Humming LED strip light?

[T i m]

After being given the 4 x 6' 30W LED fluorescent tube replacements (and Non-starter fuses) I was extra aware of the now 'unnecessary mains hum from the fitting.

This morning I by-passed the ballast (and took the cap out while I was there), put the tube back in, turned the light back on and the hum was still there?! ;-(

Undid the non-starter, hum stops?

The other tube in the other fitting also hums (or that could also be / partly the ballast that is still in circuit).

Whoever removed the LED tubes and put them in the storage unit isn't familiar with them and must have plonked them down on their end and I noticed that the pins on the non 'input' end of the two I hadn't used till today have been mostly pushed inside the partly broken end cap. ;-(

Luckily they don't need to be used so I'm going to remove them completely and re-wire the fitting further to just retain the non-starter and the one 'live end' (I don't think I need the pins to be able to retain the tube in the fitting) and then I can try the remaining two tubes and if they hum or not.

Anyone else noticed hum on LED replacement tubes? The only place I can imagine it's coming from is any electronics in the (one?) 'active' end cap and being amplified by the batten fitting?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

Which I did just now and unfortunately, the remaining two tubes with the damaged pins don't still seem to work so may have suffered other damage from the poor handling.

(If I plug the 'Input' end of the good tube into the fitting with it live the tube now lights up with just that end connected (as expected)).

Swapping the 'noisy' tube over to the other fitting seems to make it slightly quieter and the quiet tube is still quiet in what was the noisy fitting (confirming it is the tube itself).

If I grip / push the cover on the noisy fitting it does indeed quieten slightly, confirming the batten is amplifying the noise to some degree.

I'll pick up a couple of new tubes and hope they are quiet.

Cheers, T i m

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

no cannot say I have heard of it as normally they use switch mode psus and nothing else vibrates. Really you need a magnetic component at 50hz for that noise. With regard to the broken pins, I'd be tempted to araldite them in where they should be to stop the light working free and falling on somebody or inside the diffuser.

Try a gentle squeeze of the plastic ends, probably wearing gloves to see if the noise changes in character. Could there be an earth not making very good contact between the fitting and a large bit of metal. I've noticed electrostatic hums, though they tend to be tinny sounding and shuffling the movable bits soon stops them. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Try some tightly wound duct tape around the outside of the cap, and trickle some epoxy into the space by the pins that can work wonders, but might pong for a little while!

Brian

[T i m]

I've actually fixed it with a trip to TLC and two new LED tubes Brian.

Silence is twenty six quid it seems. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

And that's the thing, this really is (was) a real 50Hz mechanical hum.

I've pulled them out now as the fittings seem to be dead anyway but I do intend opening the end up a bit and see what I see. If there is nothing that looks repairable I may try taking it to bits and seeing if I can get the LED's out.

I've done that with the entire fitting and it does seem to make a difference so something is causing the metalwork to resonate.

The main earth seems sound FWIW.

Yeah, I was convinced this was the ballast as it sounds *exactly* like that.

The 'free' 6' tubes were good in that they allowed me to evaluate the idea of LED over fluorescent in that role. The chances are the tubes I was given were fairly tired (all be it that there were still functional when taken down) as they were originally on 8 hours a day,

6 days a week (pre lockdown) for a few years.

I believe there is a 3 yr warranty on these new tubes from TLC so that's handy and if they actually last the 3 years, should work out cheaper than replacing the fluorescent(s) every 6 months etc?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Given they suggest you should replace tubes fairly regularly to keep the light levels up, Rod is either lying, not using the lights or his generator is under running them. ;-)

It's shame there isn't a place where all these left brainers can't just argue black is white with each other and leave the rest of us to get on with 'ordinary' conversations.

"All my fluoro tubes have lasted decades" ... *decades* will full brightness, amazing! ... <weg>

Cheers, T i m

[whisky-dave]

I thought you'd claimed that all your lights went off/or on using sensors that dedected light levels or via PIR.