couldn't think of a better place to put this, so here goes!
My wife got this makeup mirror thing with lights from Goodwill ages ago, but the output was pretty feeble and colour rendition appalling, which I'm told isn't the best for putting on makeup. So what does all that equal? LEDs!
Here's what it looked like before (1s exposure and auto)
and inside
bit of my trusty 1in.sq. alu tube and dremel work :)
add a battery (big thanks to Garrybunk that gave it to me ages ago), should be about 5Ah in parallel
close up of the battery PCB and charger board
done! Each pair (top and bottom) of Nichia 119 LEDs are in parallel with a single AMC7135 chip, using the original switch, so she can have bottom or top or all. I was going to do the top LEDs each with a 7135 chip of their own, but Ingrid said that she'd like to be able to see after putting her make up on.
charger port at the back
all on
same pics as before (1s and auto)
Ingrid was happy, which is what matters at the end of the day. Doesn't hurt to have extra emergency lighting either :)
Nice retrofit. It sounds like it can also be run for a while if the power ever goes out.
now a cool update to this would be to use individually wired triple boards, and have the selector switch change the average tint for different lighting conditions (which, from my limited makeup knowledge makes a difference).
I'm sure these high CRI 4000+ K leds will find their way in many homes soon because the light they give is (for home use) unprecedented bright and of good quality, as if bringing daylight inside.
I just installed one of the new Ikea ledstrip lights above the bathroom mirror, and although it may not be Nichia high CRI quality light (the new Ikea 'standard' seems 87 CRI), the light quality is way better than anything we had before!
wow how those things have been cheapened!
the ones i service for a large customer started out in the 70’s
they have several hundred of them and they will keep them as long as i can get proper 6w high cri tubes.
the first led ones they bought sucked color matching wise.
i suppose when all my stock of 6w vitalites are used up i can work on a high cri 5000k retrofit.
these folks like them so well that they routinely mail them in from hollywood ca to ohio to get them fixed.
i thought of modding the one i keep here but i would probably incur the wrath of the ladyfriend.
it would then be different from hers at home.
whatever.
i would have thought the tinted incan could produce decent color rendering.
or did they cheapen the filters?does that one have the selectable filters?
how do you know I'm not Ingrid and that there is no Matt?! He could be buried under the veggie patch and no would know..
Anyway, ahem, it should run on full for ~7h or a bit less, although I'm not 100% sure about thermals. There's plenty of surface area on the tubing, but only 2 vents either side for fresh air. Thankfully she's not that into make up that she'll be pushing it's limits :)
I thought about fancier electronics and the like, but these LEDs have pretty faithful colour reproduction from what I can tell (it's even pretty obvious from the comparison pictures). That plus the increased brightness should do the job. I do slightly prefer the 119s from Fasttech over the ones I got from TP - they seem ever so slightly warmer. I'd love to do more lights around the house with them, but there are other more pressing projects :D
