US$6.50 LED Flashlight !!!

Hey Guys,
I am LED flashlight hobby as well.
I want to buy an inexpensive LED Flashlight for a long time, but it must be affordable price and acceptable performance. Some giant LED flashlight (4,7,10LED) are more great, but too expensive to me. I searched my favor evey where, and watched CandlePowerForums several months ago.
Fortunately I discovered a site of Hong Kong
web page webpage.html
The firm produces inexpensive LED flashlight with 6 transparent color. (Made in China) The flashlight employs 5600 mcd white LED, adopts 2AA batteries. The flashlight focuses 7 feet sharp ring from 20 feet distance. 2AA batteries can run 12 hours continually at full brightness. The flashlight has 1 3/8" head diameter and 6 3/8" body length. It weighs 1.5ozs only. Can you imagine the price? It is just USD6.50 !!! for a small quantity. But the firm does not accept single order, the minimum order must be one dozen at less. Last week I had bought one dozen, shared with my family, my parent, and my classmate. We both satisfy the price and performance. I think this product comes for general public indeed. Now I share my discovery with you.

Welcome to the forums. And already with a contribution to the LED-loving community. Hope you find yourself at home here among similarly minded fanatics. And, I believe you have a fellow country man. Goes by the name "Alan".

But back to topic: Very interesting. Thanks for letting us know. Can you see the electronic circuit they use for the DC/DC step up? Can you describe it? How about the brightness? Can you compare it to any other commonly available LED or incandescent flashlight?

Sorry about all the questions.

Welcome aboard Fayelau! At $6.50...it`s a good deal. I don`t think there`s a step-up in there at that price...have you compared the output to a more comon light...Photon for example? But it`s worth the price, if only for the led in the pr base...shipping charges on small numbers might cancell any benifit though...if it does have a step-up it`s a bargain...

Ken

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> Night Pearl LED Bulb is driven by one or two cell energy,
converts 1.5 or 3.0 voltage to 3.6 voltage LED lamp power.
It is constructed by high efficient DC/DC converter and super bright LED
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's a quote from the web site, so it definitely has a step up ciruit. Amazing at this price!

I would like one of those just to snag the Step-Up and LED out of it. That would work perfectly with a 2.5 volt super cap if it lit the LED brightly enough. I just noticed something on their web site though, it is 2 different bulbs. A 1.5 volt and a 3 volt. It would be much more useful if it was one bulb that could cover the range between 1.5 and 3 volts, but it is still an interesting find.

From what I see on the site, they sell the LED assembly on its own so if thats all you need, hopefully thats all you can buy. Might have a bit of a problem with your 2.5 volt SuperCap though as they say the 2 cell one needs a minimum of 2.2 volts.

Amazing price for what it is though, especially if it performs reasonably well. Sounds from the brightness figures like the LED isn`t overdriven too much so the 1-cell one might be Infinity brightness (~5600mcd)and the 2-cell version, perhaps Photon-after-an-hour sort of brightness (~7-8000mcd?). That`s a guess, all it says is that it is greater than 5600.

I cant afford 12 though or I`d be in touch and see about one for a review.

Chris M.: Yeah, I would have to go with the 1.5 volt bulb because of that, and it says that the 1.5 volt bulb only works down to .9 volts so I wouldn't even get a whole volts use out of it. This would still be a nice bulb to experiment with, but I would need a better setup for the super cap idea. BTW, I just sent them an email asking if they have a U.S. distributor. If they have one, I will post it here. Also, your banner pic still isn't showing up. Just thought I would mention it so you would know.

WOW...I didn`t realize there was a click here link...WOW. Built into the PR base from what I understand...this is way cool...1.5 or 3 volt choices...neato. I want...

I wonder how much the shipping to the states would be.

I just tried their email and it came back to me as undeliverable mail. Stange.

Hi Faye, welcome aboard!

Great findings. I have been interested in such bulb setup.

I will be calling them to check out next week.

Alan

Hi, Alan,
Sorry I can't tell you the details about the electronic questions. Because I am not the electronic hobby. Only thing I can tell you the fact is, my classmate (electronic hobby)
has checked the operating voltage of the LED
flashlight. As he said, the LED bulb can work untill 1.2 voltage (2x0.6V). He said the design is great.

why doesnt someone put together an order for these lights or lets say a weeks period and then divvy up the flashlites to whoever wants them.i'll take 4.

i know there are others like myself who would take up on the offer.

I got to really hand it to the Asian manufacturers. They can produce a good product at a very reasonable price.

Peter Gransee

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by napalm-2002:
why doesnt someone put together an order for these lights or lets say a weeks period and then divvy up the flashlites to whoever wants them.i'll take 4.

i know there are others like myself who would take up on the offer.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I e-mailed them and so far have not got "mail cannot be deliverd", I asked if they took credit cards and how much the shipping would be for 6-1 cells and 6-2 cell bulbs. I don`t know what time it is in that part of the world or even what day...I will have to wait and see if I get a responce monday or tuesday.

Well, if anyone is taking orders, I would like to place an order for 2x1-cell and 2x2-cell. (That's for the circuit, right? Not the entire flashlight.)

I think it would be great we if could get sufficient numbers to place an order. Too bad I'm down under and there aren't any flashoholics that I know of down here.

i also wrote them back at the begining of this thread, i have not recieved any word back yet. they are, perhaps, over-run with e-mails? anyways, this does look like a promising item.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fayelau:
Hi, Alan,
Sorry I can't tell you the details about the electronic questions. Because I am not the electronic hobby. Only thing I can tell you the fact is, my classmate (electronic hobby)
has checked the operating voltage of the LED
flashlight. As he said, the LED bulb can work untill 1.2 voltage (2x0.6V). He said the design is great.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the info. Your classmate has to check what's the output when it's 1.2v.

Please send me a private mail and we could have a drink and chat.

Alan

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gransee:
I got to really hand it to the Asian manufacturers. They can produce a good product at a very reasonable price.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Absolutely. Look at Brinkmann LED at $12.00 with step up. They're made in China. However, you've got to be careful to select manufacturer. Their quality varies like day and night. Due to my job nature (manufacturing consultant), I dealt with different type of manufacturers (plastic, metal, toys, electronics, watches .... etc. yes, flashlight as well), you'll be surprise if you pick a wrong one.

Many outsiders will think that their price is so low is because their quality is cheap. In fact, their major cost cutting is the volume purchase on componenet. When you purchase LED in tens of thousand, they purchase in hundreds of thousand every month. They might be able to sell a complete Photon-copy-cat at the price lower than you paid for LED alone.

Alan

I just got an E-mail from them asking me to e-mail them again as there server had been down over the weekend. Maybe tomarrow we will know a little more...I`m not getting my hopes up to much...the cost of shipping might not make it worthwhile to order small amounts...and they might not be interested either...I`ll let everyone know when/if I hear back from them...

Ok, here is the responce.

Dear Ken
Thank you for your intresting in our products.
During our promotion period of LED flashlight products (May 15,2001 to June 16, 2001), we offer a special price to our clients. Due to commercial reason especial limitation price, the company does not accept the order from individual. We encourage people buy from the company, organization, association ect. The minimum quantity must be 12 PCs (STARLITE-128) per order.
We accept the credit card payment from oversea by PAYPAL www.paypal.com.
The minimum charge of UPS www.ups.com is US $37.80 for 0.5kg to each state of America.
Summarize your questions and answers as below:
1: The price of the STARLITE-128 is US $6.50/piece.
2: The price of NPLB-LED BULB is US $4.50/piece.
3: The minimum order is 12 PCs
4: The company does not accept P.O from individual
5: The company accept payment from PAYPAL
6: The shipping cost by UPS is $37.80-0.5kg
7: The average shipping cost of STARLITE-128 is US $37.8/12=$3.15
Best regards
SINO UNION TECHNOLOGY LTD
Mr. Horacce Lee
[email protected]

This is word for word and exactly how it is printed...confused??? Well I am. If someone knows how to interpit this let us know...and line "7" as well.