71   Lamps / Modern / Re: What is the worst LED bulb you’ve seen?  on: March 19, 2026, 07:29:22 AM 
Started by Lightingeye60 - Last post by marcopete87
Some led lamps 15 years ago: cheap 5mm leds packed without heat management with absurd specs (like a 1.5W lamp rated as an 60W incandescent lamp).
They weren't even cheap
 72   General / General Discussion / Re: Can bad capacitors come back?  on: March 19, 2026, 07:28:40 AM 
Started by Emersyn - Last post by Emersyn
Yeah that's weird, it probably was a bad connection. Maybe the bad connection was also causing it to do the flickering a few months ago too.
 73   General / General Discussion / Re: Plasma Streetlights  on: March 19, 2026, 05:57:17 AM 
Started by mefurd98 - Last post by RRK
There is quite detailed Youtube teardown video from Australia on dismantling sulfur microwave lantern.

As much as we all love conspiracy theories, I believe the system was buried by pure economical reasons:

- tremendously overcomplicated! Really visible in this video. Incessant RF shields to keep microwave energy at home. Two running fans to keep the thermal mode - imagine this in an outdoor lantern!!! An extra motor just to rotate discharge bulb.

- huge bulky expensive and inefficient transformer to power magnetron

- magnetron is inefficient by iself

- magnetron has a finite life of just a few thousand hours
 75   General / General Discussion / Re: Plasma Streetlights  on: March 19, 2026, 02:58:24 AM 
Started by mefurd98 - Last post by Medved
There were some disputes about these lights jamming Sirius satellite radio service.
Because morons at Sirius thought it is very wise strategy to save money by using "free" ISM 2.45GHz band instead of proper licensing of some brequencies when designing a system involving billion dollar investment into satellite fleet. And then later, when someone really uses the band for its original purpose (aka microwave energy transfer, with some inevitable leaks outside), Sirius starts complaining those lights must be made so they would not disturb their radio service. And moron courts sided with the radio, completely ignoring what the band primary allocation was in the first place.
 76   General / General Discussion / Re: Can bad capacitors come back?  on: March 19, 2026, 02:52:13 AM 
Started by Emersyn - Last post by Medved
When capacitors alone go bad, they really just reduce their capacitance or blow up irreversibly.
It does not have to be the capacitor itself, what is faulty. It could well be just loose connection on it...
 77   General / General Discussion / Plasma Streetlights  on: March 19, 2026, 02:07:41 AM 
Started by mefurd98 - Last post by mefurd98
Does anyone have any information on plasma streetlights? Whatever happened to them? Were any installed on a large-scale basis?  I think they first showed up in the early 2010s if I'm not mistaken.
 78   General / General Discussion / Re: Can bad capacitors come back?  on: March 19, 2026, 01:21:21 AM 
Started by Emersyn - Last post by RRK
And from practice I'd say such behavior is not typical for non-polar capacitors, film or paper types. These always degrade one-way. Both to short circuit or open state. Modern metallized film capacitors may arc temporarily, but it ends up with massively and permanently degraded capacitance or, rarely goes to a dead short. Electrolytic capacitors may self-heal and even restore their capacitance, but are not used within magnetic ballasts.
 79   Lamps / Modern / Re: The US is banning fluorescent lamps  on: March 19, 2026, 01:05:57 AM 
Started by Lcubed3 - Last post by Medved
Well, overdriving LEDs leads to lower and not higher efficacy.
So if higher efficacy becomes required, the designs must use less LED loading and run them cooler, which by itself should improve the reliability. The question then is, what consequences would have the need to reduce the cost of this back, what corner cutting we will see and have to deal with...
 80   General / Off-Topic / Re: Severe weather never sleeps!  on: March 18, 2026, 11:41:05 PM 
Started by lightinglover8902 - Last post by dor123
@suzukir122: My breathing didn't got affected.
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