All LED’s are not created equal.

Insider hears this from time to time: “All LED’s are purchased from the same asian factories so one digital billboard is just as good as another.”  Not true.  Take a look at the picture below.  It consists of a collection of LEDs purchased in Asia.  All LED’s are not created equal.  The quality varies tremendously.  You need ask your digital billboard manufacturer what testing procedures and resources they use to find the best source of LED’s and to continuously monitor the quality of LEDs.

Photo courtesy of Daktronics. Not to be used without attribution permission.

Here is what Daktronics says about product testing:

At Daktronics, testing is an integral part of our design philosophy. As part of our ongoing product development research, we continuously test brands of lamp style (through-hole) LEDs on the market, to find the best value and performance for our customers. This picture shows modules that were in a temperature cycle test designed to accelerate LED failures.

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Photo courtesy of Daktronics. Not to be used without attribution or permission.

In the test chamber, the temperature cycles from -40°C to 105°C and back to -40°C over the course of 2 hours. Typically, we run the test for 2,000 temperature cycles, to ensure a reliable product.

The modules in this test started in an all white state, and the LEDs used in each module had similar manufacturer specifications, but are available to the market at different cost points.

This picture was taken at about 250 cycles, approximately 12% through the test. The modules are showing white content but some are unable to do so because of partial or complete LED failure.

The number of failures per module inversely correlates closely to the cost of the LEDs: the lower LED cost, the greater the failure rate.


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3 Comments

  1. It would be nice to see the back of these modules. The module frames all look the same hmm ?
    People who know the science and have actually first hand field history are saved allot of heart ache a money !

  2. Hi Kirk,

    The modules are Daktronics housings and circuit boards. Each module was loaded with the LEDs from a manufacturer and over 25 LED companies were represented.

    These modules were placed in the test chamber, turned on and the temperature cycling started.

    The picture show the end result.

    thanks,

    Jerry

  3. Hi Jerry thanks for the reply.
    So the diodes were soldered into daktronics chip boards?
    Kirk
    By the way we have digital billboards operating 18 months with zero service calls. Our brand is Incite LED, if our vendor financing is used our service labor is 5yr or 7 yrs program and we will replace the display in yr 7 if needed.