Make your own Dooby lamps - DIY Dubai lamps (strobing alert)

will it dubai that is the question and what i mean by that is that all these lamps i'm about to modify things a little bit to make them emulate an interesting lamp available only at the moment in places like dubai that i think is available in the united arab emirates in general but it's made by philips at the request of the king of dubai and he wanted a lamp that was super efficient extra low power high output and by quadrupling number of filaments say for instance this is a two watt lamp this is also two watt lamp this one has two filaments this one has eight filaments by doing that they increase the efficiency and it means that it puts out a good amount of light but it runs super cool and the led filaments are all really underrun and they're going to last for ages but you can achieve the same by devious means by putting capacitors and sears with them which is the whole point of this uh experiment because many of these lamps are based on capacitive droppers where the current on each half of the main cycle is limited by a capacitor and it uh it regulates the current through and by putting aluminum series you can regulate that down further other lamps like this one uh use a linear current regulator and it's simply it's like an electronic resistor that when it detects a certain level of current it changes its resistance and it just balances off and any excess is displayed is heat into the same platen as the leds but watch this i'm going to take the exposure off i'm going to turn the light off and this lamp here is one it's a high power lamp i think it's about 6 watts it's currently showing zero watts it's not super bright but it would be too bright to be a night light it's a sort of thing that if you put it in a cupboard or something like that you could pretty much leave it on all the time it's running at super low power it's staying super cold and it's just it's doing it's you know this has been like most the lamps are a success this is what we're going to see watch your eyes the light is coming back so here's what i'm going to do i'm going to lock the exposure off for a start so it doesn't yo-yo up and down what i've got here is the hockey power tester and i've got a socket for lamps and i've got a little inline adapter so that i've put a capacitor and sears the lamp yes that is live i will try not to touch it i've also at the back put a resistor in parallel as well one mega ohm resistor the reason for that is so that when i turn the power off the capacitor is discharged so i don't get a little zing off it so i'm going to unplug this and what we're going to do i've made a chart up we're going to test all these lamps with 470 nano 220 nano 100 nano 47 nano and 22 nano farad capacitors originally it was just i thought it was going to have to go higher but i've not i've done some tests it's pretty amazing that's why i added 22 nano as well and i've got a whole load of lamps and then at the end i just added some more random ones in but i'm going to disqualify some of them to start off with so for a start i'm going to put the highest void capacitor in and i'll show you some of the lamps with this but then i shall pause the video while i do all the other tests now log it down and we can look at the results afterwards so this capacitor well this isn't the capacitor one i want this one this is the 470 nano farad capacitor note if you want to do this in america you'll have to use a higher value capacitor like one micro farad um but having said that once you see the results this test you'll probably find 470 is just fine so i'm going to plug this in and the lamp lights at a fairly decent intensity with that it's now drawing about 2 watts i'm going to log this because this lamp originally started off it's 5 watts this lab originally started off as 5 watts it's now drawing 1.8 watts um and as a result of that it's going to stay absolutely stone cold it's going to last a very long time and yet it's putting out a decent amount of light because as you under run lamps they get more efficient now a couple of lamps i'm going to disqualify straight away have electronic drivers in them and they're not happy at being put in sears of the capacitor so uh the first lamp to disqualified is this decorative one i plug it in it flicks once and then it glows very dimly and shimmers and flickers it's trying to run but it doesn't like that so this lamp is disqualified it won't run in any of the capacitors that i've tried out of the way it goes this disco lamp and i suppose it varies from lamp to lamp is also sad when you first hook it up as we go at starting a we flash yeah you don't even see it it's not going to do anything it's not happy sweat is also disqualified of the lamps disqualified early on are the asda 12 watt the asda 12 watt which gets super baking hot it's like it's the whole reason that dubai lamps are such a great idea uh keep in mind 2 watt 12 watt 2 watt 12 watt this one has six long filaments it's strobes i should have mentioned i should have warned you about that i should have said watch your eyes it's about to start strobing plug it in and it's strobing now see horrible the other lamp that does that there is another lamp is that the lap six watt lamp i think does that uh if i screw this in watch your eyes it's going to strobe it's strobing as well that's because it's got an electronic supply and it does not like being treated like this but other lamps like say for instance the philips dimmable is it going to be okay yes it is okay the philips dimmable lamp is okay with being run like that so let's do some tests let's bring in the notepad and i'll do the first test at 470 nanofaras but because that's going to take a long time to do all these other tests uh we won't i'll pause the video while i do all the other tests then i'll show you the end results here so this is the 479 fard we've already found that the asda 12 watt does not like that so it's void we've got what's this one uh this is the philips 4 watt dimmable we've already proven that's all right it runs at it's a 4 watt it's running at 3.4 watts 3.4 watts so not a huge amount of difference next lamp a pro electric 8 watt prolac 8 watt the 8 watt this is another good example 2 watt 8 watt 4 times the rating 4 filaments 2 watts 8 filaments this is why these lamps do not last a long time but the prolac 8 watts is perfectly happy in series with that capacitor and runs at 2 watts 2 watts shop right i'm going to have to use the adapter for this one the shop right this is uh well that's the maxim this is a shop right it can go straight in this is a shop right oh where is the shop right one that's wrong oh the maxim was right i was right i'm just talking crap here just ignore me uh shoprite 10 watt has reduced in power to 1.98 let's say 2 watts so i'm seeing a common trend here that the 470 nanofarad is reducing most of the higher power lamps to a 2 watt dissipation and that will run super cool normally this lamp gets baking hot but it will actually run a lot cooler for that and more efficiently next lamp is going to be the halt 5 watt that's this one this is a cheap pound shop lamp it's not pound land it's this is out of one below which used to be pound world this is running at 1.8 watts and that's good because the whole lamps inside are somewhat minimalist in the leds they're a bit skimpy and uh as such they're not going to have a long life but running at 1.8 watts they're going to have a very very long life i should mention at this point in time well i'll get to that afterwards but actually no i'll mention it now the dubai lamp this one mega ohm resistor in series without any capacitors at all this was the only one that performed with a one mega ohm resistance series it took 20 seconds before it started gluing but it made a good night light and would last literally forever status for what what's the status uh hold on that's a phillips let's uh rake through these lamps i'm not even sure what that is status for what this was from i think this was from the local jacks home stores and it's running at 1.8 watts 1.8 watts again so it will run cool and it will last a lot longer the philips 2 watt oh where's the philips 2 up there's the philips 2 watt this will need the adapter when i plug it in in series of 470 nano farad it's running at 1.6 watts 1.6 watts and will remain super cool and last for ages lap 6 watt this is the lap 6 watt did this one work i can't remember if this was a this one might be watch your eyes this one might be the one that was flickering it can may contain the electronic supply so it might strobe so we're in advance this may strobe yeah it's not happy so uh it's kind of get disqualified it doesn't work with the super high power lamps with the electronic switching supplies however lap for what where's lap for what lap for what it has a simple supply inside presumably and is running at 1.7 watts 1.7 watts next lamp is lap 2 watt that'll be the little this will be the little candle lamp uh is it going to flicker yeah it flickers all the candle lamps they just see it you can see it flickering it's horrible um but it's running at 1.5 watts with flicker flickers important you may not realize this but your eyes actually only focus on a tiny area that you're looking directly at if you look directly at say the word holt here then you won't be able to read anything above or below it you have a very small area that's super high resolution and it reduces in resolution into peripheral vision and the peripheral vision has extreme sensitivity to to flicker and strobing that's why flashing led lamps and flickering led lamps are a bad idea because it actually it's a it's about an instinct that when you get that flicker it attracts your attention to that it kind of fires an interrupt to your brain and says pay attention there's something moving over here it's a it's a just an instinct that's built into humans and other animals so if that's flickering all the time that continually stimulates peripheral vision and uh that is not a good thing so freaky lamps are not a good idea what's the next lamp oh right okay asda gu10 uh this is a glass uh 5 watt lamp i think it's 4.8 watts but 5 watts and it lights fine it puts out a decent amount of light it's running at 1.5 watts this visible flicker in the camera i'm not seeing that flicker here it's actually pretty good the camera tends to be more sense of that so 1.5 watts which down from the 5 watts means that's going to last a very very long time uh the dubai lamp the original dubai lamp will of course perform flawlessly at that power it is rated two watts put it in it this is a cold white one they like the cold light there it's running at 1.2 watts but still putting a good amount of light quite harsh because it's cold fight some people like cold fight some people do not like cold fight next is another gu10 lamp it's the cheapy pound shoppie types a halti type gu10 lamp uh rated five watts put it in no flicker it's almost certainly using the same circuitry as this the little linear regulator so they are prone to a little bit of shimmer uh not visible to the naked eye though which is good and it is running at i'd say 1.9 watts 1.9 watts asda 4 watt lamp which is the asda 4 watt lamp this one is the asda 4 watt lamp the asda 4 wattlam lights at a decent intensity and draws 1.5 watts i should bring this in so you can see it 1.5 watts and then mystery 2 watt lamp chinese 2 watt lamp which means it's almost certainly going to flicker because they always skimp on the circuitry uh is it going to flicker yeah it's flickering is it flickering to the eye it's not actually too bad oh there is a bit of shimmer there yeah not ideal it is running at 1.1 watt 1.1 watt okay right what i'm going to do now i'm going to unplug this and i'm going to swap in first at 220 then 100 nano farad then 47 nano fire then 22 nano farad and then i'll come back and show you the results so one moment please i'm just going to do those tests right now okay i'm on the home run here we're at the lowest setting i can't even measure this i haven't been able to measure below 0.5 watt visible this would look bright in a as a night light you know it doesn't seem much but well let me demonstrate i'll take the exposure off i'll turn the light off and you can see i'll take the exposure off this time that it actually puts out light you could read by it's actually a decent amount like this puts out it's surprising uh watch your eyes the light is coming back the big light this has been very interesting so far what's the two lamps i've not yet tested i've not tested random two watt from china which will flicker but as lighting so i'll just put a tick for it and what is the last one i'm not tested i think there's no there's a couple i've not tested the shoprite 10 watt maxion light which is this one time what light running it unmeasurable no big delay is it going to light is it going to light sometimes a bit of a delay while the capacitor charges this one has a resistor shunt resistor to stop passive glowing so this one is apparently not going to glow that's interesting to note so this one which is the maxim 10 watt did not glow so that's a 0 with an x it's worth mentioning that i'll show you afterwards this one did glow and the final one is the lap six watt which is the one that tends to strobe watch your eyes this probably will strobe it might strobe is it gonna strobe it's going to strobe almost like you know that would be a great effect that's roughly one hertz it's strobing at so it's not ideal i shall mark that down until the lap six watt has strobed in every single one at decreasing speeds so right i'll take that out i'll put the uh the holt cheapy pound shop one in slight delay and then it comes up and it glows it's like shimmer there but that's just because there's a slight ripple that was a very interesting test let me summarize the results here the philips for what dimbo was quite odd it seemed to compensate for the capacitor in series it actually ran about 3.4 watts for a 4 watt lamp it was not happy after that it uh rapidly the next uh when i swapped down to 220 now it went down to 1.1 watt which was fine but it wasn't very bright at all that's why it's got an exclamation mark and then it just didn't want to light for the rest so it's got active electronics in it uh most of the lamps ran between 1.5 watt 2 watts and 470 nano farad the lap 6 watts strobed the that's the only one that didn't really perform every other one apart from the asda 12 watch which strobed uh every other one kind of worked when i dropped down to 220 nanofard the power dropped let's zoom down this a little bit not too much though because i'll zoom right off the bottom i'll i'll keep i'll keep zooming in and then try and nudge up like that okay i'll also focus down onto that for extra super sharpness so 220 nanofarad everything dropped down to roughly one watt you know you could virtually say 470 nano far 2 watt 220 nano farad one watt for just about every lamp uh notable exceptions the gu10 the dollar store gu10 they're so simple that it actually ran just slightly above a watt and uh as did the phillips four watt dimmable and the uh the cheapy chinese the unbranded two watt uh ran at 0.7 watts that was probably its little shunting resistor that stops it glowing with a switch wire leakage when i dropped down to 100 nanofarad some of the lamps displayed 0.5 watts but most of them just dipped slight below that and apparently the hoppy refuses to read below 0.5 watts it doesn't regard that as a valid reading so um the phillips just stopped working completely the azdev was strobing and all the others lit except for the lap which was strobing and the gu10 asda lamp started flickering oh there's another thing the gu10 as the lamp that's the glass one uh this worked okay at 470 nanofarad it dropped down to 1.5 watts but after that it started shimmering notably at the uh every other capacitor so it only worked the 470 nano farad by the time it got down to 22 nano farad it just didn't light at all so that's a half watt 47 nano farad the as there was not lighting at all the philips dimbo was not lighting at all the lap was still strobing the gu10 as the lamp was there doing its flickering so not really good um but every other one glowed at slightly different intensities but uh but all glowing usable as a bright night light at 22 nanofarad i did not think any of them were going to actually go down this low because that's a tiny value capacitance it's almost like wiring leakage 22 nano farad the asda lamp wasn't working the philips for what uh dimmable wasn't working the pro-elect eight watt lit shoprite maxian did not light at that one uh the lap was strobing at its one sec one hertz the geotenazda wasn't working at all everything else worked and just glowed a gentle level that's very impressive that is very very impressive so what i'm taking away from this if you want a decent effect in the uk 470 nano 220 nano farad is going to give you a decent bright light and if you want to get it down to sort of like night light levels you're going to have to go to 47 nano or 22 nano farad uh it's worth checking the lights some of them at 22 nano farad took a while before they actually faded up this is good that means they've got a smoothing capacitor in them and it took a while to charge that gradually up until the led is lit that means there's not going to be much ripple no flicker which makes it excellent as a nightlight in summary of the circuit i'll just flip this page over in summary of the circuit all i did was where i had the instead of the live going straight to the lamp uh lamp uh and then going back to the neutral all i did was interrupt well in this case i interrupted neutral for safety but you know you could un-trap the live as well stick the capacitor in in series with the lamp this time i'll write it properly limp uh back to neutral and uh i put just for safety for my test i put a one mega ohm resistor across that it wouldn't actually see a terribly high voltage it's optional but it means if you're messing around swapping capacitors uh make sure you basically when you unplug them just get some metal and short leads otherwise you might get a little snap off the capacitor because it has a charge but the summary is 470 microfarad and double this if you're in america because uh that's roughly going to be equivalent i think was equal about turned most lamps into a 2hot lamp 220 nanofarad oh nano farad don't put 470 micro farad that's not going to have an effect which turned them into roughly one watt a 100 nano farad was roughly 0.5 watt and before that 40s below that 47 and 22 nano unknown uh night light a night light that will last literally forever this also means if you had the light switch in the room say there's a light switch that switches the light on and off and you put this little capacitor across that it means that you could have a full brightness light during the day but at night time when you turn the switch off the capacitor would just trickle say use 47 nano or 22 nano uh it would trickle just enough current across for many lamps just to make them glow at night just for just for that extra level of comfort in the room and that's capacitor you could do something like you could sleeve it and tuck it behind the uh the light switch itself the couple of wires attached maybe sold it on or even just some sleeving and then just bridged across the contacts you don't have to worry too much about these blowing up these capacitors or feeling dramatically because they're in series with a current limiting device the lamp itself but there we go that was very interesting so the answer is can you dubai lamps can you turn them all into a dubai effect where they're under run and slightly more efficient but running cool and will last for a very long time and the answer is yes all you need to do is add a capacitor in series and by adjusting the value of the capacitor you can get different sort of levels of intensity you can fine tune them to exactly how you like your light so this test was fun and it was a success and there's even some wine left to drink after the experiment while i tidy up that was a fun project i really liked making this video that was good

Channel: bigclivedotcom

Views: 193,095

Keywords: dubai, dooby, lamp, low, power, night, light, nite, lite, decorative, LED, bulb, capacitor, dimmer, capacitive, dropper, long, life, energy, heat, cool, running, cold

Id: ISTB0ThzhOY

Length: 24min 14sec (1454 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021

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From the description:

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A test to see if ordinary LED lamps can be under-run like Dubai lamps to make them last longer with reduced intensity and heat.

To limit the current I used different values of series capacitor, which has a soft limiting effect, making it compatible with traditional capacitive dropper and linear regulator based lamps. This technique does not work with some lamps with switchmode based power supplies. They will tend to strobe due to the way the circuitry works.

This project involves mains voltage, and suitable precautions should be taken during your experimentation.

The trickiest bit about making a Dooby lamp is finding a place to put the capacitor. In some capacitive dropper based LED lamps it's easy, since their covers may unclip allowing the original high value capacitor to be changed for a lower one. For other lamps like the glass filament styles the capacitor will need to be put inline external to the lamp. That could be in a lamp extender (if you can get one that is easy to open), in a ceiling rose, in the wiring box of a chandelier or in the lightswitch enclosure. Doing it at the lightswitch opens up the possibilities of letting the lamp be switched between full intensity mode or a lower security/night light mode. With two switches you could have the option of on, dim or off.

A benefit of using a capacitor is that it is a soft, efficient and low noise way of dimming to a fixed level. The power factor will generally be no worse than the original, and a suitably rated capacitor will be virtually indestructible in this application.

From my tests the following 400V AC capacitors worked well for a European 220-240V supply:- 470nF converted most lamps to approximately 2W 220nF converted most lamps to around 1W 100nF converted most lamps to around 0.5W 47nF was not measurable. Probably around 0.2W 22nF was not measurable. Probably around 0.1W 10nF (ceramic capacitor). Some lamps won't glow because they have an internal shunt resistor to avoid nuisance glowing due to capacitive switch-wire coupling. But others will glow at a surprising intensity for the tiny current. (I was really surprised at the intensity of some lamps.)

For 120V supplies the capacitors should be 250V AC film capacitors and the values may have to be higher - like 1uF or more. The capacitors are common and cheap, so they can be experimented with. They can be connected in parallel for higher capacitance.

I used a 1 Megohm resistor in parallel with the capacitors during my tests, as the capacitors can store a charge and may give a slight zap if not discharged. In final use the resistor can be soldered or twisted directly to the capacitor leads.

The capacitors will run cold and should be insulated properly if used behind switches or in junction boxes. That could be done with heatshrink sleeving.

Although the super low value capacitors like 22nF only made the lamps glow dimly, it makes them very suitable as directly viewed decorative lamps or for use as night lights, where very little light will be ample at night. With such low power the lamps can be left running continuously, as they will last a very long time and cost virtually nothing to run.

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