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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 11:33 am 
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Location: Southern Gulf Islands, Beautiful British Columbia, Canada
G'Day fellow Air-gunners!

A while back I purchased a ProChrono DLX chronograph with laptop /smartphone bluetooth inerface, and it has performed remarkably well. However, like all measuring devices which "look" for the shadow of a projectile in motion to calculate velocity, lighting conditions indoors and out have to be just right for consistent results. If there is too little / too much / uneven light, these units just don't work well, and that can become quite frustrating when one wishes to take measurements.

I decided to do a little DIY lighting project with some rigid / semi-flexible 12 volt LED lighting strips purchased on eBay for $1.00 apiece. Throw in an unused 12 Volt DC AC adapter left over from some electronic device recycled long ago, a small amount of Household Goop adhesive available from any local hardware store, a couple feet of wire stripped from an unused computer cable and Viola! A new, very inexpensive, reliable high intensity lighting system that works flawlessly indoors and out! For portability, a standard 12 volt battery can also be used as an alternate power supply for the LED strips.

Cheers!

Avianmanor


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 11:46 am 
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Location: Guelph, Ontario
Avianmanor wrote:
G'Day fellow Air-gunners!

A while back I purchased a ProChrono DLX chronograph with laptop /smartphone bluetooth inerface, and it has performed remarkably well. However, like all measuring devices which "look" for the shadow of a projectile in motion to calculate velocity, lighting conditions indoors and out have to be just right for consistent results. If there is too little / too much / uneven light, these units just don't work well, and that can become quite frustrating when one wishes to take measurements.

I decided to do a little DIY lighting project with some rigid / semi-flexible 12 volt LED lighting strips purchased on eBay for $1.00 apiece. Throw in an unused 12 Volt DC AC adapter left over from some electronic device recycled long ago, a small amount of Household Goop adhesive available from any local hardware store, a couple feet of wire stripped from an unused computer cable and Viola! A new, very inexpensive, reliable high intensity lighting system that works flawlessly indoors and out! For portability, a standard 12 volt battery can also be used as an alternate power supply for the LED strips.

Cheers!

Avianmanor
Very nice indeed, I had to buy the factory one for my chrony. Costing an arm and leg.[emoji24]

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 2:56 pm 
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lIghting kits are so overpriced...

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 4:17 pm 
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This will work great, providing the LEDs do not pulse due to the AC adapter not putting out pure DC.... Some cheap LEDs and some cheap AC adapters, when used in combination, can give error readings, or incorrect velocity readings.... Just a heads up....

Bob

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 5:08 pm 
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One way to eliminate the pulse in LED is to use an old cellphone charger

rsterne wrote:
This will work great, providing the LEDs do not pulse due to the AC adapter not putting out pure DC.... Some cheap LEDs and some cheap AC adapters, when used in combination, can give error readings, or incorrect velocity readings.... Just a heads up....

Bob


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:28 pm 
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Location: Southern Gulf Islands, Beautiful British Columbia, Canada
Yes, a well filtered DC power supply is a must to remove any hint of 60 Hz ripple that would induce flicker in the LED output. The trick is to ensure the maximum DC current rating of the AC adapter is at least double the load -in this case the two rigid LED strips draw 750 ma each, which totals 1.5 amperes of current. The old power supply I repurposed is rated at 3.2 amps. This will ensure sufficient filtering of AC ripple.

Unfortunately pistolero, cell phone or any other dedicated electronics "charger" is probably the last thing one would want to use. The reason for this is rippled DC is more efficient at charging a battery than pure DC, and an adapter designed for charging purposes will have a minimum of filtering in order to provide a rippled output. This would likely cause significant flicker of the LEDs and as Bob suggested, cause erroneous readings of the chronograph. Have you ever tried using a car battery charger to power a 12 volt stereo system? Tons of 60 Hz hum -this happens because there is absolutely no filtering of AC ripple, and that ripple current is amplified by the stereo as hum.

The cleanest DC source of course would be a 12 volt battery, which I suggested as an optional power source in my original post.

Cheers!

Aaron

pistolero wrote:
One way to eliminate the pulse in LED is to use an old cellphone charger

rsterne wrote:
This will work great, providing the LEDs do not pulse due to the AC adapter not putting out pure DC.... Some cheap LEDs and some cheap AC adapters, when used in combination, can give error readings, or incorrect velocity readings.... Just a heads up....

Bob

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:48 pm 
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I actually use the cellphone charger soldered on the smaller puck light that uses 3 Double AA battery and it was just right, no flickering observed and been using it for while now. for the 12 volts led off course you'll need power supply that is regulated and filtered to get the best result if you're not gonna use the battery.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:58 pm 
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Location: Coalmont BC
If you install NiCd or NiMH batteries, and use an AC charger to keep them charged, the batteries will do a fine job of removing the ripple and keeping the voltage for the LEDs constant.... Another advantage is that if you want to go portable, the batteries will be fully charged.... In addition, you can check for any errors caused by the AC adapter by simply plugging/unplugging it and seeing if you get strange results when plugged in....

Bob

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Airsonal; Too many! Springers, Pumpers, CO2, but I love my PCPs and developing them!
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 2:09 pm 
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Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Nice to see others aware that most chronographs are designed to measure against the diffusers, rather than the light source....

-D.S.

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