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There are lots of products on the market that are LED lights which don't all seem to carry CE markings. I'm looking at designing little ornamental things with embedded LED lighting, and trying to work out if this will require EMC testing or whether I can just happily self-certify (or should leave off the CE mark entirely!).

Does anyone have a definitive answer? My reading of http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/electrical/files/emc_guide__updated_20100208_v3_en.pdf is that LED+battery+current limiting resistor is "inherently benign", under "Pocket lamp s without active electronic circuits", but if I were to include a switchmode power supply or Joule Thief circuit that would trigger the requirement to EMC test it.

pjc50
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    From an outsider's point of view (I've never had anything CE certified) it seems that so long as there is no switching or other source of EMI incorporated into the electronic device, and it does not connect up to the power supply grid, a device should not require CE certification. Your intention of adding a switchmode power supply changes that basis, so certification might need consideration. – Anindo Ghosh Aug 19 '13 at 17:17
  • Are you trying to sell the stuff you build? – Andy aka Aug 19 '13 at 17:24
  • Yes, this would be for (very small run) sales. – pjc50 Aug 19 '13 at 17:39
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    A joule thief is also switches at a few thousand hertz. – Passerby Aug 19 '13 at 19:07

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I've self-certified products with AC, on-line, switch mode PSUs by precisely following manufacturer's guidelines on on PCB layout and component recommendations. If you self-certify you have to produce documentation (a technical report seems the best way) that justifies why you have not done a full, third-party tested EMC test and I've had no qualms in doing this.

On other jobs, I've done informal 3rd party lab testing on certain parts of the design to ensure that emissions were OK and documented results in a technical report. I've never bothered with doing susceptibility testing because, in my experience, using a relatively inexpensive static-discharge gun finds all the susceptibility weaknesses in a design that may brain may have missed.

This approach does require an almost certified design for a switcher but this can usually be gotten from a lot of chip suppliers.

Andy aka
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  • Thanks - what sort of things go in the "technical report"? – pjc50 Aug 19 '13 at 21:04
  • @pjc50 There are websites for all the european directives that apply and firstly you have to decide which directives apply. Cutting short, it sounds like "The low voltage" and "the EMC" directives apply. Dude, there's a lot of stuff on the web that you can find out plus, if you do CE mark then you'll need to make a "certificate of conformity" too - hey it's getting late - it could be called a declaration of conformity BUT upshot is make a tech file justifying why your product meets the specs, mark it with CE and if it goes to Espana make sure the instructions are in their language. – Andy aka Aug 19 '13 at 22:24