Bogus Chinese "triple 3 watt Cree" oversized MR16s

Ebay is full of these things.



I got interested when they were listed as 3 x 2 = 6 watt, but then someone on another board linked to some SMD spots he liked, and the same supplier was offering 9 watt lamps.







http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...:X:AAQ:GB:1123



All the ones on Ebay are now 9 watts ...



I should have expected to be disappointed, but as in the case of the 5 watt torch I bought, Im actually fairly happy -( the torch is a perfectly serviceable 1 watt one and at a reasonable-ish price.)



I bought two of these lamps to upgrade my bike lighting -one of them takes 0.6 amps from 12.96 volts, the other 0.45.



They're a nice bit of extrusion with lots of cooling fins and a cavernous space inside (just as well - as for bike use I'm going to have to seal the fronts up with silicone) and have teeny switching regulators with inductors so are probably quite efficient - I haven't spent much time doing accurate measurements at the LED end.



Theyre probably seconds though - one of the LED pucks was missing two screws and neither had any heatsink paste - and I had to resolder one wire.



For the price they are - a fraction of whats being charged in the UK, I cant complain - though the vendor is offering me £5 UKP compensation ..



I'm going to fit them anyway as the beam pattern is better than my existing arrangement of two genuine 3 watt MR16s.



What's the chance these LEDs could be persuaded to output a bit more light ?

I'm not even hugely bothered about regulator efficiency.



Or would another supplier be able to sell me lamps that are genuinely 9 watts ?

Re: Bogus Chinese "triple 3 watt Cree" oversized MR16s

What a relief to see CPF back online. Well done to all concerned.



I've just received two more from a different supplier - whose own advert specified 700mA at 12 volts - i.e lamp power less than 8.4 watts.

Yet again two different current draws and just tested at the LED end of one of them and it's 0.56 amps at 11.4 volts - so these are essentially "6 watt" lamps.

Doing well on my bike though and very cost-effective..

Though the regulators were nicely potted and the soldering better, there were no screws at all holding the pucks in on this second pair - I was wondering if that's remotely reasonable - just relying on the pressure of the optics ...

I won't be leaving it like that though.

Re: Bogus Chinese "triple 3 watt Cree" oversized MR16s

I wonder if those LEDs are even soldered down to the PCB underneath. Those looks like hand soldered joints on the leads, it wouldnt surprise me if they were just stuck down with some thermal paste underneath.

Re: Bogus Chinese "triple 3 watt Cree" oversized MR16s

The first ones I bought get nice and hot - or they did once I'd used thermal paste under the pucks and clamped them to the shell - so I wonder if they're glued to the aluminium with epoxy ?

The shells are beautifully made - at £8.50 each including triple optics, I haven't ruled out upgrading the LEDs ...