MirkoBoeddecker
...or did the ship take the Suez Canal after all?
Given how long it took, we’re guessing it went round Cape Horn and took other detours, but at long last our ADOLIGHTS have finally arrived.
All outstanding orders for 3x sets, kits and individual spiral lamps will be dispatched from tomorrow.
The lamps are now better packaged – that was one reason for the delay.
We first had to have a tool made to shape the polystyrene parts.
Initial drop tests from a height of 2.50 metres (our ceilings aren’t any higher) have shown that the ADOLIGHTS have survived in their new boxes.
This should mean that transport damage is finally a thing of the past.
Best regards,
Mirko
Stagirit
How long do the lamps take to warm up?
Can they also be used with an electronic ballast to achieve a higher frequency?
(Because 50Hz still flickers quite a bit)
MirkoBoeddecker
The warm-up time depends – who would have thought – on the ambient temperature.
When the bulbs are just warm to the touch, they reach around 5000K, but their intensity increases slightly until they are warm enough that you can just about touch them.
This is usually the case after about 10 minutes of operation.
They then reach full power.
They emit around 5200K at the start and then drop to 5000K.
I wouldn’t mess with the frequency – that would definitely cause the warranty to expire and the CE approval to be revoked.
However, I ‘suspect’ that they’re compatible because you can also run them with a step-down transformer in the US. I haven’t noticed any flickering at either 50Hz or 60Hz, though.
Regards,
Mirko
Richard
Hello!
I’ve no real idea what these ‘miracle lamps’ are, but at a glance I’d say there’s a fluorescent lamp inside. A fluorescent tube, however, needs a ballast, which is either fitted separately or, as with the Adox lamp and energy-saving bulbs of a similar design, integrated into the lamp base (otherwise there’d have to be another one in front of it). :rolleyes: I’d be very surprised if there were a conventional ballast – i.e. a choke coil, interference suppression capacitor, starter lamp and bimetallic switch – inside, which would cause the typical ‘neon tube flicker’. So there’s an electronic ballast in there, and the question of a higher operating frequency is irrelevant. Based on the description of what an ECG does, I wouldn’t try connecting two of them in series either –
see Wikipedia’s entry on ECGs.
Best regards
Richard
MirkoBoeddecker
Hello Richard,
They aren’t magic bulbs.
We have a factory that produces standard energy-saving bulbs manufacture small batches filled with a different phosphor, which emits 5000K.
Conventional fluorescent bulbs emit different colour temperatures depending on whether they are warm light, cool light or daylight-like, but unfortunately never the required 5000K photographic daylight.
A conventional daylight lamp used in plant cultivation, for example, has a colour temperature of around 6400K.
However, cameras and film are not designed for this.
This is also what makes the lamps relatively more expensive.
The small batches and the complete reorganisation of production at the factory each time.
Best regards,
Mirko
Gast
Hi Mirko,
You’ve just said they’re not miracle bulbs, and the word ‘expensive’ seems to have come straight from your keyboard :rolleyes: If I compare them to branded bulbs from well-known electronics manufacturers, your small-batch bulbs actually offer quite good value for money. Compared to the “full-spectrum bulbs” from the retailer in Hirschau, your bulbs are a real bargain...
Although all comparisons still fall short – the 5000K/1600lm option is only available from you.
So, hats off to you!
Richard
Gast
Richard,
They are certainly cheap (in at least one respect); whether they are good value remains to be seen.
The bulbs sold by the ‘electronics manufacturers’ don’t come from China, as can be deduced from the shipping route.
This may well affect the quality, as is clearly evident from the shoddy Lucky products.
Whether we should support our economic decline by consistently buying Chinese products is another question.
Hans
Goetz
Where is this lamp manufactured???
But various other suppliers also manufacture in China. I know that Megaman, Ikea, and a few others are said to have their products made there.
The quality varies. Megaman, for example, is relatively expensive but of high quality. I’m also interested in the Fotola. I’ll probably have to order one so I can judge it for myself.
In any case, power consumption is important, as is compliance with the specified values.
The 5000 Kelvin in the Dialeuchtpult is from Phillips, but it says ‘made in...’ on it. So it’s from Asia too.
It would be interesting to know what kind of fluorescent tube was used – two, three or five tubes??
Regards, Goetz
MirkoBoeddecker
Hans,
Sorry, but I have to disagree with that.
Our ‘economic decline’ – if one wishes to paint such a picture – is not linked to China’s economic rise.
Quite the opposite, in fact – we should actually be benefiting from it, supplying them with top-quality goods and, in return, receiving plenty of affordable mass-produced goods (as a first step).
We also owe a large part of our standard of living to this income structure.
This country is ailing in every nook and cranny due to its own shortcomings and its regulatory frenzy – but certainly not because of global trade. It was world trade that once made us great, when our products were even more competitive. If Germany hadn’t exported so successfully over many years (or if other markets hadn’t opened up to our products), much of our current prosperity – including in the social sphere – would be unthinkable.
It is not closing off markets that will get Germany back on its feet, but increasing productivity and quality, innovation and investment.
We must once again make products that are so good and so affordable that the global market is clamouring for them, and successfully export them all over the world once more. If we fail to do so, there is something wrong with the country and its economy, or rather with the social framework (politics), but not with those who are showing us how to do it better.
Protectionism spells long-term decline for any economy. Eastern Bloc socialism showed us just that.
The Chinese are offering us high quality at a fair price, organised in a workshop-style production setup. The German manufacturer was too high and mighty to even discuss quantities. He didn’t even offer a price, but referred us to the wholesaler, who of course cannot offer the product because it doesn’t even exist yet.
(All of the above should be understood in the context of Hans’s statement, who assumed an “economic decline” and sees imports from China as the cause.
I don’t actually think this year’s figures are that bad, particularly in foreign trade with China. Does anyone have any up-to-date statistics to hand?)
Mirko
Gast
Mirko,
I wasn’t talking about market isolation, but as long as there’s an alternative in the form of shops where production and competition take place under acceptable conditions, I prefer that.
Why should I cut off the branch I’m sitting on?
Incidentally, the socialist planned economy didn’t collapse because it was isolated, but because a) resources were wasted, :rolleyes: too small a proportion of national income went into investment and thus into consumer goods, welfare and public services.
Furthermore, the real situation in the economy was ignored, as were the risks of wear and tear on machinery.
The problem was that ‘providing for the population’ was prioritised over economic efficiency in order to cover up the fact that the country was lagging behind the global economy, a situation that then reinforced itself.
This has absolutely nothing to do with isolation, but simply with the fact that relatively high expenditure was matched by insufficient revenue.
The only negative effects of isolation would be a technological lag and more limited (though more steady) economic growth.
We wouldn’t fall into an abyss anyway, as the state of technology is soon to be known.
Conclusion:
Isolation would offer greater security, albeit at the cost of some reduction in prosperity.
Hans
Gast
I don't know how the smiley got in there, but I don't think it's a waste, of course B)
PhilippReichmuth
We need to start making products again that are so good and so affordable that the global market is clamouring for them, and successfully export them all over the world once more.
‘Further’ rather than ‘again’; Germany is currently the world’s largest exporter of goods.
MirkoBoeddecker
Yay. That gives me hope.
And do you know anything about the trade balance with China?
Mirko
cfb_de
Mirko,
That was a really nasty little dig :-) And to think that you’re involved with your company, so to speak. SCNR.
But that doesn’t change the fact that this lamp is only available from you at that price. And then wrapped in that lovely ADOX box, too. If I needed something like that, I’d definitely order it. Although... I’ll think about it until Monday. You can’t have sent the parcel off yet, can you?
Best regards,
Franz
Gast
Mirko,
I know. But as far as I remember, the trade balance is largely down to textiles, although people like you are working hard to change that B)
Still, there’s no need to worry that German (European, ...) products aren’t in demand on the world market. That’s all I wanted to say.
Are you actually open on 27 December? I’ll be in Berlin to pick up my in-laws from the train, and I might pop round, pick up a few lamps and do something about the trade balance :)
Philipp
MirkoBoeddecker
Yeah, we’re always open whenever the law allows it.
After all, I need every penny to pay the wages at the end of the month, and the 27th is bloody close to the end of the month :-)
Worst-case scenario, I’ll be stuck in the shop on my own again, but as long as I can crawl, we’ll be open.
Mirko
