Innr smart bulbs both DEAD.  Received replacements.  One now DEAD again. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 11:31:00 am
content: I put two white zigbee smart bulbs in my hallway. Paired them up with the zigbee hub, added motion sensors, wrote a little automation script to turn the lights on when motion was detected. Only if the outdoor solar panel is reading less that a quarter watt.Brightness was set to 127 (50%).Everything worked... for 2 days, then together the bulbs came on at 100% brightness, without being triggered. I wasn't even in the room, but the hallway lit up really bright. Possibly more than 100% brightness. I power cycled them, thinking it was just a glitch. Neither came back on. They should always come on immediately when powered up. Closer inspection revealed both bulbs glowed dimmly. One more dimmly than the other.Oddly the smarts where still somewhat working. When commanded it would respond, but the light wouldn't change.I emailed them on Amazon and they asked for the invoice and sent replacements straight away. No quibble.2 days later the new ones arrived and I swapped them into the system and the were back up and running again.3 days later and while sitting in the living room, not in the hallway and during the day when they would not be turned on by the automatics, one of them start strobe lighting, rapidly and extremely brightly. After a power cycle to stop it, it strobed a little longer and then went dull dim. It has remained that way since. It talks to the Zigbee hub but doesn't produce light.They seem to be one of the first to try and cram the whole LED driver AND zigbee chip inside just a tiny 10mm ring around the metal connection cap.I should note these are B22 British Bayonet connectors.So the failure mode and cramped space leads me to suspect it's a capacitive dropper circuit and the capacitor is failing, probably due to heat.Do you think I should ask for more replacements and waste my time, ask for a refund or just move on and forget it?Note, finding Smart devices that do not require an internet connection, an app or a cloud login, is quite hard. These were fairly perfect as I can control the Zigbee network ... if they lasted longer than a day.

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 11:39:07 am
content: On a separate note on Electrical standards. There is a much larger market in ES (Eurpean Series?) bulbs, mostly E27 and E14 Edison screws.While I can buy adapters for B22-E27 they extend the bulb below the shade. So after getting a little scared with an Amazon search that people were selling PVC and ABS bulb holders with no cable tethers and asking you not to leave the bulb on for longer than 4 hours etc... I went to a local electrical supplier...They don't sell E27 fittings. They just don't. They will sell you E27 bulbs, but installation fittings like the lamp holder on a pendant, is British standard only.If I was to replace the B22 fittings with E27 of correct quality, would that technically be a "fault" or item of concern for an electrical inspection?

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 01:37:29 pm
content: Took one apart. Nothing burnt or blackened. No skid marks,It's tiny. Seems to be a fuseble resistor, an SMD Mov(?), a rectifier, a few green chinesium caps, 1uF and 4uF, an anonymous 8 pin MCU (?) and a Zigbee daughter board with can and antenna mounted 90* through the other board.There is a small inductor and a small cap, which I assume is a buck converter providing the power for the Zigbee digital part. Looking at it though it seems the LEDs are just the long filiments which are running off rectified mains power in series? I don't see any SMPS or a cap big enough to be a dropped for 10W of LED.I don't have a suitable rig to safely power it on a bench and see what's what. Not unless you consider "wagos" and thinking twice before touching anything as safe.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 03:59:42 pm
content: Well, that's just terrific! An MTBF of 48 hours or so.Jon

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 15, 2021, 04:21:55 pm
content: Quote from: jmelson on February 15, 2021, 03:59:42 pmI think it said 10,000 hours on the box,