Metku.net

Hi again,

Just an update; received my rings today! Surprisingly, the order from DX came in under two weeks! Ship date was marked as the 21st of Janurary. I ordered both the 90mm and 120mm identical to the ones in the article. Unfortunately, the B+W 72mm filter I have is slightly too wide in diameter for the 90mm ring light to fit snug around. I plan on buying and scrapping a cheapo 72mm Circular Polarizer as it'll be easier to mount (rather than having to rotate the entire thing when putting it on).

For the CD case enclosure, I've decided to flip it around and mount the lights on the bottom of the cd spindle case, and use the room on top to accommodate battery and switches. I have a 10k potentiometer/audio taper that will be used to adjust light intensity output, and another switch to flip power on/off. For battery, I decided to just use a standard 9v block, perfect for portability's sake. I will update some pictures soon. Thanks for the wonderful article again

No problem. Make sure you keep us updated on your progress!

Almost complete. Just waiting on the 72mm CPL from eB@y to glue into the center... might need some additional sanding, too. I'll probably gaffer tape the entire thing in black to give it a more "professional" look
http://i45.tinypic.com/2dgkvol.jpg

Excuse the poor engineering!
http://i49.tinypic.com/2zzrxuw.jpg

hi,
great invention !!

I have a question,
i bought from DX 2 set of LED rings .

Can I give them power of 14V or is it too much?

Thank you for that you share with us your ideas.

regards,
the-cat007

14 could be too much for them. They might survive it if you use them only for a few seconds at a time but the leds will get warm very fast thus killing/dimming them early.

hi, thanks for the answer,

So what's the maximum that can be put?

Everything over 12 volts is too much. I believe I tested the ring with 12.6 volts and it started to heat up pretty fast. Just test and see/feel how the temperature starts to rise. Anything above "barely warm" is too much.

OK, thank you

i appreciated your help.

thank you!!!

I'm thinking of doing this kind of light to use with S90 with ring led sizes 60m and 80mm.

I'm just wondering what kind of battery should I use. If I make a battery pack of 10 x 1,2V AAA-sized 1100mAH ones, do you think it will last in use more than ten minutes?

Another option would be 10 x 1,2 AA 2600mAH.

The AAA sized would be much more compact, so it would be better in that way (I'm planning to make an attachment box I can put to the bottom of S90 with tripod screw).

In the article I state that the 90 mm ring uses 120 milliamps with 12 volts. 80 mm ring has the same amount of leds and the 60 mm one has slightly less.

So, we could use 120 mA and for example 100 mA in our calculations. The two rings would consume 220 mA when turned on and you have that 1100 mAh batterypack. In theory it should last 5 hours. I don't think you will get that much with full brightness but it should work more than "10 minutes".

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/ ... Fhobby.htm

Check this link for dedicated led dimmers. I bought the LDH-8A and it works great for this ring light.

I ordered the 120mm, 90mm and 70mm LED rings from DealExtreme and they arrived a couple days ago. I took the ideas from the article and added a bit... The housing goes a step further in that I used the DVD spindle case lid as the lens of the finished LED ringlight and the base of the spindle case for the backside. The lid was trimmed to sit flush with the raised portions of the base. 55mm holes were then cut to match the inside diameter of the smallest LED ring. 3.5mm minijack cables were then attached to the LED rings and threaded through the DVD spindle case base to allow for strain relief.

Two 9v alkaline batteries are wired in series to provide 18v which is then fed to a NTE966 voltage regulator which drops the voltage down to a constant 12v. From there, three 3.5mm minijack ports are connected in series. All the parts fit neatly into an Altoids tin which can be mounted to the bottom of the camera so that everything is handsfree. Each LED ring can be powered separately simply by plugging or unplugging the respective cable.

A modified Cokin filter holder is mounted to the back of the LED ringlight and the whole assembly attaches to the lens via a standard Cokin adapter ring. This allows the LED ringlight to be mounted on any lens that you have the proper sized Cokin adapter ring. However, vignetting may be an issue with lenses requiring filters larger than 55mm or with wide viewing angles.

Pics to prove it happened...

Nicely done The battery box was a great idea.