Bought a Amscope SE400-Z, need advice for LED upgrade.

Other Types of Lights LED Light Bulbs
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Today I was lucky to pick up a second hand Amscope SE400-Z Stereo Microscope, I was eyeballing for one since I registered here, I realized that I need better sight for SMD soldering since my eye’s are not like they supposed to be. Yesterday I bought one on our national auction site and picket up today. It is missing one 20x eyepiece and the eye guards.

It has a gooseneck LED light and I want to upgrade it with another LED, I want to be able to dim the light too, so I am thinking of a Biscotti driver, or a driver which ramps up and down.

Since I am new to this community I didn’t recognize the LED on the gooseneck, the driver part should be pretty easy, just swap it with original one. LED works with 3.1VDC right now.
Please recommend me a LED which can replace this one to have better lighting, it is not bad right now but I might want to get a little warmer light with higher output.

Here some pictures, if someone recognize the LED I would love to hear it.

It fits nicely on my desk:

The LED:

Power and driver:

3.1VDC:

Optic:

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looks like a generic Chinese no-name Model.

You can swap it with whatever you want. Nichia High-CRI would be my choice

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Indeed some chinese junk led. It works on 3-ish Volt so you can upgrade it with anything on a 20mm star.

If you like I can send you something useful, i.e. a neutral/warmish XM-L2. If you like 3000K I even have a 90 CRI one.

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Thanks for the information guys, I just used the microscope for soldering and the lighting is perfectly balanced for this microscope, the only downside could be reflection from a glossy PCB.

@djozz, I can buy one of your XM-L2 leds but I am also getting some stuff from Simon (Convoy) and I can add one of these to the order, thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it!

What driver do you guys recommend? PCB size does not matter in this application, I really would love a flashlight driver with ramping up/down, or at least 5 modes. The power supply itself is 5VDC so a driver up to 5 volts would work too, and there is also a PCB to step-down to 3V thus a single 18650 battery powered driver is okay too. I could get a S2+ driver with Biscotti but I really like the ramp up/down idea on this microscope.

A button shouldn’t be a problem it has a 20mm switch so I can upgrade to a push on button.

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You have a really nice shop. Mine is ok for my needs. You definitely win!

Repairing a noisy bass amp pre-amp. I replaced the noisy op-amps and socketed them all.

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Nice work shop atbglenn! There is nothing to win, everyone has different needs and setup.
I lost my Weller soldering station years ago, a friend borrowed from me and later he said he never got it from me… so he is not a friend anymore…
I am looking for a Hakko too, but the prices are almost double here.

Last week I added 5 rows more (60 bins) to my wall, I was getting annoyed searching for parts in closed boxes, and all new 5 rows are almost full :person_facepalming:

We went bit off topic there, but I think I am going more off topic with next, if moderators think it doesn’t belong here anymore, please move it and my apologizes for going off topic.

As always I was bit early with starting this topic, I was pretty irritated with the base of Amscope, it was taking unnecessary space on my desk and it was in my way while I was soldering. But getting $300 boom stand which moves around was bit to much, so I did a lot thinking last night.
I have a industrial monitor mount laying around which is really sturdy, so I grabbed the stand and removed the part where the monitor swivel was mounted, and the size of the 3cm deep hole was exactly same as the Y rod of the Amscope stand!

So today after work I mounted the Amscope on the swivel arm and it works like charm, easy to adjust and I can almost work on my entire bench.

When I am finished with soldering I just push it away and nothing is glaring at me in the middle of my bench:

Now the next part where I started the topic about gooseneck light, since the base is gone I don’t have light for the microscope, so I had to come up with something else, and I found this at thingiverse.com with this I could mount a LED ring light, since I don’t have 3D printer, I found a 3D printing service near me on the internet and send the file last night and I could pick it up today.

Unfortunately it did not fit my microscope, it was for older model SE400-Z. The model with light in the middle just behind the scope.
So I needed another LED ring mount, but there was nothing and I never did a CAD drawing for 3D printers but I give it a try today, I was busy for good amount of hours and it should work now, so I send the file to the 3D print service again. We will see if it fits.
This is my model, build from scratch, but the idea is ofc from the guy at thingiverse.com:

Again, sorry for asking a light bulb for the gooseneck light and than changing my mind 2 days later :innocent:

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Really nice tool rack

Here’s where I keep my workshop tools

And the rest of the small room where I do my thing.

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Nice atbglenn, I was using a workshop car of Gedore before but I have a son and he grabs everything from my work room and I was constantly missing something so I decided to hang on the wall. That way I can see what exactly is missing and know who has it :wink:

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SpAwN, My Amscope shipped. I’ll have it Tuesday :slight_smile:

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That’s great atbglenn, let us know if you like it, I am using it for couple days now and it makes things a lot easier for me, I hope you like it too, after all I linked you the deal page and I don’t want to feel bad about it :smiley:

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No worries my friend. I’m sure I’ll love it. I’ve been wanting something like this for a long time, but the prices I’ve seen have been out of my price range.
Tracking info says I’ll have it Thursday the 22nd.

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My LED ring holder was ready today, so I picked up. Since it was my first try with 3D drawing I didn’t think about having little more room so it didn’t fit directly.

Put it under my milling machine and make it little bigger inside where it comes on to scope.

Now it I am waiting for the LED ring to arrive.

Some pics:

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I got mine today. It works much better than I thought it would. To be honest, I have no problem with the LED tint or brightness. I haven’t tried the 20x optics yet. That said the 10x is more than powerful for my needs. Thanks for the recommendation pal!

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Glad to hear atbglenn, to be honest I liked the light after couple times using, but I don’t have light anymore since I don’t use the base anymore.
Waiting on LED ring.

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LED Ring arrived today, it is quite nice specially since it has a dimmer function:

Here the link to my model on Thingiverse: Amscope SE400-Z Led Ring holder (for model with gooseneck light) by Sp4wN - Thingiverse
Ordered a 3D printer too, when it arrives and I learn how to use it, than I will print the latest model adapter I made.

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Nice! Where did you get it?

Oops! I see. I should have scrolled down a bit.

Oops again. I thought it was a link to purchase it.

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I got it from Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Adjustable-144-LED-Ring-Light-illuminator-Lamp-For-Industry-Stereo-Microscope-with-AC-Power/32631988686.html

But since you are in the States, you could get it from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/AmScope-LED-144W-ZK-Adjustable-Illuminator-Microscope/dp/B00JZJO7YC

Keep in mind, you need a adapter to put it on your microscope, it is not a direct fit.