White light 12 volt LEDs - REALLY cheap (in Spain)

oldtech

Guest
Hello Campers !

Anyone who has visited Spain will have no doubt seen their equivalent of our Poundland.
They used to be called "Desde 100 ptas" , then they became " Desde 1 Euro" and they
are now generally called " Bazaars" and are usually run by Chinese or Moroccans.

I was in the motoring section of one of these in Alicante recently and they had LED replacement
lamps for vehicle bulbs.
They came in various sizes and fittings .
I have a big twin motorbike and I'm tired of replacing rear light bulbs ( brake light , indicators
number plate lamp etc ).
They seem to last no time at all which I put down to hot filaments and LOTS of back-end vibration.

This shop had every type of lamp and fitting , in white light 12 volt multi-LED and ALL for one Euro !!!!
In fact the runty ones came with 2 in a pack for one Euro.

Obviously they could all be plugged straight into a 12 volt DC supply so they must have a "pull-up"
resistor fitted internally.

What got me thinking is that when I look on motor-home parts suppliers on the internet ....
they all appear to be charging about 10 quid for the exact same thing ,except described as for internal lighting.

Am I missing something obvious here , or are we just being had over by our trusty British retailers ?

Can anyone shed any light on this matter ?

OK ... sorry about the pun .... I just COULDN'T resist it !!!!

:lol-061:


All the best ... enjoy the summer ... ha ha !

Oldtech
 
The price is what the market will bear; until someone chooses to undercut you.

There seem to be loads on e-bay, not sure about prices, but be prepared to wait for ones sourced from China!
 
I bought some GU 10 led replacement lamps om the internet from china and out of 6 I bought onle 1 is still working after about 6 months. May be I was unlucky or the quality is not so good I'm not sure.
But if they are cheap enough it's worth a try.
 
I have heard scaremonger stories that the cheap ones can catch fire. Whether it is true or not I have no idea.

Personally I would use them and keep a close eye that they don't get hot.
 
fairytooth said:
I have heard scaremonger stories that the cheap ones can catch fire. Whether it is true or not I have no idea.

Personally I would use them and keep a close eye that they don't get hot.
Click to expand...

Your ok if you got them here in Spain there is an instruction book in English how to call the fire brigade :lol-049::lol-049::lol-049::wave:
 
LEDs running hot / "Chuckle-Power"

Hi Ken

Thanks for that one !

My work has taken me to many parts of the world , over the years , and one thing
I've noticed is that wherever you go , there's never any shortage of comedians .... ha ha ! :lol-053:

I'm hoping that one day there will be a "renewable energy source " powered just by chuckles ...
(... only joking ) .

And in reply to Fairytooth's posting ....

On a more serious note .... YES , occasionally LEDs can run extremely hot ....
.... too hot to touch sometimes !!

When LEDs first came on the market ( " When I were just a nipper " ) , it was common practice to
put a 10k resistor in series , which would effectively limit the current that they could pull from the power source,
without affecting the brightness .... and they cost less than 10p each .... and don't forget .... the "D" in LED stands
for " Diode" ! .

But leaving aside the tech stuff , as a simple rule , if it feels hot then something's wrong !
After all , the whole point of LEDs in the first place , was to provide the light WITHOUT wasting power by producing heat !

When all said and done .... " It ain't rocket science ! "

But thanks for the reply anyway ....

.... Happy Camping !

Oldtech
 
Last edited:
Now this is no joke a Spanish friend bought these lights from a Chinese shop here and when they are on he can light his fag from them so do take care when buying these:wave:
 
If they're hot enough to light a fag off then they are probably consuming a fair bit of current (no resistor) which kind of negates the main reason for using them. Aren't the LED bulbs sold @ £10 in the UK Chinese manufactured?
 
There are many legitimate companies in China manufacturing goods to a high standard. They are usually foreign Joint Venture companies. Nothing at all wrong with their products.

Unfortunately, the Far East has for many years been good at quickly copying anything. Remember when a lot of things were 'made in Hong Kong'.

The cheap LED's from the Far East will be priced to make a good profit for the makers (or the middle men). Good, no cheap. Cheap, no good. :p
 
Good, no cheap. Cheap, no good.
​

Hi Mainblace

Is the above a velly old Chinese proverb!!:lol-061:

Bye for now
Fleddie:wave:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top