Fluorescent lamps are much more economical than incandescent lamps, with the same power, their light output is several times greater. The service life of fluorescent lamps, they write, is 5 years, provided that the number of inclusions does not exceed more than 5 times a day. But, in practice, they nurse much less than 1-1.5, a maximum of 2 years.

In this article, we will consider specific model table fluorescent lamp - Delux - TF-01.

The design of the lamp itself is excellent: it is attached to the table paradise and does not take up space on the table, good design, it has an oblong lampshade, which allows you to conveniently adjust the lighting on the table. computer desk, without illuminating the monitor, for example, but only illuminating the keyboard. Economical, lamp power 11 W. But, in this lamp there is one very significant drawback - the lamps themselves do not burn for a long time, a maximum of six months. When they were still not so expensive (before the crisis in Ukraine), it was tolerable, but when the price increased several times, the expediency of using such a table lamp simply disappeared.

And so the idea arose to convert it to LED. In principle, this is not so difficult to do, LED panels are now sold in any Radio Parts store. But in order to power them, you need a constant voltage of 12 V, which means you need to make a 12 volt power supply.

There are 2 options for manufacturing such a power supply: limit the current with a high-voltage capacitor (400-600 V) to 200-300 mA, then convert AC voltage to a constant - straighten it, and then limit and stabilize it at 12 V. The dimensions of the PSU in this situation are minimal and it would fit in the lamp shade housing. According to this scheme, industrial LED lamps are made, which look like an ordinary incandescent light bulb and are screwed into a standard socket. But, the big disadvantage of this scheme is that if some radio component of the power supply fails, the LEDs (panels) instantly break through and also fail (burn out), and they are expensive.

Therefore, it was decided to make a power supply using a step-down transformer according to the classical scheme. And by the way, in this case, you can easily adjust the output voltage. This is important so that the LEDs work in the nominal mode, do not overheat, then they will serve for a very long time, and 5, and 10 years, or more.

When altering a table fluorescent lamp - Delux - TF-01, 4 LED panels were used, each with a power of 0.3 W, i.e. in total, a 1.2 W LED lamp was obtained. At the same time, the light is excellent, it instantly lights up, and shines almost for free :)) We throw out all the old electronics from the lamp, or rather we disassemble it for spare parts.

Transformer picked up for 2 W, bridge, roll for 12 V (K142EN8B or KR142EN8B, or imported analogue voltage stabilizer for 12 V - 7812) and a pair of capacitors. True, I had to tinker a little to assemble the LED panels into a block and fix the homemade LED lamp in the lampshade. I cut off a strip of fiberglass and fixed the panels on it with self-tapping screws, and then I attached this strip with the panels to the plastic racks, which I glued to the lampshade body with dichloroethane glue. Krenka, as you can see, put on a small radiator, for reliability. If some jumps appear in the network, the roll and capacitors smooth everything out.

In terms of money, such a lamp cost no more than buying a native fluorescent lamp, but it will last ten times longer.

Well, like this, you can tinker with the rework once and for 5-7 years, or even longer, not go to the store for new lamps and at the same time reduce electricity consumption by 10 times, compared with fluorescent lamps, and 60 or 75 times - compared to an incandescent lamp. Benefit in person...
I have been using this lamp for 2 years now, I am very satisfied.

If the old Soviet luminaire with fluorescent fluorescent lamps such as LB-40, LB-80 is out of order, or you are tired of changing the starter in it, disposing of the lamps themselves (and you can’t just throw them in the trash for a long time), then you can easily convert to LED.

Most importantly, fluorescent and LED lamps have the same base - G13. No upgrade of the housing, unlike other types of pin contacts, is required.

• G- means that pins are used as contacts

• 13 is the distance in millimeters between these pins

Rework Benefits

In doing so, you will receive:

• greater illumination

• lower losses (almost half of the useful energy in fluorescent lamps can be lost in the inductor)

• lack of vibration and nasty rattling sound from the ballast throttle

True, in more modern models, electronic ballast is already used. They increased efficiency (90% or more), noise disappeared, but energy consumption and luminous flux remained at the same level.

For example, new models of such LPO and LVO are often used for Armstrong ceilings. Here is a rough comparison of their effectiveness:

Another advantage of LED - there are models designed for supply voltages from 85V to 265V. For fluorescent you need 220V or close to it.

For such Led, even if the mains voltage is weak or too high, they will start up and shine without any complaints.

Luminaires with electromagnetic control gear

What should I pay attention to when converting simple fluorescent fixtures to LED? First of all, its design.

If you have a simple old Soviet-style lamp with starters and an ordinary (not electronic gear) throttle, then in fact you don’t need to upgrade anything.

Just pull out the starter, select a new LED lamp according to the overall size, insert it into the housing and enjoy brighter and more economical lighting.

If the starter is not removed from the circuit, then when replacing the LB lamp with an LED one, a short circuit can be created.

The throttle does not need to be removed. For LED, the current consumption will be within 0.12A-0.16A, and for the ballast, the operating current in such old lamps is 0.37A-0.43A, depending on the power. In fact, it will play the role of an ordinary jumper.

After all the alteration, the lamp you have remains the same. There is no need to change the mount on the ceiling, and the burned-out lamps will no longer have to be disposed of and look for special containers for them.

These lamps do not require separate drivers and power supplies, since they are already built-in inside the case.

The main thing is to remember the main feature - for LEDs, two pin contacts on the base are rigidly connected to each other.

And in luminescent they are connected by a filament. When it is heated, the mercury vapor ignites.

In models with electronic control gear, no filament is used and the gap between the contacts is broken by a high voltage pulse.

The most common sizes of such tubes:

• 300mm (used in table lamps)

• 900mm and 1200mm

The longer their length, the brighter the glow.

Alteration of the lamp with electronic control gear

If you have a more modern model, without a starter, with an electronic ballast (electronic ballast), then you will have to tinker a bit with changing the circuit.

What is inside the lamp before alteration:

• throttle

• wires

• contact pads-cartridges on the sides of the case

The choke is what needs to be thrown out first. Without it, the entire structure will significantly lose weight. Unscrew the mounting screws or drill out the rivets, depending on the fastener.

Then disconnect the power wires. You may need a narrow-bladed screwdriver to do this.

You can wire these and just have a bite to eat with pliers.

The connection diagram of the two lamps is different, on the LED everything is done much easier:

The main task that needs to be solved is to apply 220V to different ends of the lamp. That is, the phase is on one output (for example, the right one), and zero on the other (left).

Earlier it was said that led lamp both pin contacts inside the base are connected to each other by a jumper. Therefore, here it is impossible, as in a fluorescent one, to supply 220V between them.

Use a multimeter to verify this. Set it to the resistance measurement mode, and touch the two leads with the test probes to measure.

The display should show the same values ​​as when the probes are connected to each other, i.e. zero or close to it (taking into account the resistance of the probes themselves).

The fluorescent lamp, between the two terminals on each side, has the resistance of the filament, which, after applying a voltage of 220V through it, warms up and “starts” the lamp.

• without dismantling cartridges

• with dismantling and installation of jumpers through their contacts

without dismantling

The easiest way is without dismantling, but you will have to buy a couple of Wago clamps.
In general, you bite out all the wires suitable for the cartridge at a distance of 10-15mm or more. Then put them into the same Vago clamp.

Do the same with the other side of the lamp. If the wago terminal block does not have enough contacts, you will have to use 2 pcs.

After that, all that remains is to apply phase to the clamp on one side, and zero on the other.

No Vago, just twist the wires under the PPE cap. With this method, you do not need to deal with the existing circuit, with jumpers, climb into the contacts of the cartridges, etc.

With the dismantling of cartridges and the installation of jumpers

Another method is more scrupulous, but does not require any extra costs.

Remove the side covers from the lamp. This must be done carefully, because. in modern products, the latches are made of fragile and brittle plastic.

After that, you can dismantle the contact cartridges. Inside them are two contacts that are isolated from each other.

Such cartridges can be of several varieties:

All of them are equally suitable for lamps with a G13 base. They may have springs inside.

First of all, they are not needed for better contact, but so that the lamp does not fall out of it. Plus, due to the springs, there is some compensation for the size of the length. Since with an accuracy of up to a millimeter, it is not always possible to make identical lamps.

There are two power wires for each cartridge. Most often, they are attached by snapping into special screwless contacts.

Turn them clockwise and counterclockwise, and with an effort pull out one of them.

As mentioned above, the pins inside the connector are isolated from each other. And by dismantling one of the wires, you actually leave one contact socket out of your hands.

All current will now flow through the other pin. Of course, everything will work on one, but if you are making a lamp for yourself, it makes sense to slightly improve the design by placing a jumper.

Thanks to her, you do not have to catch the contact by turning the LED lamp around. The double connector ensures a secure connection.

The jumper can be made from the extra power wires of the lamp itself, which you will definitely have as a result of the alteration.

With a tester, you check that after installing the jumper, there is a circuit between the previously isolated connectors. Do the same with the second plug-in contact on the other side of the lamp.

The main thing is to make sure that the remaining power wire is no longer phase, but zero. You bite the rest.

Fluorescent lamps for two, four or more lamps

If you have a two-lamp lamp, it is best to supply voltage to each connector with separate conductors.

When installing a simple jumper between two or more cartridges, the design will have a significant drawback.

The second lamp will glow only if the first one is installed in its place. Remove it, and the other one will immediately go out.

The supply conductors must converge on the terminal block, where in turn you will have connected:

Converting a failed fluorescent lamp into an LED one is a very good idea. Diodes with comparable power consumption shine brighter and last longer. Rework method fluorescent lamp in LED depends on the type of the lamp itself.

Types of luminaire designs for fluorescent lamps:

• linear;
• compact.

How to convert a linear daylight lamp to LED

If you have a luminaire with a linear housing, it will not be difficult to convert it to the LED version. The easiest way is to use diode tapes. There are even options for connecting to a 220V network without special power drivers. Their peculiarity is that all LEDs are connected in series and the output of one of them will lead to the inoperability of the entire segment.

The wiring diagram is very simple:

Characteristics led strip for 220V:

• Matrix type: SMD 5050;
• number of diodes per linear meter: 60 pcs. (60 x 3.5V = 210V);
• load power: 10W;
• light flow: 2100Lm.

According to the brightness of the glow, a meter of such a tape will correspond to an ordinary 100W incandescent light bulb.

Design Benefits:

• Very easy and fast installation and connection.

Design flaws:

• Due to the lack of a smoothing capacitor, the LEDs flicker at a frequency of 100 Hz. According to sanitary standards, such lighting sources cannot be used in residential premises.
• Along the entire length of the tape there are a large number of contact pads through which 220V voltage passes. To prevent a short circuit, this type of tape is produced only in a sealed case, which makes it difficult to repair if one of the diode arrays burns out.
• The minimum segment length of 50 cm makes it difficult to create compact structures.

The main disadvantage of such tapes is high-frequency flicker. It is practically not perceived by sight, but causes rapid fatigue when performing precise work or reading. The problem is partially solved by installing a high-voltage capacitor in front of the diode bridge at the rate of 60-70 uF x 500V per 10W of tape power.

How to convert a table fluorescent lamp to LED

It will not work to remake such a lamp with little blood, mounting a 220V tape there. With a minimum segment length of 50 cm, it will not fit into the case, and its design has a very negative attitude to bends. In such a lamp, you can install several strips of diode tapes designed for a voltage of 12V.

The optimal design in this case is as follows:

We use four strips of 25 cm each with 12V wiring. As a result, the brightness will be at the level of 75W incandescent lamps.

Power supply for compact lamp

A meter of tape consumes about 15W and is designed for a current of 1.2A. For such power, buying a 30-watt specialized driver does not make sense. You can use a ready-made factory solution. This miniature power supply with a total power of up to 20W. But the dimensions of 79 x 30 x 24 mm will not allow it to fit in the lamp body.

Can be assembled into a compact pulse source do-it-yourself meals according to the following scheme. Capacitor 20-30 uF x 400V, Zener diode for 9-12V.

How to convert fluorescent lamps to LED

There are two options for modifying such a light bulb into an LED one:

• use of pieces of diode tape;
• compact lamp with bright LEDs.

Alteration for LED strip

Materials for alteration and connection diagram:

Detailed video instruction for alteration:

For compact desktop solutions, you can convert a fluorescent lamp into an LED lamp as follows. Unlike previous version this design gives a directional light output and is ideal for illuminating the workplace. Diodes can be used at 0.5 or 1W. Then the final brightness will be 350 Lm or 700 Lm, respectively.

To power the structure, you can use any 12V 2A power supply, if you connect all the LEDs in parallel, or charger from mobile phone at 5V 2A when connected in three parallel lines.

Power Drivers energy saving light bulbs they are not suitable for LEDs, so feel free to solder the wires going to the base from them, and send the boards themselves for further processing.

The modern small-sized table lamp shown in the photograph, with a light source in the form of a fluorescent U-shaped compact lamp, worked for several years and failed.

According to the owner of the table lamp, recently, when the lamp was still working, an unpleasant smell was coming from its base.

Opening the base of the lamp immediately showed what the malfunction was. Insulation burned in one of the windings of the ballast device. Obviously, due to overheating or poor quality insulation of the winding wire of the coil, there was a short circuit between the turns, which provoked the heating of the winding to high temperature and the final failure of the ballast device.

I didn’t want to bother with rewinding the coils, and it’s almost impossible to find a ready-made ballast device for replacement, especially since its type was unknown. Therefore, I decided to remake the table lamp in a modern way - to install LEDs instead of a fluorescent lamp, and replace the ballast device with an electronic driver, especially since everything was at hand for such a remake.

Replacing a fluorescent lamp with LEDs

There was a long and narrow printed circuit board with LEDs from a linear LED lamp.

The driver in it burned out and melted the body-tube from heating. Therefore, repair linear lamp was not subject, and the diodes were serviceable. In width, the bar with LEDs just fit well into the reflector of the table lamp.

The luminescent U-shaped tube was held in the reflector by a plastic retainer and a plinth. To determine the required length of the LED strip, the lamp with the base had to be removed. In order to get to the base of the fluorescent lamp, I had to unscrew one screw and remove the fixing bar.

The base did not have an additional fastening, and to remove it, it remained only to unsolder the two supply wires. The wires were stranded of sufficient cross section, so I decided to leave them to supply voltage to the LEDs.

After fitting and determining the length of the LED strip, a piece of the required length was sawn off with a jigsaw. The LEDs on the bar are placed diagonally, so I had to cut with a jigsaw.

The cutting line went through right place, the printed tracks connecting the LEDs remained intact.

The existing table lamp reflector fasteners were used to mount the LED bar. Fluorescent Lamp was fixed with a plastic bracket screwed to the reflector with self-tapping screws, and the fixing cover was screwed to the plastic stand.

In the bar between the LEDs, a hole with a diameter of 3 mm was drilled for a self-tapping screw and a sample was made for mounting to the rack. After checking the alignment of the mounting hole with the hole in the short rack, you can proceed to fix the bar with LEDs in the reflector.

Before the final installation of the bar with LEDs in the reflector, it is necessary to solder the wires to the pads on it. One of the wires was short, and it had to be increased by soldering and an insulating cambric was put on the junction. Since the wires were of the same color, after testing with a multimeter, the positive wire was marked on both sides with white cambric rings put on.

I used a pre-made PCB with LEDs. But such a board is easy to do with your own hands. Moreover, if you use modern single-watt LEDs, for example LED-SMD5730-1, then it is enough to solder only 3-5 pieces. You can also use an LED strip glued to a metal strip as a light source instead of individual LEDs. You will have to select a driver in each case individually.

The photo clearly shows how the printed circuit board with the LEDs installed on it is fixed in the reflector of the table lamp. In order for the bar to be removed from the bottom of the reflector at the long post (photo on the left), a cambric was put on it with a length equal to the height of the right short post.

Before fixing the LEDs in the reflector, they were tested by connecting to the driver. The current consumption was also measured. The photo shows a reflector with LEDs installed in it. It remains to attach the fixing cover, having previously put a piece of cambric on the protruding stand for its entire length. Thus, sandwiched between two pieces of tubes, the left edge of the bar will also be securely fixed.

Selection and wiring diagram of the driver

To supply voltage to the LEDs, a transformerless driver from a faulty E27 LED lamp was used, assembled according to the classical electrical circuit diagram.

In the photo you see the wiring to the driver. The black wires coming from the LED board are soldered to the positive and negative outputs of the driver. With the help of blue and yellow wires, a 220 V supply voltage is supplied to the driver.

Electrical circuit diagram driver is above. Capacitor C1 with a capacity of 0.8 uF limits the current to 57 mA. R1 and R3 limit the inrush current due to the charge of the capacitors at the moment the driver is connected to the network. The diode bridge VD1-VD4 rectifies the voltage, and the electrolytic capacitor C2 smoothes the ripple so that the LEDs do not blink at the mains frequency. A safety element is also installed in the driver circuit, most likely it is a barter, it smooths out current surges and at the same time is a fuse. If it is necessary to reduce or increase the supply current of the LEDs, then it will be necessary to reduce or increase the capacitance of the capacitor C1 accordingly. You can increase C1 even without soldering it out of the board, by soldering an additional capacitor in parallel to its terminals. When capacitors are connected in parallel, the total capacitance is equal to the sum of their capacitances, that is, it will increase and the current will also increase.

The constant current, which ensures the optimal brightness of the glow of the LEDs used, is 20 mA. LEDs on printed circuit board three are connected in parallel. Therefore, the current required for their operation according to such a switching circuit should be 60 mA. As you know, for long-term operation of LEDs, it is better that the flowing current is slightly less than the rated current. Therefore, the 57 mA current provided by the driver satisfies this requirement.

There were 60 LEDs on the bar. The measured voltage drop across each triad of LEDs was 2.48 V. Thus, the power consumed by the LEDs was 2.48 V × 20 pcs. × 0.057 A \u003d 2.8 W, which is equivalent to the glow power of an incandescent light bulb of 25 W. The generated illumination of a table lamp is quite sufficient when used as a standby light, night lamp, computer keyboard backlight or reading an e-book.

The weight of the driver is insignificant and therefore I did not fasten it rigidly, I simply grabbed it with a flexible plastic clamp by one of the racks for attaching the halves of the base. The standard table lamp switch was used as a switch. To complete the alteration of the table lamp, it remains only to fasten its base together with three self-tapping screws, and it will be possible to proceed with sea trials.

Table lamp tests showed good result. Thanks to the ability to tilt the stand and rotate the reflector in two planes, the table lamp allows you to direct the light flux to the desired lighting area.

The alteration allowed not only to restore the table lamp to working capacity at no cost, but also turned the obsolete table lamp into a modern lamp with low energy consumption.