LED expert Needed

[Mgavin1985]

Does anyone know the difference between error free, can-bus, cob and Cree led types for interior. The price vary by a huge margin. I have some cheap ebay led for interior and they flicker. Im looking for middle of the road in price and quality. Thanks in advance. 2013 Ford Edge.

[enigma-2]

This may offer an understanding of the different types. http://www.ebay.com/gds/Truth-about-CANBUS-Error-Free-AutoLED-/10000000205123542/g.html

 

http://store.ijdmtoy.com/Canbus-Error-Free-LED-Bulbs-FAQ-a/490.htm

Edited March 10, 2017 by enigma-2

[Mgavin1985]

Thanks for the info

[TheWizard]

Does anyone know the difference between error free, can-bus, cob and Cree led types for interior. The price vary by a huge margin. I have some cheap ebay led for interior and they flicker. Im looking for middle of the road in price and quality. Thanks in advance. 2013 Ford Edge.

 

As described in the links provide by enigma-2, error free and can-bus are basically the same thing. CAN bus is an international network standard used by many car manufacturers to control circuits with microprocessors. It stands for Controller Area Network and it's basically a peer-to-peer network (devices communicate with each other without requiring a central server). The network is commonly used to display an error (message or warning light) when a bulb is burned out so many LED manufacturers use it as a synonym for error free.

 

COB is an acronym for Chip On Board, one of several types of LED designs. SMD (Surface Mounted Device) is the other common design used in LED bulbs these days. DIP (Dual Inline Package) is the type you normally think of when you think LED - it looks like a tiny bulb with two lead wires. COB and SMD are similar in that they are surface mounted but COB is a single circuit regardless of how many actual diodes are included whereas SMD has a separate circuit for each diode. COB design makes overall circuit design simpler and also tends to have the highest output (in lumens) of the three types.

 

Cree is a brand name. They are known for being on the leading edge of LED design but they have produced several generations of LEDs so that name by itself is no guarantee of a brighter bulb (it could be a bulb built with 2-year-old Cree LEDs which aren't nearly as bright as current ones).

 

Just to throw another variable at you... the rated brightness of an LED bulb (in lumens) doesn't necessarily correspond to the actual brightness when used in a vehicle. That is also dependent on the housing and reflector design. For example, I have found a number of vehicles where an SMD tower bulb looks much brighter than a Cree bulb that might have a higher rating. That's because Cree bulbs tend to rely on just a few very powerful LEDs where an SMD bulb has many more LEDs (often 30 or more). With some reflectors, the sheer number of LEDs on the SMD fill out the light much better than the fewer more powerful Cree LEDs so the light is more effective.