Blinking led light

[bigtig50]

I just installed three Eaton "Streetworks" post top luminaires. They are solid state LED fixtures. When I turned on the power two lit up beautifully but the third blinked on and off in a steady rhythm. Any ideas?

 

[tadavidson]

was it a colored light?

 

[bigtig50]

was it a colored light?

No, not sure of the color rendition but bright white.

 

[mopowr steve]

Had a condition like that with A19 LED bulbs in certain quantity in a light fixture but that had a cl dimmer connected as well, removed one light and they quit.

say, by chance does the driver have dimming capability and did the dimming conductors happen to get pinched in something? Just a thought.

 

[mgookin]

Sounds like a thermal trip.
I'd call the manufacturer.

 

[iwire]

I just installed three Eaton "Streetworks" post top luminaires. They are solid state LED fixtures. When I turned on the power two lit up beautifully but the third blinked on and off in a steady rhythm. Any ideas?

Yeah the driver is junk, hopefully under warranty still.

We installed a bunch of LED street lights on a new road and soon enough many of them failed and where blinking. Made traveling down the road at night very odd. The manufacturer replaced them.

 

[Electric-Light]

I just installed three Eaton "Streetworks" post top luminaires. They are solid state LED fixtures. When I turned on the power two lit up beautifully but the third blinked on and off in a steady rhythm. Any ideas?

Yeah the driver is junk, hopefully under warranty still.

We installed a bunch of LED street lights on a new road and soon enough many of them failed and where blinking. Made traveling down the road at night very odd. The manufacturer replaced them.

Thermal trip has a dead band to avoid hunting and a big clue of thermal hunting is when it starts only after it's been on for some time following a cold start. If it's blinking at a rate like a railroad crossing or an aircraft warning light it's almost certainly a bunk LED ballast. I've seen it on many induction and LED street lights. This is a result of municipality failing to specify non-blinking (or not greater than once every five minutes so as to avoid claim of holding LEDs to more stringent requirements than HPS) ballast failure into requirements.

 

[iwire]

Thermal trip has a dead band to avoid hunting and a big clue of thermal hunting is when it starts only after it's been on for some time following a cold start.

I have yet to see this in a LED, only HIDs. Not saying there isn't thermal protection just not seeing it in action yet.

If it's blinking at a rate like a railroad crossing or an aircraft warning light it's almost certainly a bunk LED ballast.

This is the failure mode I am seeing with LED drivers.

 

[Electric-Light]

I have yet to see this in a LED, only HIDs. Not saying there isn't thermal protection just not seeing it in action yet.
This is the failure mode I am seeing with LED drivers.

LEDs aren't always rainbows and butterflies and I feel like they're just not cut out for severe duty. Despite the common belief that LEDs are unaffeceted by cycle length, today's transistorized LED ballasts are full of tiny chips and surface mount components that are very delicate and there are hundreds of solder joints. There are microchips operating at line voltage level and they're not very forgiving of adverse conditions just like telecom equipment and some drives. The elements routinely expose them to high humidity and place them into dew conditions like water near the pole base rising up as the ground and base gets heated up by the sun.

Inside telecom cabinets you're much more likely to find climate control or equipment with internal heater to stay above dew point. Something not found on transformers or regular ballasts. Some LED ballasts are filled with gap fillers but the clear gel that holds the fluorescent phosphor on LED elements and some ballast sealing compounds are water vapor permeable. Some compounds cause physical damage to delicate solder joints or microelectronics parts because of thermal expansion or roadway vibration stress. Giving dew avoidance heater to LED ballast would quickly undo its alleged operation cost savings. Standard HID ballasts simply bake itself out of condensation during normal operation and lamp doesn't mind condensation as long as there isn't liquid water dripping onto hot lamp.

This one explains how ambient conditions affects drives: https://www.semikron.com/dl/service...ower-electronics-systems-en-2016-07-15-rev-00


There are a few lower wattage HID fixtures like retail lighting ceramic metal halide and novelty applications like indoor pot growers that use electronic ballasts, but they're not used where high reliability is a requirement and would struggle in the climate seen by roadway lighting.