manuellynch

Halloween is around the corner - and its time we all get people from the industry together and have some scary moments...even like cross pollenating message boards!!!! agghhhh!!! http://www.signweb.com/forum/general-message-board/scary-halloween-power-supply-sale

Today I heard from a customer that yet another company was raising their prices. Heard that Permlight did about a 10% price increase. Have heard that a lot of people are doing price increases. I think maybe Axiom and JT LED are the only two companies with prices constantly going down - hell we will be introducing several new products in 2011 that are even better performance, lower energy, and lower cost. Are you seeing price increases on LED, neon, fluorescent components?

I know that some of the larger companies had stepped up random inspections due to safety and quality reports from the field - I know that these writeups can cost a lot as well for a company. General rule: If you pay to be protected by a UL qualification system in the event of an accident or tragedy - best bet is to fully comply with their standards you signed up for.

Not that many anymore - the Kauri Tree which has been used by ship builders all over the world is now forbidden to be used- oh I forgot New Zealand is the maritime capital of the world and does build some of the largest and most advanced boats in the world. So when the Kauri Tree is extinct - cannot build to many more canoes...and thats is what happened to be what the battling Maoris used to make their canoes. And laugh all you want Brian - New Zealand is the first country to fly a plane using an alternative fuel - made from an abundant Jatropha curcas plant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatropha_oil) - look it up and find how this little country is a wee bit more advanced than most countries of the world. Hell - Google gave their top award to a New Zealander for a bicycle powered monorail system. And - please note that New Zealand has more cars per capita than any other country in the world - they just all happen to be pretty fuel efficient. So Brian - did you want to start arguing all over again on a topic like this? I thought you would be pro New Zealand after you learned they fought to keep incandescent alive.

Here is what we did http://www.thesignsyndicate.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4232-small-step-car-free-day-we-did-it/page__p__26047__hl__%2Bcar+%2Bfree__fromsearch__1#entry26047 Most interesting was what the New Zealand Navy is doing to save power - very very very clever - reducing weight reduces drag which reduces fuel consumption.

it is definitely a free country down here - and while they favor energy efficient smart solutions they are not going to do it if it is stupid. GE Tetra for example cost about $120 for a 3 foot section of white LED!!! I have not seen the Tetra in a single sign shop!

Video about Car Free Day - which is today everyone! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aul4Qdk2fnk

I communicated with one of the young engineers that worked with Jim the other day and both he and the other engineer are in shock. Both of them will step in and answer people's questions. Both good guys. Jim had a surgery in June to remove a bunch of pollops. In the process they found out he had some additional cancer. He started chemo and was becoming rather weak. He collapsed one day and they found that he had cancer of the brain as well. He was recovering from his collapse in the hospital and came down with pnuemonia. He passed in the hospital. He always had the best humor about what was wrong with him and took the most serious issues very lightly. Stephanie, Dane Cardone (Sign Methods), and I had lunch with Jim just before his surgery. At the end of lunch I told him I would call him at home after his surgery and see how he was doing. He emailed me a week later and told me the surgery went well but the prognosis was not great and that he was starting chemo. JIm was a close friend of mine and we shared a lot of great time together talking, learning, and laughing. Here is his obituary below Mercury News On Saturday, September 4th James entered into eternal peace. He was 63 years old. James was survived by his Wife Pat, Mother, Sister, five Children and ten Grandchildren. Memorial will be held on Friday, September 17th at 11:00am Lima Family Santa Clara Mortuary 466 North Winchester Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA 95050 408-296-2977.Donations can be made in memory of Jim to The Cancer Society of America.

Nisa, I agree with you on this point. Having come from the semiconductor world myself and knowing the intense amount of energy used to: 1) keep a clean room clean, 2) energy for evaporation processes, annealing, etc is quite high, 3) the amount of power to make a Silicon carbide wafer, etc., 4) amount of energy used to pick and place components on PCB boards and the amount of energy for reflow. So I do agree with you on this versus neon. There was a top notch lighting designer in Seattle that I met once that had actually paid someone to do a report on this exact issue. It is crazy the amount of frequent flyer miles an LED system will get in the process of fabrication. So Nisa - I agree with your statement and am very interested in hearing what you have put together. I am very actively conscious in reducing carbon footprint on all fronts and is partly why we produce product in New Zealand for this market and soon in the USA for the USA market. Remember that we were living in the shadow of the MGM City Center in Las Vegas when it was being built for years and this concept of being a Platinum LEED facility got drilled in our head. As a side note I always thought it was rather crappy that most of the glass used in MGM City Center came from China...didnt make sense - could have been done in the USA. Thank you Nisa for adding that aspect. I met with a man here in New Zealand the other day who was in the business of pressurized gases and it seemed after a long discussion that there are ways neon makes more sense. But alas - we sell LED systems....so we do our best. Looking forward to the educational webinar - I would like to hear what you have discovered. Marko, You are right - the goal is to reduce overall power - power factor is important but it is mainly important to the "lines" companies or the ones who deliver power and not necessarily the ones "generating" power. In some places around the world the two groups are different. Brian Happy Birthday - and when the environmentalist give you crap for your horse taking a crap on the side of the road - well then just have a bag of seeds and say you are planting a tree!!! Have a good day.

1. Neon is great for a ton of applications - I have said that many times. I appreciate that every technology has its optimal applications. 2. CCFL drivers - big company called Microsemi was the one who mastered the art of CCFL dimming and control - I was with the company when we acquired the other company that was making this technology. So I have a fondness for CCFL. It made me a lot of money. Sorry. 3. Fluorescent - not a fan at all 4. Halogen - i love the stuff - just lifetime sucks 5. Metal Hallide - doesnt make sense to me - I think it will go away in time 6. Incandescent - I love the stuff 7. LEDs - selective applications - but signage is major market for them.

My 80 year old Mom just emailed me and said she was going to go without a car on that day as well to show all of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren that we can all make the smallest steps to make a difference. She said she is going to walk 1.5 miles to Church in the morning and then back to her house. She said she is then going to walk to the local grocery store about 1 mile away and pick up a few things and make my father some lunch. She then she was going to take her little electric boat out on the lake and enjoy a bit of nature. My mom is really short, maybe 4'-11" but I appreciate her standing tall and showing her family that we all can make the smallest efforts to show they too can make a difference.

Axiom LED will be demonstrating to the world on Sept 22nd that it isnt that difficult to go Car Free and do your part in saving the environment. September 22nd is Car Free Day and we will be putting a documentary video showing how it can be done. http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/

I think "eventually LEDs will replace neon" - now that is hilarious - absolutely amusing. I am sure that people at GE, SloanLED, Agilight, YYZ, etc - I am sure we are hopind for the day "LED Science" can be at a place where it replaces neon. Pretty funny. How many LED signs has Dr. Nisa Khan installed? How many times has she stood on the side of freezing cold freeway and tried to convince the execs at Ford Motor Company that they do not want LEDs and that what "they are seeing" is not really what the science is telling them. Without advertising Eric - our product has had about a 30% degradation of light output and is still the part degrading the least. And - the power supplies have not failed like the neon transformers. So I am ending this conversation and wishing Nisa Khan the best of luck in bringing back neon - come on folks - is this really happening? Nichia just announced 135 LPW - and what is neon - 15 LPW? I think we should all go back to horse and buggy - Chubby Gumpy - can I borrow your horses??? Now if you want to bring in CCFL in the discussion - then lets talk about that - and maybe Garrett can chime in. I agree with Mark - $29.00 sounds like good price for her Webinar.

I just spoke with someone from UL who had worked with Jim for 28 years. They said that they hope everyone understands that UL may need a little support from its customers in understanding that it may take them a bit to have someone fill in Jim's shoes. We both agreed that Jim was the funniest and nicest man who always made everything so pleasant. I said that I am sure that people in the sign industry that knew Jim will be very patient as UL figures out what to do in his absence.

SCIENTIFIC webinar, not a PRODUCT PROMOTIONAL webinar. This Webinar would cut through all the marketing statements we see on a day to day basis and get a better understanding on LEDs And - a very smart PhD from a NY University recognized as "the leading expert" in LED technology told me 8 years ago "I have the scientific data to show that LEDs will never make it in signage" - I thought it was so funny. So yes Sean I would love to hear it - but science has to weight the trends of the day - at the time her counterpart from RPI told me what he said above LEDs were probably 2% of the market, current estimates are now closer to 80% for channel letters. Here is his contact info: http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/education/graduateEducation/facultydetails.asp?id=26 and his science has been proven wrong several times. And Sean I believe in Science more than most - and there are a lot of people on this message board that have been to very extensvie seminars I have put on that tap into the leading experts in the world to better understand the science. So Sean - I agree with having her do a webinar - I will definitely be there to learn what she has to say - but as Eric says there are a lot of these seminars given where you leave with nothing. And by the way - do you know where Gallium comes from?? One source is the inside of a coal power plant exhaust chute!!! So long live Mercury burning coal - its by product makes LED lighting!

Axiom has introduced an innovative wireless control technology which highlights our advanced experience in much more than LED lighting. The iGloLED kit is a color changing system that can be controlled wireless - go to our website and click on iGloLED Kit. www.AxiomLED.com

I think this is a great idea. Would be great if she addresses also the "its fashionable element" of people moving to LED lighting and sometimes not knowing what they are looking at. Also would be great if she could discuss implications of LED lighting on power generation companies versus power or line delivery companies. Would be great if she could also include a section on potential new laws across the USA to force recycling of fluorescent and how the recycling of fluorescent uses more power than the power they save.

Looks like Permlight figured out how to stay alive again - http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/08/3012636/permlight-products-inc-receives.html Phil Frey, their CEO, retired from working when I was in my late 20s - I use to work for him at Microsemi before he stepped down. Microsemi has done wonders since he left - grew like crazy. Phil must be in his late 80s now...keep on going!!! So I guess they did fire their last CEO Michael Keddington.

Nichia is still the best. And has the most extensive reliability data to prove their claims.... and still much more to come!!!

Pat, Jim's wife let me know today that the service will be on Friday Sept 17, 2010 @11:00am Lima Family Santa Clara 466 North Winchester Blvd Santa Clara, Ca. 95050 (408)296-2977 It is amazing to think back about all the great times I had with him - mostly had nothing to do with work - but more about just sharing about life. He was always made the most difficult things simple and easy to understand. My favorite story he ever told me was about building a swing set for grandkids! Chris Peng, one of the partners in Axiom LED, is not on this message board but was the one who developed the first UL LED Power Supply and worked with Jim extensively. He said it perhaps the best - "I had so much respect for him - he made everything so pleasant - but the stuff we were working on was not anything near pleasant." As Skip said at Bill Moore & Associates - he was a great listener and really "heard" what your problem was... and sometimes the best advice he gave was on how to work better with people. He always made me smile and laugh when I got off the phone with him and I always thought to myself - I want to be more like Jim. Even in the most difficult times he would turn the situation into a laughing matter.

If New Orleans had even a fraction of what this country has in its Government stepping in during a natural disaster - wow! The craziest part is no other country around the world has chimed into to say - "we will lend a hand to help" Photos http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/photogallery-christchurch-quake-3759986

I wanted to thank the many customers that immediately contacted us to make sure we were all ok. We are fine. Our factory is located in Auckland on the North Island which is about 10 hours away from Christchurch on the South Island that was hit by 7.2 earthquake. Has not and will not affect any Axiom LED business or supply chain. Over 100,000 buildings and homes have been damaged or destroyed. Several sign companies/customers were rattled hard but all are alive and ok. Government is quickly stepping in to start the recovery process - government here does not mess around with help when needed!

Wow. I had called him at home several times and his wife emailed me back asking me to keep trying to talk to him. He had gone through a very tough surgery recently and afterwards received some rather bad news. Dane Cardone of Sign Methods, Stephanie my wife, and I had lunch with Jim a few days before his surgery. This makes me really sad - he was a mentor to me and was a great contributor to safety in the USA. Most of you may have met Jim Richards at our ISA Party in Las Vegas - he was the one who stayed the entire time and was always wanting to teach people about safety...with a joke hear and there. He was also part of a special group that including execs from Blair Companies, Pride Signs, and ex- Image Point guys who learned all about snakes first hand from Snake Babe. I spent time on vacation with Jim and his wife Pat in Hawaii drinking too much and telling way too many jokes, on a cruise to Mexico educating sign companies from around the world and dancing into the early hours of the morning with a bunch of people including Dan Doxsee of Nichia, on a weekend on Catalina Island introducing sign companies to LED technology, and travelling around the world to educate people on LED safety -- his knowledge is even being used down in New Zealand to craft new standards - and I even introduced him to the California lawmakers who wrote Title 24 and he showed them how to write laws incorporating LEDs In additional to all of his smarts he was a great father - he is actually part of the reason I am now living in New Zealand...he told me about visiting his daughter who lived in Tasmania (south of Australia) who was studying Tasmanian devils and encouraged me and paved the way for moving our company to New Zealand. I will miss Jim a lot - he always made me laugh and learn. Just got a call from his son-in-law - Life is so fragile and goes so fast.

Who? Me? Have a good day Gary - yes it is a problem with both MOSFETs and ICs that they are using. But please note Sloan will not allow you to use anyone elses power supplies with their product - so this does represent a problem for them. Whereas Axiom and I believe YYZ allow people to use any UL Recognized power supply with our products. Not true, but also not out for publication - they will allow it. gn I have heard the same thing - and is why we reduced our pricing on our 120 Watt Power Supply - making it easier for people in tough delivery situations http://store.axiomled.com/PS120HD12_120_Watt_LED_Power_Supply_p/ps120hd12.htm

Who? Me? Have a good day Gary - yes it is a problem with both MOSFETs and ICs that they are using. But please note Sloan will not allow you to use anyone elses power supplies with their product - so this does represent a problem for them. Whereas Axiom and I believe YYZ allow people to use any UL Recognized power supply with our products.