Chinese LED light manufacturers and the truth about what diodes / bins they are using lm301b vs lm301h

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p0opstlnksal0t

Well-Known Member
It has been said on the board recently that chinese LED light manufacturers are lying about their claims they are using genuine LM301H diodes or "Top Bin" LM301B diodes in their lights. Of course it would be a simple matter to claim they are using lm301h diodes or top bin lm301b diodes since once installed on a pcb they are indistinguishable from low bin diodes. I put this thread together to see if we can get some truth from these manufacturers as to what they are buying from samsung and installing in their lights.

It would be great if we can get some of these alibaba manufacturers to come to this thread and provide proof of their top bin diodes or lm301h diode being installed in their lights.
 
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piratebug

Well-Known Member
Why go through all that just write Samsung and ask them if the manufacturer you are buying your lights from actually buys the chips that are used by the manufacturer of the board you may have purchased. I did that myself some time ago and seeing I purchased lights from both KingBrite and Meiju I asked about both of them and was told by Samsung China that both those companies purchase both lm301 B and H chips from Samsung China! And No I don't know if those two manufactures are using Samsung so-called top bin chips, and really I don't care because I have done repeated side by sides using my HLG boards vs their comparable boards and I get pretty much the same good results from all of them. Really the only thing I would be cautious about is the Mean Well drivers from Meiju as I was told by both Mean Well USA and Mean Well Taiwan that only KingBrite buys Mean Well drivers directly from Mean Well, and I also had 2 Mean Well drivers that I got from Meiju fail on me, one just quit working, which wasn't great, but caused no damage, but the other one a HLG-320H-AB that failed caused a expensive fire in my back shed. And when trying to get Meiju to do anything about it became a nightmare, only Alibaba and Mean Well stepped up even after they determined that the driver in question should have been disassembled and the internals destroyed because it failed its final inspection. Yeah, from what I learned from Mean Well USA is that someone was taking those "seconds" and selling them when they should have been disassembled and the internals destroyed. Anyhow, needless to say, no more Meiju purchases for me!
 
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jonnynobody

Well-Known Member
piratebug said:
Why go through all that just write Samsung and ask them if the manufacturer you are buying your lights from actually buys the chips that are used by the manufacturer of the board you may have purchased. I did that myself some time ago and seeing I purchased lights from both KingBrite and Meiju I asked about both of them and was told by Samsung China that both those companies purchase both lm301 B and H chips from Samsung China! And No I don't know if those two manufactures are using Samsung so-called top bin chips, and really I don't care because I have done repeated side by sides using my HLG boards vs their comparable boards and I get pretty much the same good results from all of them. Really the only thing I would be cautious about is the Mean Well drivers from Meiju as I was told by both Mean Well USA and Mean Well Taiwan that only KingBrite buys Mean Well drivers directly from Mean Well, and I also had 2 Mean Well drivers that I got from Meiju fail on me, one just quit working, which wasn't great, but caused no damage, but the other one a HLG-320H-AB that failed caused a expensive fire in my back shed. And when trying to get Meiju to do anything about it became a nightmare, only Alibaba and Mean Well stepped up even after they determined that the driver in question should have been disassembled and the internals destroyed because it failed its final inspection. Yeah, from what I learned from Mean Well USA is that someone was taking those "seconds" and selling them when they should have been disassembled and the internals destroyed. Anyhow, needless to say, no more Meiju purchases for me!
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Outstanding post. When I was shopping for quantum boards on Alibaba I checked out Meiju. Great looking light, but when I saw they warrantied the light for only 1 year I moved on to another option. It's great that you went through the leg work contacting Samsung and Mean Well to verify whether the components were genuine or not. It's a bummer to hear about your Meiju failing like that. A fire is the scariest way to have it happen too.
 
TheChemist77

TheChemist77

Well-Known Member
I’m interested to know also who or what brands get the top bin diodes? It seems a lot of led claim to use Samsung LM301 B or H diodes how do we know if they are top bin or mid or low bin? I’m guessing higher price = top bin? Any ideas?
 
TheChemist77

TheChemist77

Well-Known Member
Jonesfamily7715 said:
Only way you can truly know is purchase the diodes yourself and build your own.
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Unfortu I’m not inclined to build my own! I’m going back and forth , I’m deciding between lm301H and lm301 B, and also diodes per watt as I’m reading 3-4 or more diodes per watt is better even if using bridglux diodes. As the diode isn’t being pushed as hard so it last longer.??
 
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