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Cheap Powerful Godox SL60W LED Fresnel below $199
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  • Interesting, I did not know PWM could be used with it given that stock is three wires.

    I did find that if I put any aftermarket fan's wiring in parallel with the stock fan wiring (rather than replacing the stock fan) it does not throw any error.

    Meaning that worst case scenario, as long as the light is not overheating from whatever aftermarket fan is used, the stock fan can be left connected in parallel to prevent it from throwing the error and/or affecting light output, and simply separate the stock fan to a soundproof box somewhere on the floor (like a portable ice chest). So it would still running the stock just to prevent the error but the fan is neither contributing airflow or noise. Obviously not ideal since would make the light less mobile but might be good knowing there is at least something of a solution to the error itself, if it comes to that.

    I have a different fan headed my way that will hopefully pull enough air to not overheat, it's an oversized 92mm be quiet pure wings 2, looks like it will fit as long as it is epoxied directly to the heatsink instead of using the screw holes. Might even be able to just use some Sugru. Anyway I get the feeling due to the oversized fan it will cover the heatsink a lot better and pulls more air while still being relatively quieter.

    In the meantime I am going to do a couple tests to mimic the exact level of current pulled by stock to see if that stops the error. Probably by just taking a couple .15A fans and putting them in parallel in the circuit. If this works then a resistor can be added to the circuit to increase the current to match what the board is expecting.

  • @bottles101 Great. Let me know when this be quite fan arrives. Looks like stock fan , but quieter for sure

  • So the 92mm pure wings 2 fan can prevent overheating while significantly reducing noise. Probably a 92mm noctua as well as long as it has enough RPM. The pure wings 2 needed to be mounted in a slightly awkward way (reversed and fitted in a diamond configuration rather than square like original) but it does fully cover the heatsink area and the overall modded setup is now actually usable when shooting video (assuming you are not pointing a shotgun mic right at it). Given that it is much more powerful than the 80mm noctua ULN it is not silent, but probably as good as can be had given the cooling requirements for 150W on a single module like this.

    It does still throw the error but interestingly on the SL150 it does not cause any flicker or any other issue. Maybe whatever lighting issue stemming from throwing the error is limited to the SL60 only?

    I took the original little noctua ULN fan and mounted it on the underside of the exterior of the fan so it blows upward. Given the entire assembly is metal it adds a bit more airflow, not really necessary but it is basically silent even compared to the pure wings 2 so figured might as well. This is affixed with small zipties right into the metal slats on the external housing.

    Did talk with my technician at work who said error was based on RPM with that third wire acting like a tachometer, tested this theory by buying a fan that was as close to the original RPM I could find. I forget the specifics but the original was like 2700 RPM and the test fan was 2600 (very few fans out there that are at this power level apparently). Anyway, it still threw the error even with RPM within 100rpm of stock, only difference was the test fan is WAY louder than original. So I guess stock fan is maybe not so bad considering how much air it is pushing around, a lot better than the only comparable fan I could find on Ebay with same speed anyway.

    Pretty much done for mods on this as I am satisfied with the end result, though I may swap the pure wings for a 92mm NF-A9 FLX to see if it will work with the low noise adapter.

  • Have others noticed this problem? Between this tint and the fan noise, it is kinda off putting.

  • @IronFilm

    It is old video and it is about different lights.

  • Probably color cast was on the SL200w version. I have 2 units of SL60w and no one have the problem. One of my units is almost perfect low noise. (Snowfan) The other one is really noisy. (Progressive fan) So probably i'll order another snowfan chinesse fan and i get 2 stock sl60w after all.

    Snowfan YY9225M12B http://www.09635.com/trade/3621254.aspx

    Thanks to @bottles101 and @scotchtape for your help!!

  • Right, so SL200w / SL100w are bad, but the SL60w is great? (wellllll... fingers crossed about the fan noise? Seems it can be hit or miss? Or at least, it needs to be modded)

  • If I were you and needed 60W of LED for shooting video I would go with this corn light:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GBQTTV2/

    It is almost ten times cheaper and there is no fan on it at all, just a giant heatsink built right into the light for passive cooling. It screws into any regular lamp socket, has same power usage, full spectrum and so on. I just got one few days ago and liked it so much I got a couple more to use on lamps in the studio. Wish I would have known I could do this sooner, would have saved a lot of money.

    That's not to say you can not work around possible noise issues on the Godox lights. Maybe your camera even has noise reduction capability built into it, my G85 does and it works decently combined with modding the light and turning down the gain on the mic. But it's not exactly ideal, and may not make sense to pay a premium for something that will end up being a hassle to use.

  • @bottles101

    It is quite bad suggestion looking at design.

    I also do not know that "full spectrum" means here. If you like, you can send it to our lab and I show you results.

    Such lamp does not have good driver, puts extreme thermal stress on diodes that will degrade fast as well as will reduce brightness.

    Can you show one disassembled?

  • I use a similar 40W bulb in one of my softboxes after the giant CFL lost most of its output from age / use. The colors look a bit off with it though. I'd like to see the real measurements on one too. I might buy one for the PV labs testing just for curiosity sake.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev I would not be surprised if it is not perfect, after all it cost less than 30 bucks. Still, it's a lot of light for very little money and makes no noise. That's practically all I need.

    It's a daylight bulb, 6500k, no idea the CRI or that sort of thing but that's not a big deal for my use. I only need perfect colors when taking pictures, not video. And I have the SL-150 for the pictures.

    I removed the screws on the top to take a pic down inside, see the pic below. Each row of LEDs is mounted directly into aluminum, with the aluminum plates having holes in them so air can flow through the entire bulb housing.

    This is only partially disassembled as the driver turns out to be in the base, which appears to be glued together and not accessible. Maybe it could be gotten into with a pry tool but I was not about to do that on a bulb I have had only a few days.

    I took this shot with the other two of these same bulbs providing the lighting. image

  • @bottles101

    Looks bad.

    Diodes are on separate pieces that seem to lack any thermal compound between them and main case.

    I also won't count on this small holes and convection.

  • If I were you and needed 60W of LED for shooting video I would go with this corn light:

    Quality of light is extremely important in cinematography, and low/mid end LED lights are barely acceptable as it is. I'd dare not go even lower.

  • It's a daylight bulb, 6500k

    Most "daylight" bulbs should be 5600k. 6500k is going to be a bit blue.

  • If you say so, I'm no expert on color. I just finished a video for work using a couple of the corn lights, does it look blue to you?

  • It does look blue (cold), but that's not the real problem. You can white balance out a 6500K bulb. You can't white balance out bad color rendition. It might not matter for your specific use case but it matters to a lot of videographers and really better color rendition means the lights are more enjoyable to work under even without video involved.

  • You can white balance out a 6500k bulb, yes, unless you're trying to mix it with other "daylight" bulbs which are more in the 5400-5800k range.

    And yes, as Firworks said, the colors do look blue/cold in that video. Also, the skin tones don't look great.

  • Ok, thanks for the feedback!

  • This above is very subjective video showing few things which were already known and did not saying other known as well which does not glorifying sl60 as mach. This days such a competition should be done with current model mark II. But the worst however is the "maker" which is repeating himself instead of kindly thank you to people for feedbacks. Its really difficult to find you-tubers which care even to pretend to be objective with opinions and statements. Ive never care so far what people do and what they watch buts its time for me to be official mature troll and hater! :) Dislikes will be my fevered tool now.

    Vitaliy please make dislike option here :) or call it "I hate it" even :) with same nice graphic of course

  • It has mach lower CRI - confirmed by reseller I dont remember now exactly but below 90 CRI. And is most like made by Godox as well