News, Updates and Other Minutiae
Help wanted Can anyone help identify a piece of music from the 70's? See the home page for the details
November 2021 A desk lamp mod (well, more of a bodge) - halogen to LED conversion using LED strip. Find it under the 'Misc' category.
August 2021 The Simple DDS VFO has been updated to add band change functionality. It is on it's own page in the homebrew menu.
June 2021 Battery Monitor project updated and finalised.
May 2021 Added another Rant about the scabby manuals that come with stuff these days. Added page and files for a 3d printed box for the Noise Canceller courtesy of Gary VK6GS
January 2021 Paypal button added to Noise Canceller page. Updated the PK3 programming adapter - some spare pcb's available.
Privacy Policy uploaded. It may be viewed at the Privacy Policy link in the footer. As of October 2017, I will be asking for a donation in exchange for providing custom modified code for my projects to help keep this site available. GPDR and all that stuff In accordance with various bits of legislation around the world, either currently in force, about to come into force or proposed, you will now find that annoying "We use cookies" notice at the top of this website. The full Privacy Policy is available at the Privacy Policy link in the footer at the bottom of the page. (If you don't know what GPDR is, Google it. Real scary shit for ANYBODY with a web presence.)
Desk Lamp Bodge
"Bodge" - A bodge is an inelegant but workable “fix” applied to extend functionality or correct a problem. On my computer desk I have a small desk lamp with a 20w halogen globe and as per usual with these things, the globe always blows at the most inconvenient time, which, of course, it did the other night. This is the type of lamp where the voltage is fed up the two telescopic arms to the lamp at the top (some people seem to have all sorts of problems with these, I have two, no problem apart from excessive globe blowing). The switch had failed some time ago and has been replaced with a more substantial toggle style unit.
I decided to do a quick and dirty LED conversion (aka "bodge") using LED strip which runs off 12V (seeing as it was a 12v lamp anyway). Rather than go in to a long winded "first I did this, than that and blah, blah, blah", I'll just post the pic's and some one-liners.
Disassembly is just 4 screws (6 if you include the connections to the arms).
The original insert is used as a template to make a new plate from some scrap pcb material.
Not very neat, but then all it needs to do is work.
The two different styles of LED strip are, the black stuff - cool white and the other warm white. I find the glare of cool white LED's too much so I mix in warm white to tone it down a bit. Under the plate with the LED strip on is a bridge rectifier made up of 4 x 1N4007's (no smoothing cap yet), the DC voltage is ~11.7V. I fitted the rectifier at the top end so as to keep AC on the arms to avoid any possible problems with electrolysis from dust, dirt, humidity etc etc, plus it leaves all the wiring in the base original. While this isn't 'overbright', it's only purpose is to illuminate the keyboard so I can see the keys to type stuff/navigate the pc etc and works perfectly well for that. I have another one of these, along with some defunct GU10 12V LED units (halogen replacements) and I will see if one can be retrofitted in to the existing metal mount (they were cheapies with the usual problem of the bridge rectifier diodes dying because the manufacturers are cheapskates). Will post that one later if it works.
