Forever Bright 2003?

Wow, I haven't posted in quite some time (hell, I've been awful lax on my reading as well). I guess this is being posted primarily to Darrell, but any other parties in the know are welcome to add their info.

Anyhoo... does anyone know the status of Forever Brights 2003 lineup? I recall something about announcing the goods early this year, and since we're some 1/3 of the way in, I'm itchin' fer info! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I had posted something about them back in March. My post is here

Anybody else?

I need technical details (brighter blues and more of them!)

Thanks!

Nothing?

Wow, how depressing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

We probably won't know a lot about these until Thanksgiving or a little earlier (maybe even the day after Halloween) when they start showing up in stores again for the 2003 Christmas decorating season. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

[ QUOTE ]
The LED Museum said:
We probably won't know a lot about these until Thanksgiving or a little earlier (maybe even the day after Halloween) when they start showing up in stores again for the 2003 Christmas decorating season. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I know Craig... I was just hoping since Darrell had implied that FB might be releasing their new specs early this year.

Oh well, I guess I'll simply have to wait until then.

I wrote to FB and got the following info:

- The lights will be brighter
- There will probably *NOT* be more blues per strand

And here are the color combos (in ascending order of expense):

Red / Green / Gold
Red / Green / Gold / Blue
Red / Green / Gold / Blue / Orange
Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue
Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue / Orange
Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue / Purple
Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue / Purple / Orange

The last one sounds *GREAT*!!!

Gold ? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif

I want icle LED lights!

Nice thought Budd, but they'd probably be rather dim.

[ QUOTE ]
Deth said:
Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue / Purple
Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue / Purple / Orange

The last one sounds *GREAT*!!!

[/ QUOTE ]
I think those last TWO sound great!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I haven't seen a set with orange or purple in it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

I'm probably going to be forced to get a loan to simply buy enough of these beauties /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Unless of course I get lucky and find them at Albertsons like last year ($8 per 70 multi)

Does anyone know where I can find the Red / Pure Green / Gold / Blue / Purple / Orange set I mentioned above? The FB rep sent me to britelite.com who only carries RGYBP and RGOYB.

Oh, and I just took the plunge and bought both of the latter color combos to test it for my CPF brethren /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Alrighty, here's an update!

I just got the following two sets of FBs:

- 70 light RGYBP
- 100 light RGOYB

The 70 light strand has an equal number of each color, but as a result cost a whopping $22.95 (versus the paltry $8 per strand at Albertson's last year). By contract, the 100 strand has a limited number of blues (as per last year) and only costs $16.95.

Both strands have the bulbs permanently attached, and despite a slight overflow of epoxy at the base of each light, look rather well constructed. I'll plug 'em in tonight and send up some shots /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Let us know how the purple LEDs and orange LEDs look. I'm especially interested in the sets that include purple. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The purple is not bad looking at all, while the oranges look just about identical to the yellow.

Pictures coming *VERY* soon.

Yay! I really should chase up on the problems I had with my blue and white ones last year. Hopefully I`ll be able to get them replaced outright, cos otherwise I`ll be very put off from using them again this year. My current plans have them up on the house not down in the bushes like last time, and I can`t really go climbing ladders every other day to replace more dead diodes.....

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

That's pretty odd Chris... I dealt with some 15 strands of the 2002 models (mix of flame tip and minis, all multi with blue), and I only had one strand with an issue.

Namely there was a faulty "bulb" and I didn't pay attention when I started removing them and managed to lose track of polarity on quite a few of them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

My problems are documented somewhere here at CPF and in several e-mails back and forth with Darell who arranged the purchase of them. In a month of use for something like 7-8 hours per day, I had over 20 blue LEDs die on me, and at least half as many whites die too. Maybe I was unlucky? Maybe they didn`t like the wet British winter? I suppose I`ll never know. It only affected the all-blue and all-white sets though - the all-red, all-yellow and multi sets I had worked just fine and I`ll use them again for years to come. So, right now I`ve got 10 sets of 70 LED lights that I really don`t want to use this year, can`t really afford to ship back to the States for repair, and don`t have enough spare LEDs to get them 100% again anyways. A few of Darell`s sets had troubles too.

Apparently the guy in charge at Foreverbright was well aware of problems with the blue and white 2002 lights and wanted to make it right. And the 2003 lights shouldn`t have any problems, it was due to a bad/wrong batch of LEDs or something like that.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

The all-blue set I tested earlier this year CAME with a bad bulb (burned out closed so the rest of the set still works), and I had a set of "antique candlelight" (yellow) go completely dark in April or May - I'll need to find out where I put the Christmas light tester before I can find the bad bulb and change it.

So they aren't completely immune to blowing LEDs and taking the rest of the set along for the ride. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
If a diode burns out open, all of the LEDs connected to it will go out. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif