I forget what it was but the last China made thing I dropped one of the steel? woodscrews. A magnet would not pick it up! That is why it fell of the magnetic screwdriver tip.
Bill D
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I forget what it was but the last China made thing I dropped one of the steel? woodscrews. A magnet would not pick it up! That is why it fell of the magnetic screwdriver tip.
Bill D
For anyone planning to use these Barrina lights, the screws are some metric equivalent of no. 6 x 3/4 flathead. They worked fine for first install, but when I reused them for moving the lights they suffered.
I've decided to go with the Barrina 4 foot dual ended ballast bypass LED tubes. Four of the existing fixtures in my shop will be easy to rewire.
However since all the fixtures weren't purchased at the same time, I have two identical fixtures that have a coil, a capacitor and a resistor on each end instead of a ballast. Here's what the powered end looks like.
Attachment 507184
This is the opposite end.
Attachment 507185
There are two gray and white plastic boxes in the middle that I believe are just junction boxes. Since the light still works I'm not going to break one open to bee 100% sure what is inside.
Attachment 507187
I traced the circuit and here is a schematic of the fixture wiring.
Attachment 507186
The two unknown boxes are shown in their locations with the question mark next to them.
Since the Barrina tubes have both contacts in the tombstone on one end connected to the line and the ones on the other end are both connected to the neutral, rewiring should be pretty easy by removing the coil, capacitor and resistor.
My question is: Do the Barrina bulbs care which end of the tube is connected to the line or doesn't it matter?
I think most of us used the actual Barrina fixtures rather than the replacement "tubes"...I would hope that the data sheet that comes with them indicates if there is a preferred end to get power. LED is normally polarity sensitive, but more and more devices are getting around that with some little electronic tricks "under the hood".
Polarity should not matter with AC.
Bill D
Another vote for the Barrina fixtures. One note, I believe these are overdriven, which might explain the cost. It also results in a lot of heat. That heat then causes the fixtures to expand and make "ting" sounds as they expand. (Think like rain on a roof) It was also sufficient to disconnect the end to end connectors. I used to come into the shop and every week a different fixture would be out, or flickering. I put a screw at either end of the light to prevent them shifting over time. That was several months ago, and I haven't had an issue since.
True...they do expand and contract and I had the same issue and the same temporary solution. But I bought a package of those short wire joiners that Tom linked to above and I plan on putting them in the rows of three fixtures instead of the little short joiners to totally eliminate the disconnection that occasionally occurs from expansion/contraction.
The wiring diagram shows that one end is connected to the line, the other end is connected to the neutral. Since these are light emitting diodes, I thought a diode only conducted on half of the 60 cycle wave. I know that if you have LED lights on a Christmas tree, if you photograph it you will often see only half the lights in the photograph.
Lee, I believe that the drivers on the fixture or tube deal with the AC/DC thing.
I ordered the new tubes yesterday and the are supposed to arrive on Friday (9/8).
Oh, those mysterious gray and white boxes at the mid point in the wiring on the two different fixtures contained a small circuit board. I'm not sure what they did, but they will no longer be needed.
Now if I can just find a place to properly dispose of the old florescent tubes.
I may be off on this but I think all or most consumer LED 'chips' run on 12 volt DC. The drivers Jim reference above convert 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC. The '50,000 hour' life may refer to the expected life span of the LED 'chip'. It may not include the life of the driver so the LED may be fine, the driver may not be.
I noticed a few of the Amazon reviews noting bad RF interference with the Barrina lights. Has anyone here had that experience?