If you have recommendations for me, that's cool, but I've already looked closely at Amazon, so maybe you know of another U.S. website with plenty of customer reviews?
Otherwise, discuss LED desk lamps in general, or go off-topic if you want.
Got one for my dad several years ago at Home Depot. Maybe $25?
A goose neck with the LEDs in about a 4”–5” diameter ring. LEDs covered in a rather thick frosted plastic diffuser.
Semi warm color. No dimmer. Fairly directional. After he passed away (102) it ended up on my wife’s desk to replace the Edison type bulb goose neck.
Now the Edison is on my workbench/desk with a 3K LED bulb in it. Along with an ancient florescent desk lamp on those articulating arms.
I like the height of the florescent and its ability to extend over what I’m working on without getting in the way.
That’s the problem i find with most desk lamps. The arm isn’t ling enough to get over what I’m working on without the base getting in the way. I’m not reading at the bench, I’m usually working on something.
Recently I’ve been using an LED video light on a tripod to brighten things up. Got maybe 140? LEDs. Got a kit with two of them on sale from B&H before Xmass last year.
Color adjustable from like 2.3K to 6.8K. Dimmable with no PWM at all.
Pointed at the ceiling it gives great soft light across everything. Pointed down, it’s a lot of light. Need to figure out some sort of mount for it that I can clamp to the workbench top, The floor mount tripod is a major pain.
Got a couple of cheap sewing lights from Amazon. Like $17 for 2 of em. Not too cold temp wise. Short goose necks, with magnetic bases. They hold well on my old Iron Lady Singer I recently picked up. The thing I like is they are a direct plug into 120v. No wall wort’s to get in the way.
If I can find a suitable mounting, I’d like to build me a light that has a large area so I don’t cast a shadow over what I’m working on.
One thing I’ve noticed, the older I get, the more light I need.
RC if you get one, let us know how you like it. Also if there is any PWM when dimmed. That’s a deal killer for me.
Perhaps a new mount could be fashioned to put it over a work piece.
All the Best
Jeff
The address that we use for deliveries is similar to this:
123 Fake Street via Cross Street
The UPS driver chose not to go down "Cross Street" and of course arrived at an extremely dangerous road, and decided that our address is undeliverable.
We had to pick up the package at Michael's, a store that sells crafting supplies.
Anyway, I just set up the desk lamp, and it seems very nice.
I placed it behind my mom's laptop.
If the lamp isn't tall enough, my mom may have to put it on top of something like a thick book.
I'll update this thread if anything goes awry, but so far, so good.
Thanks for sharing this. I happen to be browsing for something similar and quickly got lost in a sea of junk on Amazon (algorithms will be the death of us all...). Over the years between home and office I've seen tons of crappy LED products and usually get to disassemble things to try to repair them or at least examine the failures. Seems like just a few platforms for the circuits and frankly none of them are very good (either in safety or in longevity)...I assume this one uses much of the same, at least the little plastic case emitters. As much as I do NOT want yet another power brick, maybe that approach with these lamps will fare better over time (and at least those are super simple to replace if they crap out). I'd rather have a good old plain 120v cord with (good) electronics in the lamp body but without spending way too much it doesn't seem like there's anything available in LED now. I wouldn't mind spending $60 or so but there's a big gap from the $30-$40 range up to $80 or a couple hundred.
What do you think of the light outputs on lowest and highest? Is it using the usual 16 emitters per color temp (i.e. 48 emitters)?
Also, from pics it seems like the front edge of the base extends out an inch or so with no apparent purpose....if that's the case and there aren't switch parts in there, could that edge be trimmed away?
Thus far this looks like the nicest option I've seen, too. (the TaoTronics folks must be in Amazon Jail right now...all of their products seem to have been pulled from view but they still show listings on the Canada pages)
So I got this Trond model on prime day for like $18 with an extra coupon and after running it many hours over the last four days I think it's a keeper. I expected a little more but it's a nice little task lamp and well worth the purchase. The flux/lux/lumens claims are inflated (typical, right) but it puts out a good amount of light for a small desk area and bench tasks. They say 10W and 900-1500 lumens but it seems to be the equivalent of a small clear LED screw in bulb that is around 6W and 800 lumens...never measured but compared with any flashlight I don't think those bulbs are putting out anywhere near to 800 lumens anyway. I was a little disappointed with the arrangement of the emitters. There's a good smooth milky frosted diffuser lens over them but the warm ones are on the very left edge and the cool (cold) ones are on the very right edge. Just one strip - haven't disassembled but probably 9 or 10 of them. For neutral white it lights up both strips. When in warm/cold modes the dispersion isn't quite even but it's not super noticeable.
Soldered a little this morning with it and it's good for that with the temp choices and many dimming options. I think the little ring light models put out more even light for soldering but this has more options which is useful sometimes (especially with silver metals rather than brass).
Front and back edges of the base are indeed trimmable if you want to save some real estate. My only niggle is that the wall wart, while small, still takes up room at an outlet or UPS where a simple plug (which would require the electronics be moved to the lamp) would be nicer. The DC jack is angled and close to the corner so a straight one might be nicer as well.
Good lamp all around, happy with it and I hope it lasts. The seller looks like they're here to stay and actually concerned about quality and customer service...18 month warranty on it, too. If someone would soup up one of these into something extra nice I'd gladly pay double but for now this seems to be a real bargain and a sweet spot in the market. Thanks for sharing it, RC!
I like a new one, my 32” Computer monitor kinda overwhelm the one i have, but it must be a “big ” / tall one, i can not use something where the light source are 1 - 1.5 foot above the table top.
