Very Inexpensive LED Lights

I just received 30 LED lights from this place:

https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1253

Took about 3 weeks for them to get here from Hong King. Very pleased, however. They appear to have all the features of the Photon lights that I have but they cost less than 50 cents a piece.

I've bought a few things from dealextreme.com and the delivery does take weeks from Singapore and the price is cheap and the materials were pretty much OK.

I wouldn't buy diamonds from them, but for gadgets and things like that, the prices are great.

Because it had gone through customs, my local mailman didn't quite know what to do with it, but it did get delivered.

I've ordered from DX many times. Never had a problem. Not the place to go if you're in a hurry though. But shipping was free. It's a good place for cheap gadgets and flashlights. They have a some flashlights that are actually of pretty good quality.

I think the most mindboggling flashlight deal I've seen was at Home Despot--a clamshell package of ten LED flashlights in various sizes and configurations, with batteries, for ten bucks.

How is that even possible?

Cheers,

I have also ordered from DX numerous times. Dirt cheap but if you have a problem like when they sent the wrong item or it is defective you are stuck. Customer service is non existent. It is a gamble.

Harbor Freight gave away the 9 led flashights last year. I think they now the require you to purchase something before they will give them to you. I take them to give away. As a Cub Scout leader I always gave away a few every campout.

Have you done a side-by-side comparison with the Photons? So far, I haven't found the cheap promotional lights to be the equal of the Photons but I'd be interested in a lower price if the performance/quality is there.

Keith,
No, I haven't done a side by side test. I assume the quality of the Photons is better.

But the cheapos are good enough for me. For backpacking I carry two anyway, in case one fails.

Since posting I bought another batch (several dozen). I think there might have been one or two that didn't work right from the start. Can't remember for sure. But the rest were fine.

I've used them for backpacking and on my key chain at home. The ones I've used have been working for about 2 years without any problems.
Daryl

Those are plenty adequate lights....never had a problem with them at all. 10 lights for the price of a set of batteries makes them even better.

DX is a great place for products if you want to play with new to you light designs before plunking down for quality kit.

Over time, probably, the stuff will become a commodity like incandescent light bulbs had been considered. Really, it already has (see Home Depot & etc.)

Unless and until another great leap forward is achieved, which an electrical engineer acquaintance of mine opines, won't happen very soon.

Let us hope headlamps will soon reach their ultimate final state, which will be cheapness, brightness, light weight and environmentally neutral (or perhaps beneficial). They have some way to go.

I have owned at least a half dozen over past 35 years and none were optimal. Am liking them better. But I have not and do not own any that I absolutely like.

My favorite was JustRite from late 1970s with four D-cells. Very, VERY bright and very VERY heavy.

I've probably killed several babies as result of landfilling various of these batteries.

I relied on this during two-month bicycle-camping trip and many short hikes.

Imagined it would frighten criminals from my many questionable and often urban camps & also drunken drivers in lieu of bike helmet.
It definitely illuminated many classic novels & thick darkness of lonesome nights in Canada Maritimes. Also shot light its DEEP into many forests for navigation.

The three LED lamps I've used are very, very good. But these models are less bright and have mostly broken down for one reason or another and to one extent or another.

Look at Zebralight for headlamps. Good stuff. (and I am a flashaholic)

+1 to the recommendation of the Zebralight, in particular the H51 (none floody). It's durable, light weight, a great range of output levels. Only downside is price. You could buy a huge number of button lights for the price of a single Zebralight. On the other hand, if the higher quality light lets you do things the cheap lights don't do (like night time way finding) then maybe it's worth the cost.

I remember the JustRIte. My memory is that the output was around 100 lumens for around 10 hours. The H51 could do this with 5 AA batteries… weighting in around 7oz. Of course, you would have to change the batteries every 2 hours which would suck… but the batteries would be rechargeable, so if with a solar charger it would be fairly neutral environmentally.

--Mark

I had Justrite branded "U.S. Forest Service" manufactured in mid-1970s. It was damnably heavy and I assume many babies have since died from my battery disposal practices.

It provided monster light. The wire connection got funky, and I recall marching past midnight following major alpine climb in Cascades in a kind of strobe effect amid dust kicked up by companions. Due to exhaustion, this created impression that I could die of heart attack at any moment.

Yet I later used same light each evening for six weeks on bike trip. I read some great literature during this period.

The technology is of course obsolete.

I too have memories of the USFS Justrite, none of which are particularly fond. It was heavy, clunky, unreliable, and dim (when it worked). The batteries usually leaked, consigning the poorly designed mess to the local landfill. The Justrite carbide lights were far better, although they, too, had their idiosyncrasies.

Carbide lamps are amazing but I always figured they'd blow out if used in non-cave environment. Dunno. Come to think of it, my long-departed carbide lamp was a Justrite. Getting rid of spent fuel a nasty trick.

Regarding the 1970s USFS Justrite headlamp, mine took four D-cells, and a rather large and primitive-looking bulb. Whatever its many faults, it was easily the brightest battery lamp I've ever used.

I have been to a lot of hikes and camping trips and one of the things that most of my mates forget is actually a pair of decent led lights to help them get through. It really is something nice and one that would really be appreciated if you have the proper hardware with you.

There are those which are priced high and they are really great and all that but that does not mean that the cheaper ones won't work.

I was disappointed when I got these. They blink like Christmas lights in different colors. They're not white light. And it only came with 7.

Sounds like they sent you something different from what I got.

The 30 I received are white, non-blinking with on/off switch like the Photons.