"Angel eye" wiring colour code

When fresh, these are usually 3.7 volts, which is enough. 2 AAs usually isn't quite enough.

Neil

My angel eyes appear to consist of lots of sets of 3 LEDs each set with its own resistor, so you'd need quite a bit more than a AA battery. However mine doesn't look exactly the same as the OP's

With the wiring sorted, I have moved on to production of the two halves of the mount. My design was developed in Alibre Atom to a stage where I was satisfied that I couldn't make any more mistakes and the time came to commit router to material.

This is the final design that I came up with:

That's the view of the upper surfaces.

That translated into routed components to which I have mounted the LED fittings. I am at present awaiting the arrival of some 2-core flexible cable by post in order to complete the installation. There seems to be a local shortage of 2-core in my vicinity, unless you want to buy it by the drum. I don't, so ebay it is.

All fitted together and raring to go:

That should give an impressive amount light and, if the warnings that I've ignored turn out to be well-founded, some equally impressive shadows on the cutter! Time will tell.

John

Edited for basic spelling mistake.

Edited By John Hinkley on 10/03/2022 10:45:54

Been following this with interest John, looking forward to the first trial!

Hello John,

I too would be interested in your conclusions. I did a similar set up and found that it was not easy to illuminate the tool. In the end I gave up and used a couple of low voltage MR 50 type, led reflector lamps at 45 degrees to the table on each side of the quill.

Illumination is really what suits the individual and my eyes preferred the two reflector lamps. It will be interesting to see if you are happy with your finished product.

Andrew.

Henry/Andrew,

I'll report back when the cable has arrived and it's up and running. I am making a short video for my youtube channel so I'll probably post a link on here so that you can 'see' the results.

John

.

Sorry! I intended to say MR16 type low voltage led reflector lamp. The fact that they are 50 mm in diameter confused me!

Andrew.

One thing to watch -

A switching regulator gives a low voltage by chopping slices of the higher current which goes in. This 'alternating DC' will switch the LEDs on and off at the same frequency - usually too quickly for the eye to notice. But it will cause a 'strobe effect' with anything that rotates - just as the switched frames of a movie can make the wheel on the wagon go backwards or stay 'still'. Not a good idea, as it can confuse you - just as tea-time is approaching and your concentration is slipping - to thinking that a rotating part is safe to touch.

the effect can be reduced by using an inductive load or a capacitor (or even both) - or by ensuring that there is also illumination by something that does not produce this effect (such as an old fashioned filament bulb). You get the same effect with some other LED lamps, and it can cause an odd flickering on video recordings and TV signals when LED illumination is used. And it has the same effect when looking at videos of aeroplane propellors, but that is the film being switched on and off, not the lighting.

The use of two LED sources, each with its own different supply reduction, should reduce the effect as the frequencies are not going to match exactly. Use two identical systems and you might find the frequencies match too closely.

Hope this helps avoid problems - Cheers, Tim

Thanks for the warning, Tim. Actually, I've avoided the strobe effect by not using the voltage regulators at all. The dedicated power supply that I am using is specifically for LEDs, so I thought that it was unnecessary to include the regulators. It works on the bench. If only I'd remembered to buy a mains plug while out shopping, I could have had it working on the mill. As it is, the cable arrived in the post today, so it's all wired up and ready to plug-and-play. I'll try to get the video up tomorrow.

John

A suggestion: It is likely that you don't have a problem, but I suggest that you check. A good way to do this is to draw a black line on a clearly visible rotating part of the mill (etc) and turn the new light on so it shines of the mark. Turn on the mill at a low-ish speed, and increase the speed gradually. Keep looking at the rotating mark to see if any strobe-effect is there. If not, well done, no problem. But if the mark does appear to become stationary, and go backwards, there is still an effect - how much will depend on what other lighting you have.

An alternative solution is to use a battery to run the angel-eyes. Just remember to charge it as needed.

Cheers, Tim

I'll try that tomorrow, Tim. A spare toothbrush charger has become a plug donor, so progress should be fairly quick in the morning.

I see someone else is doing the same thing in another thread.

John

It's tomorrow, today and as promised, I've published a video on Youtube. My definition of short may differ from yours!

Thanks John, I've had a quick look at your video and it seems to work well so well done. I did wonder if the LEDs would need a shade to stop some of the glare when you switched on?

It'll be interesting to see how you get on when you've sued the set up in anger!

Henry,

That glare that occurred when I switched on is exaggerated by the camera. It's not nearly as bad to the naked eye. For the same reason, the roller blind behind the mill was pulled down. For a change, the sun was shining and flooded the camera. It also gave a somewhat duller background to the shots of the light in use, accentuating the shadow effect. In use, of course, the blind would be up and the daylight provides light to counteract the shadows.

John