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12V burnt Cree LED bulb repair

by Updated: Nov 11, 2020diy-miscellaneous0 comments

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Cree Luxeon LED bulb repair

How to fix MR16 type 12V LED bulb by Avi

So…, you wanted to use environment friendly light bulbs and purchased led type MR16 (or else) 12V or 110/220VAC led bulbs to replace the traditional halogen bulbs. But what do you do when a bulb is burnt out? (Yes, led bulbs do tend to burnt out…)

Don’t trash it, don’t make the situation worst. You can contribute to keep our planet cleaner.
You can repair it and I’ll show you how.

These kind of bulbs uses few Cree led components and in most cases one of the leds fails which causes the bulb to stop emitting light or emit a very dimmed light. Replacing the faulty led will usually solve the issue and allow further use of the bulb.
This page will show how I replaced a fault internal led and fixed the bulb.

DISCLAIMER – Important!

Click to read
Preparing for the fix. Needed components:
  • Phillips head screwdriver
  • Solder iron and soldering accessories
  • Working Cree / Luxeon led (this could be taken from another fault bulb)
  • Thermal grease / heatsink compound
LED bulb image1
General view of a Cree MR16 led bulb
Bulb's 3x front screws
1. Unscrew 3x front plate screws.
Use only hand screwdriver as you need to ‘feel’ the force. Most bulbs are made of plastic and metal housing. Some screw bosses are on the plastic part and you need to be very gentle not to break it.
Open bulb, 3x PCB screws
2. Remove front plate which goes off with 3 plastic lenses. Leds PCB in now seen. In order to disassemble it, unscrew the 3 screws that are reachable through holes in the PCB.
Bulb's rear view PCB
3. Rear part housing can now be removed. Driver PCB with contacts is removed by desolder the 2 wires.
exclaim2 Pay attention to wire colors and position on the PCB. You don’t want to blow this part.
Leds driver PCB (small one) can now be removed which will release the leds PCB.
exclaim2 Note that in some models the rear part of the leds PCB is made of metal to allow proper cooling.
This part is attached to the metal housing with a thermal grease. If this is the case, clean the grease to allow easy handling. You’ll need to apply new grease when assembling.
PCB with LEDs
4. Now that you got to the leds PCB, locate the fault led component. Connect each led to a DC power source (3.2-3.8VDC) to test if it works.  While doing so, mark each led polarity and mark the fault led that is going to be replaced.
Desolder the fault led and solder a good one keeping the same polarity.
When done, test the replaced led and if all is OK assemble the parts in revers order.
exclaim2 Do not forget to add thermal grease to the rear of the PCB, these leds are sensitive to heat.
exclaim2 Pay attention to the closing force of screws. Don’t use excessive force !
Voila – you now have a working bulb and you contributed to a cleaner environment.
Have fun and enjoy your lighting, Avi clapup_gifanim

For more How-To guides by Avi, Visit the main DIY page

You might find there useful guides such as :

LG LCD monitor flickering fix
Makita Charger conversion to 220VAC
How to repair LG refrigerator water leakage?

and more…

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Disclaimer

1. This product contains electronics and/or electric parts.

Any modification made to your product may cause damage to your equipment and harm to yourself or to others. 
Any modification made to your product AND/OR to a 3rd party attached accessories will void manufacturer warranty.
None of the following steps is recommended by me nor by the manufacturer. 
This post show only my personal experience and know-how.
If you follow any of the steps, you do it on your own risk and responsibility.

2. Copyright © 2003 Avi. All rights reserved. 

Content including all text and images in part or in whole may not be reproduced, retransmitted, stored, distributed, disseminated, sold, published, broadcast or circulated in any medium
without written consent of the author. 

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