Some imported dining room furniture we've got came equipped with top
lighting in 4 display cabinets. The electronic transformers have all
quit and the lamp fitting itself takes a 10w capsule bulb mounted
sideways on in a very shallow fitting. It is *absolutely impossible*
to replace a bulb with the fitting in the top of the units without
either bending the pins or touching the quartz. If you do bend the
pins IME the bulb will have a short life even if it works initially.

So I went to "Ring" lighting and came away with a set of 20 watt MR11
downlighters @ 3 for 8 quid in their discontinued section.

On reading the bit of paper that came packed inside it says they
should not be mounted on a combustible surface. The display cabinets
are made of wood. :-(

I then noticed that LED MR11 lamps are available, less than 2 watts so
not a fire hazard. £7.50 each, (I could live with that if I never had
to change one again!) but on the websites that sell them they say
ordinary transformers can't be used, the special electronic
transformers needed are £14.99 each. That's taking the Mick.

Surely 12 volts, 2 watts to drive 6 LEDs, an ordinary regulated mains
adapter would fit the bill or am I missing something here? Apparently
the LED lamps *are* AC/DC.

Oh, and BTW the electronic transformer that came with the RING
lighting kit is duff. :-((

DG

On Sun, 06 Nov 2005 18:21:42 +0000, Derek ^
wrote:

It is *absolutely impossible*
to replace a bulb with the fitting in the top of the units without
either bending the pins or touching the quartz.

So touch the quartz. This is a much over-rated risk these days (so long
as it's not a microsocope lamp or something that really does run hot).
If you wash your hands first, it always was an over-rated risk.

So I went to "Ring" lighting

Always a mistake.

I then noticed that LED MR11 lamps are available, less than 2 watts so
not a fire hazard. £7.50 each,

I've disappointed in all the LED MR11 lamps I've used so far. Just about
the only thing I would consider using them for would be display cabinet
lighting - as room lighting they're dismal. Be careful though that
their output angle is suitable - most of them gain their high brightness
values by having a narrow output.

the special electronic transformers needed are £14.99 each. That's taking the Mick.

I've not seen an LED MR11 that wasn't compatible with "typical" 12V low
voltage lighting transformers (although most are DC only). They didn't
need anything special, although some PSUs can be unhappy because the
power demanded is too _low_ (they see this as not having any bulbs
connected)

Surely 12 volts, 2 watts to drive 6 LEDs, an ordinary regulated mains
adapter would fit the bill or am I missing something here? Apparently
the LED lamps *are* AC/DC.

Volts is volts. If you know what they need, and you can arrange
something to supply it, then go to it,

Oh, and BTW the electronic transformer that came with the RING
lighting kit is duff. :-((

You bought a Ring product. Just be grateful it didn't try to kill you.


--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.

In article ,
Derek ^ writes:
Some imported dining room furniture we've got came equipped with top
lighting in 4 display cabinets. The electronic transformers have all
quit and the lamp fitting itself takes a 10w capsule bulb mounted
sideways on in a very shallow fitting. It is *absolutely impossible*
to replace a bulb with the fitting in the top of the units without
either bending the pins or touching the quartz. If you do bend the
pins IME the bulb will have a short life even if it works initially.

I either hold them with a piece of tissue, or if they're in
a polythene envelope (e.g. Maplin's ones, which are also the
cheapest sine CPC stopped selling them) just cut the end off
the polythene which I use to hold the lamp until it's in the
holder.

So I went to "Ring" lighting and came away with a set of 20 watt MR11
downlighters @ 3 for 8 quid in their discontinued section.

On reading the bit of paper that came packed inside it says they
should not be mounted on a combustible surface. The display cabinets
are made of wood. :-(

I then noticed that LED MR11 lamps are available, less than 2 watts so
not a fire hazard. £7.50 each, (I could live with that if I never had

Bare in mind that LED's are same efficiency as halogen lamps,
so these will give off the same light as a 2W halogen would
have. This might be concentrated into a very narrow beam so
that on-beam intensity is high, but unless you want that
feature, they are generally a disaster.

to change one again!) but on the websites that sell them they say
ordinary transformers can't be used, the special electronic
transformers needed are £14.99 each. That's taking the Mick.

Surely 12 volts, 2 watts to drive 6 LEDs, an ordinary regulated mains
adapter would fit the bill or am I missing something here? Apparently
the LED lamps *are* AC/DC.

LED's need current limited supplies. It depends if the lamps
themselves contain the current limiting function, or if they
require the supply transformer circuitry to do it. Both types
exist, and the ones with external current limited supplies
are likely to be brighter, as that potential heat source is
removed from the locality of the LEDs.

Oh, and BTW the electronic transformer that came with the RING
lighting kit is duff. :-((

My impression is that Ring source cheap, rather than high quality
parts. I've had some good Ring items, but also some extremely
poor ones.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andy Dingley wrote:

You bought a Ring product. Just be grateful it didn't try to kill you.

Ditto!

In the early days of compact fluorescent's I bought a few of their
lamps, the first one I fitted worked for maybe 5 seconds and then
tripped the (6A) MCB. A short while later the lamp made a *very* loud
bang with the lamp base getting extremely hot to the point at which it
could hardly be touched a minute after the MCB had tripped. The
plastic distorted slightly and didn't melt but you could tell there
had been a huge amount of heat dissipated internally.

I'd bought them via Farnell's and found it quite strange that they
gave an immediate refund without question pending their later return.
A few weeks after returning them I got a phone call from Ring asking
for more details about the fault. This started off quite friendly but
went rapidly downhill then they mentioned they had found no
manufacturing defect and more or less blamed my installation for
causing the failure! - one that had previously worked perfectly with
an incandescent 60W for two decades. A Philips CF replacement worked
in there for another 5 more years.....and Farnell's stopped selling
Ring lamps.


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