Suprising sophistication

[bertus]

I sell LED lights and am surprised at the level of sophistication here.  It seems users know very much about building things with LEDs.  But that leads me to some questions: 

1.  Why is no one producing any LED lights commercially?  Or are you?
2.  Next, why do I continually get spam mail from Chinese producers but never from any one in the US?  Please don't say because the Chinese are spammers.  Surely someone in the US would like to manufacture and sell to suppliers? 

I have mostly assumed that the best value lights as in bulbs come from China.  I know some might disagree but the production costs less there. 

3.  Is anyone here trying to make say a 6 Watt CREE LED bulb?  Is it commercially available as a US product? and is the cost not too much more than an equivalent product from China? 

I already know about CREE as in their downlight series.

Any answers to any questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Robert

[justDIY]

I sell LED lights and am surprised at the level of sophistication here.  It seems users know very much about building things with LEDs.  But that leads me to some questions: 

1.  Why is no one producing any LED lights commercially?  Or are you?

Hi, welcome to the boards.

I'm pretty sure some of our users are selling things, whether that is commercial or not I don't know.  Does commerical imply a set quantity or volume, or what?  I know some of our users are involved in the design and production end of things, is that commercial?

2.  Next, why do I continually get spam mail from Chinese producers but never from any one in the US?  Please don't say because the Chinese are spammers.  Surely someone in the US would like to manufacture and sell to suppliers? 

Are there any manufacturers in the US?  I guess Lamina Ceramics is American, but they've got their niche market pretty well defined, probably wouldn't benefit much from cold calling via spam emails.
I get spam from NXP, Philips, Osram on occasion, I may have signed up for some of it, hard to say.

3.  Is anyone here trying to make say a 6 Watt CREE LED bulb?  Is it commercially available as a US product? and is the cost not too much more than an equivalent product from China? 

Problem I've run into is a reliable and safe offline power supply.  I came close to ordering some dime-sized 90-240vac 3w constant current drivers from a Chinese supplier, but chickened out.  I also don't have the capabilities to machine any sort of heat sink that a reliable led "bulb" would require.  New heat-tolerant LEDs like the Rebel make that less of a concern, instead of worrying about 25C I now can worry about 150C.   

I do want to try making some candelabra "bulbs" out of 3w rebels, but the driver electronics have me stumped right now ... need a safe driver that will fit into the mini-edison type base the bulbs use.  Plus the 3w rebel is efficient and all, but it's not going to beat a 60w hot-wire bulb... given the tiny size of these bulbs, I don't see a practical way to replace them with LEDs and maintain light output.  Sure I could cover a vertical piece of PCB with maybe 8-10 rebels in the same form factor as the hot wire bulb, but where is all that heat going to go, plus a 30 watt driver is going to be too big to fit in the socket base.

[cadstarsucks]

As for your initial comment, I am an electronic design engineer with both military and optical experience.   I could easily design a full package, the problem is how much people are willing to pay.

Of course there is the somewhat problematic vagueness of your question #1.  I can walk into Costco and buy a very good LED lamp replacement bulb for $16 for two or I can walk into Walmart and get a CCFL for $1, which gets done?

The place where LEDs really shine (pun intended) is in full fixtures, not bulb replacements.  Here the heat sinking can be incorporated into the structure and not expensively hacked into the form factor of the bulb it is intended to replace.  The type of light and directionality make them particularly suited to down lighting and the absolute lumen output can be reduced due to lack of optics losses and the nature of the light perceived.

Dan

[BVnursery]

Significant funding and an affordable NON chinese manufacturing site are two keys to why dont you see more mfg'ed items here.

I design products and often find the chinese produce inferior products with a resale below my component cost.  The markets are all very cost to the consumer driven.

BS hype they put out is another 'key' to their marketing.  I build a number of horticultural items, all of them at least 4 spectrums that are correct for plants.  The chinese put out 2 spectrum and only one plants like.

Any suggestions to my first 2 comments ?