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James C.

James C.

Joined on 04/09/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 11
Most Favorable Review

Good Value But False Specs

27 Watt 12V 60 Degrees Square LED Flood Light, White
27 Watt 12V 60 Degrees Square LED Flood Light, White

Pros: Durable weatherproof housing, thick wire, good amount of light for the money, wide voltage input range of 10V to 30V & current regulated drive circuit. Not a polycarbonate lens so hopefully it won't yellow over time, though more subject to stress fracture than if it were polycarbonate.

Cons: Not Cree LEDs, they are Epistar brand with lower efficiency. Lumen rating is false as is wattage rating. They are closer to 1500 lumens and 23W. Polarity protection - might seem nice to someone who doesn't know how to wire a light but it is a voltage loss to implement it, resulting in lower efficiency. Very highly diffused broad beam. They do call it a flood but it floods a little too much even for very close up distances. The mount for it is not very vibration resistant. Even tightening it a lot, I would still recommend coating not only the screw threads where the nuts go with threadlock compound but also putting some between the mount plate and where it contacts the body of the light.

Overall Review: I can't complain about the product performance for the price but it never should have been listed as "Cree type LED chipsets" because there's nothing in particular that makes them more like Cree's LEDs than any other brand. The Epistar LEDs are good for about 67 lumens per watt per Epistar's datasheet and a measure of input current means the input to the light is 23W, then subtract regulation losses. These are arranged as a buck PWM driver circuit which seems to be driving 3 parallel series of 3 LEDs in each series. If one LED or series fails you are probably going to loose all 3 in that series. It was misleading to put 9 pieces of LEDs that "could" work up to 3W power level but don't in this product, then claim something the product does not live up to. I cannot fault this seller in particular as all of them seem ignorant of the situation that wattage is a scientific quantity not what some internal component could do in a different situation. The way they did it they could have used 10W LEDs, claimed it was then 90W, but using the same driver circuit it would have been no brighter at all. This is not all bad, the enclosure limits the heatsinking amount and it would be larger, heavier, and more costly with diminishing return in lumens to increase wattage much more. Despite the cons the bottom line is that being a finished ready to install product suitable for outdoor use, it is a good value. I see it as the best option for the price, not the best option at twice the price which is what some alternative lighting pitched for the same uses sell for.

Most Critical Review

Misleading Lumens & LED Yet Long Runtime

Rosewill RLFL-11004 1W 70 Lumens LED Head Lamp
Rosewill RLFL-11004 1W 70 Lumens LED Head Lamp

Pros: - Low cost - Lightweight and compact head - Very good runtime - Momentary type power switch latches circuit, longer lasting than mechanical on/off type switches found in most inexpensive headlamps

Cons: - Misleading, not a 1W LED and not 70 lumens. This uses a Chinese manufactured Pirana 0.5W Super Flux LED rated somewhere between 25 and 35 lumens. This is very easy to prove, based on comparison beams, the physical appearance of the LED as pictured or looking at the light, internet pictures and datasheets, lack of a heatsink base, and by the power consumption measured with a multimeter. - Flimsy swivel - Thin, short elastic - Thin, fragile wire

Overall Review: Cool white, roughly 6500K) tint. It's bright for a 0.5W LED, and frankly it might be the right choice if you need longer runtime from a 3 x AAA powered light, several hours instead of only a couple on many headlamps running on high, except that many others have a medium to low mode that would accomplish the same. Otherwise, just about any other headlamp made today that uses a single power LED and this volume/weight of batteries is brighter. It has a broad, fairly even beam without much of a hotspot, suitable for short distances, indoor use for example not outdoor navigation. I'll probably use when working under my car. It's no more or less water resistant than another other headlamp that's not waterproof. In other words if it gets wet you may have a problem, but there are no bright, waterproof headlamps at this price point.

Good Quality, High Flow, Screamer - 5V Fan

Delta AFB0405HD 40mm 5v Case Fan
Delta AFB0405HD 40mm 5v Case Fan

Pros: - Very high quality, do not mistake with typical junk fans. Top shelf! - Dual Ball Bearings & 20mm thick, very well balanced, long life and low vibrations (for what it is). - Very high airflow rate for a 5V, 40mm fan.

Cons: - Don't expect to voltage or current limit this to control speed much, it has a high torque motor that just won't spin up if you reduce by more than about 35% RPM - Takes a lot of current for a small fan, around 200mA, though this at 5V so yeah, ohm's law & all. - Noisy, you will not want to be in the same room with it unless the room was already too noisy to notice. This is not a fan fault per se but due to high RPM in tiny size creating a lot of turbulence

Overall Review: You wouldn't use this in a typical computer build, more for a special project or network equipment where the power tap for it isn't as high as 12V, obviously since it's a 5V fan. This is used ONLY where you have a bad overheating situation and a tiny space to put a fan, and most things that use 40mm don't use this 20mm thickness but it's MUCH more stable and precise by being thick enough to have dual ball bearings. Most common use for this might be network equipment or a DIY mod of something getting too hot like a battery charger that takes 5V input. As mentioned above, don't plan on undervolting, undercurrent, or PWN to reduce speed much because it won't make much difference before it doesn't reliably spin up at power on. If you had a custom circuit to give it full 5V then PWN after spin up, that will work but some experimentation will be needed as it's pickier than lower torque fans, BUT when you need a 5V, 40mm diameter screamer, this is the ticket. Ignore the packaging factor another reviewer mentioned, that's a generic package for many fans. The model # for this tell what you need to know. The "B" means ball bearing, the 04 means 40mm, and the 05 means 5.0V. All that's left is that it's 20mm thick and around 4000 RPM, and the blue wire is tach/RPM feedback.

Works As Expected

Samsung GX-SM530CF/XAA Smart Media Player
Samsung GX-SM530CF/XAA Smart Media Player

Pros: Small, cool running, saves money over a monthly STB rental fee from the cable co. Plug 'n play with many cordless keyboards and media center keyboard emulation type controllers (most of them). Plays files over network with wifi, ethernet via DLNA, or from a USB connected hard drive, flash drive, etc. Two USB ports, just enough for external storage and a wireless keyboard. Brushed, anodized metal case looks nicer than plastic. It matches a glossy framed TV nicely.

Cons: Cable company took 3 tries before they synced it correctly - not a fault of the product but there were no other cons in my use. However there are detractions I don't care about. It's not a DVR, can't record. Can't do pay per view from the box - have to call in it get an event. It would have been nice if it had a standard LED setup where there were none on when it's turned off and one on when it's powered instead of switching from one lit LED to a different one when on, but you get used to that eventually. The remote looks a little too much like the one for our samsung tv so they get confused occasionally, but it has no problem operating the features for both that we regularly use.

Overall Review: It does what I expected. The youtube app is a little clunky but I do youtube at a computer or tablet and tv shows on tv so basically I just wanted a cheaper alternative to a cable co. rented box that also had smart features and wifi. HDMI so you don't even need a "real" TV, could plug this into a computer monitor or whatever display with an HDMI port. I subtracted one egg because it can't record to external storage and it's not running open source (moddable) firmware. I think it would have a larger following if it did.

11/18/2014

Mixed Feelings

Sennheiser HD201S 3.5mm/ 6.3mm Connector Around-Ear Hi-fi Headphone
Sennheiser HD201S 3.5mm/ 6.3mm Connector Around-Ear Hi-fi Headphone

Pros: Inexpensive (even more so on sale) Reasonably accurate, smooth and clear for the price point More comfortable than many of a similar size Minimal sound leakage Low impedance good for portable audio players, phones, computer audio, etc

Cons: 10' cord way too long for portable use Cord thin, fragile, as are the strain reliefs at the cups. Far less bass than most cans this size, but at least it's reasonably controlled bass. Poor sensitivity (efficiency), despite the low impedance they can't produce much volume on today's artificially volume limited devices like MP3 players and phones. On a med to large head the plastic has to flex, leading to a suspicion that eventually the plastic will crack apart as it is a rigid type, not the polypropylene on some of their other cans like HD202. Looks cheap even compared to others in same price range.

Overall Review: They're a good value but I can't recommend them for music. If you use a decent headamp they seem to produce more bass but without one the bass is lifeless, lacking. To be fair most cans at this price can't do bass well so it seems Senn went for less bass rather than uncontrolled bass, as the driver in these is below average size for the cup size and sits in an internal rectangular shaped plastic chamber. The cup size plays no part in the acoustics, it's just that size to allow an around-ear style ear pad. Best used for voice or general computer sound. Might be OK for gaming but nowhere near as good for that as Senn's HD500 series cans since they have substantially more soundstage. Like many low cost closed cans the treble isn't very precise. Not muddy and better than some at the same price, yet worse than some at same price that are open cups. If you need closed cups, at similar price from Senn I recommend instead going with HD 428, 202, 203, or if open cups are okay, especially HD419 as it is the clear value leader under $35.

Good Value

Patriot Swing 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Black) PSF16GSBUSB
Patriot Swing 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Black) PSF16GSBUSB

Pros: Small, inexpensive with a rebate, metal constuction

Cons: Not very fast, Atto Benchmark v2.46, length 256MB scores: 13.6 MB/s write 18.3 MB/s read Crystal DiskMark 3.0.1 length 100MB scores: Test . . . Read . . . Write (MB/s) - Sequential . . . 18.64 . . . 12.60 Random 512K . . . 18.48 . . . 5.111 Random 4K . . . 2.108 . . . 0.507 Random 4K QD32 . . . 2.551 . . . 0.741 It's fiddly to get open due to the corners and tiny nub on it, using your fingernails makes it easier.

Overall Review: Budget priced, budget performance. A bit more ergonomically friendly opening would help. Minus one egg for the opening and one egg for the mediocre performance but overall I'm satisfied for the price.