Just started a dental flashlight project

[dahleryan]

Constantine, how has did the project turn out. I am trying to decide if I should tackle something like this. I too am a dental student looking for a cheaper solution. Are you taking any orders???

 

[constantine_a_f]

Constantine, how has did the project turn out. I am trying to decide if I should tackle something like this. I too am a dental student looking for a cheaper solution. Are you taking any orders???

Hi,

Sorry I 've not answered earlier. I am in the middst of a delayed final examination period. I use the light every day now. I have not had the time to upgrade it with a new lower consuption led and a new power source as mentioned. I made some of them last year for 8 students here at my school. I believe its easy to make them if you find someone to fabricate the body for you. I can email you the design for it. Just send me a pm. Have you seen a previous post of another dental student that sells them?

 

[constantine_a_f]

Cool light! When I made mine, I used, neodymium magnet to mount them. its the best mounting system.

I'm not even remotely satisfied with 120 lumens however. I'll take a larger light for more lumens.

Isn't 120 Lumens a bit too much? I mean, I use a lower lumens led and when I accidentaly flash it on someone (thankfully not my patients, as they wear protective glasses) the are extremely annoyed by it. I can see everything with it, without burning out the detail or making it unconfortable after 4+ hours of work. I believe that a more luminous led would hurt my eyes or give me a headache after a while. There is also the power consumption thing.

 

[dahleryan]

Hi,

Sorry I 've not answered earlier. I am in the middst of a delayed final examination period. I use the light every day now. I have not had the time to upgrade it with a new lower consuption led and a new power source as mentioned. I made some of them last year for 8 students here at my school. I believe its easy to make them if you find someone to fabricate the body for you. I can email you the design for it. Just send me a pm. Have you seen a previous post of another dental student that sells them?

Unfortunately, I can't pm until I have more posts. I would appreciate it if you would email me the plans. I don't really want to put my email up here so could you PM me? It might work that way. Thanks for your help.

 

[darkcurrent]

Unfortunately, I can't pm until I have more posts. I would appreciate it if you would email me the plans. I don't really want to put my email up here so could you PM me? It might work that way. Thanks for your help.

can you send this to [email protected]?


I'm thinking of building this myself


thanks

 

[Zenbaas]

Great work Constantine! Seems these threads have a knack for popping up every now and then. It seems the incredibly high prices of commercial dental lights have driven quite a few people to investigate building their own. I will be adding myself to that list soon as this seems like the only way that some of us will have the means to use an light without strapping a. Fenix TK70 to our foreheads

Have you made any more changes to your design..?

 

[constantine_a_f]

Hello everyone. I am going to update the plans in the following month. I am aiming at a 60usd cost including batteries.

I will post the plans online and I can also probably manufacture some for anyone on base cost (60 usd) if I have some time.

 

[Rimbaldo]

Hi Constantine!

I´m a dentist like yourself, and a couple of years ago I had the same idea as yours, but gave up the dental-led project in the beginning. I ended up building my own 4.5x TTL loupes, with adjustable working distance which I use till today. I didn´t build it all, the oculars I bought already built from med-lite, but I did all the adaptations and set-up. I can show you pictures if you´re interested, and explain how I did it. After reading all of your posts, it gave me will again to build the led!

I have a lot of questions! eeheh.. May I ask some for you?

Thanks!

 

[slcrugby]

Constatine thanks for the great build information it is fantastic to see the progress of the light.

I too am a dental student and would love to replicate your success. It would be great to hear about the outcome of the upgrades you made at the end of 2012.

Also out of interest how did you end up mounting the light to the loupes?
Did you ever look at putting a composite filter on your light?

Would be great if you had the time to share these new experiences with us.

 

[Zenbaas]

Hello everyone. I am going to update the plans in the following month. I am aiming at a 60usd cost including batteries.

I will post the plans online and I can also probably manufacture some for anyone on base cost (60 usd) if I have some time.

So I'm guessing this never happened?

 

[MikeAusC]

Wow, what a surprise.

Someone promises generous rewards if members help them develop a product, so we help, then wait . . . . and wait . . . . and wait . . . . and wait

 

[Harold_B]

So what exactly would a person want in a Dental Illuminator? An intensely focused beam or a uniformly lit area? Is an adjustable aperture necessary or just nice to have? What other requirements would there be as far as performance?

 

[slcrugby]

Hi Harold good questions.

Personal preference for me would be a uniformly let area within a certain size to avoid light in the patients eyes. Adjustable aperture may be of great benefit as the working distance of the loupes is a set working length. I would even say dimming is of limited benefit but some people might like that. The ability to add a filter to filter out light wavelength of 470nm would possibly be the most important addition. A unit that didn't create too much heat with extended use but was light weight. High cri would also be important for tissue diagnosis.

I was at a tradeshow the other day asking reps a few questions about their products and was a little disappointed in their knowledge of their $2000+ items they had for sale.

Would be great to hear any advice I am planning to pit a few together after the middle of the year exams when I actually get some spare time.

Rather than promise all these things to people and neglect to follow up as I am abut of a noob when it comes to this and it will be my first project. Rather I should be able to manage to get back to those of you who help contribute I'd be happy to share any feedback, designs or plans that work after an initial trial period...

 

[Harold_B]

OK. There's a couple things on the list I where might be able to have something to contribute. I'll need more information on the specs though. Spot size needs to be defined by the beam angle, preferably a half angle half max specification. How much "huzz" light around the main spot (beyond the cut off) is acceptable? Spec this in percent. Uniformity of the output should be defined as percent change over a specific area at a distance. I assume the 470nm filter is for use while applying UV adhesives? Overall size of the package would be nice to know also.

We recently designed a series of optics for Dow Corning that will be on display in their booth at LightFair for demonstrating their injection moldible silicone. The optics were designed as demo kits using retrofits for the Maglite XL-50 and there may be an option to use one of those systems. The one that comes to mind is a collimator that uses three aspheric lenses. Adding the proper diffusor would get the uniform spot and it would be bright. We've done in this our lab so I know it works but we'd have to get the right diffusor spec'd for this application.

I'll be at LightFair all next week so I can keep my eyes open for high CRI LEDs in the 100-200lm range.

 

[slcrugby]

Excellent. Thanks for the questions. If anyone else has anything to contribute in relation to answering the questions or offering a different opinion then please post.

- The filter is only used during use of composite filling materials as they are a light curing material so the filter helps us increase working time.
- Overall size of the package can be adjusted as I am planning to get the components and then design the body and go to a CNC mill to cut the aluminium to my specs. Ideally the smaller and lighter the unit the better as the more weight we have placed on the loupes the less comfortable they are to wear and the more they move out of position. I am currently aiming to get it down below 15mm external diameter.
- The huzz light outside of the cut off I am not sure what a realistic value it here but the lower or close to 0% the better (0-15% might be acceptable).
- Now the half angle half max value I am guessing that full width half max is similiar? I used that to work out that the beam angle should be somewhere between 5-8 degrees to give an appropriate sized spot
- Uniformity of output the closer to 100% the better and I am not sure as to what an acceptable value is but >80%.

Hopefully this is what you were after Harold if not let me know and I can go back out there and do some more research to answer the questions put forward.

Thanks again.

 

[Zenbaas]

One thing which is also worth mentioning is long runtime of course. So not generating a massive amount of heat in the unit is also something worth considering. A large battery pack would probably solve runtime issues though.

 

[slcrugby]

Thank Zenbaas,

Yeah I will need a battery that will give me at least 10 hours. Idea behind this is that it will give you a full day working time and some to spare so that you can charge over night. I am looking at incorporating the driver and a potentiometer into the battery pack. I am struggling to find an external battery pack which offers this options as premade at a reasonable price. So will initially start to look around at modifying an existing pack to meet the requirements. Possibly a powerbank designed for mobiles but regulate the power before the USB output. Looking to drive the LED at about 350mA to keep the heat down.

Anyone know where a battery pack can be sourced easily? I have looked at numerous places but short of designing my own and going to a Mill or Moulder I am out of luck...

Cheers rugby

 

[Harold_B]

Another question (I might have missed it) but how many do you plan to build?

 

[Zenbaas]

Guys any updates on this.? I'm really keen to try and build one for my daily use as I really want to increase the quality of my work and this can only help in that regard.

 

[Zenbaas]

Ok nie have ordered some high CRI leds as well as the luxeon 700mA driver and a few other odds and ends.

What I am wondering about now is what batteries to use. I think 18650s is something I would like to try out first.

Other than the link to the tenergy battery carrier seen earlier in this thread had anyone seen anything else that looks worth investigating?

Something like this maybe...? http://dx.com/p/14-8v-4-x-18650-battery-holder-case-box-with-leads-103855

I also found this battery carrier which seems to be a much better bet and If I could Mod it then it should work quite nicely..! ( http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/user.php?act=affiliate&goodsid=1499 )