Impossible to DIY a tunable LED bulb?

I’m having a blast learning electronics and soldering - just ordered my first custom single-switch PCBs for my next iteration of a fully custom ergonomic keyboard.

Given my obsession with high-CRI(/TM-30, low blue peak, etc), healthy, CCT-tunable home/work lighting and home automation, I’m intrigued at the idea of combining those things to be able to create exactly what I want for home/work lighting.

That said, after reviewing several tear-downs of LED bulbs, I’m struggling to visualize how one might determine all the appropriate components, source them all, and (safely) fit them in a fixture somewhat close to an E26/7 A21 bulb shape.

With keyboards, there are a vast array of precedents to learn from and reference. Even on this forum, there’s plenty about the LEDs, PCBs and optics, but I’m not finding anything about building a power supply and wireless controller within an 8 cubic centimeter cone/cylinder shape that also serves as an adequate heat sink for 8-14W.

Is this mission impossible? Are there examples of this that you’re aware of?

Not a DIY but something you can buy

I think I am trying to solve the same thing:

I have similar requirements, tunable color temperature, very high CRI, but I also have not found an off the shelf solution yet…

I considered simply replacing the LEDs on a hue ambience bulb, but found that taking them apart in a way that is not completely destructive is not practical. Additionally they use a very weird LED topology with some green leds (presumably to compensate the crappy white LEDs).

My current plan is to get some LED housings like these:

Then make a custom board with these YujiLEDs:
https://store.yujiintl.com/collections/high-cri-led-emitters/products/yujileds-high-cri-95-2-in-1-tunable-white-bi-color-led-smd-3032-g03-pack-100pcs

And than drive them with an external constant current eldoled powerDRIVE (from somewhere remote):
https://www.eldoled.com/led-drivers/powerdrive/50-watt/ac-pw50u-m4z0x/

I have to figure the wiring out, but I was thinking to just use the e27 for mechanical interface, and then have a separate small 4-pin connector for the DC.

I’ve gathered quite a bit of data on available alternatives to the Yuji, nearly all of which provide much lower cost for equivalent performance. The Vesta COBs seem to fit the bill: https://i.imgur.com/I7psRMY.png

A larger variation of the housing you linked to is what I’m targeting, but the goal is to screw it into existing 120V E26 sockets, so my driver has to be internal. I think while your approach is less versatile, it’s certainly sounds far more realistic than my goal of cramming a 2 channel dimmer, transformer, and wireless controller all inside a BR30 or A21 bulb size.

Ugh… I wish you replied 2 days earlier, I just placed a relatively large YujiLED order….
Those BridgeLux Tunable White COB’s certainly look very appealing, especially since it eliminates the need for a (custom) PCB.
Do you happen to have that table in editable/sortable format?

if he can diy it you can diy it

Yuji is highway robber,
https://bridgelux.com/products/thrive#specifications

better cri anyway

Even better and cheaper than korean Sunlike, chinese sunlike doesn’t count since it is not possible to get small moq

My only hesitation is that I haven’t found anyone who has bought and tested the latest gen thrive chips, so the amazing specs are purely on-paper. One guy from Australia bought a whole bunch for his shop, and either they fall way short or they sent him the wrong chips: Bridgelux thrive spd - Page 5 - LEDgardener

Hmm interesting… I ordered a couple of the thrive ones from Farnell. I don’t have any measurement equipment but I can at least compare them to the Yujileds.

It’s actually not as expensive as you’d think - I probably overpaid for a used XRite Colormunki Studio, spending $200, but not only can I now do pro monitor calibration, but I can also test any lighting source and get the full spectrum from 380-730nm, allowing you to build these reports:


If you’re investing Yuji money anyway, perhaps you’d find that to be a worthwhile investment to test these alternatives. We’d certainly love to see your results as well!

Do you mind me asking which models of thrive you bought?

Yeah maybe I should consider getting some measurement equipment while I’m at it…
I ordered these:
BXRV-TR-2765S-20A0-A-23
BXRV-TR-2750S-10A0-B-23

Copied it into a shareable sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12SSlkG6INL5OvwPbd4A3eSUgoWx7Q42dIB7C_M7UuBE/edit?usp=sharing