hurt and so far has done me only good. Heres a pic from the day I moved from the burple to the full spectrum white/sunlight led.

Also Update: No the board iis not broken/useless. I found out that Mars will actually send you the spare diodes etc everything you need to take the old one off and solder on a new one... SO hat gives me hope.. So now i need to see if anyone knows where you can get these little diodes and maybe what kind it is... and still welcoming any info from anyone who has done this before themselves...... From what I found out if I get the led and resistor its just a swap.. maybe I can just use any 3w led.. guess it wouldn't matter if i had one more red or blue light instead of what was there either.

And please this is not supposed to be a discussion on whether this is a good or bad light and whose light is bigger... I'm just asking for those in the community who are moe the diy savy type rather than the throw it away and buy another for helpful input/.
View attachment 4510501
And i have very large hands so in my opinion that's a nice indoor leaf for a little blurple cheap light

View attachment 4510508
Contact the manufacturer and provide all info you can, hopefully they can send you replacement diodes out to swap.
Or see if you can find something equal to what you have for dirt cheap.
 

iobloop

Member
Those are bypass zener diodes i think not resistors in case if led dies the others will still work. You could replace leds with something even better than current ones but you should be careful that they operate on lower voltage than zeners. But i think led cases are also soldered onto metal clad pcb for better heat dissipation, so you would require heat gun or oven and liquid solder. I would not bother this lights, i don't think there are very efficient leds for this layout configuration out there any way, i might be wrong, but if you have around 100 bucks or so you can get much better light, if you don't, wait a bit if you can and save money, its even cheaper that way, quality lights and driver don't tend to die for very long and you will have much greater yield in addition you will see any deficiencies under normal colored led's faster.
 
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iobloop

Member
Another option is perhaps check driver ratings (probably they aren't very efficient tho) and see if any reasonable new age led's fit, if i could not find a board i think some cob would fit, single or in series, values don't have to be exactly the same, led's can be a bit under driven if you find stronger ones(even better). You could then use both drivers for veg and flowering at the same time (but dont put those in series or parallel), u wouldn't have to switch anymore if you find appropriate led's. But i wouldn't attempt this without some knowledge.
 
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