JohnMarcson
Administrator
Product Name: Avian Eye LED Lightbar
Manufacturer: LEDQ, LED Equipped
Model Number: A-1034
Link to manufacturer: LED Equipped
Review Type: Lab based function and form only
Product Description: LED full-sized lightbar
Intended Usage or Market: Volunteer
Item Description: LEDQ describes their lightbar as an “Emergency LED/Linear Light bar”. The bar features their six diode “linear” Heads mounted inside a frame with clear lenses. There are takedowns and alleys which also flash. The bar requires a proprietary controller which indicates the lights can either be “bright”, “off” or “Coruscate”. What they mean is you can either steady burn or flash the alleys and takedowns. The rear of the bar is an arrow except of the corner heads. The lenses look vaguely liberty inspired, as do takedowns and alleys. It should be noted that the bar looks almost identical to the Axixtech Torrent. The external contour of the bar follows the angle of the corner heads, making the ends of the bar itself angled.
Manufacturer: LEDQ, LED Equipped
Model Number: A-1034
Link to manufacturer: LED Equipped
Review Type: Lab based function and form only
Product Description: LED full-sized lightbar
Intended Usage or Market: Volunteer
Item Description: LEDQ describes their lightbar as an “Emergency LED/Linear Light bar”. The bar features their six diode “linear” Heads mounted inside a frame with clear lenses. There are takedowns and alleys which also flash. The bar requires a proprietary controller which indicates the lights can either be “bright”, “off” or “Coruscate”. What they mean is you can either steady burn or flash the alleys and takedowns. The rear of the bar is an arrow except of the corner heads. The lenses look vaguely liberty inspired, as do takedowns and alleys. It should be noted that the bar looks almost identical to the Axixtech Torrent. The external contour of the bar follows the angle of the corner heads, making the ends of the bar itself angled.
- Durability/Feel/Appearance: First and foremost, the quality, or lack thereof rather, of this bar made me shorten this review and turn it from a featured site review, into a regular user review. I simply cannot devote site resources to items I do not personally believe are up to the standards demanded for emergency response. The workmanship was rushed and or sloppy. Sheet-metal type screws driven in crooked was the rule, not the exception. There was silicone stuck to various places nowhere near the sealed portions of the lenses. The power and the control wires felt floppy and the insulation was thin and of a very odd gummy consistency. The poor translation of the word flash to coruscate (a medical term for pulsating visual disturbances), was an instant red flag. The controller felt more like a plastic drug store toy than a piece of warning equipment in weight. I have the sad picture in my mind of these mounted to the back of someone's other controller with tape in a youtube video in the future. The bottom line is that this bar isn't up to my standards, or SAE standards apparently (not certified). - 3
Performance: The bar was tested in shade and full sun. I consider it's brightness average for linear heads of their size. The output of the warning LEDs was bright enough to worry me that people will be attracted to the bar. By that I mean it isn't overly dim or obviously deficient from first glance. The light output is passable for sure. The basic warning functions work and are not obviously grossly underpowered by any means. The front and rear of the bar are not synched, making for poor corner synch too. The traffic arrow doesn't have enough dwell time and/or the heads aren't defined enough for that purpose, because the arrow is imperceptible. The takedowns and alleys are clearly not well reverse engineered. Illumination wise they are basically worthless. As flashers, they are acceptable. Ironically the literature I got with them describes them as halogen, which would be far brighter. In summary, the bar performs well enough to spark the non-discerning customer's interest. - 5
Features: One of the things that is always a red flag is when an economy version of a product comes loaded with features. If you tell me you have a simplified version of something for less money, I am much less apt to be suspicious. This bar has is fully populated from end to end with LEDs. It has an arrow, takedowns and alleys. The features are loaded in there, but vollies need less features and higher durability, not more features and less solid construction. - 5
Innovation: When you reverse engineer an existing product and you make it worse, I can't score you on innovation at all. - 0
- Price: There was no price provided, but similar bars are listed on the LEDQ website for $499. A fully loaded LED lightbar for under $500 new. Sounds great right? Maybe a little too great. A loaded LED lightbar new should be $600 minimum during a sale or promotion. Anything much cheaper and quantity has been gained by a loss of quality. The used market is much wider and is saturated with last generation bars loaded to the gills for $450, or basic build-a-bars can be $350 projects. If you can't list me five was to better spend $500 on lights right off the top of your head, you haven't been reading this site enough. I'd rather have a solid basic bar than a poorly made loaded one. I think there is a trade off of features for quality here in order to lower the price. - 5
- Overall: This bar looks just good enough and packs in some key features well enough to lure in the uneducated buyer. - 3 1/2
If you drop the zero (if innovation isn't important to you) and simply remove it from the average, the score goes up to 4 1/2, which is almost acceptable in some circumstances. Still, there are better lightbars for similar or less money. If you did get such a bar I'd skip the arrow, takedowns and alleys (except as a flasher). Were the bar mine I'd find a way to wire around the controller and lock in the simple alternating pattern with flashing takedowns/alleys.
Rating (1-Unusable 5-Usable but flawed 10-Perfect)
- Durability/Feel/Appearance: 3
- Performance: 5
- Features: 5
- Innovation: 0
- Price: 5
- Overall 3.5 / 4.5
Suggestions--- Do not require the controller. Use higher quality wire. Reexamine the alley/takedowns. Pay more attention to quality control. Double check translations.