Thread: For those of you planning on buying LED bulbs to make spotlights out of...

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I was planning on buying some basic super bright 5mm LED bulbs but wasn't sure how many I really wanted to get. Several people have posted different websites and the one with the best price was .18 per 5mm bulb. I've been looking around at bulk suppliers, and I found ways to bring them down to about .06-10 per bulb... but only if I buy thousands (they don't all have to be the same color). At smaller amounts, they're not much cheaper but even the minimum giant buy is still only about 2.5x more expensive than buying "just what I need" from a regular retailer. So I figured other people might want to get in on this. However, I don't want to make it a "Group Buy" the way group buys are usually run. So here's what I want to do:

1) See how many people are interested in these. What I was planning on doing is simply making bulk packs to make things easy and even. 20 LEDs of each color per pack: White (13000 mcd), Red (15000 mcd), Blue (6000 mcd), UV Violet (3000 mcd), Green (12000 mcd), Yellow (5000 mcd), and Orange (5000 mcd). 7 x 20 = 140 LEDs. I would really prefer to do this rather than let people pick and choose their colors so I don't wind up with 450 orange LEDs and not enough blue and green ones for everyone. If there is a significantly massive demand for a specific color I'll order more of that one.

2) I can get 2 other types of LEDs at bulk rate. One that flashes RGB very quickly. These are like those toys that look like seizure lights until you spin them and they separate out into 3 colors. The other one has 4 soldering posts for R G B + ground/neg so you can use it with a programmable board to rotate it (skills to do so are up to you!). The flashers would be about .40 apiece, the separated ones are about .70 apiece. I only have to order a minimum of 100 of these though, so I'd include 5 per order.

3) I'm going to charge a flat rate of .10 for the basic bulbs and .50 if you want the flasher bulbs and .80 if you want the separated color bulbs. This is to offset the packaging I'll need, bubble envelopes and small plastic baggies. I may wind up with a little extra money, I may wind up losing money in the end. I may wind up deciding I need to use tiny boxes instead of bubble envelopes. I'll be honest here and admit that I'm not going to keep close track of it to see if I need to lower the price two cents. So that would be $14 + shipping if I only get basic LEDs. If a lot of people want the flashers or selectable color ones I'll order them, but if not many people want them I'm going to leave them out since they're so much more expensive.

4) Shipping for something like this can't be high. I'm going to assume it's probably going to fit into a 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 bubble envelope and weigh under 16 oz so once I get them and weigh out 140 bulbs I'll know exactly what the postage will be if I ship it 1st class. If you want me to send it UPS with tracking I'm perfectly fine with that (USPS does not guarantee delivery on anything but overnight Express mail so I would rather use UPS) but you'll be killing any savings with the shipping likely costing $8 or more (I don't know what UPS' current minimum is but it used to be about $7 and I'm sure it went up from there)

5) Reply to this thread with an idea of how many sets of LEDs you want so I have an idea of how many to order. If an insane amount of people want them I'll stop the buy and order what I need so I don't wind up having to keep track of too many orders.

6) I will not be asking for any money up front. Once I have an idea of how many people want, I'll place the order ASAP. Maybe on Friday, if not, on Monday. I will post when I get the LEDs, and again when I have them packaged for shipping. If I order enough they'll expedite shipping to the US.

7) This is where a lot of people will simply not be interested in participating: I absolutely refuse to use Paypal. For long time forum members, I will ship your orders in advance, and you can pay me when you get them. I was going to simply exclude newer members, but if you choose to participate and are willing to send money to a stranger, I'll require a check or money order first. If you are very new, it will have to be a money order or wait up to 2 weeks for your check to clear.. It's up to you whether or not you want to do this!

8) Since this is a "potential for (minimal) profit' thing, I'll post in the Merchants section when I'm ready to start taking payments.

Recommended products to look at as well:

DC Power Pigtails

http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...&cs_id=1100903

14 gauge speaker wire clearance:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...60&FTR=109-160

2 amp regulated (this is important!) 12 VDC power supply on clearance. Most of these LEDs require around 25 mA, 2A = 2000mA so you can run 80 bulbs off of it (stick with 70 to be safe)

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=129-077

Still digging around for the best price on needed resistors. If you are planning on using 12VDC:

http://ledcalc.com/

White, Blue, and Green need an average of 3.4 v @ 25mA = 390 ohm resistors

Red, Yellow, and Orange need about 2.0v @ 25mA = 470 ohm resistors. My supplier can get me a thousand of these for about 1 cent apiece so if people want me to get them I can get them. It's the only size they carry and I'm guessing a lot of their buyers use the same resistor for everything but it cuts the power too far down for the other colors.

The UV Violet has a wide range of 1.8 to 4.0 v (max) @ 25mA. You really don't want to use max power or you'll shorten the life, so I would recommend sticking with the 3.4v like the first 3. If you want to go with max power, that'd require a 330 ohm resistor.

So for starters, let me know if you're interested in the 140 pack (20 of 7 colors) and whether or not you want the other RGB LEDs and resistors or if you want to buy resistors on your own (especially if you are planning on using a different source voltage). You are not committing to anything. I'm going to buy based on your replies, so I really hope after I get them you'll still buy them but I am not requiring any commitment at all if you change your mind. Remember, these are for bare 5mm LED bulbs and maybe resistors that only work for 3 colors. There are plenty of tutorials out there on how to wire them up but these are "kit parts" and not something you can just clip to a battery and make them work instantly (well you could use 1.5v and 3.0v battery combinations for 2.2 and 3.4v LEDs if you didn't mind the lights being a little underpowered). I'm hoping to get a tutorial done within a month but I don't know if I'll have time for it.

Looking to get at least 20 people interested but I'll probably still order them even if I only get 10.

Hmm, no interest? Okay, I'll just place the minimum order today. I'll have about 15-20 "multipacks" available whenever I get 'em.

I may be interested in this....... Let me know what it would cost total for 1 of the multi packs to 33880

Won't know the shipping until I get them and weigh them out. I can't imagine 140 LEDs would weigh more than a few ounces. A 13 oz (maximum weight for large padded envelope which is considered a "package" and not an envelope) is 3.41 so it would be that or less. Zip code won't matter.

USPS rates. It's getting me more than a little mad that both on their website and when you go in to ship something, they won't even offer 1st Class or Parcel Post unless you specifically ask for it.

http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm#1011092

UPS Ground would be $10.81 or more.

The USPS is fine , I won't be in any real rush for them .I know that you can use the flat rate deal from them and it seems to be pretty decent as far as price.

I might be interested in 2 of the packs w/ resistors.

Just got notification that the order's been shipped. Supposedly 2-3 day mail, not sure I buy it's gonna get here that fast. Was getting worried since they say they expedite larger orders but hadn't heard any status updates until today.

I will take one pack with resistors.

I could use a 50 or 100pack of just green ones. I'm interested in the field of view or angle though. How long would it take to get them?

Don't have a specific figure on the actual width of the beam, just "viewing angle is +/- 10°" so I'm assuming 20° full view. Narrow, but most people are using LEDs for spotlights.

An interesting product I ran across recently though:

Unique Rectangular Magnifying Lens - The Electronic Goldmine

Convex type lens produces an intense thin horizontal line when an LED is held about 4" away from it.

I'll have to wait and see how many people actually order the multipacks before piecing out individual colors though. Otherwise I'll probably be stuck with a few thousand yellow and orange ones (seem to be the least popular).