So patience is not my strong suit at all. I opened the second strip of 5 LEDs that was still taped to oblivion and reflowed one to the same MCPCB I’ve been reflowing all the others to, and it worked perfectly first try.
After that I went back to holding the bare LEDs in tweezers by the sides, then clamping the tweezers in my helping hands so I can test them directly with my multimeter. I did this before and didn’t get anywhere, this time I tested the last 4 LEDs and 3 work perfectly, one doesn’t do anything.
So at this point after testing them directly I’m sure which ones work and which ones don’t.
Final tally is 5 dead 5 working.
I don’t know if they were factory defects, damaged in shipping, or what. The first strip of 5 I opened had 4 dead ones in a row, this makes me think factory defects since they were all together. The second strip of 5 only had the one bad one.
Still, these are good tint bin SST-20s, so at the price I paid I ended up at about $4.00 for each of the 5 working ones. Normal price for the lesser tint binned ones is often around $3.
Hopefully it’s just me and no one else has issues.
The actual per unit price of these leds is a lot lower than $3 or $4, a lot (and the above comment smells like some bad way to believe). Now imagine you aim to build a lamp with a few dozens of emitters, are you sure you are still wanting to pay $4 a piece? Get real for the love of God. I for sure would not be excusing the screw-up.
If this were a store or online retailer I’d be pissed and looking to return them. But I wouldn’t really expect a return or refund policy from some dude on an internet forum. Honestly I’m pissed but it’s probably just not worth the hassle. Minus the shipping the dead LEDs were $7.50
I’m generally an asshole but I was trying my hand at being nice.
@jasontheguitarist, don’t worry. When you receive your MCPCBs, test out your dead LEDs, and see if they are really dead.
If they are, I’ll talk to the distributor, and refund your 7,50$US.
This is worrying me, as others that only ordered LEDs last GB didn’t have any problems at all using the same shipping methods, and I shipped around 900 LEDs.
I’ll try to make sure everybody is as happy as possible.
I mean, today I tested them directly with my multimeter and I’m pretty confident 5 of them are just dead. But yea, my tracking finally updated and I should get the PCBs on Monday. I’ll reflow a couple of these and extra confirm they don’t work.
Just want to make sure I’m caught up and that my reading comprehension is up to snuff: just LEDs are shipping currently and the springs are not in yet? Orders with springs and LEDs will ship after springs arrive? I know it’s in the 300+ comments but would rather ask than reread all of them.