Can anyone help me source some LED electronics?

[LegendZero]

I got a pack of Quantum bits for christmas and after gluing them to my double staves I wanted to buy more until I saw the price

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f25e/ 20$ for 8 seemed like alot, but I noticed that that are all self contained units made in china and figured there has either got to be an alternative somewhere or a way to order these direct from the factory or a distributor but I don't even know where to start.

What makes these blinkies special is they are phosphorescent film over the light source so after they blink (and they are EXTREMELY BRIGHT) they fade slowly away over about 20 seconds due to residual charge that give these a unique character I want for my costume.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, if you want HD images or video I can take and upload some, thanks!

[theCryptofishist]

Hm. Wants special fancy lights. Doesn't want to pay much for them...

[junglesmacks]

Very interesting. I'm an LED junkie both professionally and by hobby.. have multiple LED factory contacts in China and am all over the resale market.. and I have never seen these before.

They're obviously coming from some clandestine Asian factory.. but.. hm. You could try digging around aliexpress.com with creative keywords. I think that would be your best bet besides some serious googling and key word experimentation..

[trilobyte]

Giving this a nudge over to Power & Illumination.

[Eric]

They look like a much fancier version of these, which I've used before. Probably an incredibly tiny gap between the contacts so that when they get jiggled the contacts touch (they must have a small amount of movement inside the case)

Never seen them, but they seem extremely expensive for the playa - how long is "100,000 blinks" really, when every time you make the slightest movement they blink?

[some seeing eye]

Given the likely content of the device, battery, power converter, accelerometer, microcontroller, drive transistors, 2LED's, $2.25 each seems a fair price. If you put a scope on the LED drive, you could see if the phosphor is giving the fade or the drive. You could experiment with adding fluorescent phosphors with various decay rates to your own blinking LED's, but how much would you save?

[maladroit]

You could experiment with adding fluorescent phosphors with various decay rates to your own blinking LED's, but how much would you save?

Possibly a LOT, if you didn't need the motion sensing. Self-blinking LEDs are a few cents each, and covering them in glow-in-the-dark paint couldn't cost much. Apply power either through wires to a battery pack, or individually from a coin cell.

[Token]

Order one batch.

Put under microscope.

Identify any markings and conduct search.

[Token]

Btw, a quick search shows this type of gizmo is priced at $0.20 - $0.50 on alibaba if you buy in 10k minimum quantity.

Paying a couple bucks retail is reasonable.

Contact the retailer and see if they'll cut a deal for quantity or maybe a video of your final creation.

Get creative.

[junglesmacks]

Linky linky?

What search terms did you use?

[Token]

LED lights for shoes.

Note that shoelace lights are the in-thing so you have to wade through the pages.

http://m.alibaba.com/products/led_lights_for_shoes.html

(Sorry, on phone hence the mobile link)

[some seeing eye]

Thanks Mr Token!

Hope the batteries are replaceable, hate to waste all the design and manufacturing expertise on a very limited lifetime product.