Micro Growing with Mr. Sparkle *2018*

Thought i should share.

Broke down some newer (2017-2018) 14w Philips screw in bulbs today. They are a cheap option for those who need a small DIY option for making some small space lights.

First one i slightly damaged in trying to figure out how to break down these new versions, but they break down super easy and quick once you know the tricks so here are some pics of the process and what you need.

All you need is a pait of pliers, razor knife, a putty knife or alternate thin flexible tool, #1 philips bit, and your bulbs.

Run the putty knife in between the dome and base and run it around the perimeter to break the silicone adhesive, and just pop the dome off.

Take your knife and pry off the end nipple/nail/plug, if you don’t do this you will most likely rip the load resistor and wire out on the next step.

Take your pliers and pry off the threaded cap.

Use your philips bit to remove the screws, make sure to keep the screws as you can use them for mounting the board to alternate heat sinks later.

Go back to pliers and break off the plastic lip around the bulb, and then bend down the aluminum lip so it is out of the way of the next step.

With that aluminum lip pealed back use your knife to get under the board to cut the adhesive bond and work your way around the light. It will be hard to start but once your under it becomes easy really quick.

Pull off the board and pull out hte ballast if it didn’t already come out when pulling out the board, and your done.

At this stage you can clean up the board, and either unsolder the center connector as it will not allow you to mount the board flat to a heatsink, or just drill a hole in your heatsink of choice big enough to fit the connector, which will allow you to run wires in from the back side. Once mounted to a heatsink, you just wire it up with some new extension wires soldered on the dc side of the ballast. So remove those prongs and wire in some new wire which will be soldered or connected to the board. The other side gets wired up to your ac voltage circuit, the resistor going to your load side and the the wire going to the neutral.

Caution: No one needs to get zapped at least or potentially killed at worse so make sure to cover and exposed wire parts in heat shrink, and insure the back side of the ballast is isolated from anything that can conduct electricity “aka metal”.

But there you have a small cheap SMD led board to use how you see fit. I will be mounting mine to some cpu heatsinks and swapping them into my PC case to show what can be done with these. So expect some more pictures to come.

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