Flickering MR16 LEDs

[Daniallo]

So, I had 5 x 50w MR16s in the bathroom on a dimmer switch. Years of use & power usage, then I presume the switch died. It was buzzing & all the bulbs went out individually over a period of a couple of weeks. Bulbs tested OK, so dead transformers.

I decided to switch to LED & had a couple of Kanlux 0-30W LED drivers in the garage, as all the old wiring was to be ripped out I decided to do a proof of concept. Stuck a plug on the driver & wired in the LEDs x 4, they flickered like a strobe light. This test was using Ideal lever conectors with 5 ports, in 1x 12v in x4 LED out arrangement. Putting in 1 bulb at a time with live 12v & no flicker.

Bulbs are Screwfix LAP 3w.

Did a bit of a jig & went with the diagram in the driver instructions, & daisy chained them in parallel instead x3 this time, still the flicker, remove 1 bulb & the flicker resolves itself after a second.

Not sure what the problem is here, between bulb cable length? I've done a youtube demo to show the problem.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Brian Gaff]

What exactly is the power supply? Is it some unregulated transformer or a switch mode device. I'd not expect to see much on an old fashioned analogue system but might if the load was a little odd on the switch mode. Brian

[Daniallo]

It's a transformer specifically designed for LEDs from 0 to 30 watts.

[Bob Minchin]

Put a low power <30w , filament lamp on it like a 21w car bulb and see what it does to try and identify which is at fault. You could also try the led on a 12v battery (car)