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Group Buy: Budget CRI 95 LED Strip Lights

Hi guys, looking for slip on and click closed style short 6" wired connectors for the single color 10mm 12v ribbons to easily make strip configuration changes without having to solder and desolder but the ones I have found so far all have the two pins positioned wider than the copper terminal areas so don't make a clean contact. Any ideas?

Chris
 
I havent been getting the posts on this, somehow lost my sub.

Whats up folks?

It will be 3 years soon.

I paid up front for two controllers and still no word.
 
I'm still waiting on the ETA for rest of the batch (900 units). I got hit with a bunch of unexpected costs to finish the controllers off. Extra certications, charges for extra samples/development, much larger than expected shipping charges, etc. All told approaching 5 figures. That's the reason for the delay. The controllers are done and I have a plan to get the costs down as much as possible. I'll be out of town until Tuesday night. I should have an update then and possibly even tomorrow.
 
Hi Brandon,

Can I have a refund for the controller and if possible for the spool I've ordred? I know that it's allready 3 years that you have them but I thought the controller would have shipped little time after it was proposed. For me the controller and the spool where a coherent package. I don't need the spool without controller. I'm now on other solutions.

Thanks

Pat
 
Brandon,
I don't see the correlation between the frequency of my visits to this site and the delivery of the product you promised. You had my email when you took my money. Its not a secret, or hard to find, nick@nickadamsphotography.com. I have searched all my email inboxes too and I have no recent emails from you, not for a couple of years. I have read maybe half of the pages of this thread but TBH I have better things to do. Carey Coffey was the one that put me onto this group buy, so that's why I got involved. I know you have had some health issues. For the record, I am a cancer survivor. Over 5 years of treatment, I did not miss one gig while I was being treated. I had chemotherapy surgery twice. Nor did I tell anyone about it. I am done with this. I will not be pursuing this further. I will to give you the benefit of the doubt, that there has been a calamity of ill fortune in your life. If that is the case. I will happily donate my money........ im out, I wish you all the best.
 
Nick, I sent you an email on January 9th at 11:58pm EET and then another on August 14th at 10:51pm EET. I never got a response to either email. I'll PM you my email address.
 
After 3 years my needs and focus has changed, so I would be happy for a refund or have someone step in and take over my order. Details are posted below.

KoraLED Solaris Ctrl+ Universal LED Controller CTRL_PLUS $127.92 3 $383.76
Variable Connector Kit VCKIT $9.00 2 $18.00
Fixed Connector Kit FCKIT $9.00 2 $18.00
KoraLED Strips - Variable - High CRI, High Output Light Strips V-120-G1 $79.00 2 $158.00
KoraLED Strips - Daylight - High CRI, High Output Light Strips D-120-G2 $79.00 2 $158.00
KoraLED Strips - Tungsten - High CRI, High Output Light Strips T-120-G2 $79.00 2 $158.00
Subtotal $893.76
Shipping (Shipping TBD) $0.00
Total $893.76
 
I will post a full update later today (Friday).
 
I think it’s time to remind some of you how this Group Buy started. This was never a for-profit venture for me. There were no profit margins to absorb the costs I incur with exchanges, refunds, and people not paying for shipping. I was simply looking for high-quality and affordable LED strip lights to use on my film, found a factory that would make them to my spec, and wanted to hook you guys up. I thought maybe we would get an order together for a few hundred rolls or so. It ended up being thousands, and those lights started shipping around a month and a half after the Group Buy ended.

The controllers were something you guys asked me to look in to, so I did. The first option I found was with a company agreeing to modify an existing product to make it suitable for film/video use. At best it would only be able to handle less than a roll of light, but it was at least something. Everyone seemed to agree, so I sent the company $1,000 to get things going and then started pre-orders for them. After some tests, the company came back to me saying they can’t make it work to the original spec. They couldn’t even guarantee it would work with half a roll of light. So, I canceled the order and asked they return my $1,000, which they politely said they couldn't send back.

At this point, I decided to see if I could find an OEM manufacturer that could make a custom controller for us. The MOQ is huge, but we seemed to have the numbers. The spec we decided on in the forum was, perhaps, overly ambitious. The original plan was for a 980-watt all-in-one LED controller that could handle both single color and variable (bi/hybrid) color LEDs and had full RF and WiFi wireless functionality all for less than the price of a RED monitor cable. During development I added RGB, RGBW, and RGBA support, making it a universal controller that works with everything. Everyone agreed they wanted to upgrade to the new controller. None of us could have guessed how long it would take to get it done.

I signed the contract, sent over the first, five-figure, payment and we got started. And then the problems began. If everyone did a straight upgrade, we would have hit our numbers fine, but most people didn’t do this. Originally there were two types of controllers. One for single color strips and one for variable. Since the new controller can handle either type of strip, most people cut their order in half. Some even went 3:1. By the time the next payment was due, we didn’t have the numbers anymore. The solution I found was to take an $18,000 loan from PayPal, which I did to keep us going. PayPal offers loans like this based on the volume of sales going through your account. At that point, I was closing in on being $20,000 in the red.

Another issue has been that, up to this point, I needed to pre-pay everyone’s shipping charges and then send a money request to the recipient. I have not had any efficient way to calculate shipping before sending the products out. Most have been great about paying right away, but enough people haven’t that I’ve lost around $1,000 so far. I also had to pay to warehouse the lights and other group buy accessories while we waited on controllers. In hindsight, I should have insisted on sending the lights and accessories out immediately and without changes. That’s been my biggest regret with all of this.

Earlier this year I began to try to turn all this into a side business with the hope that once the Group Buy is over, I’ll be able to recoup the money I’ve spent out of pocket and make the thousands of hours I’ve put into this worth it. I’ve learned a hell of a lot about LED technology during all this as well as how to deal with manufacturers, and optimize all the logistics involved. It would also be great if this could be a way to help get me back on my feet financially since I sold most of my gear, including my Dragon camera package, to cover the costs of my recovery the last year.

Now, why have the controllers taken so long? The delays were two-front. On the one hand, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I was absolutely insistent that we meet our original spec. I did not want to give up and settle for an inferior product. We had to start over numerous times before we finally got it right. It took a long time, but the final controller is rock solid and exceeds the original spec. The other thing that really has slowed things down, as many of you know, is I got extremely sick. I was quickly losing my vision, and it got so bad I could barely walk or even get out of bed some days. I remember clearly trying to respond to your emails and posts here when I was barely able to even see my computer screen due to optic neuritis. I was diagnosed with very aggressive multiple sclerosis and about half-a-dozen other autoimmune diseases. The stress from this Group Buy no doubt made my health even worse. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire. There is a happy ending though.

This forum was instrumental in me being able to receive an experimental stem cell transplant (HSCT) that has largely restored my health. Many of you were very generous in donating towards my treatment, which, since it was experimental, had to be paid in cash. I just had my 1-year follow-up, and all disease activity has been stopped and most importantly, I feel like a whole new person!

Now my full focus is on finishing off this group buy. Here’s where we are…

The controllers are done. I received the first 100 units a couple of months ago, and they have been shipped out to people. The 900 remaining controllers are ready to be shipped pending the final payment from me. And this is the cause of the delay. I was hit some unexpected expenses for extra samples during development, most of which I sent to beta testers who were in the group buy, extra shipping charges, extra certification charges, etc. In total more than $16,000. I was about to make the payment several weeks ago, putting myself further in the red when I got hit with several brutal refunds, totaling thousands. That’s why you don’t have your controllers already. To get the money together for this last payment I’m selling off whatever gear I have left and may end up borrowing the rest, if necessary.

Right now, I’m neck deep in organizing the logistics for shipping all this stuff, integrating the website with the fulfillment warehouse (manually), making the documentation to meet various government requirements, and making tutorials for you guys. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on the phone, and even more online, talking people through how to get things set up for their specific needs. I don’t mind doing it, in fact, I enjoy it, it’s just that it’s very time-consuming. Once the tutorials are ready, that should relieve some of that burden.

I understand your frustration with the delays, especially if you rarely visit the forum and aren’t in the Facebook group. There is a light at the end of the tunnel fast approaching. I fully expect controllers will be going out en masse this month and it could be in as soon as two weeks. Once everything is shipping, if you decide you want out, I will do my best to help you find someone to take over your order.

I really think you guys are going to love the lights and controllers. They have been used on numerous features already, many that are already out and several more that are on the way. The feedback has been great.

There's nothing that I can do about the time that has passed, but your orders will all be shipping very soon.
 
I think we are all familiar with what's happened and everyone understands and sympathizes with your hardships. However what I think is frustrating is that you can look back and see many many promises of things shipping soon. I came into this more than a year ago and it seemed just about ready to ship. I imagine you project confidence naturally as a director and producer but in this scenario youve not delivered on your promises and people are losing confidence which is leading to returns. If you were a bit more up front people might not be quite so let down because they would have realistic expectations. Take your current scenario - you need to raise $16000. Unless you are sitting on a grip truck full of gear to sell you don't have a viable plan that can be achieved in under 2 weeks. You would have to sell whatever you have and get your loan approved and send the payment and then have it shipped here from China. That's very optimistic. Why promise what's nearly impossible? Why not instead lay the cards out and ask the community for help. Right now we all have a problem that needs to be solved. If you walk away from this a lot of us lose money so we are invested in your success. For instance if I had a solid timeline I would pitch in for some mats some power supplies and some controllers to help you towards that money. But as of right now it seems like it would be throwing good money after bad. To regain trust you have to set realistic goals and then you must meet them. This community has rallied behind you and will continue to do so with a little more transparency and some solid deliveries. Perhaps you could take on an investor to help you get the product out there. We all believe in the product although there are many competitive options now. Either way, let us help you rather than always giving the impression that we are almost there.
 
I think the bulk order was for 1000 units in concern to the controllers?

how many did he sell?

500 units is half the gross product multiplied by $250 would be $125000.00
 
Brandon J.F. said:
I think it’s time to remind some of you how this Group Buy started. This was never a for-profit venture for me. There were no profit margins to absorb the costs I incur with exchanges, refunds, and people not paying for shipping. I was simply looking for high-quality and affordable LED strip lights to use on my film, found a factory that would make them to my spec, and wanted to hook you guys up. I thought maybe we would get an order together for a few hundred rolls or so. It ended up being thousands, and those lights started shipping around a month and a half after the Group Buy ended.

The controllers were something you guys asked me to look in to, so I did. The first option I found was with a company agreeing to modify an existing product to make it suitable for film/video use. At best it would only be able to handle less than a roll of light, but it was at least something. Everyone seemed to agree, so I sent the company $1,000 to get things going and then started pre-orders for them. After some tests, the company came back to me saying they can’t make it work to the original spec. They couldn’t even guarantee it would work with half a roll of light. So, I canceled the order and asked they return my $1,000, which they politely said they couldn't send back.

At this point, I decided to see if I could find an OEM manufacturer that could make a custom controller for us. The MOQ is huge, but we seemed to have the numbers. The spec we decided on in the forum was, perhaps, overly ambitious. The original plan was for a 980-watt all-in-one LED controller that could handle both single color and variable (bi/hybrid) color LEDs and had full RF and WiFi wireless functionality all for less than the price of a RED monitor cable. During development I added RGB, RGBW, and RGBA support, making it a universal controller that works with everything. Everyone agreed they wanted to upgrade to the new controller. None of us could have guessed how long it would take to get it done.

I signed the contract, sent over the first, five-figure, payment and we got started. And then the problems began. If everyone did a straight upgrade, we would have hit our numbers fine, but most people didn’t do this. Originally there were two types of controllers. One for single color strips and one for variable. Since the new controller can handle either type of strip, most people cut their order in half. Some even went 3:1. By the time the next payment was due, we didn’t have the numbers anymore. The solution I found was to take an $18,000 loan from PayPal, which I did to keep us going. PayPal offers loans like this based on the volume of sales going through your account. At that point, I was closing in on being $20,000 in the red.

Another issue has been that, up to this point, I needed to pre-pay everyone’s shipping charges and then send a money request to the recipient. I have not had any efficient way to calculate shipping before sending the products out. Most have been great about paying right away, but enough people haven’t that I’ve lost around $1,000 so far. I also had to pay to warehouse the lights and other group buy accessories while we waited on controllers. In hindsight, I should have insisted on sending the lights and accessories out immediately and without changes. That’s been my biggest regret with all of this.

Earlier this year I began to try to turn all this into a side business with the hope that once the Group Buy is over, I’ll be able to recoup the money I’ve spent out of pocket and make the thousands of hours I’ve put into this worth it. I’ve learned a hell of a lot about LED technology during all this as well as how to deal with manufacturers, and optimize all the logistics involved. It would also be great if this could be a way to help get me back on my feet financially since I sold most of my gear, including my Dragon camera package, to cover the costs of my recovery the last year.

Now, why have the controllers taken so long? The delays were two-front. On the one hand, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I was absolutely insistent that we meet our original spec. I did not want to give up and settle for an inferior product. We had to start over numerous times before we finally got it right. It took a long time, but the final controller is rock solid and exceeds the original spec. The other thing that really has slowed things down, as many of you know, is I got extremely sick. I was quickly losing my vision, and it got so bad I could barely walk or even get out of bed some days. I remember clearly trying to respond to your emails and posts here when I was barely able to even see my computer screen due to optic neuritis. I was diagnosed with very aggressive multiple sclerosis and about half-a-dozen other autoimmune diseases. The stress from this Group Buy no doubt made my health even worse. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire. There is a happy ending though.

This forum was instrumental in me being able to receive an experimental stem cell transplant (HSCT) that has largely restored my health. Many of you were very generous in donating towards my treatment, which, since it was experimental, had to be paid in cash. I just had my 1-year follow-up, and all disease activity has been stopped and most importantly, I feel like a whole new person!

Now my full focus is on finishing off this group buy. Here’s where we are…

The controllers are done. I received the first 100 units a couple of months ago, and they have been shipped out to people. The 900 remaining controllers are ready to be shipped pending the final payment from me. And this is the cause of the delay. I was hit some unexpected expenses for extra samples during development, most of which I sent to beta testers who were in the group buy, extra shipping charges, extra certification charges, etc. In total more than $16,000. I was about to make the payment several weeks ago, putting myself further in the red when I got hit with several brutal refunds, totaling thousands. That’s why you don’t have your controllers already. To get the money together for this last payment I’m selling off whatever gear I have left and may end up borrowing the rest, if necessary.

Right now, I’m neck deep in organizing the logistics for shipping all this stuff, integrating the website with the fulfillment warehouse (manually), making the documentation to meet various government requirements, and making tutorials for you guys. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on the phone, and even more online, talking people through how to get things set up for their specific needs. I don’t mind doing it, in fact, I enjoy it, it’s just that it’s very time-consuming. Once the tutorials are ready, that should relieve some of that burden.

I understand your frustration with the delays, especially if you rarely visit the forum and aren’t in the Facebook group. There is a light at the end of the tunnel fast approaching. I fully expect controllers will be going out en masse this month and it could be in as soon as two weeks. Once everything is shipping, if you decide you want out, I will do my best to help you find someone to take over your order.

I really think you guys are going to love the lights and controllers. They have been used on numerous features already, many that are already out and several more that are on the way. The feedback has been great.

There's nothing that I can do about the time that has passed, but your orders will all be shipping very soon.
Click to expand...

Hello Brandon, how do we proceed for the refund?
Thanks

Patrick
 
Brandon - I have found other lighting solutions. I'd like a refund or happy to have you match me up w/a buyer. Thanks
 
This is a frame from a interview with Bret Baier (Fox News) for the Brain Tumor Foundation lit with the original LEDs from this group buy, I'm addicted to these things..
 
The final payment for the controllers has been sent. They will be ready to start shipping on Wednesday of next week.
 
Very exciting Brandon! Congrats for a multitude of reasons. I can’t wait for these wizards to get into my hands.
 
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