CHEAP replacement led strips for vp rigid housings?

[sbs10v8]

That is interesting. Mine worked perfect and didnt have to do anything with the wires. Ill look at mine again tomorrow and see if i can tell how the leds are actually wired underneath that yellow coating.

[ElChupacabra]

Originally Posted by sbs10v8

That is interesting. Mine worked perfect and didnt have to do anything with the wires. Ill look at mine again tomorrow and see if i can tell how the leds are actually wired underneath that yellow coating.

Did both sides of yours work when you cut them?

[sbs10v8]

Originally Posted by ElChupacabra

Did both sides of yours work when you cut them?

I never tried to put power to the section I cut off so I dont know.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by ElChupacabra

So it looks like they're both right and I don't have time to figure out why....

Cut one of the 5.5" bars in half with a dremel. The half that had the original wiring soldered to it no longer works. For kicks I cut the original wire lead in half and soldered that to the other half of the LED power leads and that half still works which is what's pictured above. I tried cutting a few sections off the half that isn't working and I can't get it to work again at all. I also realized I could cut these with kitchen scissors and a Dremel is way overkill. I have no clue why I'm getting this result. I only had a few minutes and now I have to run to a meeting. I might have time to play with it more later. Discuss....

This is interesting and there has to be an explanation. I'm going to assume it depends on where you cut it. Any electricians or electrical engineers out there that can explain?

I got mine today. They are insanely bright. On 2S they barely light up, but on 3S you can't even look at them. They are very blue not white though. And 5.5" is too wide for any of my RC's. I wish they'd sell smaller ones.

Mine also came shipped in a thin, plastic bag so the box took a beating. Both lights work fine, but I'm tired of companies shipping products in unprotected packages.

[ElChupacabra]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

This is interesting and there has to be an explanation. I'm going to assume it depends on where you cut it. Any electricians or electrical engineers out there that can explain?

I got mine today. They are insanely bright. On 2S they barely light up, but on 3S you can't even look at them. They are very blue not white though. And 5.5" is too wide for any of my RC's. I wish they'd sell smaller ones.

Mine also came shipped in a thin, plastic bag so the box took a beating. Both lights work fine, but I'm tired of companies shipping products in unprotected packages.

I messed with the piece that wasn't working a little more the other night. Couldn't get it to work. Tried cutting off sections at different distances between the obvious light spots on the board. I also shaved the board down the copper layer to see if I could find a crossing wire I may have been hitting but couldn't find anything. I searched for a cross section of a COB and found stuff but nothing really explained what was going on. The best diagram I found made it seem like it shouldn't matter where you cut it. Still confused...

[JatoTheRipper]

This is going off of my memory which isn't saying too much. My bulb has dimmed after two handfuls of concussions. But this is what I think I remember...

Now that I think about it I was told you can't cut COB LEDs, but you can carefully shave/grind them. Something about not letting the layers touch.

[ElChupacabra]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

This is going off of my memory which isn't saying too much. My bulb has dimmed after two handfuls of concussions. But this is what I think I remember...

Now that I think about it I was told you can't cut COB LEDs, but you can carefully shave/grind them. Something about not letting the layers touch.

That kind of makes sense. They have an "isolation" layer in the middle of the board to divide what I assume is the positive and negative. The light producing spots cross that layer vertically I think. The results I'm getting just seem weird. I can't get it to work after several cuts. Maybe I should try the dremel again instead of scissors and see if I can get lucky.

[84yoda]

What's weird is the side you cut off worked but the other side didn't work. Makes no sense.

Do you only have the 5.5"? The 7" has the leds setup differently. There setup like this / / / / / / (7") vs l l l l l l l (5.5").

[ElChupacabra]

Nope, I just ordered the 5.5" size. Didn't see a use for 7" bars since I don't run anything near that big.

[GTSLOW]

Originally Posted by 84yoda

Quick search on ebay.

USA seller, (2) 7" bars. 12V. $5.69 shipped.

2x Super Bright White Car COB LED Lights -DRL Fog Driving Lamp Waterproof DC 12V | eBay

Tons on ebay for dirt cheap.

Is there a 6V version?

[84yoda]

Don't think so. I did a quick search on ebay but only thing I saw was a 48mm 6-7v cob from china.

[84yoda]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

They are very blue not white though.

I got 4 more sets in yesterday and they all have that blue tint to them. My other ones from a few weeks ago were all white output. So I contacted the seller and he says he's going to send out the "right ones".

[84yoda]

Ive been meaning to update my last post, but the seller set me the correct white cob leds. I asked what he wanted me to do with these blue tinted leds and he said I could have them. Pretty cool of him to do that. Anyways having all these blue ones I successfully cut off a quarter inch, then a half inch then a full inch off and it still worked after each cut. I just used some sheet metal shears to cut it down. So you can cut down cob leds.

[sbs10v8]

Yep, i said that and posted pics awhile ago of my cut leds but there still seemed to be alot of skeptics that said it couldnt be done. Oh well glad it worked for u as well.

[calcagno45]

FYI, just cut one of the COB lights finally and it continued to work. I pulled the led strip out of my Team Associated light bar that started to burn up and shoved the $2 COB strip into the AE aluminum housing. Double checked it was still working and all seems to be good. Going to try mounting it up on my Bomber in a minute to give it a test drive. Will take some pictures shortly.

[calcagno45]

Pics

[calcagno45]

It's BRIGHT. I didn't get to mount it up but anxious.

[Hydrocarbon92]

I haven't found any exact specs, but I'm guessing each LED element has it's own resistor, so each long column of LED's has a +12v and gnd busbar on either side. So if you cut the COB, you have to be sure the busbar doesn't short onto the aluminum back. When I cut the strip LED's that are pre-applied to aluminum backing, I sand the cut end flat on a belt sander parallel to the cut. That reduces the chance the powered copper doesn't short to the backing.

[Natedog]

That and a little conformal coating, liquid electrical tape, E6000 or something over the cut just in case.

[Hydrocarbon92]

Really just anything that you'd normally put over an exposed solder joint. If something touches the edge just right, it would be like hitting an exposed wire - albeit very thin.