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I didn't realise how old this lamp was until I made this video and discovered that this lamp has been running 24/7 for over 8 years!

The only failure was degradation of the blue LED, with a slight reduction in intensity, but more importantly, a discolouration of its lens that affected it's output adversely.

A new blue LED has been fitted and the lamp is now back in operation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH0FOHH3slA

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I made a video about this glitter lamp eight years ago and didn't realise that this lamp has been running 24/7 for eight years! That's over 70,000 hours! Perhaps a good demonstration of the exponential effect of over-driving LED lamps, since this "3W" lamp runs at only 2W and is therefore a lot cooler. It has also operated base-down, which also helps keep the electronic driver a lot cooler. Interestingly, the blue LED had reduced in intensity quite a bit, but the output had also been affected by discolouration of the lens on the surface as a distinct brown ring and a dot in the middle. I'd guess those were the peak focal points of the light. Side by side in series, a new and old LED showed very different beam patterns, with the new one being a strong focal point and the old one have a distinct diffusion pattern with prominent dark rings that tallied up with the lens discolouration. (Brown doesn't pass blue light well.) In this video I fitted a new LED and it restored the red/blue balance well. It takes a surprisingly high specific gravity to support floating mylar glitter in a neutral enough ratio to allow a humble 2W lamp to move it by thermal convection. The specific gravity of the fluid was adjusted literally drip by drip of water to achieve the balance. I have deduced that many glitter lamps may use calcium nitrate as the chemical that creates a high enough specific gravity of fluid to work. But attempts to make similar vials of glitter and liquid have been plagued by the aluminium layer being eaten off the mylar resulting in a lack of glitteriness. The fix for this may be using coated glitter, but that doesn't explain how the re-used glitter lamp fluid hasn't attacked the shiny aluminium layer of the exposed Rosco scenic glitter. Is it a different chemical? Or is there an additive that stops the calcium nitrate corroding the aluminium layer? The glitter I used was a theatre industry glitter supplied by Rosco. I don't know if they still sell this. It is the most extreme glitter I've come across, with an intense sparkle that I've not seen in generic glitters. I think it's because it's pure aluminium coated mylar with no protective coating. It flows like granular liquid mercury in its container. I specifically avoid using intrusive mid-run video adverts for a more relaxing viewing experience. If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.patreon.com/bigclive Patreon supporters get early access to advert-free videos as they are made, and also regular live streams. The Patreon support keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. Other contribution options are available at:- http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm #ElectronicsCreators

Comments

Jon Knight

Heh, I couldn't see much difference between the before and after shots of the lamp in use. Which is probably why I'd be a useless lighting engineer. :-)

Peter Laws

Broken plastic pillar aside, I am amazed and pleased at how serviceable that lamp is (the LED part, not necessarily the "disco" bits!). Nice work!

bigclive

It was subtle and didn't show well on camera. The much larger chip in the new LED probably didn't help with the focal qualities of the lamp.