In about a month, mid-January or so, I would like to place an order for LM561c/LM301b strips/PCBs.
Buying in bulk, as you all well know, can offer significant discounts. On Digi-Key it's in the range of 40-50% off the single-unit price when going over 100-250 units. (If I manage to figure out who is it on Alibaba that HLG/ChilLED buy theirs from that might be even cheaper, and we could customize to include far-red.)
Might there be anybody based in Europe who'd like to join for such a bulk order?
Of course there are details and specifics to figure out, but I thought it would be a good idea to put this out in advance. Feel free to write in private too.
Anybody in Europe for a bulk purchase?
P.S.,
It took some digging, but a reputable Alibaba supplier of PCBs was found. Discount is in the range of 30-50%, depending on how large the order gets, when compared to available brand names. When comparing €/diode against strips available on Digi-Key the price drops around 45-65%.
It took some digging, but a reputable Alibaba supplier of PCBs was found. Discount is in the range of 30-50%, depending on how large the order gets, when compared to available brand names. When comparing €/diode against strips available on Digi-Key the price drops around 45-65%.
Sup @majorana?
I am not from Europe but would like to find a trusty alibaba seller to buy boards with genuine diodes off.
Do you mind sharing the seller you found and how you came to trust they're sending you top bin diodes.
Much appreciated. By many. I'm Sure. Including the alibaba seller. I'm sure.
I am not from Europe but would like to find a trusty alibaba seller to buy boards with genuine diodes off.
Do you mind sharing the seller you found and how you came to trust they're sending you top bin diodes.
Much appreciated. By many. I'm Sure. Including the alibaba seller. I'm sure.
I have no wish to keep this information a secret, I just don't want to step on anybody's toes by accident.
At any rate, given that I have no "proof", I can explain that I simply searched on Alibaba for "lm561c pcb". There are quite a few results, but not to the point of becoming overwhelming. Once you only look at companies that have been around for more than 4 years, and have any meaningful transaction level (say over 50k in the past six months), that only leaves very few results. Looking at the pictures of what they put out leaves little doubt about which of those is of interest. A little bit of trust-building detail is that they've apologized for shortage of 90CRI diodes (a scammer would just say "sure thing!").
These too might unload junk to a small-time buyer, there's never any guarantee, that's what resellers offer. But I have no doubt all the resellers (HLG, phantom, rapidled, chilled, etc.) source from these 2-3 factories.
I too found (with some help from other threads and other social media) 2 manufacturers, one makes boards that looks like Photon phantom's and the other like HLG's.majorana wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:34 pmI have no wish to keep this information a secret, I just don't want to step on anybody's toes by accident.
At any rate, given that I have no "proof", I can explain that I simply searched on Alibaba for "lm561c pcb". There are quite a few results, but not to the point of becoming overwhelming. Once you only look at companies that have been around for more than 4 years, and have any meaningful transaction level (say over 50k in the past six months), that only leaves very few results. Looking at the pictures of what they put out leaves little doubt about which of those is of interest. A little bit of trust-building detail is that they've apologized for shortage of 90CRI diodes (a scammer would just say "sure thing!").
These too might unload junk to a small-time buyer, there's never any guarantee, that's what resellers offer. But I have no doubt all the resellers (HLG, phantom, rapidled, chilled, etc.) source from these 2-3 factories.
If that seller is indeed HLG's supplier then they have signed an agreement and if he's selling you their design then they are in breach of it. They are stepping on HLG's toes, not you mate.
I'm not sure HLG mind a few hardcore DIYers going straight for the source. Means less messing about with DIY parts for them.
The way things have been recently, stock wise, it seems we can only get boards straight from Shenzen these days.
I'm not sure how actively involved either reseller actually is when it comes to production. These factories work a couple of scales of magnitude bigger than all of this DIY growlight scene. I also doubt any of the resellers have a patent of any sort on these designs, and that one could be sought in the first place. Making tiny tweaks when it comes to spectrum and CRI is something everybody is doing anyhow.
That's pretty much how Alibaba works in the first place: you get a factory to produce a small-to-medium batch (couple of thousands of units at most) with your logo stamped on it, and sell it with a small premium to end-users who don't want the hassle. In exchange for the added premium you offer a guarantee. And then you pretty much have to pray that you can actually trust their quality control and assurance. If you want to go big (have a factory produce just for you) that's an entirely different procedure.
If I had deeper pockets I'd order from one of the resellers, precisely because the premium is worth having them handle the guarantee. I'm also assuming they get better QA because of the order size. The peace of mind of having somebody else deal with lemons is worth quite a lot, but simply not something I can afford presently.
Hey majorana. Did you find anyone for a bulk order?
I enquired lot of sellers on alibaba but I never ordered cause I can't afford the price of a bulk order. Anyway on rollitup forum some users got boards from Shenzen but they found out lm561b or b+ diodes are used instead of lm561c. Some sellers are now aware of our forums and should be a bit more thrustworthy
I haven't placed my order yet, and haven't found anybody to split a bulk order with. I'd like to do that by the end of the month. I guess it's time I open an account on RIU and see if there's anybody to partner up with over there.Grower wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:28 pmHey majorana. Did you find anyone for a bulk order?
I enquired lot of sellers on alibaba but I never ordered cause I can't afford the price of a bulk order. Anyway on rollitup forum some users got boards from Shenzen but they found out lm561b or b+ diodes are used instead of lm561c. Some sellers are now aware of our forums and should be a bit more thrustworthy
I'm also going to make clear to any supplier that the output will be measured by an Apogee Quantom Sensor, and any variance of more than 5% than the datasheet claims will end with filing for a full refund with PayPal. I like to think that the bigger the order the less likely they'll try to pull one off.
Cool, keep me updated I may be interested.majorana wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:53 pmI haven't placed my order yet, and haven't found anybody to split a bulk order with. I'd like to do that by the end of the month. I guess it's time I open an account on RIU and see if there's anybody to partner up with over there.Grower wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:28 pmHey majorana. Did you find anyone for a bulk order?
I enquired lot of sellers on alibaba but I never ordered cause I can't afford the price of a bulk order. Anyway on rollitup forum some users got boards from Shenzen but they found out lm561b or b+ diodes are used instead of lm561c. Some sellers are now aware of our forums and should be a bit more thrustworthy
I'm also going to make clear to any supplier that the output will be measured by an Apogee Quantom Sensor, and any variance of more than 5% than the datasheet claims will end with filing for a full refund with PayPal. I like to think that the bigger the order the less likely they'll try to pull one off.
(my tent is 60x60cm or 2x2ft and I was thinking to get 560mm EB strips gen 2, these would give me a full coverage) Did you already think at how you want the pcb to be made?
My plan is for a very straightforward, uniform 3000K@90CRI for flower. I might also get 5000K@80CRI for veg if pricing is particularly appealing, but will probably stick with the 4000K@80CRI Vero29 COBs I have.
I'm afraid insisting on 90CRI is already going to complicate things enough, given a reported overall shortage. Probably going to skip any "special mix" of 700nm (Emerson) and UV-B (trichome) simply because I wasn't convinced the hype is backed up by actual data. I wish I could conduct such a properly controlled experiment myself, but my grow space isn't much bigger than yours.
It might be better to communicate using Telegram/Signal if you're up for that. Feel free to send me the contact in a private message.