[ale] More on LEDs...

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi Ken,

Exactly ONE website I went to mentioned that their LED bulbs were for off road use only.  None of the others mentioned any thing.

I've got real mixed feelings on this.

Yes, the govt plays a vital role in protecting public safety, and that's important.  You don't want purveyors of crap, con artists, thieves, and incompetent players putting lots of workers and consumers at risk.  I do believe that regulation and law enforcement is important and essential.

I will admit that, had I installed the bulb I found at autozone, because of it's light pattern, or lack of it, I probably would have been in more danger of being rear ended.  Fortunately, I'm a semi paranoid / meticulous / engineer kind of guy and I checked the appearance from behind the car after putting a heavy object on the brake pedal.  The led bulb was noticeably dimmer than the old bulb.

But, really, does EVERYTHING  we do have to be watched and approved of by the govt.

I can't have alternate health.
I can't have alternate fuel.
I can't have alternate light bulbs.
I can barely work on my car's ac system.
I can barely have alternate money (bitcoin).

Players in the bitcoin space are abandoning doing business in the USA because of the onerous financial regs.  Some won't even allow customers from the USA.  But, then again, I DON'T want to facilitate money laundering, child porn, and terrorism, which some of these technologies can do.

Thinking outside the box is pretty much a criminal activity.  You have to wonder if our country could even be founded and come to exist today if all these regs already existed.

Pretty soon, they'll have to watch and approve the business I do in the bathoom.  OH, wait, is that a camera on the ceiling?

(Please don't get gross in replying to this message.)

I don't know what the right balance of protection / regulation vs freedom is, but I think we've gone the wrong way too far.

Sincerely,

Ron



Ken Cochran <kwc at theworld.com> wrote:

-snip-

>Parts stores I trade with here in Alabama no longer carry
>LED replacement bulbs.  Reason (they told me):  Illegal, not
>compliant with DOT/DPS regulations.  They are only legal when
>the fixture (e.g. the light assembly itself) came originally as
>LED.  So you CAN get (& they stock & sell) LED light *fixtures*
>(e.g. trailer lights) but no LED replacement bulbs, say, to
>replace a 1157.  Actually makes some sense to me because of
>such things as the focus difference in a lamp/reflector/lens
>assembly, as well as the (apparently calibrated) load difference
>that would occur in a modern vehicle electrical system.

-snip-



--

Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com
Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU