Mill Quill Ligthing

[cedge]

I've watched several members on this board and others make the "Flying Saucer LED Light" addition to their mills. I too made this mod, early on, and felt I'd pretty much solved my lighting problems. Unfortunately, even after adapting the darned thing to a wall wart to save on batteries, the LED's tended to lose strength and eventually stopped doing their job. I liked the idea well enough to go through completely replacing the unit a couple of times but the results were disappointing after a short while.

My loving wife reminded me that my recent engine project had put me way behind on her Honey Do List, so Friday she dragged me off to Lowes to gather replacement parts for some track lighting she's been patiently waiting on me to change out. I couldn't grumble much.... after all she never mentioned it at all while I was building my most recent engine. The one that took up nearly 5 months of prime Honey Do weather.

We got the needed components and the prices were less than expected, so the little light that caught my eye as I turned a corner was just an added bonus.  The light has a small magnifier lens and a florescent ring shaped lamp. The flex neck and the mounting clip didn't get me excited but the small size of the lamp itself did. It would make a PERFECT replacement for the ailing LED unit. At $24.00 it wasn't going to break the bank.... so in the cart it went.

A bit of study and it was soon obvious that a new switch and a small electrical enclosure for the little circuit board would set things right. Radio Shack... here we come. $5.00 and change later, I had the goodies I needed.

Today, I spent about 30 minutes to bodge the whole thing together and the results were excellent. It looks almost as cool as the Flying Saucer, but the florescent lamp seems to put out more even light. I was even able to use the same adapter I made to mount the original light. Hopefully this version has a better lifespan than the LED units.

Below are photos of the LED and the Florescent that replaced it.

Steve

I had to do the track lighting repairs first. She's patient.... but not that patient...LOL

[ariz]

nice mod and very well done cedge!

but please, may you explain what was the problem with LED?
you did it, but my lacking english didn't allow me to understand...
I believed that LEDs were a long life lights, aren't they?

[Darren]

If the LED's failed in short fashion then I'd be looking at the supply voltage. Life expectancy and brightness is directly related to this.

[Darren]

Another thought, is your wall wart true DC, many are not and have a bit of AC hiding in the DC. Easily checked with a multimeter.

LED's don't like AC ... 

[cedge]

I'm not quite sure why the LED's began to fade and fail, but perhaps the wall wart transformer was leaking. I do know the new florescent lamp seems to be a bit brighter than the LED's and the light is much more diffused, making for fewer shadows and more even lighting of the work area.

I'd be interested to know if there is a solution to the LED thing. I'm not the only one who has experienced this slow failure syndrome.

Steve

[boatmadman]

I understand that LED life is shortened if you try to pass too much current through. Each type of LED has a recommended forward current, often around 25ma. The higher the current you put through your unit, the brighter it is but the shorter the life. Current is controlled by fitting an appropriate resistor in the circuit.

Here is a useful LED array calculator:

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Ian