Caution with QC on the LEDGroupBuy Power Supplies

[Garbz]

Hi All,

 

Just want to share a note of caution with the powersupplies on LED Group Buy. Specifically the 250W 48V I have here.

 

The good news is the powersupply works fine ... now... but it would have been very sad if I actually turned it on when it arrived. Let the pictures do the talking:

 

1. Components leads so long that they can bend over and short against other components. Bottom side of the circuit board has the leads bent over before soldering in ways that would lead to shorts too.

 

2. Out of the box the main inductor had snapped off the board. I'd put this down to damage during shipping until I saw the back of the board. (See #4) The powersupply had something noticeably lose in it. But wait, also look at the bottom left. Yes if the screw jams just force it, who cares if you don't have the right screwdriver just strip the heads while you're at it. It doesn't need to go in straight right?

 

3. A solder bead simply rolling around the underside of main circuit board above the plastic. Had that moved in to any number of countless locations under that board and the supply would have let the blue smoke out.

 

4. The most disappointing thing I saw under the circuit board.

a ) Cold solder joints just waiting to crack (12 in total).

b ) Some components which look like the assembler was having a competition to see who could put the most solder on the board, that's very bad form.

c ) The soldering iron looks like it came in contact with another part of the circuit while soldering something on. Should you spend 2 seconds to fix it? Nah.

d ) Finally the reason I opened the damn thing up to begin with. The main inductor was loose and upon inspection it was loose because the solder joint was cold and it had been clipped with wires AFTER soldering rather than before without re-heating. The powersupply didn't even need to be mishandled at this point for this component to break off the board, it just needed to be turned upside down. Quite frankly this is appalling quality control and I've failed some uni students in for less shoddy work than this.

 

 

The only good thing about this powersupply is the price and that I didn't turn it on before I decided to open it up and fix the obvious problems I could see and hear (loose component) before even unpacking. I'm sure there are good quality examples of this powersupply too, but as I signed up to this forum to add this little warning, at the same time on the front page there looks like there are 3 other thread complaining about dead powersupplies.

 

LED Group Buy I love all the stuff I bought from you, but I'd happily spend twice as much for a powersupply with higher quality control that's guaranteed to work. For the moment it looks like I saved it but I'm sure not everyone would know what they were doing.

[jedimasterben]

While the ratio of the ones sold to the ones that people say they have problems with is low, it's still around one a week or week and a half that seems to go bad.

 

I've been hinting at Milad to start carrying the Meanwell HLG series (since they're IP65 rated and fanless, and built like friggin' tanks), but nothing on that front yet. The HLG series comes in a ton of models, with the higher wattage ones being pretty expensive (40w = $45, 60w=$47, 80w = $58, 100w = $67, 120w = $69, 150w = $71, 185w = $74, 240w = $85, 320w = $123, all prices coming from onlinecomponents.com), so for those wanting to run multiple Lumia 5.1/5.2 (which a lot are nowadays) it gets much more expensive and they tend to shy away from it. If given the choice between an $82 cost to power two of the 5.2 versus a higher quality setup but costing $125, 99% of people are going to go with the lower cost option.

[welight]

I am not sure bargain hunters will ever stop being attracted to the headlights. Total cost of ownership is a catch cry that requires a bit of head time but its worth some context. Low cost supplies are low cost for reason, they dont contain all that you need for trouble free life but worse they are typically poor with respect to efficiency, that difference between a good and poor supply can be as much as 25%. So 25% more heat in total system thermals, 25% reduction in led performance etc. The ripple effect in your system can be substantial beyond possible catastrophic failure. Looking further Optics vary in quality and can also be 10-15% in emmissive variance between cheap and high quality. The takeaway is leds are a great tool and have gained in leaps and bounds in efficacy, other parts of the ecosystem have lagged behind, but as suppliers rush to backfill the demand.....?, explore power supply options with care, you dont want to be roadkill

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Hi Welight

 

We did have some issues with the 250w version (one batch was bad)

issues have been addressed and we have replaced anyone's that was bad.

 

We are looking at HLGs but they are really high priced but are rated higher in quality.