Time for a little show & tell

[fraker]

Hi All.

I trust we are all well.

Been pottering about in the shed again (SWMBO warned me about that)

And thought you might like to see my version of the mill light.

So far as I am aware, it's my own design (I don't remember copying anyone, but if I did, I apologise)

Made out of aluminium & white LED's (NO! Really?)

There are 72 LED's in total, giving me two rings of 36

Each ring is switchable seperately and both rings are dimmable.

The whole kit and caboodle runs on 12V DC and is largely made from "stuff" I had laying about except for the LED's and those I got from China. 100 LED's for about £2.50.

The LED unit will be held on my Mini Mill with magnets (When they arrive)

Pics Below

Rear Panel (Minus Magnets)


Ring Unit and Plug


Control Box front & rear



Edited by me to resolve image issues Doh!

[fraker]

Both Rings Full brightness


Both Rings Dimmed


Internal Wiring

[fraker]

Inner Ring Only


Outer Ring Only


The photos, don't really do the LED's justice. Let me just say you don't stare at the LED's with your remaining eye.

Enjoy

Edited for another photo phuqup

[madwilliamflint]

That's really nice.

How are the LEDs actually affixed/mounted in there?

[fraker]

Thanks for the kind words.

The LED's are a simple press fit and the fit of all the LED's wired together, as they are, holds them in nicely, no need for glue.

Hope this helps.

[lazlo]

Very nice work!

[Hal]

What a great light.

Hal

[Bob Fisher]

Can we see some plans and /or dimensions? Where do you buy the LED'S and what is needed for the power supply? Thanks, Bob.

[fraker]

Hi Bob.

Sadly, there are no "real" plans for this project. I largely "Made it up as I went along" although I DID have a rough idea of what I wanted, it did mutate as it progressed, and now bears very little resemblance to the original design.

The main body of the ring light is 4" aluminium, roughly 0.75" thick. The bore (To suit my mill) is 2.2" In this ring, the LED's protrude through by 0.04"

The LED chamber is milled out to a depth of 0.36" from the highest point of the rear of the ring (0.30 from the lowest point)

The two rings of LED's are, in fact divided into two, to make life easier on the 10W 39 ohm resistors in the control box, which means each of the four resistors supplies power to 18 LED's, that said, the ground (0V) connections for each ring are full circle (36 LED's) just to make my life easier.

The control box is quite simple in that it consists of nothing more than four 39 Ohm, 10 Watt resistors, an old Velleman LED dimmer circuit kit I happened to have lying about. MK187 is the Velleman stock code if anyone is interested (No connection) and a couple of push button switches.

Brief Circuit Description:

12V DC enters on the 2 pin connection on the rear of the controller and supplies the dimmer circuit, the variable output of the dimmer is then passed to the two switches to select either or both LED rings and then through the resistors and out to the LED ring light via the 8 pin connector.

The actual 12V DC PSU is an external device which I have yet to source. The unit runs on a bench variable PSU at this time.

Current draw at full brightness with both rings illuminated is just over 1A

The LED's were sourced from a Chinese seller on Flea Bay, though it did take three weeks to get them, they were incredibly cheap. Somewhere in the region of 2.50 GBP (About $3.98 at current exchange rates)

Hope this helps.

[browne92]

The old school in me says "Where's all the resistors? Each LED should have it's own!". But I guess if it works, it works.

It's amazing how much light they can get out of these things now. When I was going through tech school (30 odd years ago), LED's only came in red, yellow, and green, they ran on 1.5V at 20 mils, and were good for nothing more than indicators. Now they run on 2-3V at 20 mils and will flat out blind you. And I work with some right now that are so small, that if I drop it on the floor I just reach (with tweezers) for another one, because I'll never find it.

Nice work. Any idea what the advertised brightness on the LED's is?