Inside a Philips Xtreme surge device for street lights

This is a unit that Philips use in some of their LED street lights to protect the LED drivers from transients. Especially important when LED lights are used on the same circuits as discharge sources like low and high pressure sodium or metal halide, as some of the lamp ignition circuits are very spiky.

When electronic halogen transformers first appeared on the scene they were very prone to failure when used on the same circuits as traditional transformers due to issues with the inductive spikes caused by the traditional transformers when switching. Now history may be repeating itself with mixed street light types. This unit may be intended to help get the light through the warranty period.

I do like the open construction MOV modules. Unlike the potted MeanWell units with their encapsulated thermal fuses, these units use a simple spring contact. It even looks like the classic wavy-line fuse symbol.

As with all Philips lighting products the design is pretty neat. Notably the resistor in series with the LEDs dropper cap circuit, that is designed to handle the full current if the capacitor fails short circuit.


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