NEW! BHT/U_LED Illumination System for 20W BH2 Scopes
As an Electrical Engineer by day, and a wanna’ be microscope technician on weekends, the development of the BHT/U_LED Illuminator for the BHT/BHTU was probably inevitable. Thanks go to James Indsto for providing me with the motivation needed to finally undertake this long-planned, and long-delayed project. Thanks also to Eric Sprehe for providing the custom machine work needed to get to a working prototype that actually fits well on the microscope.
If you’re in the market for an LED upgrade for your BHT or BHTU, please contact me. I can set you up with an excellent performing BHT/U_LED Illuminator, ready to go, for something like a quarter to a half the cost of the commercially available LED solutions. If you’re handy with a soldering iron and wish to assemble parts of this yourself, you can save even more money. If you wish to design your own drive electronics, I can provide the stand-alone 3W LED Lamphouse for something like 80 bucks, shipping included. Add another $20 for the 5W version.
A few quick specifications. The 3W LED version runs with a 6V DC power supply, and puts out the same lighting intensity as the high-output version of the original 20W halogen lamphouse (the one with the internal reflector behind the lamp), and about 24% more then the older version without the reflector. The 5W LED lamphouse can be operated with a 6V DC power supply, and it will put out about 45% more light than the high-output halogen lamphouse. The 5W version can also be operated with a 7.0V DC power supply, in which case it will output about 65% more light than the high-output halogen lamphouse. The lamphouse is made of ABS plastic. with 4mm spring plugs for excellent retention on the scope. Both versions have a color temperature of 4000k – 4500k, for maximal color rendering index.
I’m not trying to make money selling these. In fact, considering the dozens of prototype variations I built, evaluated, and tweaked, and considering the pile of mechanical and electrical components I bought, evaluated, and ultimately ruled-out before settling on the final design, I don’t see how I could ever expect to break even on this project. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention all the reels of plastic filament and the hundreds of hours of machine time this whole thing took. This project was definitely a labor of love, for the purpose of equipping a few of my scopes with LED lighting, and to maybe help a few BH-2 owners keep their scopes running. There are over five hours of machine time involved in making the plastic components of a single BHT/U_LED Illuminator. Additionally, the LED emitter, heatsinks, and electrical components add considerable cost. A good two hours or more of hand labor go into the assembly and testing of each one of these. Holy hell, come to think of it, why am I doing this? I never intended to spend my weekends building dimmer boxes! I suppose I could make all of this “break even” if I got paid $550 for them, like the big guys do… But I digress. See below for current pricing.
NOTE: I currently have enough parts on hand to build about 15 more of these units. Depending on the level of interest I get, I may order parts for another production run, when these are gone, but that’s still very much TBD. While they last, at least, these are the prices:
3W LED LAMPHOUSE: $65
5W LED LAMPHOUSE: $85
MOHAWK BOX (PWM DIMMER): $60
6V / 2A DC POWER SUPPLY: $15
7V / 2A DC POWER SUPPLY: $20
SHIPPING (CONTINENTAL US): $15
If you’re handy with a soldering iron and wish to wire the Mohawk Box yourself, I can provide a complete kit, with all of the hard-to-assemble parts already done for you (i.e., the epoxy bonding of the heatsinks to the cover and the thermal mounting of ballast resistors to the heatsinks) for $40. Hand wiring these things gets to be a drag after a while, so I’m totally OK with you doing that part.
Note that the Mohawk Box was designed to work with the 3W/5w BHT/U_LED Lamphouses, and to support a future 10W LED unit for the BHS. So if the BHS version ever happens, you’ll be all set to drive it. The DC power supply is a standard US (120V) wall wart, with a fixed output of 6.0V DC and a continuous output current rating of up to 2A. The power supply uses a standard 5.5mm/2.1mm plug, with the center pin positive, and the outer ring negative. If you already have a suitable power supply, you won’t need this one.
Full instructions for the BHT/U_LED are not yet available. For now, this document should get you going with your new BHT/U_LED Illuminator.