[forcefed]

Originally Posted by thatguyM4

That's why every product we buy has a security tape

And that security tape is strategically placed on top of the TXTZ brand... fascinating.

[kgelfen360]

Originally Posted by forcefed

And that security tape is strategically placed on top of the TXTZ brand... fascinating.

I think you are correct man! I bought a set from Vinyl Design they do work well. But I think you are correct about the source.

[yeetyeet]

Originally Posted by kgelfen360

I think you are correct man! I bought a set from Vinyl Design they do work well. But I think you are correct about the source.

Welp I guess the cats out of the bag. Two things we know now, is which boards are quality and how to get them at a cheaper price point

[Osheatwo]

I got icedriver ones few weeks ago. So far happy with them. I purchased ones with heat sink.

[forcefed]

Originally Posted by kgelfen360

I think you are correct man! I bought a set from Vinyl Design they do work well. But I think you are correct about the source.

Lolololol thanks for confirming

[SwankPeRFection]

Originally Posted by kgelfen360

I think you are correct man! I bought a set from Vinyl Design they do work well. But I think you are correct about the source.

Shit dude, you just voided your warranty. 😜🤣

[kgelfen360]

Originally Posted by SwankPeRFection

Shit dude, you just voided your warranty. 😜🤣

Yea well we got Ali for that ….

[testing02hwr]

Originally Posted by forcefed

And that security tape is strategically placed on top of the TXTZ brand... fascinating.

I thought about this exact topic quite a bit. A lot of the aftermarket stuff we buy will come from some Chinese manufacturer (even if it comes from iND, Kies, etc.). Sure, there are some things that are designed/made by another company that aren't straight from a Chinese factory (Autosolutions SSK, Eventuri stuff) but for stuff like 4 tiny LED boards, they are probably made from some random sweat shop.

For these things, it is probably super easy to find it resold on Aliexpress. If I am a Chinese factory, what is stopping me from trying to sell to as many people as I want? This leads me to 2 questions:
1. Why is everything sold on Aliexpress (usually) something janky with poor quality control?
2. Why isn't OEM poor quality when some of their stuff inevitably comes from China as well?

To answer 1. you have to have been in Asia or some other country with a strong "outdoor market" culture. In the west, you typically buy stuff from a brick n' mortar or some large company where there aren't many places to choose from. In Asia, you can end up in a open market with hundreds of vendors all peddling the same crap. This is why you see tons of vendors on Aliexpress/Amazon with barely pronounceable names selling the same crap. It is just in their culture to have a factory directly sell to peddlers who don't care about product quality and just want to quickly sell merchandise. There are no brands and it is a race to the bottom; sell at the cheapest price no matter what. It just incentivizes poor quality crap to be made. There is a benefit to having someone like thatguyM4 wade through the absolute mountain of shit being pumped out of China and picking a somewhat decent product.

To answer 2. I wanted this video recently:

This blew my mind. A Chinese factory with quality control? A Chinese factory with multiple stages of quality control? How is this possible? I thought everything from China was absolute shit. But it does make sense. Where do the LEDs that BMW uses come from? Probably China. The Chinese factory sells the quality controlled products to OEMs and other big manufacturers at a premium and the other crap that doesn't pass QC doesn't just get thrown away - they get sold to the factories that sell to peddlers. You end up with factories making these boards with inferior LEDs and trying to sell them at super low prices. Cut corners everywhere.

Go ahead and search thatguyM4's posts and his Youtube. It is clear that he does at least some due diligence and is contributing to the community (building harnesses and coding instructions). For that reason alone, I would throw him an extra few bones to support him. Yeah, he probably gets his boards from China and you can get them at a cheaper price but remember that there are very few people in the community that are willing to contribute back to it.

[thatguyM4]

Originally Posted by kgelfen360

Yea well we got Ali for that ….

You got Vinyl Designs 2 for that - Any issues I take care of it point blank!

[Limegrntaln]

+1 for Jerry, solid guy. I had one of the first sets installed in the US. Waaay back in the summer of 2022. Nobody was doing them, yet, because they didn't exist. I purchased a set, and Jerry is semi local to me, and, he offered to install them, for me. By the time he was done, I felt like I was ripping him off.

Jack the car, remove, the wheels, remove the fender liners, remove the heat sinks, and at the time, run the wiring. I had gotten the RGBW kit installed, which the bluetooth controller needed to be routed. I knew if I bought the kit, I was never going to do it, myself.

Right after I got the kit installed, it wasn't long before you started seeing all of these companies offering them. Jerry sold a bunch of kits, and I know shops that wanted in on it, ordered from him. About 2 months later, most of the shops had them.

I went back to him, to get the solid yellow kit installed. I realized the RGBW I wasn't using, the multi color function, and I've now had the solid yellow kit installed for about 26 months, and I've never had a problem with them.

I don't really care about where they are sourced from. I've seen Jerrys test bench. soldering station, and testing equipment. He doesn't just pull these out of the box and install them. Every time I've seen his bench, there are wiring harnesses, and other projects going on, that he's working on.

I ordered a CTEK charger, for my car, last week, in which everyone will agree is pretty much the standard in trickle chargers for just about every car, bam, made in China.

Thank you to Jerry for everything he does for the community. I've run 2-3 sets of his DRLs, not because anything went wrong with them, but, when he got a new generation, I went and had mine swapped out for the new version. He still hasn't charged me anything for the other kits he's installed.

I had a friend with a G82 who is full time wheelchair. Uses hand controls in his car. I wasn't asking Jerry for charity work, but, I sent him to Jerry for help. The guy is unable to do the work on his own car. Guy is a combat veteran, Jerry stepped up. "Bring me some McDonalds." done.

Bottom line, is. I don't really care where they come from, or who they are made by, everyone likes solid, trustworthy people in this industry. Jerry has always taken care of everyone I know that has had work done by him, and we can all appreciate that.

If you want to get them from AliExpress, by all means, do your thing. I will keep getting what I need, from Jerry, because I know that everything he puts out, he tests, because I've seen it.

If it something does happen, down the road, he will bend over backwards for you to make it right, I've seen him even take care of people that have had kits fail that they got elsewhere.

[SwankPeRFection]

Originally Posted by thatguyM4

You got Vinyl Designs 2 for that - Any issues I take care of it point blank!

[azlightning213]

Also vouching for Jerry. Nice guy who installed both my CSL’s and front yellow DRL’s for free. Sure he’s making margin off the sale of both sets, but he has a business, he needs to make his cut somehow. Frankly, we have a pretty awesome community here, and I’m not sure how flaming someone for providing great products and servicing is reasonable or acceptable. You are not forced to purchase his products, and there’s plenty of options on the marketplace. Jerry guaranteed me a warranty should any of the lights fail, free service, and was beyond friendly - I’ll continue doing business with him.

[thatguyM4]

Thanks guys for the support I hope he lives up to his word and donate to my favorite charity - Prevent Child Abuse - Great organization
Now gotta get back to working on these Laser taillights -

[dtronics]

Originally Posted by thatguyM4

Thanks guys for the support I hope he lives up to his word and donate to my favorite charity - Prevent Child Abuse - Great organization
Now gotta get back to working on these Laser taillights -

This was never a question of if your DRL’s work. This was about you stating that you have some special product that you’ve researched and developed. As shown, you buy your DRL’s in bulk from the same source that anyone else can buy from and then you then mark them up at least 3 – 5X. You’ve already been banned from Bimmerpost for your responses to the community on this exact same topic and you aren’t a supporting vendor.

[thatguyM4]

Originally Posted by dtronics

This was never a question of if your DRL’s work. This was about you stating that you have some special product that you’ve researched and developed. As shown, you buy your DRL’s in bulk from the same source that anyone else can buy from and then you then mark them up at least 3 – 5X. You’ve already been banned from Bimmerpost for your responses to the community on this exact same topic and you aren’t a supporting vendor.

I was the very first in the world to change the color of the DRL working with engineers to simply make these for me from my prototype - getting banned ??? Do you know why ???? You don't thats why I'm back !!!!
because guys like you seem to know it all ,Just donate to the cause like you said to my favorite charity . In all I could care less what you say I dont want to waste my time and energy -People I deal with want to know what I think on a product in development when I do real world testing not just buy it and resale it -