manuellynch

Ok - so there are delays on certain types of components that Sloan and other LED companies use. Actually very true. We however are not affected by these issues at all because we opted not to use these components in our product designs. So if you are having problems getting parts you can always pay less, get higher performance, and purchase from Axiom LED.

explains why we are receiving so many orders... We are not seeing and delays as Marko says - relationship and planning does the job. Keep in mind Sloan builds in China. Axiom and YYZ do not. We had some delays earlier this summer in our power supplies but that is long gone now - and besides you can use any 12VDC power supply with our product.

Dog house was made out of Alucobond - will send photos - dogs travel in high tech style!!!

ROI of under 18 months is being appreciated in states that have power cost of greater than $0.14 kilowatt hour energy rates - so California, Alaska, Hawaii...

Axiom's AoTuroaLED USA division of interior lighting has announced its "Good Karma" program which is a reduction in unit pricing for its 2 ft by 4 ft 5000 Kelvin LED retrofit kits for fluorescent lighting T-Bar ceiling fixtures. The AoTuroaLED system consumes only 48 Watts compared to greater than 160 Watts for T12 lighting and over 100 Watts for comparable T8 light output. The company has reduced its low volume unit price on its most popular fixture by 25% from $200 to $150. In volume purchase above 500 pcs the company has reduced its pricing to $115.00. The LED kit is a drop in replacement for fluorescent fixtures fitted with T12 or T8 fluorescent tubes and consumes only 48 Watts. 'As our volumes for our LED retrofit kits continue to increase globally we have further optimized our sustainable production line and have managed to increase productivity and reduce pricing even further,' commented Manuel Lynch, Founder of AoTuroaLED. 'By setting our pricing at these levels we can help companies use a system that uses a patented and proven white LED technology from Nichia of Japan and appreciate a return on investment payback in as fast as 18 months!' The AoTuroaLED kit has been tested in compliance with USA Department of Energy testing LM79 requirements and optical performance reports are availabe on the www.AoTuroaLED.com website. The company also announced that the LEDs used on the retrofit kit also pass USA Department of Energy Lifetime LM80 accelerated lifetime testing that focuses on performance over time in extreme conditions (above 100 Celsius) - this report is also available on the company website. See: http://store.aoturoaled.com/AKIT1_p/ledkit50-2x4.htm Contact Information: Manuel Lynch, AoTuroaLED (702)425-4381

Thank you for sharing Marko - you are one respectable young man.

I was VP of Business Development at Microsemi (NASDAQ: MSCC) and was involved with developing new markets for semiconductors we made. I had developed a way to introduce a web based catalog of our 25,000+products in 1995. We were a little ahead of our time. During that time we were working on devices for implantable heart pacemakers, new systems for military electronics, electronics for mobile phone battery chargers, parts for welding equipment, components for wireless networking (early days), and CCFL lighting controls for notebooks and laptop computers. We owned a patented packaging technology that Motorola was using on the StarTac mobile phone - they licensed the technology from us. I came up with a crazy idea to compliment our efforts in CCFL lighting by working with CREE LED to package their little LED chips in our patented package. We were making great progress. And then 9/11 hit - we were the largest military electronic semiconducto company in the world - our stock on Wall Street soared. CREE was very interested in buying our company which at that time was bigger than they were! The CEO of CREE and the CEO of Emcore another company we worked with on Space Satellite applications called me up one day and asked me to meet with this guy they knew - a company called Gelcore. So I met with Michael Petras the CEO of Gelcore - he flew out to visit me. They were a small startup that came from GE and was partly owned by Emcore. We had dinner and he told me he was interested in what we were doing in the area of LED lighting. He said he was in Southern California to look at purchasing a company in the LED arena. He showed me their first prototype - he called it "Tetra" - he said they would introduce this thing on the market going after SIGNS....I had no clue what he was talking about - it just looked RED and wirey! Shortly after my meeting with him I opened up Nasdaq in NY and our company was getting a ton of attention - we were getting too big too fast. I decided to cash out a bunch of my stock in Microsemi and i made my $$$ millions and decided to move on. I went to go work for our largest investor - a very wealthy man who had just finished is divorce with his wife which was the largest recorded court settled divorce in New York history - over $100 million. Most divorce cases of this size settle out of court. He was dumb and decided to fight it in court. So he asked me to find places he could "invest" his money to "hide it" from his wife, etc. Whatever! So I started looking at technology startup companies...and then one day one of my ex-employees at Microsemi called me and said - "Manuel you have to go see this little company in Southern California - they are so badly run and they need your help." So I asked who they were and he said "do you remember when GELCORE came to see us, well they were trying to buy a company called PERMLIGHT." And so I want to visit Permlight and the CEO asked me if I wanted to be their CEO....and that my friends is how I got into the sign industry. And some other points - when I joined this badly run Permlight it was time to get rid of some of the employees who were not really working - one left and went to become president of Sign Resources in California and another one went to work for a company in Riverside CA - Marko from YYZ does business with them. So from developing components helping people with heart problems to having lunch with the CEO of a small startup that became GE LED lighting - my odd path to the world of signs. Oh - and I am a graphic designer and have been since I was 12 when I programmed my Apple IIe to draw pictures.

In my opinion things have gotten to be so bipartisan the point of the conversation above seems to argue and not necessarily to solve the problem. He is not a true socialist - not at all. Having lived around the world there are much more socialist societies and things are very very different than the USA - both positive and negative. What is dissapointing to me is that the innovative, inventive, and creative spirit that was the USA seems to be on hold for now. Let us all remember the days when we were showing the world how to do things and making us the envy of every corner of the planet. My father was head of design for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft for 40 years and he designed most of the wings on planes we all fly - now most of that has moved to other countries. In Detroit - we lead the world in cars - now we are just trying to stay afloat...wait till you see the next wave of imports into the USA... a $600 car! And I dont care what anyone believes or thinks politically - Obama, Bush, Clinton... can you imagine running a country??? Tough job and whoever does it must be given some respect for trying to fix things. If they dont, well then we vote them out of office. And if we vote someone into office and they are stupid - who is the dumb one in that case? It is easy to point fingers - harder to go out there and make a change...but a lot more fulfilling! But that is just my opinion - and I dont vote anymore - cannot complain if I dont vote!

In New Zealand it is a law that you cannot dispose of glass without protecting or doing it "properly". See this story http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10639073 Do you have any laws like this in your corner of the world? Throwing away fluorescent tubes could be an issue here - not because of Mercury but because of glass cuts!

And when is the last time a VHS tape and Betamax tape was put into your machine to watch a movie?? Times change, things move forward - but we are absolute fools not to remember the past and to be reminded of its beauty, what it taught us, what we should learn from it, and how we should move forward. Neon will not die - they should write more about it - in fact...much more. Sign industry is an artform - dont forget to show off the artists!!! CCFL - well I think the technology just kicks ass - but I may be way too biased. And LED - they are great for some things - not all. I didnt through away all my vinyl albums until I had both a tape back up of all of it and a Audio CD of it - I backed it up on two different mediums and was started on digital to computer before I even thought about moving on. BUT - lets not forget - magazines make money on advertisements and on the fact that we are bickering about what they didnt write - do you know how many people are now going to look at the magazine??? They did exactly what you wanted!!! If you dont like it... dont give it more attention!!! I agree with Erik - focus on what you want to see more of in publications - we are the readers who are looking at the advertisements!!!

Erik - this is the type of test results that people are wanting to see for LED retrofit kits of T-Bar replacement fixtures - designers, architects, etc like to have this type of spatial testing results to measure foot candle levels on various surfaces in a room, hallway, or auditorium. So - when you do your test I suggest mounting the fixture center in the room and provide a map of measurements that covers directly under the fixture - a few feet to the right, a few feet to the left, a few feet forward, backwards, on the left wall at the floor, on the left wall at 30" (table height) , on the left wall at 5 ft (art height), on the left wall at 8.6 ft (ceiling height)...etc...I think you probably get what I mean. The reason I would suggest doing this is precisely why a lot of the LED Tubes out there are doing horribly in installed applications - they use narrow beam angle LEDs instead of wide angle LEDs so they change the "optics" of a fluorescent fixture. I spoke with a "lighting expert" in Plimmerton New Zealand yesterday who has worked around the world (Canada, USA, Europe, New Zealand) and he said that fluorescent lighting usually captures 64% of the total light output in a ceiling fixture... it doesnt mean that someone should use 60 degree viewing angle LEDs! Anyway - you will see what I mean - here is a Department of Energy "approved" report http://www.aoturoaled.com/docs/aoturoaLEDsw50.pdf And here are the type of photos people want to see http://aoturoaled.shutterfly.com/pictures

I will arrange for Dane Cardone, CEO of our AoTuroaLED USA group, send you a sample of our 5000 Kelvin 24x48 LED Retrofit kit. You should make sure to get a bunch of really bad LED tubes from the host of Chinese imports - they color shift so fast and light quality is horrible. We had a Dept of Energy approved LM79 test done on our systems - they meet and exceed typical fluorescent. On the North Carolina Company - it is CREE LED - their fixtures cost about $350.00 each in high volume - they are 2ftx2ft. Our product is less than $200 in low volume and has same or higher output. Sorry for delay in answering - this is a standard product we offer - we will be introducing 2 new versions later this year that are 1) even lower cost ~ $125, and 2) lower cost ~$100 and brighter ~20%. Eric - I have sent a discount coupon code to you that you can use to logon on our online store and purchase the kit free of charge. Email on its way.

Has anybody had any experience working with this type of medium for prints? Was wondering how it does in outdoor applications. Stuff looks amazing and appears to be rather durable.

Interested to see if this affects anyone in Canada... FROM UL ENVIRONMENT Within the last week, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) released a notice clarifying the the proposal for energy efficiency regulations regarding external power supplies and standby power for compact audio, televisions and video products. The regulation currently states that products manufactured before July 1, 2010 are exempt while products manufactured after July 1, 2010 are subject to the new regulations. The regulations require that a product: Meet the minimum performance requirement, and That they bear a mark from an accredited certification body, and That they submit a report to NRCan of the energy performance of the product For products manufactured after July 1, 2010 and already in Canada at the time that the regulations are live, the product only has to meet requirements (1) and (2) above IF it crosses provincial borders for the purpose of sale or lease; products that are already in the country at the date the regulations go live will NOT be required to comply with requirement (3). These regulations are currently in public comment. The date that NRCan publishes (or registers) the regulation will be the date after which these changes will be enforced. UL is one of 5 certification bodies accredited by the SCC test these products, issue test reports, and provide an approved Energy Efficiency Verification Mark to help manufacturers meet these new requirements. For more information about our programs, please visit www.ulenvironment.com

From experience - do not use LEDs in high sulfur areas - so dont use LED lighting next to volcanoes! haha In Roturoa New Zealand where there is a lot of volcanic activity and high sulphur levels we recommend not to use LEDs...they fail very quickly in this environment.

This is a great article that shows how the USA Trade Commission may play a part in shutting down patent infringing product http://www.ledsmagazine.com/features/7/7/5 My engineers are involved in a New Zealand government lock down on Chinese patent infringing LED TVs coming into the country. The issue is that the Chinese companies change their names constantly - doesnt cost much to change your UL file to a different name to bypass customs. Funny story - received a call from US Customs a long time ago asking me what "Lead boards" we were importing and why - "lead is hazardous!!!" I told the Customs officer whose english was pretty poor that the products were L E D Boards and not L E A D boards..."oh, my mistake" he said!!!

The company that has held the record for the largest cookie ever made has used Axiom's AXLE7 products for more than lighting signage http://www.aoturoaled.co.nz/docs/cookietime.htm

Somebody else just suggested that Bill Hamm was let go too - is that true?

No, they are a private company. Several people I know called the front desk at Permlight and asked the question but did not get a response back. Kind of like JT LED and N Glantz on possible legal issues with Nichia - seems odd that no one can ever answer questions straightforwardly. Seems like we all should learn something from animals - if one dog doesnt like another dog - it lets it know right away. If a horse does not want to do something it lets you know right away. If a cat is scared of you it is going to make sure you know it rather quickly. Wish we all could be more straightforward. I hope Permlight does ok - my brother and my nephew work there and I want my family to do well. I spoke with Michael Keddington, the ex-CEO (???) of Permlight a couple of weeks ago and had a great talk - he made it sound like he was going to get an outside investor but I warned him that his board of directors probably would not allow that because they didnt want the company to grow too much.

Heard from a couple of people that Permlight CEO Michael Keddington was fired because the company was "not meeting its numbers" Any truth to this or is this just a rumor? My brother (at Permlight) and I do not talk business so I was wondering if anyone could comment.

Dont even get me started. GE, CREE and others have done a great job on the political front with the Dept of Energy to get them to endorse their products - and I like Erik agree - some of what they recommend is just not "practical". It might be very special and fancy that they finally developed an LED light bulb but give us a break - incadescent has worked fine for well over a hundred years. My major issues is these ridiculous energy rebate programs that power companies are offering - the rebates are typically only for "politically placed" LED systems that have gotten the proverbial "blessing" from the Dept of Energy. Hell - they are even telling power companies not to offer rebates for LED replacement fluorescent tubes from China ...and while I think the performance of these LED tube products is less than to be desired - if someone is ok with the performance and color and is saving energy - isnt that what an Energy Rebate is about??? Is the government truly going to dictate which manufacturers LED bulbs we can and cannot use??? This is a bit ludicrous. In New Zealand they are implementing an Energy Trading Scheme or ETS next week - basically it says that everyone is gradually going to have to pay a higher tax for energy so the country can offset its carbon emission. I spoke with the Energy Trading Scheme director in New Zealand and he said simply "I am encouraging people to use less power - how they do it is up to them - their is no rebate for what they do - their rebate is saving money on their power bills by using less." I thought - wow - simple, straightforward, effective. I asked - "is the government recommending options to people?" - simply he said "yes, they know what they have to do to reduce power and the recommendations are reduce your power or pay more."...again - wow, simple and effective. So back to the GE LED night light that will last 50 years....hopefully your children that are using the light move out when they are 18....and I am not sure about most of you - but do you take your light bulbs with you when you move to a new home??? And I think the national average is that people have been moving homes every 7 years.

Wanted to let everyone know about a pretty fradulent company in Lake Havasu that is using stolen credit cards and placing orders for all kinds of items. We got screwed - lesson learned. Seems like Signtech in Lake Havasu goes by lots of different names and identities Steve Chrz Steve Chrzanowski signcraft@hotmail.com also uses timmyeising@ymail.com 1617 industrial Lake Havasu, AZ Also goes by Ellis Handel They also place orders as Wayne Hendrix (using some retired guys credit card) and has items shipped to a friend in Tennessee that uses this address Persons name is R Reese 4546 kedron springhill, TN 37174 United States 931-626-1093 It appears the Eastern Europeans strike again in a nice fradulent manner. Pretty pathetic. But - thanks to advanced IT technology we have the physical IP address and the location in Lake Havasu where they are operating and how they are ripping off companies like Apple Computer, Northern Tool, etc. Seems stupid - jail time is not that fun.

thanks for the lead Marko - exactly what I needed. I would like to know what type of UV inhibiting glass people would use with these to protect against fading and lenticular lens warping? Any ideas from anyone? These prints fade in under 30 days when exposed to sunlight/UV.

Does anybody have a good source for lenticular motion prints? And - are these always white backing or can these be back illuminated?

Well I guess things do just take a bit longer to happen than I predict, but they always do. Anyone comment on how China currency change will affect you? Cheap knock off Chinese made LEDs won't be so cheap down the road. Guess moving our factory to New Zealand was smart!