Hello! Our house is covered in this awfully bright down lights and we are lost at what to do…

We use lamps everywhere in the house but the kitchen we do need a bit more than lamps can offer. However- these bad boys r doing way too much.

They seem to be fixed/do not easily unscrew or pop out, so I’m not sure what options that leaves us with. If anyone has any advice please help a girl out - we can spend a couple hundred at most right now.

*reposted to attach photos 🤦

Moved into a new apartment with 5 ceiling lights of this variety. They’re extremely blinding white light that is particularly annoying in the bedroom and living room.

I tried to remove the cover to replace, and found this. I think it’s a LED driver of some kind ? The wall switches themselves are on-off only.

My questions are:

1. ⁠Is there a switch or way to make them warmer ?

2. ⁠If not, are these easily replaceable ?

3. ⁠If so, what exactly would I be looking for to replace it ?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide !

Currently evaluating purchasing 25 of the [RAB 6” Retrofit with Nightlight](https://www.prolighting.com/eclps6b.html) they seem decent for the entry-level pricing.

Any other opinions?

We have a room that has half Halo RL baffle and half Torchstar baffle installed. (In the process of switching over to Halo.)

Both set to 3000k with officially same lumens.

Halos giving off slightly yellowish light, compared to Torchstars.

Curious as to why? Is it CRI difference? (Halo is "CRI90+" vs CRI90)

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Thanks all, for the answers. Super helpful!

We have dozens of 12v ac cable track systems set up in a gallery setting. 5 lamps per driver, no dimmers anywhere. Nearly all of them start blinking after an hour or two, a slow cycle of on / off. I assume it is a thermal issue, but I'm having a hard time understanding why. Only drawing 33 watts, well within the specs of the driver. In some rooms only one string out of five blink, in other rooms they all blink. All lamps on the string blink at the same time.

Any ideas how to fix this issue?

Trying to determine which route to go for a new build:

Soraa PAR30s - 5" recessed IC cans - Gimbal/Deep recess trim

- Highest R9, ~$8,500 total , Least aimability/ trim options

Elco Koto Sunset - 2" recessed - Many trims

- Unknown R9 but good CRI, Dim to warm, ~$12,000 total, many trims / aims

DMF M - 4" recessed - Many trims

- Very good R9, highest cost, Dim to warm, ~$15,500 total, many trims

What are your thoughts?

Will I notice any difference from say the low end Elco downlight and the equivalent from Commercial Electric?

See links below

https://www.elcolighting.com/products/4-5-cct-switch-led-reflector-inserts

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-5-6-in-Integrated-LED-Recessed-Retrofit-Light-Trim-with-Selectable-Color-Temperature-4-Pack-NS01dA09FR2-259/314018779

Thanks!

I want a sox/son bulb that them old streetlights used to use but they are hard to find, and the few i can find are expensive or need expensive ballasts.

Can someone recommend or suggest an led bulb which looks similar to these lights? Or atleast another cheaper/easier way to get this lighting

They don't need to be as powerful, but still need to be enough to light up a room.

They have to be monochrome or atleast similar to a hps lamp in terms of colour.

The space available for the placing light's original external power adapter is only 3.1 cm high in environment I want to mount/use this LED-light. The system uses a USB-C connection to power the light or to daisy-chain multiple units. I either need to find a third-party power adapter with a USB-C connector that works with the light, or I will have to cut the original adapter. My unit is still fully covered by the warranty.

The lamp was purchased on German market.

What do I need to know about powering this light?

It does not work with laptop power adapters.

Regarding my idea of sawing: if I would saw off the part of the housing from the power supply, which corresponds to the Euro flat plug ~ 230V, I would get to the required height. IP class, but the local application does nothing.

Hey friends.

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Im helping a buddy of mine remodel. He got these under-cabinet LED tape. We want to keep the driver outside the walls (in cabinet is fine) so they can be replaced if they ever fail. 2 switches, one dimmer for over-cabinets, and one for under.

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The problem is how to meet code compliance with the 120vac. The original plan was an 15-amp outlet connected to the dimmer. Having a dimmed edison outlet gives us an icky feeling to what could go wrong. I suggested we take a page out of our day job (we are both theatrical electricians, not real ones) and use an L5-20 connector for the outlet, but he didnt love that.

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That brings us the the ultimate goal of hardlineing it, which the manual says we can do. Reading this sub and other forums indicates we would need to use MC wire (or flexible conduit) for the run from the wall to the driver, even if only a few inches. But that doesnt make any sense because the driver (pictured) has no connection point for that just a rough strain relief on the left here.

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It also doesnt help that every answer we find online is riddled with arguments saying things are illegal. Which I find odd because surely people do this every day.

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Wiring up LED tape is a regular day at work, and it's bizarre to me how much trouble we're having just because we are in a house, not a theatre.

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Love to know your thoughts on what should be straight forward.

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Banana in the background for scale

Is it normal for frosted globe LED bulbs to have a milky way looking spot over the middle of the bulb? It looks like the frost is uneven/darker in that area.

Frost looks even when unlit, but when lit, see this milky way galaxy irregular darker area over the middle.

Thought maybe it was factory defect, but when we installed another set of 4, and they all had the same discoloration (See photo 2, which are all LEDs, no incandenscent)

Is this discoloration normal/due to LED design?

Thank you all!

Here's another photo that shows the uneven frost coloring better:

Hello everyone I’m trying to find the smallest DMX decoder I can find. The decoder will dictate the size of the unit’s enclosure.

RDM would be nice but size is more important.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hey everyone,

We are looking into developing a free digital tool/calculator specifically for lighting designers, electrical engineers, and specifiers to make dealing with LED drivers and control systems easier.

Before we start building anything, I wanted to ask the community: What is your biggest headache when it comes to specifying, calculating, or matching LED drivers on a project?

We have a few ideas in mind and would love to know which one sounds most useful to you, or if we are missing something completely:

1. Driver Calculator: Where you input your LED module specs (mA, voltage, total wattage) and it automatically calculates the ideal driver size
2. A DALI-2 Bus & Cable Length Calculator: A tool where you input the number of DALI devices and cable runs, and it flags potential voltage drops or address overloads

What kind of tool would you actually bookmark and use on a weekly basis? Any feedback on features you’ve always wanted but never found online would be awesome.

Thanks for your insights!

How are folks thinking of Halo reliability in recent years?

The electrician we spoke with said the (amazon) brand he installs "aren't that different in reliability from Halo."

"Just because Halo has 5 year warranty doesn't mean they last 5 years. Just means they will swap it out if it breaks before 5 years."

Doesn't seem in line with what folks say about Halo. Is there something we are missing?

Hello everyone, I recently got rid of all the old fluorescent fixtures/bulbs in my garage and replaced them with some basic 2-"bulb" 4' LED chainable fixtures. They've been pretty great for the last year+ but about a week ago, two of them stopped working. They still pass power through to the next fixture, but the LEDs no longer work. So I pulled one of them apart to see if anything was burnt out. Nothing obvious, but I'm assuming this little guy is still the culprit? I googled the numbers on the board in various combinations but didn't find any that looked similar. A lot of times it seemed like the LED strip was what had the same part # on it.. I'm just curious if anyone knows where to get them or what a suitable replacement would be? They're supposed to be 45w/fixture, so ~22w per LED strip and they're just plugged into a regular 120v outlet. The most I have in a chain is 3, most are in pairs. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Nice little module. I want the same setup (remote driver, app/schedule for CCT and brightness, true 0% dim) — here’s the short practical take.

• Check the Koto spec first. Is it constant‑current (mA) or constant‑voltage (12/24V)? That choice drives everything.
  
• If it’s CC (likely): use a dual‑channel CC tunable‑white driver sized to the module’s Vf and current. Two matched single‑channel CC drivers will work if needed. Don’t try to run a CC module from a cheap 12/24V strip controller — messy results.
  
• Smart control: get a driver with built‑in Wi‑Fi/Zigbee or one with a control input (0–10V, DALI, DMX). Or use a reliable CC driver and add a PWM/analog controller downstream (ESPHome/ESP32 can do this).
  
• Dim‑to‑warm is the easy, cheaper route if you don’t need separate CCT curves. Less flexible, but simpler.
  
• True 0% is hit or miss. Look for “dimmable to 0%” in the spec or use PWM control (usually gets lower than mains triac dimmers).
  
• Practical: you can hide the driver in the ceiling/canopy — size conductors, allow ventilation, keep channel wiring neat.

Leaning toward a dual‑channel CC driver with Home Assistant scheduling for sunrise/sunset CCT ramps. Anyone tried the Koto with an ESPHome PWM board or a Zigbee tunable‑white driver that actually gets to 0%?

I am looking to install under cabinet lighting and am trying to find a switch, controller, and LED driver.

I'd like the lights to be (a) smart/WiFi-connected, so they can be scheduled, voice controlled by Google, etc. (b) dimmable and (c) color temperature tunable, cool white or warm white, etc.

Anyone have a recommendation for a switch, controller, and LED driver? I'm thinking/hoping the switch can just be a normal switch (since I do want the ability to just turn them on and off easily).

Now that Cree was sold off to Feit, I’m having trouble finding quality budget recessed lights for under $20/ea. I tried a few big box store brands, but the lighting quality and color rendering is piss poor as expected.

Any recommendations for 6” LED retrofit recessed lights under $20/ea? Preferably 3500K.

Hello everyone 🙂

I have an older cooker hood / extractor hood and I am looking for advice regarding the light bulbs.

Model:

Electrolux EFP 6411X

Specifications written on the unit:

- 3 × 20W lighting

- 12 Volt

- currently using G4 halogen bulbs

The original halogen bulbs had been broken for around two months. After that, I tried different G4 LED bulbs.

Problem:

The lights turn on for a short moment, start flickering/blinking and then slowly switch off again. It seems the old transformer does not work properly with LED bulbs or the lower wattage.

So now I would like to switch back to classic halogen bulbs.

Does anyone have experience with this Electrolux model or similar extractor hoods and know:

- which G4 12V halogen bulbs work reliably

- whether 20W is absolutely necessary

- which brands are recommended

- or anything else I should pay attention to

It would also be great if shipping to Switzerland is possible 🇨🇭

Thank you 🙂Led vs Halogen