LED lights

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   I currently work for a company that is based overseas. I was thinking about importing a large quantity of LED light strings. Colors are as follows. RED, WHITE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE. Do any of you think that you would be interested in purchasing lights using this method. Or has anyone tried this before and had any issues. Just a thought to save money when you are hanging so many lights. The lights will be UL listed and RHOS compliant. We have shipments of dental equipment go back and fourth every couple of weeks so i would just add them to a container "Slow boat form China" to save additional costs. 

Just an idea!

Mike 

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bigwyt1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Location: ONtario Online Status: Offline Posts: 8	Quote Reply Topic: LED lights Posted: 11 Sep 2009 at 11:32am
	I currently work for a company that is based overseas. I was thinking about importing a large quantity of LED light strings. Colors are as follows. RED, WHITE, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE. Do any of you think that you would be interested in purchasing lights using this method. Or has anyone tried this before and had any issues. Just a thought to save money when you are hanging so many lights. The lights will be UL listed and RHOS compliant. We have shipments of dental equipment go back and fourth every couple of weeks so i would just add them to a container "Slow boat form China" to save additional costs. Just an idea! Mike

Jonathan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 07 Sep 2008 Location: SoCal Online Status: Offline Posts: 1237	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Sep 2009 at 3:46pm
	Clarification please-- are these colors on one strand (i.e. a multi colored strand) or are they strands that are all red, all white, all green, etc? Have you tested them with any controllers? LED lights are not created equal, and they can range in quality and performance from fantastic to an annoyance to just plain dangerous. (Some people actually had bad strands catch fire and others like myself had LED lights glowing when the channel was off.) Besides the pricing, what are the specs (length, spacing between bulbs)?
	~Jonathan

bigwyt1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Location: ONtario Online Status: Offline Posts: 8	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Sep 2009 at 4:21pm
	Jonathan, Specs are as follows. 1)Wide angle D5 LED lights 2)Commercial quality 3)Multi-color choose 4)100 lights per string 5)16.6 feet long 6)Indoor/outdoor use 7)Green wire 8)4 inch spacing between lights 9)No adapter required! I am working with them on some final pricing and qty discounts. I am also checking to see if they can accommodate me with single color strains. The lights look the same as you would purchase from Costco / Sams. I have some from last year and plan to test them with the D-light controller. I have 3 on the way. Once i get the controller i will test the lights and see if there are any issues. WE have worked with this company for several years, They manufacture our 5 Watt LED for curing composite materials. Thus no problem yet. But you never know these days. Do you have any recomendations on MFG of lights and specs that would be good to use with those controllers. Thanks Mike

LightsOnLogan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3187	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Sep 2009 at 6:30pm
	100 lights x 4" spacing = 33 feet. The above does not add up. Are these 50 LED strings? Be very careful... a few of us remember the 2008 CDI disaster all too well (they switched manufacturers and ended up with a far inferior product). Those were "commercial quality" and "dimmable" too. Fires were just a bonus. Essentially you want to check what type of circuit they are using. "Full wave" isn't a good enough answer. The best circuit for use with lighting controllers involves no more than a bridge rectifier, resistor, and the LEDs (simple, effective, no capacitor to introduce current/voltage phasing issues). Unfortunately, this also results in extra "blobs" mid-string because this design can only series 40 or so LEDs max (less for blue, green, and white). To get around this some manufacturers started using voltage doubler circuits to avoid the mid string wart. While these doublers are indirectly full wave like and do appear to dim properly, they are wholly unsafe to use on a dimmer (think flames). I ran 288 sets of this type last year... 20% failure rate and 1 almost fire (fortunately at the mega tree and not on the house) plus lots of sticky channels... lots of string rewiring to do this year. I'm not saying your manufacturer is bad... just do your homework before committing. BTW... I'm rewiring mine in a rather unconventional way for the MT only: I'm putting a single bridge rectifier for each channel into the controller box and running rectified DC to the strings... the strings will be multiple series runs in parallel with a resistor for each series. The house is getting all new LEDs this year. Edited by LightsOnLogan - 11 Sep 2009 at 6:37pm


Jonathan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 07 Sep 2008 Location: SoCal Online Status: Offline Posts: 1237	Quote Reply Posted: 12 Sep 2009 at 2:07am
	I recently did do some fairly extensive testing on LED strands, and I found a manufacturer that I like. Their website can be found here. Not only are their products great, but the customer service can't be beat! Like LightsOnLogan said, you will have your work cut out for you. A lot of folks were put off by bad LEDs last year, and many may have just given up on the idea completely. But if you have good strands that perform well with the controllers we use (D-Light/LOR) then you may yet find a niche. Obviously you should price your strands at whatever you see fit, but for a comparison, a 16.5' red strand from www.christmas-leds.com goes for $12.40.
	~Jonathan

bigwyt1 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Location: ONtario Online Status: Offline Posts: 8	Quote Reply Posted: 12 Sep 2009 at 10:30am
	Jonathan, I will keep you posted on what i find out after i get my controllers. BTW, i checked the strains that i have and maybe i cant count right now but i measured 25' AND 90 CT on the bulbs. Does that sound right to you. PLease remember that i am totally new to the world of light shows. THX Mike

LightsOnLogan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3187	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Sep 2009 at 10:44am
	the problem with specifying which LED vendor is a good one is that they sometimes change manufacturers from one year to another. This year I ordered about $1k worth from Travis (ledholidaylighting.com). These are supposed to be identical (same manufacturer) to the 2006/2007 CDI sets (the 06/07 CDI sets are good but CDI changed manufacturers in 08). I haven't received the sets yet so I can't say if they live up to expectations or not.


JoanieBonzo Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 12 Sep 2012 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1	Quote Reply Posted: 12 Sep 2012 at 2:12am
	A lot of folks were put off by bad LEDs last year, and many may have just given up on the idea completely. But if you have good strands that perform well with the controllers we use (D-Light/LOR) then you may yet find a niche. ______________________________ LED Fluorescent led ceiling lights led strip Edited by JoanieBonzo - 12 Sep 2012 at 8:50pm