This thing only pulls a few mA. If it were cheaper than conventional wire and mechanically strong enough they’d have used Litz wire.
So where does the earth ground conductor go?
As shipped, the Earth ground wire is unconnected. I tried to use it, but it’s too thin and very springy, like it os not pure copper. On the one that I swapped out the cord, I used one of the screws the hold the enclosure together as a ground screw. It works, but probably not UL approved.
I am a bit backlogged on updates; too many new toys came in after this ;). I plan to open this up one more time and I’ll try to get a shot of the wire.
Even with the small line current, I still recommend users replace the cord; it just doesn’t feel safe to me.
Was there a place for the ground wire to connect?
Maybe this device meets some generally accepted standard for double-insulated?
Without the ground wire you may measure less than 1 mA to ground due to capacitive coupling.
If you connect the ground wire there may be current through that wire that upsets circuit operation but I think that is unlikely.
Hi DimBulb, You asked about the ground connection once already. I suggest a ground wire connection in the post just above. 
There’s no way this light passes for double insulated. It’s barely single insulated; electronics (emitter) are mounted directly on the chassis. Double insulated is usually used on Class II devices and means that all live components have two layers of insulation between them and the chassis.
I didn’t notice any difference between grounded and ungrounded current.
I just know that I prefer to have this $8 flood light grounded for my use, especially outside in the rain.
The emitter should be isolated from it’s star base. See if there is any continuity between the LED+ and LED- terminals and the star.
Also the driver output is isolated from the line via a transformer (think every wall wart power supply on the planet). That alone means it does not need to be double insulated.
You are correct, the emitter plate is isolated from the chassis and the driver low voltage is isolated from the high voltage via transformer. Based on the Class II ‘single-fault’ theory (either emitter or transformer fail, not both), the product should remain isolated.
For my use, because it’s being used outdoors in wet locations, I’m still requiring the chassis grounded.
Also, providing a grounded plug and not connecting the ground to anything is misleading and provides a false sense of protection to the end user.
it’ll be on a GFCI. . .right?
BTW, for some reason DI “products must NOT have a safety connection to Earth”.
DI? What does that mean?
DI = Double Insulated
Technically, this light is insulated, but that was not on purpose. Trust me on that. They are nice lights, but I would not use them without adding the ground. I doubt this light ‘design’ has seen the inside of an approvals lab.
Even it has, there is always
”
Regulatory capture occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or special concerns of interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
”
I have talked to companies that have experienced this directly. It practically destroys many startups with otherwise amazing ground-breaking products. Many of the largest approval and safety governing bodies have executives from the largest corporations sitting in their board meetings. If any hint of a threat to their bottom line happens to come along, they have a lot of sway when it comes to making it difficult for said new technology to eat into their profits. It’s a conflict conflict of interest.
Even with that, there is still a value to safety ratings.
As a general safety caution, any line-powered device purchased overseas should be checked for safety issues before put into use.
I don’t see any knowledgeable consumer advocates on the Code Panels that make the NEC, either. Where are the incentives to balance the cost to the consumer with the safety the consumer is supposed to gain?
This is
“a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole.”
The Game Theory people don’t believe there is a solution to this until we evolve into better people. If ‘Eve’ lived 500K years ago, I wouldn’t be holding my breath. . .
I finally got around to modding 3 of my wallbuys 10W floodlights. Since fasttech forgot to include 1.2 ohm resistors in their resistor multipack, I made due with 1.0 ohm resistors instead. After the mod (measured on the AC side) the lights start out at 13.5 watts and settle down to 12.5 watts after about 1 minute. The diode (that relic pointed out) gets very hot in a hurry, so I double wrapped it with a 4” long piece of 14 gauge solid pure copper wire and soldered it to the diode leg. Each end of the protruding wire is then bent so 1 inch makes contact with the aluminum driver housing. A bit of sanding and AA helps facilitate heat transfer. I disposed of the plastic driver housings that acted as a thermal blanket and applied fijic to the transformer to stick it to the back of the housing. The AL driver housing gets warm after about an hour but maintains the same heat level… nice!
NOTE: none of these mods are deemed safe and could cause electrocution during a failure. But then, the lights as they came stock are an electrical hazard to begin with. Tonight, they get a long burn-in to see of they fail. If not, I’ll mod the remaining 4 floodlights.
Thanks again for leading the way Relic! To the eye, they look a good 75% brighter. Probably because the cool white provides a nicer tint when its well driven.
Nice work FlashPilot! You went a step or two beyond what I did. I eventually switched all of mine to Warm White emitter modules. I prefer the warm tint.
Thanks again goes to you relic. The lights have been on for a couple of hours and dont overheat. Just 3 floodlights light up my entire backyard in an even blanket of light. Im not sure what to do with the other 4 lights once they’re modded. Are yours mounted and in service around your house?
I bought 14 XML 3C emitters at a great closeout price and a pair of 24-27V 3A DC transformers. The idea was to mount 2 x XML’s in each housing and power each of the two with a separate transformer (2 banks of 7 x XML in series). That way I could use just one or both XML’s per housing… kind of a high/low arrangement. But now I realize that will be far overkill… even for the most brutal of lumen-junkies. Hmm… Ive got a bunch of 1/2” aluminum plate I could mount them to and hang it from the ceiling in the garage.
I have thought of two or 4 XMLs which I would power with a separate acdc wall wart transformator another driver inside the light…that would make it absolute safe and bright worklight, perhaps on a tripod…
But I have lost my spare XMLs I have collected through the time, so Have to order some….
I use one at my solder workstation, and two for lighting my light box for studio shots. The Warm White emitters (once white balanced) seem to have great CRI. Once they warm up they produce a nice consistent light output.
I finished my 7th floodlight “relic-resistor” mod today, and they will all get a good long burn-in tonight. After some testing, 2 x XML’s @ 3A each (24 watts) would definitely be too much for these housings to effectively dissipate heat if left on for more than 10 minutes. Im still very pleased and impressed with the mod results. I think I paid about $7 for each of these. :bigsmile:
Relic, its interesting that these LED’s still deliver fairly good performance, especially considering their vintage. Do you have a link for the warm-white emitters? I may have to give those a try.
I got them off eBay for about $3 each. I’ll dig up the link. They are the 10W square emitters that the housing was designed for.
Thats a great price @$3 each. I have a dilemma: whether to wire for AC and spread the lights around my yard, or to convert to DC serial for XML (powered by 24-27V DC transformer) and keep the housings all fairly close together (within 40 feet of each other). If I could get the warm white emitters, Id probably go that route. Thanks! It looks like ebay has loads of them listed.