Due to the new UK import law that came into effect since January 2021, I won't be able to accept any order less than GBP135 from UK buyers until the situation changes, (or I am hopefully misunderstood about how this law works).
UK Buyers Please Read: Due to changes in UK customs regulation requiring overseas entities to register with HMRC and collect VAT from shipments under GBP135 at point-of-sale, buyers from UK must make a minimum purchase of GBP135 so that I can ship the item out under the old rules. Any UK purchases under GBP135 will not be able to ship out until further notice. Regrettably, I do not find such VAT registration with HMRC a reasonable demand for small-scale selling like this, I expect this restriction will remain in the foreseeable future.
From 11pm on 31 December 2020, consignments of goods with a value of £135 or less that are outside:
the UK and sold directly to customers (not through an online marketplace) in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) will have UK supply VAT charged at the point of sale
Does this mean if UK customer buys goods over webshop etc., this VAT charge rule does not apply?
If I understand it correctly, the webshops will be the ones collecting VAT and send it to the UK. So, apparently, if you own the webshop itself, you will need to register with the HMRC and do the VAT collection.
The old VAT rules will be in effect once the purchases go over GBP135 though. So as things are right now, I can only do wholesale to UK with that minimum order value or above.
I finally got around to installing the 3400k leds in 3 of my kid’s GoGlow kiddy flashlights.
The tint is very nice, it completely transformed them to and took their flashlight experience a whol other level
Now the output is way more relaxing instead of that horrible cool with
If I understood it correctly, selling "directly to customers" (email,phone,forums) is different from selling "through an oniline store" ? What is their definition of "online marketplace"? Is this any website, or big ones which for sure already are registered for doing business in the UK, like Ebay?
Most likely the big one that's already VAT registered (or looking to register) with the HMRC. If you sell on eBay, eBay will collect taxes from the buyers for you. So, as the current import law is now, someone will have to register for VAT collection eitherway if you want to sell to the UK, be it some online marketplaces you are selling through, or you doing the VAT registration yourself.
Upgraded the multi emitter portion of old Black and Decker light with 4000k. No before shot but it was typical cold white and beam was narrow than I liked. The new emitters are much floodier.
Below it is a reading lamp with a cold white emitter that needed a 2300k swapped in its place. The 2300k is taller than the original so I had to crack the ice to make it fit.
Ever since I saw Djozz QX5252 clock mod I could not stop myself from upgrading from clocks around the house. Also made a bunch of fairy lights using this circuit with almost dead batteries. This one has been on 24/7 since November. (It’s perfectly visible in the dark but phone camera could not capture it without help )
The manufacturer I’ve been dealing with are not regularly making those. Chances are I will have to pay them for the quantity I cannot comfortably handle if I want to get one.
Sure, I vastly prefer these over the stock cool white leds.
After a lot of practice, It was straight forward to swap the the 5mm leds. The disassembly is a bit trickier.
The logo can be unscrewed counter-clockwise. The head is glued and crunchy but it also can be unscrewed counter-clockwise. Disconnect the wire and push the mpcb upwards where the spring is located. (I soldered the spring for better contact)
My stash us getting low on these little gems and I don’t ever want to run out! so I’m ordering 100 each of the 3400 and 2300K. These have become my most used LED’s. The 2300K are perfect for anything close to candle light or night lights. The 3400K are perfect for button cell keychain or any other 5mm LED upgrades. Hi CRI goodness 7 lumen at a time.
They are also quite tolerant of the over-current abuse BLFer’s like to use!
A must have for any hi CRI modder’s toolbox.
Thanks so much for offering these to the community.
A few years ago I did a similar mod as that Black and Decker tool light to a Defiant tube light using Yuji 5600K units from when they still had a 100pc MOQ. A lot of 5mm LED containing lights are relatively easy to emitter swap which is nice.
With these 2300K LEDs though I just upgraded a 35 light Edison style string light set with almost a foot socket spacing and with flicker free filtered circuit purchased from a large blue department store. The stock LEDs look pretty nice out of the box… Until you put these Sophia LEDs in. Then the originals look absolutely terrible, particularly their color rendering when lighting a surface. The Sophias also shine more light downward, whereas the stock inverted cone 3mm units shine a lot more to the sides and not so much downward.
I will be modding a lot of light strings with these LEDs, as the manufacturer’s idea of warm white is always very inadequate when I expect the light strings to contribute to lighting my space!
I’ve hit 4 of the big blue and yellow department stores in my area in the past week and only found the one string I stumbled on at the first store which looked like it may have been a return. Two of the stores didn’t even have a place on the shelf for them anymore. I think this product has been around for months and I just didn’t notice them until recently.
They seem to have been one of those springtime seasonal products, but some stores stock those items for many months each year. I’m hoping they’ll restock. I checked their online store and they’re sold out too unfortunately so I signed up for email alerts.
A lot of those stores still have white and brown filtered 100-light strings that have a round G25 covering and unfortunately much closer bulb spacing. I bought one of those as well but haven’t started modding yet.
They’re both easy. The cover pops off with a gentle prying pull, and the lamp base pulls straight out like the usual Christmas lights. Fingernails or a diagonal cutters used as a prying tool work for that task. The M5 internal LED cover pops off similarly (grabbing the base with pliers helps!). The bases are even coded for polarity, following the lengths of the LED leads! Also just like the Sophia and indeed almost all 3 and 5mm LEDs, the larger part of the lead frame is cathode.
So from what you’re saying, do the strings you found even need soldering to swap the LED’s?
I think I misunderstood which blue-branded store you were talking about. It sounds like you mean Ikea. I was thinking Lowes (I’m not sure there’s any rules here against discussing retailers by name, as long as it doesn’t seem like we’re trying to shill).
