A few days after epoxying a replacement WS2812 RGB LED into the base of the 21HB5A and, en passant, soldering a 3.5 mm plug-and-jack into the plate lead for EZ removal, the top LED failed.
In this case, it also failed the Josh Sharpie test with bad encapsulation sealing:
Here’s a view from another angle, with a warm-white desk lamp for a bit of color:
Those patterns took a few days to appear and also showed up in some, but not all, of the previous failing LEDs.
Although I have no idea what’s going on, it’s certainly distinctive!
An envelope of RGBW LEDs, allegedly with SK2812 controllers, has arrived from a different eBay supplier, so it’s time for an upgrade.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
4 responses to “Cheap WS2812 LEDs: Another Failure”
What was the time frame for the failures?
Pretty much as soon as I started using them, they started failing. Overall, about a year since I put the one that just failed atop that halogen and a few days for the one in that test fixture: there’s absolutely no way to predict the outcome.
Not what wanted to hear … looks like I’ve got some rework to do before a make delivery.
[…] recall the LED atop the 21HB5A tube failed, shortly after replacing the bottom LED and rewiring the ersatz plate lead, which led me to rebuild the whole thing with SK6812 RGBW LEDs. […]