Al_Havemann
Enlightened
Has anyone thought about building a good led based reading lamp? I'm not talking about a flashlight or those little battery lamps, what I need is a really high quality floor lamp for reading (and my wife hates floor lamps).
Here's what I have in mind.
A Cree (or multiple maybe?) based, adjustable height floor lamp with a goose neck or something to allow precise, "over the shoulder", positioning. It needs to be AC powered and preferably have a lens or other method of focusing that tightly floods an 18-20 inch area at a distance of 3 feet without artifacts that would interfere with reading.
It would be ideal if the focus could be adjusted as needed, maybe with a sliding hood or something. The height should adjust enough that it can be dropped behind a recliner when not in use and the goose neck long and stiff enough to allow positioning without sag. It should also be rugged and break down for traveling.
Since my eyes have a lot of age in them, it needs to be really bright; preferably the page should be illuminated like outdoors on a bright, but slightly overcast day. I've found that with this much light on a page I'm able to read comfortably for long periods without much of the usual eye strain.
I built a lamp like this a while back and it turned out well enough that I know this design has the potential to be a great reading light if it was built by a pro (which I'm not).
I used a microphone stand with a 16" goose neck and fitted a home made head holding a Luxeon V. I used a commercial buck circuit that's fed from a 12v DC wall wart. The booster holds the Lux V at near maximum output of about 120 lumen's. This worked out reasonably well as a proof of concept, but it really needs a means of focusing and far better construction, in other words, professional design and execution.
The Lux V gets hot over time despite extensive heat sinking, which leads me to believe a Cree, or multiple Crees would be better suited for the job, although I have to admit that even with hundreds of hot running hours on it, the LuxV it hasn't missed a beat. I depend on it despite my wife's opinion that it's "probably the ugliest thing she's ever seen" (and she's right, it is).
Even though it's crudely built, it's much better for reading than a $200.00 floor lamp I bought that uses a 55 watt CF tube. Not that the Led lamp is brighter than the CF, it's not; but because of its narrow, even illumination and the very precise positioning, it doesn't have any glare, bright spots or shadows. The amount of illumination is adequate but I'd prefer a lot more, even better would be adjustable output.
It's just a thought since I haven't had any luck finding what I need, that maybe some of you who really have the know-how and machining capability might consider the possibility of designing and manufacturing such a lamp.
Consider that there's a big market here, age has its way, like it or not. More than just the narrow market of a bunch of flashlight aficionado's (not that there's anything wrong with that!), but the very real possibility of a much broader market of people who really like to read and would buy a lamp that is expressly designed for that specific purpose by a pro. One that puts the noon time sun right on a page of a book without shadows or glare.
I've paid over $200.00 for reading lights in the past and I'd pay more for a really good, tightly designed and executed light with those capabilities
Think about it.
Al
Here's what I have in mind.
A Cree (or multiple maybe?) based, adjustable height floor lamp with a goose neck or something to allow precise, "over the shoulder", positioning. It needs to be AC powered and preferably have a lens or other method of focusing that tightly floods an 18-20 inch area at a distance of 3 feet without artifacts that would interfere with reading.
It would be ideal if the focus could be adjusted as needed, maybe with a sliding hood or something. The height should adjust enough that it can be dropped behind a recliner when not in use and the goose neck long and stiff enough to allow positioning without sag. It should also be rugged and break down for traveling.
Since my eyes have a lot of age in them, it needs to be really bright; preferably the page should be illuminated like outdoors on a bright, but slightly overcast day. I've found that with this much light on a page I'm able to read comfortably for long periods without much of the usual eye strain.
I built a lamp like this a while back and it turned out well enough that I know this design has the potential to be a great reading light if it was built by a pro (which I'm not).
I used a microphone stand with a 16" goose neck and fitted a home made head holding a Luxeon V. I used a commercial buck circuit that's fed from a 12v DC wall wart. The booster holds the Lux V at near maximum output of about 120 lumen's. This worked out reasonably well as a proof of concept, but it really needs a means of focusing and far better construction, in other words, professional design and execution.
The Lux V gets hot over time despite extensive heat sinking, which leads me to believe a Cree, or multiple Crees would be better suited for the job, although I have to admit that even with hundreds of hot running hours on it, the LuxV it hasn't missed a beat. I depend on it despite my wife's opinion that it's "probably the ugliest thing she's ever seen" (and she's right, it is).
Even though it's crudely built, it's much better for reading than a $200.00 floor lamp I bought that uses a 55 watt CF tube. Not that the Led lamp is brighter than the CF, it's not; but because of its narrow, even illumination and the very precise positioning, it doesn't have any glare, bright spots or shadows. The amount of illumination is adequate but I'd prefer a lot more, even better would be adjustable output.
It's just a thought since I haven't had any luck finding what I need, that maybe some of you who really have the know-how and machining capability might consider the possibility of designing and manufacturing such a lamp.
Consider that there's a big market here, age has its way, like it or not. More than just the narrow market of a bunch of flashlight aficionado's (not that there's anything wrong with that!), but the very real possibility of a much broader market of people who really like to read and would buy a lamp that is expressly designed for that specific purpose by a pro. One that puts the noon time sun right on a page of a book without shadows or glare.
I've paid over $200.00 for reading lights in the past and I'd pay more for a really good, tightly designed and executed light with those capabilities
Think about it.
Al
