Low cost LED lights (1 Viewer)

keith

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Anyone tried using these LED lights on Ebay No. 270511187976

There seems to be many more cheaper ones available now.
 

peter H

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At 0.99 per item plus postage seems a bargin.

Already converted the van, but got 12 of these in my kitchen, So why not i thought.

Entered 12 as qty needed, and price came up as £11.88 (12x 0.99) seems fine, but postage was quoted as £35 plus.

I don't think so somehow, Lets just hope its a sofeware glitch. Not a deliberate scam.

Ho humm, not going green just yet.

Peter
 

dellwood33

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Just got a similar result Peter. Hong Kong :RollEyes: Don't think I will bother either :winky:

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Peter James

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I've ordered a few LED lights and other small electrical items on ebay from Hong Kong, and that's how it works - no discount on postage for quantity, but still cheap.
May be something to keep the price down to keep the value below the threshold for import duty - so you don't order large quantities at once.
Or keep the ebay fees down I don't know.
Anyway, it arrived in a couple of weeks and worked a treat.
I wouldn't choose those spotlight bulbs because I prefer a less concentrated beam, but I am sure they would be fine if that's what you want.
 

Peter James

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PS: These are some of the LED lights I got - 2 separate strips for £3.95
Link Removed
Tougher than they look in the photo because they are fully encased in soft clear plastic.
Each strip draws about 3 watts and gives about twice as much light as an 8 watt fluorescent tube, without the radio interference :thumb:
 
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keith

keith

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PS: These are some of the LED lights I got - 2 separate strips for £3.95
Link Removed
Tougher than they look in the photo because they are fully encased in soft clear plastic.
Each strip draws about 3 watts and gives about twice as much light as an 8 watt fluorescent tube, without the radio interference :thumb:

I had looked at those as well, just wasn't sure about how they would fit. Do you screw them on or can they be fitted by double sided tape.

They also say they won't ship to Scotland

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Jan 11, 2010
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Well that`s our 13th year & still loving it.
postage cost from China

Hi guys,

The reason they charge so little for the item with a high postage cost is so they keep the e-bay chargs down

Some companies charge a lot more for the item but with free postage, generally it all works out the same.

If you are looking for LED lights in strip form, I bought a load of this guy, he`s from Birmingham and real nice bloke.

"Clive Eddowes" cliveeddowes@hotmail.com

They have 3m sticky backing, no probs in my sofar, he will make them up to any lenght you want which is handy.
We have fitted them over the lockers and under the pelmets, excellent we are well pleased.

Cost us less than £110 to do the whole lot.

Regards Rob and Chris.
 

Rickboy

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I had looked at those as well, just wasn't sure about how they would fit. Do you screw them on or can they be fitted by double sided tape.

They also say they won't ship to Scotland


I have some similar( 72 led),they work well.I pushed mine into the backing piece of some small square plastic electrical conduit.Cable tied on to be extra secure.You could screw the conduit.Leds are polarity sensative so if they don't work ,swop the wires around.

Rick
 

jenkothewanderer

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Led Strip Lights

In my Hymer A CLASS I had a tall floor to ceiling light which consisted of 30 small filament bulbs crimped onto copper rails enclosed into a clear plastic conduit.
Several of the bulbs had blown and I wanted a better solution to just replacing the bulbs as it was a fair task to remove the light fitting.
I decided to purchase off Ebay and from Hong kong a 2 metre length of led's in warm white. This cost £19 including postage and arrived with no duty to pay in approx 10 days. You can cut these strip lights to length at 3 led intervals without affecting their operation. My length required was approx 6 ft.
The lights are easy to wire straight to the 12v + / - and will only work in one direction.
The lights work brilliantly and take only approx 1amp compared to approx 3amp before. The led's were every 1cm and gave off if anything too much light so I decided to fit a 12v dimmer switch again off E Bay for £6 including postage from Hong Kong.
The lights are now perfect as I can adjust the led's to give off subdued or intense lighting.
I had fun doing the retro fit and the result was perfect and very reasonably priced, I dread to thing what the bill from Hymer Uk would have been.
Hope this helps you budding DIY guys & girls.
Jenko

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Kon tiki

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I got some of the cheap ones from Hong Kong the ones with 6 LED's (look like the ones they sell at the shows. Think they worked out £2.49 with postage. The pins were too big to fit the holder, I emailled the seller & he said he would send 2 more with smaller pins. I managed to solder new smaller pins myself so I got 4 for the price of 2:thumb:. They were ok but found that these were sensitive to the polarity & had to change every socket I fitted them in. I decided to get some brighter ones a bit more expensive just under £4 each with free delivery. Link Removed these are much brighter & much better quality, the polarity of these doesn't seem to matter. Although they have a UK contact the bulbs still come from Hong Kong so they take about 3 weeks but they are as good as any I have seen.
 

Billyboyrider

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E bay

If you sell on ebay you only pay commission on the sale price, if its a buy now and its cheap and postage high this is why, save on sellers fees.
 

Peter James

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I had looked at those as well, just wasn't sure about how they would fit. Do you screw them on or can they be fitted by double sided tape.

They also say they won't ship to Scotland

I just fastened mine up with plastic cable ties, but I guess double sided tape would be ok as they don't get hot like ordinary bulbs, and being fully encased in soft clear plastic they are not going to do any damage if they fall off.
I don't know why they won't ship to Scotland. Perhaps somebody from there has tried to order them in bulk and got stung for import duty. I understand the maximum value when ordering CDs from abroad duty free is, or was, £18 but don't know what the value is for this stuff??
The Government should be encouraging us to use LED lights (like they subsidise domestic energy efficient bulbs) because they use far less electricity so are far more environmentally friendly than even fluorescent tubes where much power is lost in the inverter raising the voltage.
I notice this seller has 99.3% positive feedback from customers (including me) which seems pretty good to me.
Do you think Curry's or Comet would get 99.3% positive feedback from their customers :RollEyes:

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keith

keith

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I just fastened mine up with plastic cable ties, but I guess double sided tape would be ok as they don't get hot like ordinary bulbs, and being fully encased in soft clear plastic they are not going to do any damage if they fall off.
I don't know why they won't ship to Scotland. Perhaps somebody from there has tried to order them in bulk and got stung for import duty. I understand the maximum value when ordering CDs from abroad duty free is, or was, £18 but don't know what the value is for this stuff??

I do know some companies will not post to the Scottish highlands & Islands, bit I only live 10 north of the border with England. :RollEyes:
 

Peter James

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PS: These are some of the LED lights I got - 2 separate strips for £3.95
Link Removed
Tougher than they look in the photo because they are fully encased in soft clear plastic.
Each strip draws about 3 watts and gives about twice as much light as an 8 watt fluorescent tube, without the radio interference :thumb:

Received 4 more of these today and they all work a treat :thumb:
(I notice the advert says the seller is away until Thursday though)

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hilldweller

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PS: These are some of the LED lights I got - 2 separate strips for £3.95
Link Removed
Tougher than they look in the photo because they are fully encased in soft clear plastic.
Each strip draws about 3 watts and gives about twice as much light as an 8 watt fluorescent tube, without the radio interference :thumb:

I could not resist a couple at that price. Just arrived.

Beautifully made.

But not good news efficiency wise. They use resistors to limit the current, this is very inefficient and it's very dependent on supply voltage. At 12V they are taking 0.25A or 3W ( as Peter says ) but an on charge battery at 14V pushes this to 0.4A or 5W. The bulb replacement LED modules with proper control circuit is very much more efficient and independent of supply voltage.

So although no complaints about value for money, they are not the best when it comes to battery life.
 

Peter James

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I could not resist a couple at that price. Just arrived.

Beautifully made.

But not good news efficiency wise. They use resistors to limit the current, this is very inefficient and it's very dependent on supply voltage. At 12V they are taking 0.25A or 3W ( as Peter says ) but an on charge battery at 14V pushes this to 0.4A or 5W. The bulb replacement LED modules with proper control circuit is very much more efficient and independent of supply voltage.

So although no complaints about value for money, they are not the best when it comes to battery life.

Glad you like them Brian :thumb:

I have ordered 3 times from this seller, all have arrived in about 2 weeks, and work fine except for one of the 10 strips that has 3 LEDs not working in the middle, but as there are still another 45 LEDs in that strip which are working I am happy with that.
I agree, I don't think these are quite as power efficient as some of the other LED lights, and if the current is going up with voltage I don't know whether the all the LEDs will last as long?

But as these lights are only using more current than other LEDs when the voltage is higher - i.e when the battery is on charge and you have current to spare, I don't suppose that matters much?

But still far more efficient than conventional bulbs or fluorescent tubes on 12 volts.
I much prefer these strips to spotlights because they give a more diffused light with less shadows, and making it unnecessary to have 'warm white' bulbs in my opinion. Some of the spotlights give a very savage little beam, so people then buy 'warm white' which I think is less efficient?


(Perhaps I should add for anyone who doesn't know, that positive and negative are not marked and they will only work one way round, but you can find which is which by trial and error because it doesn't appear to damage them by connecting them the wrong way round.)
 
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hilldweller

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I much prefer these strips to spotlights because they give a more diffused light with less shadows

they will only work one way round, but you can find which is which by trial and error

I've just held them above my workbench, a lovely even light. I may have to use them even if they aren't as efficient as I would like.

I have a light problem in the cab - with a swivel driver's seat there is no decent illumination to read at night, they might be ideal for that.

This pair has a tinned wire and a copper wire, the copper being red-ish is the positive.

How do they make them for the money ?

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Peter James

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This pair has a tinned wire and a copper wire, the copper being red-ish is the positive.

Your eyesight must be better than mine :Cool:

Would it matter about them using more current than some other LEDs at higher voltage, as that would be when you are on hook up or having the engine running with power to spare ?
 

hilldweller

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Would it matter about them using more current than some other LEDs at higher voltage, as that would be when you are on hook up or having the engine running with power to spare ?

Even off hookup the battery is mostly over 13V. Does it matter ? That's up to the individual user. Better than normal bulbs but if you get carried away with them you could end up the same battery drain but a nice tan.
 

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