00:00Script below, 7 paragraphs, blank line between each, prices as listed, verify before shoot.
00:06Alright, flashlight died on you?
00:09Before you toss it, check the LED bead, that's usually the only thing that actually failed.
00:14I dug through a pile of listings and found the 5 best buys for flashlight repair, and the prices are
00:19almost stupid cheap.
00:21Let's go.
00:23This one's my pick for beginners.
00:25It's a 1W or 3W chip already mounted on a 20mm star aluminum board with a little heatsink attached, so
00:32you're not hunting down a separate board.
00:3410 of them for about $2, that's 20 cents a chip.
00:38The Starbase fits most common flashlight hosts, and the included heatsink means decent heatsinking out of the box.
00:45Buy this one first.
00:47Next is the Value King, Epistar chips, and you pick your quantity from 10 up to 50.
00:53The 445 and 660nm options are true deep blue and true red, which matters if you're rebuilding a red night
00:59vision light or a blue beacon.
01:02Same 1W in 3W sizes as the last one, $0.82 a chip, and with 4.9 stars and over
01:074,000 sold, this is the one I'd buy in bulk for a whole drawer of spares.
01:12Now the beast for big, wide beams.
01:15This is a 5W COB chip, one big integrated emitter instead of a tiny point running on 3V, and the
01:21brightness per chip is genuinely impressive.
01:24You get 20 in the lot, so for 539 you've got enough to build several lights or one proper host.
01:30If you're making a camping lantern or a high-output spotlight, this is the one.
01:35Cheapest option here, and it doesn't look like a compromise.
01:3810 chips for $0.60 flat, and you get the full 1, 3, and 5W range, plus warm white and
01:44cold white at 10,000 and 30,000 Kelvin, and red, green, blue, and yellow too.
01:49The color temperature choices are what flashlight people actually care about, warm white is easier on your eyes at night.
01:56Ratings a touch lower at 4.8, but as a practice kit, unbeatable value.
02:01Skipped, on-camera burn test, add when you have the host plus driver rigs.
