Does my light bulb really need a speaker and Bluetooth?

I had an overhead light go out in my barn, so I stopped by a store to get a new one.  Even in the present market, the price seemed quite high.   I took the time to read the label.  As the subject line indicates, the bulb came with Bluetooth and a speaker.  In fact, all of the bulbs in that store that would provide enough light came with Bluetooth and a speaker.   I try to support the local businesses, but this time I went to Amazon.

I wonder if the speaker functionality is wired to the lighting functionality such that when the bulb burns out the speaker stops working?

Turning the light off should turn the speaker off as well. I guess this would be a way for businesses to play more elevator music at you.

Any idea of what the speaker was for?  Just playing music via Bluetooth?  Certainly seems like an extravagance to me but I bet there is someone out there who just can't live without one.

Eric

Hi Eric,

There was nothing on the packaging.  I suppose it was there for those who play music on their cell phone.  It was a 300 watt equivalent LED, so it wasn’t for in house use.   I imagine if I space three of them through my barn, it would work as a sound system ….assuming I wanted a sound system in my barn.

Good job rejecting this nonsense.

"Control it from your smartphone!" is the dumbest marketing thing ever. But it sells, and it's creeping in all sorts of places where it doesn't belong. I think it's also a security and privacy nightmare.

For a 300W bulb, I wonder if it could be a simple PA system in an outbuilding or small business.

Along those same lines:

It really bugs me how avoidable electronic bits are finding their way into everything they can. It's another way for things to break and not be repairable.

Speaking of lighting...
Hubby watches a selection of Y--tube mechanics. A fellow brought his car in because a brake light had burned out. The entire back light assembly had to be replaced at a cost of $700. The mechanic was gobsmacked and the owner was seriously pissed.

The joys of LED lighting. I saw this coming, and it has arrived...

Speakers?......embedded in a barn lightbulb?.......ostensibly connected by Bluetooth?   With grave concern here, I'm envisioning subliminal messaging to your animals.  One day the revolution will happen, '1984' style, and you will be answering to the goats, pigs, and chickens!  :-?   I can't help but feel to be only half-way joking here as an array of lightbulbs (stimulation #1) potentially sporting audible, ambient words and sounds (stimulation #2) just brings to mind some of the sci-fi writers of the previous century and their cautionary predictions.

Hmmmm....  

At any rate, agreed......totally unnecessary!

It makes sense to me for the new surveillance  grid that is dependent on blue tooth.      

If all light bulbs have to have bluetooth it extends the grid even larger..

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14qw-FXGOEY [/youtube]

This network does not need the internet so that your phone and your devices can report back to the mothership.

Jay Angler wrote:It really bugs me how avoidable electronic bits are finding their way into everything they can. It's another way for things to break and not be repairable.

Speaking of lighting...
Hubby watches a selection of Y--tube mechanics. A fellow brought his car in because a brake light had burned out. The entire back light assembly had to be replaced at a cost of $700. The mechanic was gobsmacked and the owner was seriously pissed.

The joys of LED lighting. I saw this coming, and it has arrived...

Respectfully, that is a design choice on the part of the manufacturer, and not a fault of the particular lighting technology.

LEDs have served me well overall, but as small modular units I can take or leave at my convenience.

But I have to say, I am running my 2010-ish vehicles into the ground before I buy a new one. There is just so much stuff to go wrong in newer vehicles; it's insane.

Hi Douglas,

At nearly 74, climbing up on a ladder into the trusses to reach a burned out light bulb is an activity I would rather avoid.  There is some offsetting pleasure in realizing I will probably never have to replace the bulb again. For that, I appreciate the LED.

I just had to see one of these bulbs so I took a peak on Amazon and I saw one that was a 300 watt equivalent with the bluetooth speaker AND the light itself was RGB, meaning that the bulb can be tuned to any color of the visible spectrum.

Maybe as some sort of party light, but I don't think John's barn need this $18 light.

Eric

But I will add in that I did see a couple of bulbs that were rechargeable bulbs that screwed into a standard light fixture.  They were also bluetooth equipped.  I guess the idea is that if the power goes out a phone could be used to turn these on during an emergency?  Still, I am betting the John still does not need these either.

Eric

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Jay Angler wrote:Hubby watches a selection of Y--tube mechanics. A fellow brought his car in because a brake light had burned out. The entire back light assembly had to be replaced at a cost of $700. The mechanic was gobsmacked and the owner was seriously pissed.

Respectfully, that is a design choice on the part of the manufacturer, and not a fault of the particular lighting technology.

I think my point was that "modular" LED's are fast becoming harder to find, and many of them are integral parts of what's being made, and average people are loosing options. (And if they have electronic stuff in them that people *don't* need or want, and those extras stop the entire unit from living a long and productive life, that's a double drag.)

I too, love LED's for certain applications, particularly hard to reach spots as John F describes. But it is *really* easy for companies to make LED units unrepairable and it's getting more difficult for average people to realize that they do need to figure out how to repair their old vehicles so they don't get caught with stuff like this.

If you read the comments on this short video about the car, people are already getting around the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5T3hQTGxfK0
Here are a few examples:

@aaronsprojects9622   1 year ago
I just put 2 in. Offered the customer and aftermarket set for 180 bucks all together and they chose that option much faster

@areyouseriouswhyify 1 year ago
They can be repaired for less than $15.  There is a weak point in the LED circuit that fails.  You can cut open the back of the sealed light assembly an solder it.  Then seal it back up with flex seal patch.

@thedevilinthecircuit1414  2 years ago
Funny how "cheaper to make" turns into "more expensive to repair."

There were lots of sentiments like Douglass' about shopping for older cars or keeping their old car as long as possible. We'd be in a not bad spot to have an electric car, but we're not happy with most of the electronic "bells and whistles". I keep hoping someone will make a conversion kit for our 20 year old Pontiac Vibe!

I don't think I will ever buy a LED light that runs 240V ac again. They are made very poorly and fail even faster than the old ones. Bad cooling means the already low quality capacitors get baked to death very quickly.

I buy LEDs on pcb panels that run on DC with no electronics involved. They are then connected to regulators that are 1€ each so the brightness can be controlled and they get the correct amount of current.
All lights are then connected to a 24V grid and if the power supply for that dies, it get swapped out.

More components in total, but the expensive ones (the LEDs) will last forever.