DIY LEDs - The write-up
- Thread starter Soundwave
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fernandokng,
US Postal service might be interested in listening based on Mail fraud.
US Postal service might be interested in listening based on Mail fraud.
fernandokng
New member
I doubt the delivery guy opened anything. I think the worst feeling, other than losing the money, is being called a liar. You pay for something, and when you don't get it's bad enough. But then be called a liar when you're trying to sort things out, and get blamed for things you clearly did not do is just horrific.
He's like "I know people like you, and you're lying". I'm not an idiot (or blind), and it's pretty easy to tell the box was empty with the exception of the optics. Telling me to go check the box again and again doesn't help me much. And then he think he's trying to do me a favor by offering to charge me again, but only at 50%. I never flat about blamed him that he screwed up, and only said that there might have been some mix up in the process and waited patiently. Of course though, he did not hesitate to call me a liar.
For those people who have gotten their products, I'm glad you had a great experience. Based on my experience though, if you have any issues after your order, you can kiss your money good bye. Their kind of service can be summarized by reading their "no return policy", and I should have been more skeptical. I couldn't have presented my case anymore honestly than I had, and I don't hope this doesn't happen to the other reefers.
I also told him to visit ReefCentral, to see that I'm actually not a scam artist, and I was doing this legitimately for my tank. He said something along the lines of "I don't care about what you're doing for your reef tank, etc."
Ironically, today, I got my other LEDs from DealExtreme.com, which is based out of Hong Kong. Who would have imagined I'd be ripped off by a US company instead of an HK one. Crazy huh. Now I have to find another place to get the buckpucks, the blue LEDs, and the optic holders.
Good luck to everyone on their future LED purchases.
He's like "I know people like you, and you're lying". I'm not an idiot (or blind), and it's pretty easy to tell the box was empty with the exception of the optics. Telling me to go check the box again and again doesn't help me much. And then he think he's trying to do me a favor by offering to charge me again, but only at 50%. I never flat about blamed him that he screwed up, and only said that there might have been some mix up in the process and waited patiently. Of course though, he did not hesitate to call me a liar.
For those people who have gotten their products, I'm glad you had a great experience. Based on my experience though, if you have any issues after your order, you can kiss your money good bye. Their kind of service can be summarized by reading their "no return policy", and I should have been more skeptical. I couldn't have presented my case anymore honestly than I had, and I don't hope this doesn't happen to the other reefers.
I also told him to visit ReefCentral, to see that I'm actually not a scam artist, and I was doing this legitimately for my tank. He said something along the lines of "I don't care about what you're doing for your reef tank, etc."
Ironically, today, I got my other LEDs from DealExtreme.com, which is based out of Hong Kong. Who would have imagined I'd be ripped off by a US company instead of an HK one. Crazy huh. Now I have to find another place to get the buckpucks, the blue LEDs, and the optic holders.
Good luck to everyone on their future LED purchases.
fernandokng
New member
Sorry, I'm not sure if I understood this... You mean should I reach out to the US postal service?
If the products were sent via US Mail, yes, they take it quite seriously:
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/investigations/MailFraud/MailFraud.aspx
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx
"Mail Fraud
U.S. Postal Inspectors investigate any crime in which the U.S. Mail is used to further a scheme--whether it originated in the mail, by telephone, or on the Internet. The use of the U.S. Mail is what makes it mail fraud.
If evidence of a postal violation exists, Postal Inspectors may seek prosecutive or administrative action against the violator. However, if money is lost through a fraudulent scheme conducted via the mail, Inspectors lack the authority to ensure you receive a refund and can't require that products, services, or advertisements--on the Internet or elsewhere--be altered.
Postal Inspectors base investigations of mail fraud on the number, pattern, and substance of complaints received from the public. The Postal Inspection Service will carefully review the information you provide. We may share the information with other agencies when there is a possible violation within their jurisdiction.
If you feel you've been victimized in a fraud scheme that involves the U.S. Mail, submit a Mail Fraud Complaint Form to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service."
kcress
New member
fernandokng; I'll bet he just screwed up the packing. You start a job like that, get uninterrupted 4 or 5 times,(small company), come back, get it mixed up with ten other packages you're packing, and send it off.
Simultaneously you have an army of scumbags out there that will in deed lie, cheat, and try to to swindle you out of your products.
Someone else got your LEDs and has not bothered to be honorable about it. So the guy checks back and sees the correct stock on hand. It means he did ship them! So now a voice at the other end of the phone tells him he didn't.
That's happened to me before but it was with huge electronics distributors and being a past customer they give you the benefit of the doubt. A small vendor? Very hard to do. Word even gets out that he sent more and he could easily have a wave of, "I didn't get any in my box", complaints from thieves.
A very hard spot for everyone. A very sad spot for everyone.
I wonder if you piled everything back in the box and weighed it if that could show that he couldn't have included part of the order.
Say the box and wrapping weighs 1lb but if it had LEDs added it would have to weigh at least 1lb-4oz. Then postage would have had to have been at least 2lb.
Dang.
Simultaneously you have an army of scumbags out there that will in deed lie, cheat, and try to to swindle you out of your products.
Someone else got your LEDs and has not bothered to be honorable about it. So the guy checks back and sees the correct stock on hand. It means he did ship them! So now a voice at the other end of the phone tells him he didn't.
That's happened to me before but it was with huge electronics distributors and being a past customer they give you the benefit of the doubt. A small vendor? Very hard to do. Word even gets out that he sent more and he could easily have a wave of, "I didn't get any in my box", complaints from thieves.
A very hard spot for everyone. A very sad spot for everyone.
I wonder if you piled everything back in the box and weighed it if that could show that he couldn't have included part of the order.
Say the box and wrapping weighs 1lb but if it had LEDs added it would have to weigh at least 1lb-4oz. Then postage would have had to have been at least 2lb.
Dang.
thats sucks fernando sorry to here that I got my stuff from them and they even replaced 2 buck pucks that there is a chance I burnt and one of my orders I thought was an led short and they sent another one . A few days later I noticed one had fallen on the floor and my order was never short.
Maybe I got that great service cause my second order was $1000 and included the complain about the first order
Maybe I got that great service cause my second order was $1000 and included the complain about the first order
Ok, I have to admit, I skipped the last 11 pages of postings...
I did something similar a little over a year ago that I posted, but on a much smaller scale:
my DIY LED light
It ran flawlessly for several months over a quarantine tank, and I got good growth out of some deeper water montis under it. That was until a GFI popped when I wasn't paying attention and nuked everything in the tank. But the light still works! I actually had the fan take a dump on me once too, and it ran for a few days without fan cooling, just the heat sink, and didn't seem to damage the LEDs.
So after it crashed I tore down the Q tank. About 3 months ago I set it up again as a fuge, and decided to grow a few zoas and palys under the LED. I quickly became addicted and now have it chock full. The colors are spectacular under the LEDs, and the growth has also been incredible. Lots of high-end palys are popping out new polyps like mad.
My fixture uses four V-bin cool white K2s, four royal blue Luxeon 3s, and 1 regular blue K2 in the middle. Three buckpucks run the LEDs and are crammed inside the square aluminum attached to the top of the heat sink. I added the regular blue to shift the spectrum a little and get fluorescence out of some pigments that the royal blue misses. I did opt for the L2 25 degree optics, and the coverage is pretty good out of 9 LEDs.
I recently decided to set up an all-zoa/paly tank and make a larger LED fixture to cover the whole tank. In getting reacquainted with the current state of LED technology, I stumbled across this ebay seller...
led-world2007
The prices are insanely low, and they sell a variety of different optics including 15, 30, 45, and 60 degree for their "luxeon 3W" LEDs. The only problem is that they don't seem to stock royal blues... Not sure if I'm ready to order from them yet, but at those prices it might be worth taking the chance. And 45 degree optics would be a big improvement over the 25 degree I'm using now.
Anyone here bought from them before?
Tim
I did something similar a little over a year ago that I posted, but on a much smaller scale:
my DIY LED light
It ran flawlessly for several months over a quarantine tank, and I got good growth out of some deeper water montis under it. That was until a GFI popped when I wasn't paying attention and nuked everything in the tank. But the light still works! I actually had the fan take a dump on me once too, and it ran for a few days without fan cooling, just the heat sink, and didn't seem to damage the LEDs.
So after it crashed I tore down the Q tank. About 3 months ago I set it up again as a fuge, and decided to grow a few zoas and palys under the LED. I quickly became addicted and now have it chock full. The colors are spectacular under the LEDs, and the growth has also been incredible. Lots of high-end palys are popping out new polyps like mad.
My fixture uses four V-bin cool white K2s, four royal blue Luxeon 3s, and 1 regular blue K2 in the middle. Three buckpucks run the LEDs and are crammed inside the square aluminum attached to the top of the heat sink. I added the regular blue to shift the spectrum a little and get fluorescence out of some pigments that the royal blue misses. I did opt for the L2 25 degree optics, and the coverage is pretty good out of 9 LEDs.
I recently decided to set up an all-zoa/paly tank and make a larger LED fixture to cover the whole tank. In getting reacquainted with the current state of LED technology, I stumbled across this ebay seller...
led-world2007
The prices are insanely low, and they sell a variety of different optics including 15, 30, 45, and 60 degree for their "luxeon 3W" LEDs. The only problem is that they don't seem to stock royal blues... Not sure if I'm ready to order from them yet, but at those prices it might be worth taking the chance. And 45 degree optics would be a big improvement over the 25 degree I'm using now.
Anyone here bought from them before?
Tim
james3370
Premium Member
ok. i don't know if i have bad leds or screwed them up soldering, but nothing fires up.
what's the troubleshooting steps?? i assume i'll need an ohmmeter??
so far, i have taken the power supply to my fan setup & they work, so i know the power supply is good,
i tried fans on the barrel plug the power supply plugs into & they worked, so i know that wiring is good.
i tried reversing the polarity on both sides of both buckpucks & nothing.....so now i'm at the point that both buckpucks are bad (unlikely), my soldering job screwed something up (likely) or the LEDs were bad (50-50)
so i guess i'd need an ohmmeter to check for shorts & such thru the LEDs & buckpucks, but not sure what/how to check from there.....about to scrap this damned project & move on w/ my build
:mad2:
what's the troubleshooting steps?? i assume i'll need an ohmmeter??
so far, i have taken the power supply to my fan setup & they work, so i know the power supply is good,
i tried fans on the barrel plug the power supply plugs into & they worked, so i know that wiring is good.
i tried reversing the polarity on both sides of both buckpucks & nothing.....so now i'm at the point that both buckpucks are bad (unlikely), my soldering job screwed something up (likely) or the LEDs were bad (50-50)
so i guess i'd need an ohmmeter to check for shorts & such thru the LEDs & buckpucks, but not sure what/how to check from there.....about to scrap this damned project & move on w/ my build
:mad2:
Last edited:
james3370
Premium Member
ok, here are 3 pics. i left them 75% of the original size so you can zoom in to see detail. they are in order to go left to right of the bar. all 1watt blues are on the left & 3watt white on the right of each pair. wires going off the ends go back to the buckpucks
you can see in the middle pic i broke one of the leds from it's board tugging on it checking the connection, so i connected the wire thru w/ a gel-filled connector
you can see in the middle pic i broke one of the leds from it's board tugging on it checking the connection, so i connected the wire thru w/ a gel-filled connector
james3370
Premium Member
1) the screws might be touching the stars, but i don't think that's short since they are aluminum stars & aluminum bar. there are nylon washers to keep it screws from touching the connections
i'll try unscrewing them & just sit on the aluminum heatsink
2) haven't tried that, but i would do each 1 thru the buckpuck?? wouldn't that blow the LED since the power supply is 20volt/1amp??
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