Folks I have a lot of dead bulbs on my back lighting strips and have LED replacements from JKL. Question, do I have to watch polarity when I solder in the new bulbs - 12 per strip?
JKL? Paneltronics panel? Whole lil board strips with the LEDs already mounted available. DCv LEDs should be installed with the Anode to B+. If these lil red things called LEDs are not marked, then they will go in either way. It only takes two for a complete experiment before you nail them in..
JKL was the manufacturer of the original bulbs and these are their direct LED replacement. The leads are the same size and no mark at the base Soo, I'm thinking polarity is not an issue but I'll check before I solder. If they are polarity sensitive I will have to test each one before soldering since there is no outward marking? I stayed with the original 4 strips of 12 to keep the proper spacing - 20 years old. I'll give a shout to JKL also
Remember it well. Required viewing during our long ships trips for guest. Oh Sweet Mysteries of Life I finally Found You... Got to get Carl to insert Audio blips to these threads.
Funny you say that, that was exactly my thought after I responded. A short GIF of Igor would have been perfect. I can understand why he doesn't though. If I see one more smiley face....
I'm not familiar with JKL stuff specifically, but whether polarity matters or not depends on the control circuit embedded in LED bulbs, rather than on the fact that it's LED per se. If there's no mark, it shouldn't matter. But even when it does, all it takes is reversing the wires if the bulb doesn't turn on.
Well, if all 12 bulbs are exactly the same, you can try one with a temporary connection. If it works on both polarities (as it's reasonable to expect), you are good to go.
At first I missed your point about trying the DC in both directions across the diode. Excellent point. But, I'm calling JKL tomorrow - the old fashion way. I'm betting it doesn't matter, otherwise there would have been an instructional insert with the diodes, or some very obvious marks on the unit itself, like a short and a long lead. Dunno, but thanks to all. I'll let you know what the manufacturer says. Igor signing off.
Yup, more than likely. I didn't consider asking the producer because these days it's hard to go beyond an answering machine - if you can even find their phone number...! But as I said, I'm not familiar with JKL, and for all I know their support could as well be top notch!
I don't know the California company either, and you are probably right, they are going to put me on "hold" which is the equivalent of "ignore" Why do we "sheep" put up with this... A subject for another thread.
Just to explain the "more than likely" bit in my previous post, it was meant as a reply to yours, which before your editing ended with "They must know the answer", or something along these lines... Good luck!
S0, I emailed JKL, and to my pleasant surprise got an answer within just a few hours. The LEDs are DC, so they are polarity sensitive DUH!! I'll have to pre-test and mark them myself. I did suggest that factory marking might be customer service? But they did respond with useful info which is very nice customer service.
Yup, surprising indeed - as well as the fact that the things are polarity sensitive and not marked accordingly. Looking at the bright side, it could have been worse, if on top of that they wouldn't have been reachable to sort your doubt!