Off-Road IR light bar

[Riclyo]

So out of the 5 Tendelux BI8’s I’ve purchased in 20’-21’ none are left standing. I have 1 BI18 (22’) & 2 DI20B’s (23’) still in operation.

I started looking for more of a long lasting solution even though I’m finding more and more places I’m able to use the full color cams. That’s when I came across THIS to give a try.

If it works out I’m wondering if the company would be open to doing different optics to give it more of a hybrid throw/flood mix. They do sell a 4 LED pod that you can get a spot or floor pattern in so I might just give those a go to see what kind of pattern they produce.

 

[bigredfish]

I'm on my 2nd one of these at one location since 2018?2019?

Amazon.com

But for $44 I'm good with 3-4 years service

 

[Riclyo]

I'm on my 2nd one of these at one location since 2018?2019?

Amazon.com

But for $44 I'm good with 3-4 years service

It just sucks cause since I had 4 but am up to 5 IR units I feel like I’m always replacing 1 every year now. I’m not doing that with cameras (at least not due to failure) so it be nice if the illuminators lasted as long as them even at a higher cost.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Was moisture intrusion the cause of your failures? I bought a few Tendelux illuminators and all had moisture intrusion after a couple of years,. My theory is that the sealing gaskets shrank. They were all repairable, only one time because I think they'll have to be destroyed to open them up again because of all the RTV I used. My Cmvision illuminators have gone failure free much longer but I've had a couple of problems after 6 to 7 years. With these it was the photocell that went. I was able to scavenge replacements from other brand illuminators that lasted a year at best. (The only Cmvision model I use is their round 4-watter, and my experience is only for that model. I had a bad experience with a different model from them.)

 

[Revo2Maxx]

I have some very costly IR and White light for CCTV and people say they cost to much. But a lot of mine are as old as 2015 and some others that I bought not because I had to replace but I needed more in 2018 and 19. For the cost people could by lower priced ones and replace them a few times. But if they are high up or in area you don't go to much then quality that won't break down is important.. But not many people want to pay 300 to 800 for a IR or White Light Blaster lol..

 

[CCTVCam]

Unless it's sensor controlled, I think 1/2 the issue is the sheer number of hours you're putting on these. If you say an average of 10hrs a night year round (less in summer more in winter), then you're looking at @ 3,650 hrs a year. For your ones bought in 2020/21, that's around 3.5 yrs or nearly 13,000 hrs. That's probably the lifespan of the LED's. So the loss of those lights is probably just natural attrition.

As for the light bar, the only issue I can see is cooling. It probably isn't designed for night long use, night after night. However, you won't know unless you try. I'd be suprised to see much difference in lifespan though given the above.

 

[Riclyo]

Was moisture intrusion the cause of your failures? I bought a few Tendelux illuminators and all had moisture intrusion after a couple of years,. My theory is that the sealing gaskets shrank. They were all repairable, only one time because I think they'll have to be destroyed to open them up again because of all the RTV I used. My Cmvision illuminators have gone failure free much longer but I've had a couple of problems after 6 to 7 years. With these it was the photocell that went. I was able to scavenge replacements from other brand illuminators that lasted a year at best. (The only Cmvision model I use is their round 4-watter, and my experience is only for that model. I had a bad experience with a different model from them.)

So initially it was a unit would die from water intrusion and another would smoke a power supply so I’d just switch them. The one that died from water intrusion I opened up but it seemed to have a black almost silicone potting around the emitter so I figure there wasn’t much in the form of repair. It was fun to take apart though. Then on out I’d check power supplies and just chuck lights that themselves failed.

 

[tigerwillow1]

I'm using 11 of the round cmvision 4 watters, and I keep a spare for fast swapping. I lose one of the eleven about once a year and have a pretty high repair success rate. With these, and I assume most or all others, replacing an actual IR emitter isn't feasible because of the way they're attached to a metal plate for drawing away the heat. This model costs around $20 so even if I had to buy a new one every year that's not too bad. The big hassle is dealing with the weatherproofed connections, often while on a ladder. I started with 4 or 5 brands of emitters, and only the IR-40 has lasted over the years. The big thing I miss about Tendelux is the dark face, which I wish all of them used. It's kind of an elephant-in-the-room good feature.

 

[Riclyo]

Unless it's sensor controlled, I think 1/2 the issue is the sheer number of hours you're putting on these. If you say an average of 10hrs a night year round (less in summer more in winter), then you're looking at @ 3,650 hrs a year. For your ones bought in 2020/21, that's around 3.5 yrs or nearly 13,000 hrs. That's probably the lifespan of the LED's. So the loss of those lights is probably just natural attrition.

As for the light bar, the only issue I can see is cooling. It probably isn't designed for night long use, night after night. However, you won't know unless you try. I'd be suprised to see much difference in lifespan though given the above.

So these lights have built in photocells and the outlets I plug them into are smart controlled so they’ll be on 12/day max.

The off-road light bar I linked has a nice aluminum finned housing for heat dissipation.
Also its power requirements are
Listed as 12v @ 1.3A and 24v @ 670ma which doesn’t seem like a huge draw if I can keep the voltage at 24-36v which it’s rated for. I also keep this on a smart plug with a dusk to dawn schedule. I’ll give it check one morning and see how hot it’s really getting.