Aliexpress finds for home and DIY

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rmt38

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#1646565 6-Oct-2016 12:17

I received my order for degradable planter bags. The store page shows an inferior previous product, and explicitly states that they only send out the current folding bag which is better.

I of course received the previous product from them. I've opened a dispute, we'll see how that goes.

trig42

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#1646575 6-Oct-2016 12:35

richms:

If you use a 3 AAA converter in them it will be safe, just give you hopeless runtime and limit its output to what the cells can provide. AAAs are not made for that high draw so it really limits the runtime.

Its when you feed it properly with a lithium based cell that you have to worry about treating them properly. People are accustomed to alkaline and other ones where the worst that happens if you mistreat them is a little bit of slightly corrosive goo leaks out which will ruin the thing you have it in, so you see people doing dumb stuff all the time like mixing battery types and charge levels, because they can get away with it. If you continue that sort of treatment with lithium ones that are not protected, you dont just get a little bit of corrosive gunk making your battery contacts rust, you get flames and fire and similar.

You can still kill a NiMh cell by putting a flat one in series with good ones and then running the device till it wont work anymore - but the dead nimh is just going to have no capacity anymore. Nothing spectacular.

How can you tell if an 18650 truly is protected?

I have a couple of the below (from dx.com). Says on them that they are. They work fine, and I find that the torch stops rather than outputting low light.

richms

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#1646605 6-Oct-2016 13:07

I am not aware of anyone making decoy protection boards, but that isnt to say they dont exist.

Look at the negative end of the cell, if you can see the bottom of the cell, not protected. If you can see a small circuitboard and a cable up the side to the positive end, then protected.

Richard rich.ms

ZollyMonsta

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#1646628 6-Oct-2016 13:35

I ordered one of the gear best powered HD caddies after seeing another geekzoner had.

Yet to try it out and check it still works. It looks like the NZ post person threw it over the fence, with it landing on the deck. :-\

btw: tried to post with a link and got this message!

"Error: Your post was not accepted due to bad word: g3arb3st"

(3's added since it one let me post the above.. LOL)

Check out my LPFM Radio Station at www.thecheese.co.nz

neb

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#1646976 6-Oct-2016 22:15

richms:
I am not aware of anyone making decoy protection boards, but that isnt to say they dont exist.

Look at the negative end of the cell, if you can see the bottom of the cell, not protected. If you can see a small circuitboard and a cable up the side to the positive end, then protected.

I think we need a Chinese crapvendor version of Rule 34, "If it exists, there's a fake of it". Imagine you're a crapvendor out to maximise profit selling "protected 18650s". You can sell an 18650B (my current preferred cell) with proper under- and over-voltage protection, but will have to charge more than everyone else, and your margins will be slim. You can also sell a recycled laptop cell with no protection (as a protected Ultrafire or whatever) for a low price and make a good profit. Then there's everything in between, fake metal strips, fake protection circuits, non/barely-functional protection circuits that use undervolt sensors intended for power-on-reset applications (so they're sort-of protected, for very narrow values of "protected"), and so on. My view is that if you're going to store powerful incendiary devices in your home, you may as well pay a bit extra and get the safest ones you can.

Batman

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#1646985 6-Oct-2016 22:32

neb:
richms:

I am not aware of anyone making decoy protection boards, but that isnt to say they dont exist.

Look at the negative end of the cell, if you can see the bottom of the cell, not protected. If you can see a small circuitboard and a cable up the side to the positive end, then protected.

I think we need a Chinese crapvendor version of Rule 34, "If it exists, there's a fake of it". Imagine you're a crapvendor out to maximise profit selling "protected 18650s". You can sell an 18650B (my current preferred cell) with proper under- and over-voltage protection, but will have to charge more than everyone else, and your margins will be slim. You can also sell a recycled laptop cell with no protection (as a protected Ultrafire or whatever) for a low price and make a good profit. Then there's everything in between, fake metal strips, fake protection circuits, non/barely-functional protection circuits that use undervolt sensors intended for power-on-reset applications (so they're sort-of protected, for very narrow values of "protected"), and so on. My view is that if you're going to store powerful incendiary devices in your home, you may as well pay a bit extra and get the safest ones you can.

Without mentioning people groups, there are people who lie through their teeth to sell you a something for a few quid. It doesn't matter to them whether it's a shoe or an explosive. Also ain't matter to them if their neighbour's babies die drinking their baby formula because it contains zero calories nor nutrition.

Now you think they care about your battery?

Involuntary autocorrect in operation on mobile device. Apologies in advance.

neb

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#1647374 7-Oct-2016 15:57

For people who want to know more about cell protection, the Danish Lygte-info site has a good overview (in English). Note that the main cell he analyses is an AW one which is pretty much the gold standard for protected 18650s, so anything else will be a step down from what's depicted.

richms

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#1647436 7-Oct-2016 18:05

I have also seen one that had the protection at the positive end. It was a strange looking one with an inbuilt terminal to plug a charger into. Was a friends one that came with an overpriced flashlight so I didnt want to go pulling it apart.

Richard rich.ms

rmt38

320 posts

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#1649652 12-Oct-2016 11:00

Well, I got a refund from my aliexpress order. The seller apparently had one size of the product which wasn't the same as what was advertised on the page, but the page didn't say that was the case.. I asked for $20 refund, they said they could only do $5 which I would have accepted, but they must have misunderstood the process and completed it, resulting in me getting the full refund.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the refund process.

mdf

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#1649654 12-Oct-2016 11:07

I've given up on AE. I've had very few outright unqualified successes, and quite a few things that didn't work out of the box that then result in you spending way more time and effort that the product is worth trying to sort it out.

But the latest one has taken the cake and prompted me to delete my account. Weeks and weeks of to-ing and fro-ing trying to explain (via Google Translate I suspect) what the problem was and still not have it sorted, only to then get abusive responses when the AE dispute process ruled in my favour.

Not worth the effort.

surfisup1000

4562 posts

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#1649681 12-Oct-2016 11:44

mdf:

I've given up on AE. I've had very few outright unqualified successes, and quite a few things that didn't work out of the box that then result in you spending way more time and effort that the product is worth trying to sort it out.

But the latest one has taken the cake and prompted me to delete my account. Weeks and weeks of to-ing and fro-ing trying to explain (via Google Translate I suspect) what the problem was and still not have it sorted, only to then get abusive responses when the AE dispute process ruled in my favour.

Not worth the effort.

Funny, this reminds me of a telemarketer trying to sell me some kind of fx trading software over the phone a while back.... I politely interrupted with "Sorry I'm not interested", to save my time and his ..........then he started screaming and swearing at me for not letting him finish his spiel. It was hilarious, wish I had recording on my calls.

Some people just can't handle rejection.

neb

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#1650607 13-Oct-2016 18:37

One person supports this post

rmt38:
All in all, I'm quite happy with the refund process.

They're actually better than eBay for this. Aliexpress refund with no (or few) questions asked, while eBay have refused refunds on obviously, demonstrably fraudulent products. Which is a bit odd really, because you'd expect Aliexpress to be more dodgy than eBay.

NorthernZone

56 posts

Master Geek

#1650614 13-Oct-2016 18:47

I guess all AE customers are a little apprehensive. Some months ago I ordered something which, upon reflection, was probably too good to be true. (Silly me!) I thought I'd wait and see what arrived and then, if necessary, try the AE dispute process. But before it even got to that I received an unsolicited email from AE themselves saying they thought my seller was not genuine so they had stepped in, cancelled my order and refunded my money! I couldn't believe it; surely this service exceeded all expectations. Yes, I now think twice before clicking on the order button but I do feel reassured their system works. Good on them!

JoshWright

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#1650688 13-Oct-2016 20:34

I have placed over 50 Aliexpress orders in the last 12 months, and have spent at least $300 all up on a bunch of stuff. Sellers often muck up, and I've had stuff not arrive, arrive faulty, arrive not as described, but I've always gotten my money back when due. The dispute process takes a while and it can be confusing due to the poor translating the sellers must use but it always has worked for me, the one time when Aliexpress stepped in it was ruled in my favour, given I had uploaded video evidence.

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