A light engine driven directly from the AC power line has multiple series connected arrays of LEDs each with an associated current limiting transistor. The current from each current limiting transistor goes through a corresponding current sensing resistor and all these resistors are connected in series. The voltage across each current limiting transistor is applied across the next LED array so that as the voltage increases during the power line cycle, the next array becomes activated by the increasing voltage across the previous current limiting transistor. When this happens the previous current limiting transistor is turned off. This continues until all the arrays are activated at the peak of the line, at which point the array current is controlled by the last current limiting transistor.