Dane.Kouttron
[5.14.17] [SuperQuick] Baush&Lomb Microscope Light Upgrade
What? |
EBAY Ring
Light |
Printed Adapter Bit | Downloads | Conclusion | Image Directory |
Quick Intro to the
Bausch & Lomb 'Stereo Zoom 7' |
The Baush & Lomb series of 'big angry 1980's microscope on an offset heavy arm' are really quite excellent for SMD component install and soldering. They also commonly appear in laboratory clean-outs and industrial auctions. |
This one in particular came from a lab clean-out, and has seen, some use. It was missing the eyepieces, but fortunately, they are standard. The ever-excellent peter crufted some from the ether and lo, they work great. These use 23mm optic mounts, which are fairly common [amazon] [ebay]. There's an excellent tear-down thread [here] |
A copy of the series manual is available locally here [link]. This conveniently provides some excellent imagery into the innards of the microscope assembly. |
Ebay Ring Light and
adapter |
There are a number of ring light adapters floating about the multiverse, I opted for this [link] one |
The innards of this particular led ring light are better than I expected. Normally ~5w mains connected leds use a capacitive dropper based supply [link]. While capacitive droppers do work, however, they are non-isolated and the giant-film-cap to drive the leds can be a bit bulky. I think, as this is marketed as a 110/220 mains adaptable supply, they opted for the tiny-switcher approach. Capacitive droppers also exhibit the 'quite blinky' issues |
Yowza, its not just a capacitive dropper. The IC that runs the led driver is a dk106, [local link]. Its actually rated for 85-265vac operation, which explains the '110/220' capability. It runs from rectified mains and twiddles a transformer, using an optocopuler as voltage feedback. |
Its actually pretty bright too. The adjust pot is smooth and there is no characteristic 'low duty cycle flicker' which occurs on a number of dimmable things where their internal switching frequency, plus low adjust setpoint result in an increasingly viewable flicker. |
Solidpart files |
Here are the
cad files for this printed part. I used an UP! Mini to
print the part. Download
below! [Solidworks 2014] [stl] [igs] |
(There's
other
photos in the photo gallery)
Concluding Remarks:- 3d printers and cad make engineering great again
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Dane.Kouttron
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
Electrical & Electrical
Power
631.978.1650