Philips 9W LED Lightbulb Repair

 

Philips 9W LED lightbulb, with plastic cover off

For the first 40 years or so of my life lightbulbs were not repairable: you just threw them away. So when the living room lamp bulb went dark this Christmas afternoon, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment: lightbulbs are LED these days and perhaps they can be repaired! 

The 'bulb' was simply a plastic dome, and had to be pried off. It was just glued on without the need of a hermetic seal. Just one LED, LED3 was blown as since all the LEDs are connected in series, the entire string now no longer worked.

LED3 (bottom center) had a crater in it and fell apart the minute it was touched.

The repair was simple: I just bridged LED3 contacts with solder.

LED3 solder-bridged

And it works!

Repaired lightbulb. Notice the dark spot missing an LED at far left of LED ring

I decided not to install the plastic cover: that will help compensate a little for the reduced light from the missing LED. But of course, hazardous voltages are now exposed. Which is why I installed it in my soldering station lamp, which is nearly entirely covered and out of harm's way:

Toolboom has a great article on LED lightbulb repair; do check it out. I had bought just one smart lightbulb, not wanting to throw out a bunch of electronics just because the bulb is faulty. Do not just bin your faulty IoT devices: they have to be physically destroyed as the electronics can be a security risk. Now that they can be repaired, it would be fun to hack a bunch of faulty bulbs. 

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Happy Trails. 

Frank Sinatra- have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas