Hi all,

I'm modifying my old rear bumper lamp clusters which I replaced with new ones when I recently had to replace the bumper on my Land Rover Discovery. I'm installing LED panels into the lamp clusters, which hopefully will look quite nice when I'm done. Each of the two rectangular lamp clusters has two sides - one is an amber indicator, the other is a normal red driving light.

Anyway, on to my question. I've found quite a few good deals for LEDs on Ebay. You can pick up quantities of a hundred or more high brightness LEDs for less than a tenner!
I notice that a lot of the better deals are from suppliers in the Far East. I've heard that these people are often supplying lower quality class 2 LEDs as opposed to the high quality ones we get over here in the UK.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to these rumours? If so, what are the disadvantages with a class 2 LED as opposed to a higher quality one. I assume that brightness isn't an area where the LEDs suffer, most probably it's the life expectancy or something.

Has anyone got any experience with buying LEDs from these Far East Ebayers? Were you satisfied with them?

My main problem is that due to the way I've modified my old lamp clusters, it is possible to dissasemble them to replace LEDs, but it does involve a lot of hassle. Therefore, the life expectancy of the LEDs is quite important. I'd rather pay more for the LEDs and then have to replace them less often.

Thanks for any advice,

Brian

 

I bought a bag of 100 LEDs that was sealed by the American manufacturer Fairchild, and they are all the same and are perfect.

I bought 10 ultra-bright blue LEDs from a local East Indian store and they might be made in India or in China. 5 were faulty and barely worked.

I have heard that some far eastern LEDs are poorly sealed and are not waterproof.

I don't think I will buy far eastern stuff again.

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Uncle $crooge

 

Ok good, thanks for the advice AudioGuru!

I think the saying, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" is one of the most true to life points ever made, eh? If you stick by that general rule, you're not usually far wrong!

Brian

 

I'd avoid ebay as the source, since most of the sellers on there are trying to make the fast buck.

I've bought hundreds of dollars worth of LEDs directly from Chinese manufacterers, and have no complaints regarding the price, service or quality.

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There seem to be a few Electronics components suppliers who are using Ebay as the front end for their business. They seem quite legitimate. I suppose the only thing to do is to try them, and if you're satisfied use them again. If not, don't.

I think I'm going to try them - I'll let you know how I get on

Brian

 

I have bought several packs of leds from a distributor in Hong Kong, via E-bay. There are no failures and they hurt my eyes. At £5 for 50 pieces, a damned good bargain.

 

Haven't bought any LED's yet on Ebay.

The biggest cost is usually the postage + p & p which makes it quite often more expensive than the actual LED's.

When the feedback rating is high 98% or more you usually have a good trader.

Just have a read through some of the feedback rating comments.

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There are more ways to get to Rome.

Electricity, Electric clocks, Meters and Trains are great.

 

depending on your vehicle make and design, some LED replacements configs will set a fault code in the PCM and alert you. Seems some systems detect a change in current draw and then set the code as a system fault. This may or may not occur with your vehicle but if it does, suspect the recent alteration you did.

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Don't make me reach through this monitor to slap you a good one!

 

Well, I wasn't so much questioning the relative brightness between Far Eastern LEDs and ours, as much as their age expectancy. It's great having bright LEDs, but if that means I've got to take apart my modification every few weeks to replace the ones which have gone faulty, it's more hassle than it's worth. I guess the only real way to find out if there's any difference is for me to try them, but I dunno if it's worth the risk or not. There's a couple of suppliers selling them fairly cheap over here in the UK so I might lean towards them instead.

My vehicle doesn't have an on board computer at all - even the engine is all mechanical from a control point of view. The Electric window controller, which is a few relays and some time delay circuits, is about as complicated as the interior electronics get
So nope that won't effect me.

Brian

 

By the way, what's the PCM? The only Electronics acronym I know of for PCM is Pulse-Code-Modulation.

Brian

 

PCM = Power Control Module = computer that controls just about everything the car can do or shouldn't do. It can be a blessing when all is well in storyland, and then it can be a nightmare when it brainfarts. At least your car shouldn't succumb to EMP, right?

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Don't make me reach through this monitor to slap you a good one!

 

EMP? What, you mean one of those Electromagnetic wipe-out devices that some funny people on here claim to want to build?! No my Land Rover won't be "Knocked out" by one of those

Brian

 

Hi - my nearest electrical supplier is Maplins ( a big city like Bristol seems to have 2 maplins as the only electrical retailers and a Rapids electrics ) so I resorted to ebay for a lot of my LED supplies - and have had nothing but good service
The 2 sellers which i recommend most
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/component-s...Q3amesstQQtZkm

alternatively try phenoptix - they sale some very nice bright LEDs - which are extremely useful yet price isnt that high
www.phenoptix.co.uk

Thanks,
Luke

( please note - i checked the rules - and could not find anythig saying not to post links to stores relevant to a post )
p.s. phenoptix have an ebay store as well - same name