Post by thread:Strobes

Does anybody know of any small (handheld) commercial strobes? I need something that's no bigger than a medium-sized DMV which has an adjustable frequency light. It doesn't need to be especially bright, as it's primarily for indoor use. I need to see if a rotating wheel is running true. Speed would be a few hundred RPM to up to 60K, but I don't expect that in one package. Thanks. Andy ================================================================== Andy Kunz - Statistical Research, Inc. - Westfield, New Jersey USA ==================================================================

Andy asked: >Does anybody know of any small (handheld) commercial strobes? I need >something that's no bigger than a medium-sized DMV which has an adjustable >frequency light. It doesn't need to be especially bright, as it's >primarily for indoor use. > >I need to see if a rotating wheel is running true. Speed would be a few >hundred RPM to up to 60K, but I don't expect that in one package. > I think you can do this with a PIC. The new white LEDs are very, very bright. These are the ones with a single junction, not the ones with three RGB diodes. I've pulsed them at rates that would equate to a few hundred RPM. Make a PIC-based variable pulse-rate, LCD readout, penlight size timing light.... Reg Neale

Andy, I remember trying some HP solid state lamps (LEDs) that they call super ultrabright lamps. It can project a red dot 10 feet away. I believe is called HLMP-8115 which has 1200mcd output. If you can use this, the drive circuit will be a lot simplier. Hope it helps. Steve becker John Kirk wrote: > > I've heard, but not seen, the use of a big LED and standard frequency > generator to make a tiny strobe. They do things like "stop" the stream > coming from an ink jet printer. Its not very bright, but you can probably > get up 60KHz with most LED's. Good luck: John Kirk > > > {Original Message removed}

Hello, Reg, Where can you buy this white LED?? I have never heard of a white LED before, must cost a fortune! Sure like to try. Thanks. Steve Becker Reginald Neale wrote: {Quote hidden}> > Andy asked: > > >Does anybody know of any small (handheld) commercial strobes? I need > >something that's no bigger than a medium-sized DMV which has an adjustable > >frequency light. It doesn't need to be especially bright, as it's > >primarily for indoor use. > > > >I need to see if a rotating wheel is running true. Speed would be a few > >hundred RPM to up to 60K, but I don't expect that in one package. > > > > I think you can do this with a PIC. The new white LEDs are very, very > bright. These are the ones with a single junction, not the ones with three > RGB diodes. I've pulsed them at rates that would equate to a few hundred > RPM. Make a PIC-based variable pulse-rate, LCD readout, penlight size > timing light.... > > Reg Neale

> > Andy, > > I remember trying some HP solid state lamps (LEDs) that they call super > ultrabright lamps. It can project a red dot 10 feet away. I believe is > called HLMP-8115 which has 1200mcd output. > > If you can use this, the drive circuit will be a lot simplier. Hope it > helps. > > Steve becker > Speaking of bright LED's, I just picked one up at Radio Shack. Part # 276-206, orange (620nm) 10mm LED, 12000mcd brightness! It is too bright to look into for more than a second and projects a 1-2" spot at 1 meter. The spot is visible for at least 2 meters, depending on the brightness of the room illumination. I was running it at ~23 mA (12000mcd is at 20 mA), although the max continuous current is 50 mA (100 mA peak). Keith D. Kotay Dartmouth College spam_OUTkotayTakeThisOuTcs.dartmouth.edu http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotay > John Kirk wrote: > > > > I've heard, but not seen, the use of a big LED and standard frequency > > generator to make a tiny strobe. They do things like "stop" the stream > > coming from an ink jet printer. Its not very bright, but you can probably > > get up 60KHz with most LED's. Good luck: John Kirk > > >

Hi Steve & Andy---------- White leds I have are made by LEDTRONICS and purchased from Jade Mountain. They are very bright, painfull to look at, I would estimate 3-5k mcd. Both firms have websites, Jade is mostly packaged lights good luck! Wil Reeder Vancouver, Canada .....teachtechKILLspam@spam@bc.sympatico.ca {Quote hidden}> From: Steve Becker <birkoKILLspamHOME.COM> > To: .....PICLISTKILLspam.....MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: Strobes > Date: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 2:16 PM > > Hello, Reg, > > Where can you buy this white LED?? I have never heard of a white LED > before, must cost a fortune! Sure like to try. > >snip

At 03:30 PM 27/10/98 -0800, you wrote: I have been looking for white LED's but in surface mount. They are to be used for a scanning device to provide illumination. Has anyone seen something like this? They should be as bright as possible. TIA Peter Grey Neosystems, Australia {Quote hidden}>Hi Steve & Andy---------- >White leds I have are made by LEDTRONICS and purchased from Jade Mountain. >They are very bright, painfull to look at, I would estimate 3-5k mcd. Both >firms have websites, Jade is mostly packaged lights >good luck! > >Wil Reeder >Vancouver, Canada >EraseMEteachtechspam_OUTTakeThisOuTbc.sympatico.ca > >> From: Steve Becker <birkospam_OUTHOME.COM> >> To: @spam@PICLISTKILLspamMITVMA.MIT.EDU >> Subject: Re: Strobes >> Date: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 2:16 PM >> >> Hello, Reg, >> >> Where can you buy this white LED?? I have never heard of a white LED >> before, must cost a fortune! Sure like to try. >> >>snip > >

> > At 03:30 PM 27/10/98 -0800, you wrote: > > I have been looking for white LED's but in surface mount. They are to be > used for a scanning device to provide illumination. Has anyone seen > something like this? They should be as bright as possible. > > TIA > > Peter Grey > Neosystems, Australia > Digi-Key CMD1424WCNCT-ND while LED made by Chicago Miniature Lamp, Inc. Continuous current 25mA, peak current 80mA, 75mcd. 5.64 USD for 1, 52.17 USD for 10, 468.12 USD for 100. CML part number CMD1424WCN. Keith D. Kotay Dartmouth College KILLspamkotayKILLspamcs.dartmouth.edu http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotay

At 07:20 PM 27/10/98 -0500, you wrote: >> >> At 03:30 PM 27/10/98 -0800, you wrote: >> >> I have been looking for white LED's but in surface mount. They are to be >> used for a scanning device to provide illumination. Has anyone seen >> something like this? They should be as bright as possible. >> >> TIA >> >> Peter Grey >> Neosystems, Australia >> >Digi-Key CMD1424WCNCT-ND while LED made by Chicago Miniature >Lamp, Inc. Continuous current 25mA, peak current 80mA, >75mcd. 5.64 USD for 1, 52.17 USD for 10, 468.12 USD for 100. >CML part number CMD1424WCN. OUCH! For each scanner I need about 50 LED's. Thanks for the info. Peter >Keith D. Kotay >Dartmouth College >RemoveMEkotayTakeThisOuTcs.dartmouth.edu >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotay > >

>Hello, Reg, > >Where can you buy this white LED?? I have never heard of a white LED >before, must cost a fortune! Sure like to try. > >Thanks. Steve: Yes, they are expensive. As I remember, $4-5USD. But there are some places where you just have to have white light. I think these were from Alltronics. If you can't find them, email me tomorrow when I'm at work and I'll look it up. My understanding is that the principle of operation is IR LED illuminating a tiny internal phosphor screen. I bought four of them and they varied in brightness. The brightest one was blinding at 10 mA. Reg

You can also get a White light LED from Digi-Key. I'm not sure of the part number right off hand, but I remember they actually contain 4 LED's in the same package. You send different currents to each of the individual LED's, and this would mix the primary colors so you could have any color from white to black. I believe the cost was about $4-5 US. DigikEy's Phone number is 1-800-DIG-IKEY ---------- {Quote hidden}> From: Reginald Neale <spamBeGonenealespamBeGoneSERVTECH.COM> > To: TakeThisOuTPICLISTEraseMEspam_OUTMITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: Strobes > Date: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 9:00 PM > > >Hello, Reg, > > > >Where can you buy this white LED?? I have never heard of a white LED > >before, must cost a fortune! Sure like to try. > > > >Thanks. > > Steve: > > Yes, they are expensive. As I remember, $4-5USD. But there are some places > where you just have to have white light. I think these were from > Alltronics. If you can't find them, email me tomorrow when I'm at work and > I'll look it up. > > My understanding is that the principle of operation is IR LED illuminating > a tiny internal phosphor screen. I bought four of them and they varied in > brightness. The brightest one was blinding at 10 mA. > > Reg

...SNIP!... >>Digi-Key CMD1424WCNCT-ND while LED made by Chicago Miniature >>Lamp, Inc. Continuous current 25mA, peak current 80mA, >>75mcd. 5.64 USD for 1, 52.17 USD for 10, 468.12 USD for 100. >>CML part number CMD1424WCN. > >OUCH! For each scanner I need about 50 LED's. > >Thanks for the info. > > >Peter > >>Keith D. Kotay >>Dartmouth College >>RemoveMEkotayTakeThisOuTcs.dartmouth.edu >>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotay >> Ever thought about cold cathode flourescent? Would certainly be more cost effective! -- Dennie Lee -- dwlee1EraseME.....bbtel.com ICQ: 19351768 http://www.uofl.edu/~dwlee001 <- Being Rebuilt

Reginald Neale wrote: > > ... > My understanding is that the principle of operation is IR LED illuminating > a tiny internal phosphor screen. I bought four of them and they varied in > brightness. The brightest one was blinding at 10 mA. > > Reg Does anyone know how fast that phosphor is? If it's a really slow phosphor, you're going to have bad problems using one of these as a strobe, obviously! Thought I'd ask. (Also I second the use of the Radio Shack LED's - they have Red 5000mcd IIRC, Yellow 8000 mcd units also, though it IS Radio Shack, and you can't always guarantee they'll have 'em in stock. I have a local store where I know the purchasing agent, she stocks anything I need, I just have to give her a call in advance & Jody calls me when it's in...) Think a LED flashlight on these things - I'm considering an array of 15 for a wheelchair headlight with ultra long life & no chance of vibration breaking the filamnts. You DO need to keep the lens clean or you'll reduce light output by up to 50%... Mark, EraseMEmwillisnwlink.com

>Does anybody know of any small (handheld) commercial strobes? I need >something that's no bigger than a medium-sized DMV which has an adjustable >frequency light. It doesn't need to be especially bright, as it's >primarily for indoor use. > >I need to see if a rotating wheel is running true. Speed would be a few >hundred RPM to up to 60K, but I don't expect that in one package. > >Thanks. > >Andy > >================================================================== >Andy Kunz - Statistical Research, Inc. - Westfield, New Jersey USA >================================================================== Hi Andy, This is a good PIC project, as a matter of fact I developed one once, it was smaller than a DMV and used an VCO (I think 4046) a ultra-bright LED and a PIC to read the frequency and show on a 7 segment display. It worked very well. Regards, Octavio ======================================================= Octavio Nogueira - RemoveMEnogueiraEraseMEEraseMEmandic.com.br ICQ# 19841898 >From the creator of ProPic, ProPic 2 now much better * http://members.tripod.com/ProPic * * PIC Programmer for Windows with down to earth price * =======================================================

At 02:09 PM 10/27/98 -0700, you wrote: >don't they just use an inductive pickup to cause the strobe? So....just >trigger from a different source? I dunno....just throwing out ideas. I'm looking for something small, much smaller than a car's. I need to flash on a 1/8" dia shaft turning 1K-60K RPM with a propeller 1.25" dia. Strobe will be synched either by an IR detector to get a fixed position, or by a pot to allow me to set a speed other than that at which it is turning (looking for it to be out of balance). Andy ================================================================== Andy Kunz - Statistical Research, Inc. - Westfield, New Jersey USA ==================================================================

Hi, all $5.64 for 75 mcd of white light is expensive, isn't it? I was thinking of like 1000-5000 mcds! May be have to wait a few years for technology to pick up and by then I wound have saved enough money to try one out. Steve RemoveMEkotayspam_OUTKILLspamAHWANEE.CS.DARTMOUTH.EDU wrote: {Quote hidden}> > > > > At 03:30 PM 27/10/98 -0800, you wrote: > > > > I have been looking for white LED's but in surface mount. They are to be > > used for a scanning device to provide illumination. Has anyone seen > > something like this? They should be as bright as possible. > > > > TIA > > > > Peter Grey > > Neosystems, Australia > > > Digi-Key CMD1424WCNCT-ND while LED made by Chicago Miniature > Lamp, Inc. Continuous current 25mA, peak current 80mA, > 75mcd. 5.64 USD for 1, 52.17 USD for 10, 468.12 USD for 100. > CML part number CMD1424WCN. > > Keith D. Kotay > Dartmouth College > RemoveMEkotayTakeThisOuTspamcs.dartmouth.edu > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotay

Reg, Thanks for the info. I looked up my All Electronics catalog, can't see any white there. may be the Alltronics you mentioned is different than the one I have. Please give a web reference or something. Thanks again. Steve Reginald Neale wrote: {Quote hidden}> > >Hello, Reg, > > > >Where can you buy this white LED?? I have never heard of a white LED > >before, must cost a fortune! Sure like to try. > > > >Thanks. > > Steve: > > Yes, they are expensive. As I remember, $4-5USD. But there are some places > where you just have to have white light. I think these were from > Alltronics. If you can't find them, email me tomorrow when I'm at work and > I'll look it up. > > My understanding is that the principle of operation is IR LED illuminating > a tiny internal phosphor screen. I bought four of them and they varied in > brightness. The brightest one was blinding at 10 mA. > > Reg

$5.64 for 75 mcd of white light is expensive, isn't it? I was thinking of like 1000-5000 mcds! Note that the mcd rating of LEDs is highly dependent on radiation pattern and (designed) viewing angle. The same super-bright LED chip that powers radio-shacks 12000mcd wonder will end up with a lower rating if you put it in a different package, and the surface mount parts always seem to have a much lower rating than the T1 3/4 parts that have "room" for a big lense. BillW

>>QUOTING>> Thought I'd ask. (Also I second the use of the Radio Shack LED's - they have Red 5000mcd IIRC, Yellow 8000 mcd units also, though it IS Radio Shack, and you can't always guarantee they'll have 'em in stock. I have a local store where I know the purchasing agent, she stocks anything I need, I just have to give her a call in advance & Jody calls me when it's in...) Think a LED flashlight on these things - I'm considering an array of 15 for a wheelchair headlight with ultra long life & no chance of vibration breaking the filamnts. You DO need to keep the lens clean or you'll reduce light output by up to 50%... <<ENDQUOTE<< One "feature" with LED illumination that makes it very good for some applications but not so good for general purpose illumination is that the light is nearly mono- chromatic (white LED's excepted). Although shining a yellow LED on a white surface may produce illumination that LOOKS about the same as red+green, it's almost im- possible to see the color of objects lit with the single LED. It's possible that using red+yellow+orange would provide enough different wavelengths of light to provide some useful color perception, but I would not rely on any single LED color to do so. PS--I think I found another thingie I needed to uncheck in Messysoft OutToLunch. Is the WINMAIL.DAT thing gone (at last)?

>PS--I think I found another thingie I needed to uncheck >in Messysoft OutToLunch. Is the WINMAIL.DAT thing gone >(at last)? > YESSSSSS! Thank you John! Sean +-------------------------------+ | Sean Breheny | | Amateur Radio Callsign: KA3YXM| | Electrical Engineering Student| +-------------------------------+ Save lives, please look at http://www.all.org Personal page: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/shb7 EraseMEshb7spamspamBeGonecornell.edu Phone(USA): (607) 253-0315 ICQ #: 3329174

John Payson wrote: > <snipped my stuff out> > One "feature" with LED illumination that makes it very > good for some applications but not so good for general > purpose illumination is that the light is nearly mono- > chromatic (white LED's excepted). Although shining a > yellow LED on a white surface may produce illumination > that LOOKS about the same as red+green, it's almost im- > possible to see the color of objects lit with the single > LED. > > It's possible that using red+yellow+orange would provide > enough different wavelengths of light to provide some > useful color perception, but I would not rely on any > single LED color to do so. > > PS--I think I found another thingie I needed to uncheck > in Messysoft OutToLunch. Is the WINMAIL.DAT thing gone > (at last)? WINMAIL.DAT is toast! <G> You got the right check box. Great! For Robin's wheelchair, having her avoid chuckholes (which'll break wheelchair frames) and broken glass (which'll hurt tires & hound feet), and avoiding running off curbs or into curbs, is quite fine (Her chair moves at a BRISK pace at full throttle, slow to medium run speed actually! Fast puppy! She gets Zeuss running pretty hard on the 5 blocks from here to her church, not quite full speed but 80% or so.) She needs illumination to see, but I'm not sure that she cares what color of dirt or concrete or asphalt she's running over <G> Not a bad idea to go white, though, or white for close up with orange "fog lighting" for distance vision... Sure would help the power budget compared to a car fog light <G> And in field tests, we may find that she doesn't like orange LED lighting at all. In which case "back to the drawing screen" <G> (someone mentioned HP White LED's - another thing for me to look for - Great!) Mark, RemoveMEmwillisKILLspamnwlink.com