Hello, just sharing my experience on switching LEDs on a chinese par38 from ebay. As it was my first time doing this kind of thing, my final work is pretty shoddy but I know what could be done better next time. My par38 had 6 cool white and 3 blue and I want to make it more blue. Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk :rockon:, I am no expert and am not responsible for any mishaps that may occur.
I looked at the description of the par38 on ebay and found out the LEDs are 3W bridgelux so I ordered some Royal Blue and Ultra Violet ones.
Materials needed:
3W Bridgelux LEDs
Soldering Iron + Solder
Desoldering Braid (there are other tools too but this seems to be the cheapest ~$4-5 at radioshack)
Screw Driver
Par38 Bulb
THERMAL ADHESIVE (I did not have)
There were 3 screws to unscrew, then the cap comes off. The optic lenses are loose and just fall off. Desolder the LEDs you want to swap.
As you can see in the picture above, there is a minus sign, so the other side is positive. Solder the new LEDs to the corresponding + and - signs on the par38. Use a dab of thermal adhesive before placing the LED if you have it. *If you happen to mess up matching the + and - on 1 of the LEDs, it will not work; the rest of the LEDs will blink faintly.
Final work. Replaced the 3 center Cool Whites with 2 RB and 1 UV. Pretty messy huh? :laugh: I could not get all the old solder off. It did not help that I have a really cheap soldering iron from a bargain store. This caused me to use force to push the old LEDs off. I was pretty bad at using the desoldering braid hah.
Final Result, feeling sketchy about this.. but yeah success somewhat.. inb4 house fire :a36::laugh:.
I looked at the description of the par38 on ebay and found out the LEDs are 3W bridgelux so I ordered some Royal Blue and Ultra Violet ones.
Materials needed:
3W Bridgelux LEDs
Soldering Iron + Solder
Desoldering Braid (there are other tools too but this seems to be the cheapest ~$4-5 at radioshack)
Screw Driver
Par38 Bulb
THERMAL ADHESIVE (I did not have)
There were 3 screws to unscrew, then the cap comes off. The optic lenses are loose and just fall off. Desolder the LEDs you want to swap.
As you can see in the picture above, there is a minus sign, so the other side is positive. Solder the new LEDs to the corresponding + and - signs on the par38. Use a dab of thermal adhesive before placing the LED if you have it. *If you happen to mess up matching the + and - on 1 of the LEDs, it will not work; the rest of the LEDs will blink faintly.
Final work. Replaced the 3 center Cool Whites with 2 RB and 1 UV. Pretty messy huh? :laugh: I could not get all the old solder off. It did not help that I have a really cheap soldering iron from a bargain store. This caused me to use force to push the old LEDs off. I was pretty bad at using the desoldering braid hah.
Final Result, feeling sketchy about this.. but yeah success somewhat.. inb4 house fire :a36::laugh:.
