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Comment by bcl | Hacker News Reader

The LED's should last alot longer than that. The problem is going to be the switch-mode power supply. I'd hold off on these things until their price drops a bit, and until we have an idea how long the PS will last. Has anyone done a teardown on these yet?

The CFL's I've bought from Costco are lasting less than a year for me, so I'm reluctant to start using them until they have the bugs worked out.

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Here you go: http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40512-Remote_Phosphors_P...

Doesn't look like a high quality circuit to me.

Maybe it is the photo quality, but that main board looks almost hand-soldered instead of reflowed. The blobs on the SMT parts aren't consistent, although that may be because they have a mixture of through-hole parts so close.

My thoughts exactly. It looks like something that I would build by hand (messy) as opposed to something that comes out of a factory. I guess it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be unreliable, but I can't help but think so.

All would be forgiven if it wasn't $40. I was going to get a bunch of these, but at this price point it just doesn't make sense.

"All would be forgiven if it wasn't $40."

Early days.

That board is wave soldered, not reflowed. The through-hole parts are inserted from the top, the SMT parts are glued down to the bottom, then the bottom of the board is dipped in a fountain ("wave") of molten solder. The solder blobs are normal for wave soldering followed by hand soldering of the wires. Production costs can be very low, you just have to select SMT parts that can take the heat and thermal shock.

Less than a year? That's really short. Have you tried busting out a multimeter on your wiring (since you sound like the DIY type) or calling an electrician?

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