Who buys and uses LED's off Ebay?


I know a few of you guys buy quantity amounts of bulk LED's off ebay. Especially the SMD 0402 and 0603. Im on a kick with LED lights lately and ive been wanting to experiment with them for years now. Ill admit I dont know much about them or if there are any sellers that come recommended to buy from. I also dont want to end up buying from a seller that sells junk products that dont work. Im wondering who sells a good reliable product on Ebay for LED lights.

What ebay sellers would you guys recommend for buying LED lights from? I think I recall someone here once recommended bestshop2008hk, and ive heard several folks suggest high-tech-LED-world as well.

http://stores.ebay.com/bestshop2008hk

http://stores.ebay.com/Light-Victory-Hi-Tech-Led-Store
 
I buy from these 3 a lot.

ourmodelworld

cliffordjamesc2006

wehonest_us

All of these are from China.:D
 
I buy from this guy...www.led-switch.com. His ebay id is dmmwem. Great prices on LEDs and switches. Very fast shipping and he's right here in good ole NC. I dont mind paying the tax as he usu ships for free and its very fast.
 
This is a different class of LED, but our club has a design issue regarding under-deck lighting for a 2-level layout. We don't want to take up a lot of space or generate much heat with the lights, so I got some high-power LEDs (1 Watt each) from a Chinese supplier, a guy using the name sunky2010.

It was a lot of 50, like this (hope the link works):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1lot-50PC-1...485?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c26dc36f5
Edit: the link seems to work, but I see this sale is for plain white LEDs, and the ones I got were "warm white".

The parts arrived OK, and here's the result:
(Shipping package lit by single LED, with 3 LEDs on top):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_1798.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_1799.JPG
(Group of 4 LEDs on aluminum bar, on bench):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_2059.JPG
(Same setup installed under upper deck, lighting lower deck):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_1811.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This is a different class of LED, but our club has a design issue regarding under-deck lighting for a 2-level layout. We don't want to take up a lot of space or generate much heat with the lights, so I got some high-power LEDs (1 Watt each) from a Chinese supplier, a guy using the name sunky2010.

It was a lot of 50, like this (hope the link works):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1lot-50PC-1...485?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c26dc36f5
Edit: the link seems to work, but I see this sale is for plain white LEDs, and the ones I got were "warm white".

The parts arrived OK, and here's the result:
(Shipping package lit by single LED, with 3 LEDs on top):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_1798.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_1799.JPG
(Group of 4 LEDs on aluminum bar, on bench):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_2059.JPG
(Same setup installed under upper deck, lighting lower deck):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28291527/IMG_1811.JPG

How are you powering these LEDs in quantity ? Rated at 350ma each, three of them will draw over a full amp ! To use them to light a multi-deck layout, that's going to require a mighty robust power supply isn't it ?

I've looked at those myself, but the power requirements had me question their usefulness. (?)

Mark.
 
As to the original poster's question - I've purchased hundreds of LEDs from MANY of the asian ebay sellers over the years and have never had a problem with any of the sellers OR the products.

I always search out the best price for shipping and product and place my order. I live in Canada, and more often than not, I can get these Hong Kong LEDs shipped to me quicker than anything I've ordered from the US !


Mark.
 
Re powering the 1W LEDs, I think it's much easier to put a set of them in series, not parallel. That gives you the same current (.32 Amp) and about 13V for 4 LEDs. I first powered them from a 15V supply with a 2-transistor current control circuit, but then one of the guys in the club bought a switching power driver like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Driver-High...705?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d134d411

It works well, but it costs more than the LEDs themselves. To get most economical use out of the drivers, we'd need to run as many LEDs as possible off each one, and I think that means 6 LEDs. We'd probably want something like a 28V power supply to run them, and then we'd have 3 strings of 6 LEDs each per amp of capacity. That doesn't seem too bad in terms of cost per LED.
 
About 2 years ago I bid on 2000 mixed color LED's w/resistors for 12 volts. I got them for $12.00 w/free shipping. Then the next day I bid on 1200 from the same dealer & got those for $10.00 w/free shipping. Since then I've probably given away about 2/3rds of them & used the rest for building lights.
I use a computer Power Supply for 25 lights w/ea. light wired to a resistor.
I have probably about 250 LED's wired on my layout to buildings. Then I buy LED's from 3 diff. China dealers w/the resistor already wired in w/shrink tubing. I use 5mm bulbs for all engine lighting w/a 20% field. I only run DC.
All of my visitors love the bright headlites on all my diesels front & back.
I decided 1 day that I was going to start experimenting w/LED's & I'm glad I did. I've found that the 3mm do not hold up like the 5mm in an engine. I've also found that they can be cut down w/a file to fit in a certain size hole as long as you don't get into the filament. I also buy flashing yellow & red for my water tanks & structures.:D:)
 
As to the original poster's question - I've purchased hundreds of LEDs from MANY of the asian ebay sellers over the years and have never had a problem with any of the sellers OR the products.

Mark.

Thats what I have heard as well. A lot of happy folks using a wide variety of LED ebayers selling the chinese LED's. Now I need to get a decent LED tester and maybe even a breadboard for testing some circuits I have been looking at.

Now I need a tester to test the LEDs when I start ordering. Anyone know where to get this KEMO LED tester in the US?

http://www.kemo-electronic.de/en/Light-Sound/LED/M087-Light-Emitting-Diode-TESTER.php
 



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