Making LED ring lamp for drill press chuck - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: goriath
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2023, 05:42:11 pm
content: Hi everybody,As the title says, I'm making a LED lamp that does mount on the head of the quill of a bench drill press. I intend to use the collar from the safety guard that originally came with the machine, in the meanwhile I already made a circular base in aluminium, on which I glued with thermal tape two led ring (people that elaborate their cars call themangel eyes), the first is 90mm, the second 70mm, together with the two led drivers, one for ring. Led rings and drivers are connected in parallel and feeded with 12VDC from a little 10W transformer (HLK-10M12L from HiLink); the pics I attached should clear things up...I originally made some testing to find the needed wattage for both rings and I measured 6.7W continuos power with a peak of about 7W, so the transformer I selected should be more than adequate (I need something very compact to put inside the drill head).I'm ready to go further with the last things and final assembly but I deemed to test it first, so I found that after some minutes after rings are lighted, some of the tiny leds inside starts to make weaker light and stops to make homogeneous lighting; when I tried them on the fly after the purchase I remember they were ok, but maybe I turned them on for too little time, I don't know...What could be the cause? My guess is simply cheap quality of the rings, but I would like some other opinion

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2023, 05:54:58 pm
content: heat problem ? either the 12v module that gets too hot and reduce power, or the ledsyou should try the leds outside the drill press, with another power supply, for a longer time.

author: goriath
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2023, 06:03:16 pm
content: Quote from: kripton2035 on August 02, 2023, 05:54:58 pmHeat problem is what I am thinking right now, since the first try I did was on the fly, in air w/o aluminum plate. I measured temps now on the alu plate with an IR meter and I reach something about 45°C.Could be anything I can do aside from rethink completely aluminum plate? Detachparadoxicallythe rings from the alu plate?

author: Pinkus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2023, 06:15:55 pm
content: I also did this once and was not satisfied. In my experience, this does not give good usable light; without shadows it becomes difficult to place the drill to an exact position. In my opinion, lateral lighting (possibly from two sides) would be better.

author: goriath
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2023, 06:46:47 pm
content: I will test all the assembly again putting a fan in front of it trying to cool down the whole thing and see if things get better, just to point me out in right direction, then I will think what should I do to solve the issueifreally fixable with this design.But a simpler plan B to get light on the machine is going necessarily to be on the way...Damn, I worked on this so hard in my spare timeI will keep you up

author: goriath
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2023, 06:50:41 pm
content: Ok, let's go with what I've found todayI discovered what the problem is:meor better say my eyesCooling down the hot plate did nothing, since there is nothing wrong with led's light; if you look at those tiny led too long your eyes automatically adjust the contrast and the brightness, so whatever led you'll going to look at, you'll perceive it as the weaker spot.That's pretty evident, I have not to explain that to anyone hereWell, another evident thing is that the plate gets very hot, I can't stick my fingers on it, so I must add heatsinks on the back to improve cooling in some wayI added a pic taken several minutes after I turned led rings on, since if my eyes lie to me, the camera of the phone can't