GU10 LED electromagnetic interference

Just wished to share my recent experience with GU10 LED bulbs.

Mostly positive, with bulbs in major use areas now replaced with a combination (as I experimented) of NxtGen bulbs from Simply LED (very bright - 50W equivalent?, light a bit 'strange' ghostly), Toolstation

94688 Halolite bulbs (bright, but not as bright as NxtGen, and warmer, closer to Halogen) and Robus RGU48LED 3W (brightish - 35W equivalent?, reasonable colour - between NxtGen and Halolite).

Negative is my experience with dimmable bulbs from eBay and Simply LED (older model, not NxtGen). Both these bulbs caused my broadband to fail due I believe to electromagnetic interference. I diagnosed it down to these bulbs by testing the broadband line and monitoring signal to noise, and noticed the line died and s/n detiorated to fail state when switching these bulbs (3 of) on in the upper and lower hall light fittings.

Hope this information is helpful to others.

Paul R

Reply to
Paul R
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Good grief, what about us poor short wave fans and radio hams, is this yet another domestic device that does not pass the specs but nobody could give a monkeys?

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

This is an interesting report but there are other factors here that have to be at play rather than just the LED bulbs.

I think your coax cable may be missing a proper ground connection somewhere close to the point where you take your measurements. The LEDs are just not large enough of a load to create such big issues as to completely bring cable TV service down, even if you were to wrap your cable a couple of times around each bulb (I assume this is not the case).

How far is the cable from the LEDs anyway? Is the coax terminated in the same (properly rated) shared wall mounting box with the dimmer switch or otherwise close to it? If that's the case, the dimmer switch itself, not the dimmable LEDs, would be my best guess.

Reply to
DA

You will get a better feel for what is going on by listening to a radio on a clear frequency on LW and MW. To be fair, the interference might not be due to the bulbs per se, but more the way the dimmer is working when lightly loaded with just a few watts. Cue are resident expert Mr Gabriel.

Reply to
Graham.

Nobody could give a monkeys about newsgroup etiquette?

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Reply to
mark

re close to the point where you take your measurements. The LEDs are just n= ot large enough of a load to create such big issues as to completely bring = cable TV service down, even if you were to wrap your cable a couple of time= s around each bulb (I assume this is not the case).

The original post didn't mention cable TV. The broadband connection is probably ADSL over twisted pair telephone wire. No coax would be involved!

It is quite possible that the internal telephone wiring is running next to mains cables, so such interference could easily happen. If it is an ADSL service the best way to help overcome it would be to fit a "faceplate filter" to the telephone master socket and plug the modem/ router directly into this. Disconnecting the bell wire from the internal wiring can also be useful as doing so preserves the electrical balance of the telephone wiring, thereby reducing interference pickup, and with most phones does not cause a problem.

John

Reply to
John Walliker

If you are complaining about top posting, then Brian has an agreed exemption in this newsgroup, as he is blind and it makes it easier for him.

SteveW

Reply to
SteveW

If you bypass the dimmer, is the interference still there?

Reply to
Frank Erskine

Quite. I've had dimmers with tungsten wipe out a dial up connection. ;-)

The stupid BT three wire system is effectively unbalanced, so should really be in screened cable.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Hi, just to confirm some of the observations.

I do not have cable, I have ADSL.

The bulbs are dimmable models, but there are no dimmers used.

The internal extension wiring routed to my ADSL Router is not screened and does have three wires.

Paul R

Reply to
Paul R

The best way would be to site the router at the main BT socket, replacing that if not already done with a filter type. Then run to your computer using CAT5 cable. This is balanced and screened so much less prone to picking up interference.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Putting a 0.1uF cap across the LED as close to it as poss might also make a real difference.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Cat5 or Cat5e is not normally screened it's just 4 twisted pairs (different pitch for each pair and far more twists per inch than Cat3 (aka CW1308, telephone cable).

You can get screened Cat5/Cat5e but the vast majority of stuff out there isn't screened.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

responding to

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m0jav wrote: We have had reports of people having trouble fitting LED replacement bulbs in dimmable light fittings. The belief is the LED fitting provides insufficient load to the dimmer and an interaction is set up between the existing dimmer unit and the ac to dc convertor in the LED bulb which causes high levels of radiated interference. Wonder if a similar thing is happening with these dimmable units?

Best Wishes John M0JAV

Paul R wrote:

Reply to
m0jav

dimmable light

dimmer and an interaction is set

which causes high

these dimmable units?

Hi, just to restate - whilst the bubls were dimmable, there was no dimmer involved, just a straight switch.

Paul R

Reply to
Paul R

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