Cheap Chinese LED companies - the Good, the Bad and the Royal Ripoffs

Love em or loathe em, Chinese "Quantum Copy" boards are everywhere. But for every "bargain" showcased on RIU, there appear to be some real abominations and blatant ripoffs. From LEDs and connectors falling off boards, to ill-fitting heatsinks, cheap replacement and low-bin LEDs, and even copper-shortfalls in commissioned PCBs. If there's a way to cheat their unsuspecting victims . . . er, customers, Chinese companies have proven very creative when it comes to increasing their margins at the expense of others.

So I'm wondering, would it be a service to the community if everyone who has had a good, bad or average experience with these companies listed them here? Who deserves our money, who should we avoid, and which - if any - of these companies also trade under different names?

This isn't about the ethics of buying cheap Chinese boards - it's about the ethics of the companies themselves. As consumers, we have a lot of power and I think it's time we used it.

Meijiu have been a good seller as far as me, good experience with Rita. As for prices: prefered the result per $ of the lm561c. Being last years diodes seems that they can get them in easily in high bins. Didnt Dotice too much difference with their lm301b boards at almost twice the price. But never ran proper tests.

why would anyone buy boards anyway if they could just get some f-series or q-series stripes from digikey et al for way less? things i don't get. a 288 diode samsung f24b from digikey is atm 39eur, directly shipped to europe. which chinese ripoff artist is cheaper than that? comes with even better light distribution for free...

sethimus said:

why would anyone buy boards anyway if they could just get some f-series or q-series stripes from digikey et al for way less? things i don't get. a 288 diode samsung f24b from digikey is atm 39eur, directly shipped to europe. which chinese ripoff artist is cheaper than that? comes with even better light distribution for free...

Click to expand...

Strips are great.
Probably for the simplicity of it.
Maybe all that bother of ordering angle aluminium , cutting, drilling, wiring etc might be a bit daunting for some..?

10 F strips on digikey are £200
2 FOTOP Boards Ali are £200
So similar in price

Meijiu gets my vote.
Rita was quick to reply to any emails and answer any technical questions to my satisfaction.

View attachment 4234097

Prawn Connery said:

Love em or loathe em, Chinese "Quantum Copy" boards are everywhere. But for every "bargain" showcased on RIU, there appear to be some real abominations and blatant ripoffs. From LEDs and connectors falling off boards, to ill-fitting heatsinks, cheap replacement and low-bin LEDs, and even copper-shortfalls in commissioned PCBs. If there's a way to cheat their unsuspecting victims . . . er, customers, Chinese companies have proven very creative when it comes to increasing their margins at the expense of others.

So I'm wondering, would it be a service to the community if everyone who has had a good, bad or average experience with these companies listed them here? Who deserves our money, who should we avoid, and which - if any - of these companies also trade under different names?

This isn't about the ethics of buying cheap Chinese boards - it's about the ethics of the companies themselves. As consumers, we have a lot of power and I think it's time we used it.

Click to expand...

such zeal dude!..since this was plea for info..i am sure it has no alterior motive

only people who seem to "loathe "em are peoplewho have not tried em

we shoulda had you around when all the NA companies were going to cheap china.com

decades ago i worried that so much of NA industry would goto china ..it did.. we needed you then

the company you are mentioning had theirs made in China

..good for them?

no judgement on my part like your slant

they did not invent led panels with samsung 561 diodes in them..again i wish em well

I could not afford to buy stateside..too much markup[no blame] too much shipping cost[cheaper send in 2 -3 days from China]

have ordered from 2 companies in china..less than half the cost..speedy delivery..polite people who were generally on the ticket

problems sometimes happen..especally in the beginning of the led panel thing..but in the end imho well worth it..

no out off stock..[don't think they are hurting ]

please keep in mind i think that the company you are referring to

got most all of their panels made in the same places that people order from in China

every one of the panels i bought are still working well..including the 561b which is no slouch

and looking back ..cobs except for the heatsink price imho are really the best .

i still like panels..not ceritified just like the fine company you are talking about

sethimus said:

why would anyone buy boards anyway if they could just get some f-series or q-series stripes from digikey et al for way less? things i don't get. a 288 diode samsung f24b from digikey is atm 39eur, directly shipped to europe. which chinese ripoff artist is cheaper than that? comes with even better light distribution for free...

Click to expand...

312 diodes at 20 bucks @ 36V is well priced and convenient for meanwell drivers. Shipping on top of course but its a lot less than 20 per board especially in quantities. Smaller package, not 4 foot long has some benefit. A lot more on offer for growers since the chinese dedicate their business towards growers, i mean nobody normal seems to buy from them. Boards/strips etc with red diodes and bells abd whistles. I mean they seem to really want our money and respond to our needs and wants in a more direct way than samsunfmg making strips for regular lighting.
What got me going was the fact that Moflow made nice detailed measurements on temps and ppfd with the Fotop boards, indicating that you can run them without heatsink and with good results, whatever bin it was it was good enough, and driver matching was easy at 48V. Size factor aswell: theres no 3 feet strips afaik. Never found that good details on samsung strips temps with no heatsink and the alu profile seemed expensive and extra work.
So it worked and was easy. So i continued down the rabbithole. People tend to continue doing what worked last time, and if you got good results and a familiar process with strips all the better for you. Spread? Latest build we did we covered the cannopy with boards around 60%. In fact its like a strip build, 11" board, 5" space, 11" board 5" space and so on. (Boards are about 3feet long and 11inch wide). dont think you could get that with f strips unless your build is literally insane, like 1 inch between each strip.

Theres many reasons to go the china way but maybe we should stay on topic about real actual experiences of buying, not why although its a fair question. Anyone with a really bad experience? Or even minor nuisance? Name and shame that seller so people can be informed

Pushin connectors seems to be my only problem, they arent arent all that great on some of these boards. But easy to work around. Generally i do a short wire from pushin to a wago, then glue the wago to frame or back of board, so if theres anything pulling on the wire the force goes to the wago. But pushins on bridgelux strips were only marginally better, didnt really like to bite on to the wire.

Moflow said:

Strips are great.
Probably for the simplicity of it.
Maybe all that bother of ordering angle aluminium , cutting, drilling, wiring etc might be a bit daunting for some..?

10 F strips on digikey are £200
2 FOTOP Boards Ali are £200
So similar in price

Click to expand...

dunno, i have already build quite a few strip light panels, i usually order all the metal parts from a local metal shop, they want 50ct extra per cut so everything is already in the length i want, i just pick it up, drill holes and rivet them and glue on the stripes with sticky tape, not much effort and quick.

OLD MOTHER SATIVA said:

View attachment 4234098 View attachment 4234096 View attachment 4234097


such zeal dude!..since this was plea for info..i am sure it has no alterior motive

only people who seem to "loathe "em are peoplewho have not tried em

we shoulda had you around when all the NA companies were going to cheap china.com

decades ago i worried that so much of NA industry would goto china ..it did.. we needed you then

the company you are mentioning had theirs made in China

..good for them?

no judgement on my part like your slant

they did not invent led panels with samsung 561 diodes in them..again i wish em well

I could not afford to buy stateside..too much markup[no blame] too much shipping cost[cheaper send in 2 -3 days from China]

have ordered from 2 companies in china..less than half the cost..speedy delivery..polite people who were generally on the ticket

problems sometimes happen..especally in the beginning of the led panel thing..but in the end imho well worth it..

no out off stock..[don't think they are hurting ]

please keep in mind i think that the company you are referring to

got most all of their panels made in the same places that people order from in China

every one of the panels i bought are still working well..including the 561b which is no slouch

and looking back ..cobs except for the heatsink price imho are really the best .

i still like panels..not ceritified just like the fine company you are talking about

Click to expand...

This thread was mostly prompted by this latest example of Chinese purchasing power: https://www.rollitup.org/t/did-i-receive-a-fake-samsung-board-do-they-always-damage-this-easy.979724/

Wouldn't you want to know that if you were contemplating dropping almost US$60 on an "EnFun" Samsung LM301B board this is what you might get?

There are plenty of guys - like you - who seem happy with their Chinese boards and that's not the issue. The issue is that, while there are those who get what they pay for and are happy, others are still getting ripped off.

So why not compile a list of good and bad?

Or would you rather potential buyers remain in the dark?

Not me. So here's another company I'd be leery about purchasing from - Shenzhen Hansion technology - because they've been caught deceiving people in the past: https://www.rollitup.org/t/new-style-samsung-lm561c-board.955201/page-9#post-13958238

Perhaps you'd like to tell us about your own experiences and which companies you would recommend. Or not.

Not forgetting 'Jerry from Kingbrite' - another reliable source from Alibaba

Moflow said:

Not forgetting 'Jerry from Kingbrite' - another reliable source from Alibaba

Click to expand...

The caveat bere is nobody tested his boards against hlg qbs, but his cobs were tested fine in their day.

Prawn Connery said:

This thread was mostly prompted by this latest example of Chinese purchasing power: https://www.rollitup.org/t/did-i-receive-a-fake-samsung-board-do-they-always-damage-this-easy.979724/

Wouldn't you want to know that if you were contemplating dropping almost US$60 on an "EnFun" Samsung LM301B board this is what you might get?

There are plenty of guys - like you - who seem happy with their Chinese boards and that's not the issue. The issue is that, while there are those who get what they pay for and are happy, others are still getting ripped off.

So why not compile a list of good and bad?

Or would you rather potential buyers remain in the dark?

Not me. So here's another company I'd be leery about purchasing from - Shenzhen Hansion technology - because they've been caught deceiving people in the past: https://www.rollitup.org/t/new-style-samsung-lm561c-board.955201/page-9#post-13958238

Perhaps you'd like to tell us about your own experiences and which companies you would recommend. Or not.

Click to expand...

bro.. since is your thread please stop trying to transfer any possible guilt to me lol

do you know what DYOD means?

mistakes can and will happen even in the land of the free..so just naming a company for a mistake

is not valid

i will say never order any heatsink or anything from

HY (Hong Yie) International they are ripoffs..

now get your credit card out and DYOD by buying things from the co's you hope to discredit... not joking

here is your first and only freebie..

maybe you can go to twitter and start a "movement" [joke..kinda]


ok ...Shenzhen Hansion technology<--you may or may not get exactly what you want

sethimus said:

why would anyone buy boards anyway if they could just get some f-series or q-series stripes from digikey et al for way less? things i don't get. a 288 diode samsung f24b from digikey is atm 39eur, directly shipped to europe. which chinese ripoff artist is cheaper than that? comes with even better light distribution for free...

Click to expand...

sorry i cannot find a "288 diode samsung 24b" at digikey..

o ffs i forgot a b, FB24B, happy? the f-series one sentence before should have given you a clue, stop playing the stupid one...

Mufue technology on alibaba is another reliable source. At least I have good experience with them buying 50 96 chip boards. 12 of them were damaged during transport and they replaced them free of charge. They also rewarded me with a 320 chip board for free (after squeezing their balls for a sec)

HY International supplied me with heatsinks I couldn't find cbeaper anywhere else and had them cut to my own preferences.

@Prawn Connery most of the people using these boards already post their thoughts/experiences on the thread made for it long ago. There is the legit quantum board makers that when asked anything a little out of the ordinary and do everything but answer the questions their customers ask, then when asked to answer the original question they just ignore their customers, so why not try the knock offs, anyone that's into DIY knows the risks. Or just shame and name all companies not just them in Asia but USA and other countries.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-chinese-quantum-board-knock-off-builds.971560/

can anyone so far confirm that they got the bin that was advertised?

OLD MOTHER SATIVA said:

bro.. since is your thread please stop trying to transfer any possible guilt to me lol

do you know what DYOD means?

mistakes can and will happen even in the land of the free..so just naming a company for a mistake

is not valid

i will say never order any heatsink or anything from

HY (Hong Yie) International they are ripoffs..

now get your credit card out and DYOD by buying things from the co's you hope to discredit... not joking

here is your first and only freebie..

maybe you can go to twitter and start a "movement" [joke..kinda]


ok ...Shenzhen Hansion technology<--you may or may not get exactly what you want

Click to expand...

Yeah, nah.

Those EnFun boards are advertised - and sold - as LM301B and clearly aren't. At US$59 each, they're not cheap, either.

Hansion sold eight - count them, "eight" - "LM561C S6" boards that turned out to be LM561B. They're not mistakes.

I'm not sure what your obscure acronym is, but thanks for the tip on HY - even though you didn't explain what the issue was. It seems someone else had a good experience with them, so there you go.

It's all in the details.

zypheruk said:

@Prawn Connery most of the people using these boards already post their thoughts/experiences on the thread made for it long ago. There is the legit quantum board makers that when asked anything a little out of the ordinary and do everything but answer the questions their customers ask, then when asked to answer the original question they just ignore their customers, so why not try the knock offs, anyone that's into DIY knows the risks. Or just shame and name all companies not just them in Asia but USA and other countries.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/the-chinese-quantum-board-knock-off-builds.971560/

Click to expand...

I understand that. I just thought a quick reference thread for any and all experiences would be good for those looking to purchase everything from LEDs to heatsinks. I singled out China because they don't have the same consumer laws as other developed nations, so at least buyers have recourse in other jurisdictions. As far as buyer protections in China are concerned, all we have are shared experiences.

Prawn Connery said:

Yeah, nah.

Those EnFun boards are advertised - and sold - as LM301B and clearly aren't. At US$59 each, they're not cheap, either.

Hansion sold eight - count them, "eight" - "LM561C S6" boards that turned out to be LM561B. They're not mistakes.

I'm not sure what your obscure acronym is, but thanks for the tip on HY - even though you didn't explain what the issue was. It seems someone else had a good experience with them, so there you go.

It's all in the details.

Click to expand...

"HY - even though you didn't explain what the issue was. It seems someone else had a good experience with them, so there you go."

>no they didn't..you are mixed up.

..have you ever tried 561 b's ?

ordering from china is much cheaper especially if you do you home work..like half the cost and except for some

connectors that got smashed in shipping the panels have been bullet proof

please try harder to attempt to convince people by saying you have an open mind

.DYOD.. know what it means..?

bye