Your more in depth description of the issue with the al8805 pretty much perfectly replicates the issues I was having and why i changed to the mp2489, they are a more expensive part as you mentioned but they seem much more robust.
I've enjoyed following this series through the development process, observing both the successes and the failures. Well done :D The performance of the light system is better than I was expecting. Congratulations!
I think the difference is astounding between a whole mass of tiny LEDs and just 4 super bright LED modules. The whole mass causes a tremendous amount of distraction and reflection glare that's noticeably obnoxious. This new look is incredibly bright and lets you focus on the board vs the bonanza of reflections. Excellent job.
Brilliant Job Steve. I am itching to make one as soon as you have the final design. A really inspiring series eloquently explained. Loved the fault finding and sharing all the pain. I have learned a huge amount. Thank you kind sir🏴👍
Great series, I think that the plan has worked really well even with the hiccups, I look forward to seeing the new chassis, as said really interesting and nice to be able to follow the series from conception through to near finished
Fair? I think JLC is having some SMT QA issues. Just got back some SMT service boards from JLC (after some delivery delays) that was missing the main microcontroller IC. After I pressed the "Quality Complaint" button and descibed their answer was that they were out of the part so they just left it out without notifying me at all until I noticed them missing myself. Now have to delay the project another 1-2 weeks to get the parts in from DigiKey. Their remedy was to give me a $10 coupon for future orders!
You may have the best light product in the world. I would buy a few. I do scrollsaw work and if switch out the camera for a magnifying glass it would be really better been any product of seen
I think that based on the performance you saw, it would be more usable if it went from ~0% to 25% (Or maybe ~0% to 50%) rather starting at 25%. I think the main advantage of this over the original ring light is the high CRI LEDs and the positioning, rather than the brightness at full.
I'm not sure how useful the lower settings are. 25% seems to work fine except on dark PCBs or when you are at high magnifications. It was probably a poor choice to test with this camera given how well it performs at low light. I think the story will be quite different with a basic camera.
@@sdgelectronics I was mainly thinking about reading the text on IC which have been conformally coated. When using a basic ring light, I find myself having to turn mine down depending on how they have marked the ICs - Although I'm not sure how much of that is simply due to the reflections rather than the brightness. If you have some conformally coated PCBs, it would be great to see how well it works for those.
I've used the same Amscope ringlight with the halogen fibre unit and it's disappointingly weak. He had a lot of trouble at full zoom which isn't showing up here. Thanks.
Steve... reading "Worlds Brightest Microscope Light" in the video thumbnail was so funny. Watching your video here was so rewarding to see how well its working. Glad to see you make such an amazingly cool new device. Simply amazing. Too bad there wasn't any more room on the thumbnail to also say "Brighter than the Sun!". LMAO. This is without a doubt the best new home electronics project I have seen on youtube. Such a great job you have been doing here I actually forgot what was the new feedback you were looking for. Will have to go back and watch it again. Amazing! And at full mag no less. Some really nice engineering going on there.
Oh... you did put brighter than the sun after the emojiis in the description instead. Just wasn't paying attention so late last night. Yeah those Cree leds are fantastic, as are the diffuser domes. The price does not actually seem that bad at all given how good they are. Another point about having the higher LED brightness is maybe that it is going to help a lot more those users a lot more who *don't* have the best IMX290 metallic blue camera. Because a worse cheaper sensor should perform better the more light you throw at it. So long as it's not causing 255 saturation and loosing image detail for being too much brighter than the sensor can register. So yes it would be great to see how both cheap or expensive cameras types perform with both cheap or expensive led versions. If the ranges of those performance matters significantly a lot or just a little bit. For example if saving over $100 on the cheaper camera, but paying +$30 on LED lights is a worthwhile trade off or way to partially compensate in the performance in particular for inspection purpose at full mag when the amount of light goes way down --> leads to noisier image as the sensor tries to compensate.
Really nice result. I should do something similar to my cheapo scope... which is different in that it basically has a rectangular box at the bottom rather than a circle. Currently I have a single 12V incandescent bulb which gives lots of shaddows.
Looks great that Steve, especially on the black PCB 👍. I still use the standard type ring light, but I've managed to squeeze a 10W LED in the microscopes frame which shines down at about 45°, along with a couple of power resistors for current limiting. Its not a pretty setup but it does a good job of backing up the stock light. Cheers mate John
Good work old bean, pretty much eliminated the reflections. Nice that you can quickly prototype with the 3D Printer. Would be nice if the led boards were a bit smaller. Could you try a smaller heat sink and test the power? Maybe do some heat transfer calcs on the next update??
Your clickbait title/thumbnails are nearing Scotty Kilmer levels of perfection. Yes, I mean that as a compliment. Seriously... very interesting project, thanks for sharing it.
Great result, Steve! I think I want to make a variant as a workbench light (since I don't have a microscope)! Of course, part of this will be finding a decent 24V power supply that doesn't cost more than the rest of the light!
@@sdgelectronics Cool! Let us know what you find in terms of more affordable LEDs - as you demonstrated, finding something decent that you can actually buy is challenging :)
Would the Cree XP-L2 be a good candidate? Output may be somewhat reduced, but given similar lumens/watt, should get you close enough, and requires lower voltage. Wonder if Nichia has some offerings that would work well?
I wonder if the heat of soldering on the suspect ICs are making them fail, ie, it's too long. Maybe solder one as cold as possible, test, and them resolder it at over temp. I wonder if diffusers would stop those 4 reflections per pad on the PCB.
What would be the maximum magnification achieved satisfactorily with a 56 LED ring light? Does the. 144 LED ring light emit greater light intensity compared to the 56 LED ring light?
Have you tried taking pictures of coins while using this LED light? Avoiding the reflection of light on shiny coins is very difficult even with the use of LED ring light. Any thoughts? Thx
The gooseneck lights on the Andonstar are quite good as you can position them to minimise reflection. I think this would be a bit bulky to fit on there.
You could use the LED PCBs along with a commercial constant current LED driver. 4 - 8 LEDs on a 1200mm aquarium would give enough light for a decent planted tank if you used CO2. You'd need to scale it back in a plain aquarium as there is too much light here.
I just reached the part where you are discussing buying replacement parts from Mouser. I'm taking a bet here that they will just work. Anyone want to take the opposite side of that bet ?
I'm surprised you had no result. I had no trouble with the complaint and purposely did not talk to my JLCPCB rep to see how they would handle it through normal channels. Was this using the assembly service too?
@@sdgelectronics no, I've bought bare components from lcsc. They had supply some atmegas in a cardboard box but nothing fancy. One chip is dead, can't be seen by avrdude. The other is fine. I've contacted lcsc but after a week I got no reply from them.
Your more in depth description of the issue with the al8805 pretty much perfectly replicates the issues I was having and why i changed to the mp2489, they are a more expensive part as you mentioned but they seem much more robust.
I've enjoyed following this series through the development process, observing both the successes and the failures. Well done :D
The performance of the light system is better than I was expecting. Congratulations!
I think the difference is astounding between a whole mass of tiny LEDs and just 4 super bright LED modules. The whole mass causes a tremendous amount of distraction and reflection glare that's noticeably obnoxious. This new look is incredibly bright and lets you focus on the board vs the bonanza of reflections. Excellent job.
Brilliant Job Steve. I am itching to make one as soon as you have the final design. A really inspiring series eloquently explained. Loved the fault finding and sharing all the pain. I have learned a huge amount. Thank you kind sir🏴👍
That is a great result! So much better than my LED ring no my microscope.
She's come up a treat! Thanks for sharing your design process.
Great series, I think that the plan has worked really well even with the hiccups, I look forward to seeing the new chassis, as said really interesting and nice to be able to follow the series from conception through to near finished
Fair? I think JLC is having some SMT QA issues. Just got back some SMT service boards from JLC (after some delivery delays) that was missing the main microcontroller IC. After I pressed the "Quality Complaint" button and descibed their answer was that they were out of the part so they just left it out without notifying me at all until I noticed them missing myself. Now have to delay the project another 1-2 weeks to get the parts in from DigiKey. Their remedy was to give me a $10 coupon for future orders!
You may have the best light product in the world. I would buy a few. I do scrollsaw work and if switch out the camera for a magnifying glass it would be really better been any product of seen
I wish I could buy one!
I think that based on the performance you saw, it would be more usable if it went from ~0% to 25% (Or maybe ~0% to 50%) rather starting at 25%. I think the main advantage of this over the original ring light is the high CRI LEDs and the positioning, rather than the brightness at full.
I'm not sure how useful the lower settings are. 25% seems to work fine except on dark PCBs or when you are at high magnifications. It was probably a poor choice to test with this camera given how well it performs at low light. I think the story will be quite different with a basic camera.
@@sdgelectronics I was mainly thinking about reading the text on IC which have been conformally coated. When using a basic ring light, I find myself having to turn mine down depending on how they have marked the ICs - Although I'm not sure how much of that is simply due to the reflections rather than the brightness.
If you have some conformally coated PCBs, it would be great to see how well it works for those.
Great project! I think Louis Rossmann would find this interesting. I know he has a $300 ring light, so I wonder how this would compare.
I've used the same Amscope ringlight with the halogen fibre unit and it's disappointingly weak. He had a lot of trouble at full zoom which isn't showing up here. Thanks.
@@sdgelectronics when confident with your design, I'd ship a unit to Louis to test it, I'm quite sure you'd get a surge of orders :D
I was thinking the same 🤗 now how can we summon him 😁 @Louis Rossmann like this?
Steve... reading "Worlds Brightest Microscope Light" in the video thumbnail was so funny. Watching your video here was so rewarding to see how well its working. Glad to see you make such an amazingly cool new device. Simply amazing. Too bad there wasn't any more room on the thumbnail to also say "Brighter than the Sun!". LMAO. This is without a doubt the best new home electronics project I have seen on youtube. Such a great job you have been doing here I actually forgot what was the new feedback you were looking for. Will have to go back and watch it again. Amazing! And at full mag no less. Some really nice engineering going on there.
Oh... you did put brighter than the sun after the emojiis in the description instead. Just wasn't paying attention so late last night. Yeah those Cree leds are fantastic, as are the diffuser domes. The price does not actually seem that bad at all given how good they are. Another point about having the higher LED brightness is maybe that it is going to help a lot more those users a lot more who *don't* have the best IMX290 metallic blue camera. Because a worse cheaper sensor should perform better the more light you throw at it. So long as it's not causing 255 saturation and loosing image detail for being too much brighter than the sensor can register. So yes it would be great to see how both cheap or expensive cameras types perform with both cheap or expensive led versions. If the ranges of those performance matters significantly a lot or just a little bit. For example if saving over $100 on the cheaper camera, but paying +$30 on LED lights is a worthwhile trade off or way to partially compensate in the performance in particular for inspection purpose at full mag when the amount of light goes way down --> leads to noisier image as the sensor tries to compensate.
Good job Steve!
yeah, it's great and yeah you should rework that print, solid Ste
Really nice result. I should do something similar to my cheapo scope... which is different in that it basically has a rectangular box at the bottom rather than a circle. Currently I have a single 12V incandescent bulb which gives lots of shaddows.
Looks great that Steve, especially on the black PCB 👍.
I still use the standard type ring light, but I've managed to squeeze a 10W LED in the microscopes frame which shines down at about 45°, along with a couple of power resistors for current limiting. Its not a pretty setup but it does a good job of backing up the stock light.
Cheers mate
John
Good work old bean, pretty much eliminated the reflections. Nice that you can quickly prototype with the 3D Printer. Would be nice if the led boards were a bit smaller. Could you try a smaller heat sink and test the power? Maybe do some heat transfer calcs on the next update??
Your clickbait title/thumbnails are nearing Scotty Kilmer levels of perfection. Yes, I mean that as a compliment. Seriously... very interesting project, thanks for sharing it.
Rev up your engines!
Nice project!
Great result, Steve! I think I want to make a variant as a workbench light (since I don't have a microscope)! Of course, part of this will be finding a decent 24V power supply that doesn't cost more than the rest of the light!
Hi John, I may end up doing something similar. The light output is quite comfortable for general use.
@@sdgelectronics Cool! Let us know what you find in terms of more affordable LEDs - as you demonstrated, finding something decent that you can actually buy is challenging :)
any chance to order DIY kit of this fantastic light? Or at least ready to go PCB board and list of components? please
Would the Cree XP-L2 be a good candidate? Output may be somewhat reduced, but given similar lumens/watt, should get you close enough, and requires lower voltage.
Wonder if Nichia has some offerings that would work well?
MPS makes great products and have better support.
I wonder if the heat of soldering on the suspect ICs are making them fail, ie, it's too long. Maybe solder one as cold as possible, test, and them resolder it at over temp.
I wonder if diffusers would stop those 4 reflections per pad on the PCB.
I must complement you on your SMD soldering..... you know your stuff..... have the correct stuff to make a neat job....thanks?
What would be the maximum magnification achieved satisfactorily with a 56 LED ring light? Does the. 144 LED ring light emit greater light intensity compared to the 56 LED ring light?
Have you tried taking pictures of coins while using this LED light? Avoiding the reflection of light on shiny coins is very difficult even with the use of LED ring light. Any thoughts? Thx
Available for purchase when? Really spectacular!
Might be a soldering issue. I had some ICs fail a few years ago due to them being cooked by the PCB manufacturer. They had to replace 10,000 of them.
Great job, man. I wonder how this would work on an andonstar ad407.
The gooseneck lights on the Andonstar are quite good as you can position them to minimise reflection. I think this would be a bit bulky to fit on there.
Looks good! I would rotate the chassis 45 deg on the microscope so that the bulge from the LED holder does not project towards the operator.
Nice..are you planning to sell your design sir?
Would like to do something similar as a light for my fish tank. The circuit board would not need to be so fancy for sure. Any tips and suggestions?
You could use the LED PCBs along with a commercial constant current LED driver. 4 - 8 LEDs on a 1200mm aquarium would give enough light for a decent planted tank if you used CO2. You'd need to scale it back in a plain aquarium as there is too much light here.
Have you tried the et3240 benchtop dmm?
Yes, I have a review of the ET3240 and ET3255 (#099)
I just reached the part where you are discussing buying replacement parts from Mouser. I'm taking a bet here that they will just work. Anyone want to take the opposite side of that bet ?
At the end I got no reply from lcsc. Unfortunately I had to set a negative review...
Quite disappointed.
For reference I got a broken MCU out of 2.
I'm surprised you had no result. I had no trouble with the complaint and purposely did not talk to my JLCPCB rep to see how they would handle it through normal channels. Was this using the assembly service too?
@@sdgelectronics no, I've bought bare components from lcsc. They had supply some atmegas in a cardboard box but nothing fancy.
One chip is dead, can't be seen by avrdude. The other is fine.
I've contacted lcsc but after a week I got no reply from them.
nice one! which microscope camera are you using?
One of those Eakins Autofocus IMX290 cameras. The AF is always turned off though.
when we can buy
I'll release all files so you can build. Some of the main PCBs and unpopulated LED boards will be made available soon.
@@sdgelectronics wow that's great. I thought you will be selling these.
try 350mA