optical help

[GlennW]

I use a dark background whenever possible - navy blue towel, black construction paper.

[Joe Gwinn]

I use a dark background whenever possible - navy blue towel, black construction paper.

I find white paper is better. Then, I see the wire et al in silhouette. This seems to work better, as wires are very shiny and hard to see in reflection.

[GlennW]

I'll have to try white next time winding. I know I like soldering breaks over black since there's usually a piece of 400 wet or dry around. I think the key is a solid color.

[chevalij]

Was thinking about the strobe idea. I beleive it can be done with LEDs. First, why would you need to freeze every rotation? I don't think you could discern the difference between every rotation and every 5th for instance.

There are two ways to do it that "I" can think of. Since I use a simple magnet and reed switch for a counter, I could place a second reed switch opposite the one that activates my counter. By running a low DC voltage from a wall wart through the second reed switch, I could activate a white LED. Of course, I don't run at very high RPM, max 1000. Second is to simply run a straight DC voltage to a flashing LED. They normally flash at about 3Hz. I don't need to see every rotation. Getting a 3Hz view of wire position should be more than adequate as I don't traverse the wire that fast anyway.

The only downfall I can see is possibly having a seizure from the flashing and end up winding a 52k extremely scatterwound strat pickup.

[Joe Gwinn]

Was thinking about the strobe idea. I believe it can be done with LEDs. First, why would you need to freeze every rotation? I don't think you could discern the difference between every rotation and every 5th for instance.

Sure, you can. With a flash per revolution, at reasonable winding speeds, the light looks almost steady. With every fifth turn getting a flash, the flashing would be overpowering.

There are two ways to do it that "I" can think of. Since I use a simple magnet and reed switch for a counter, I could place a second reed switch opposite the one that activates my counter. By running a low DC voltage from a wall wart through the second reed switch, I could activate a white LED. Of course, I don't run at very high RPM, max 1000. Second is to simply run a straight DC voltage to a flashing LED. They normally flash at about 3Hz. I don't need to see every rotation. Getting a 3Hz view of wire position should be more than adequate as I don't traverse the wire that fast anyway.

The pulsewidth will be far too long to yield a sharp, unblurred image. The 9 microseconds is to make the image stand still and be sharp. The width depends only on the rotational speed, and remains the same even if one looks only every fifth turn.

[NightWinder]

oh, shit!!! Joe!!!Stop...Even I know the need is not that tight. LOL......if I ever open a shop....Your "Chief" LMAO!!