optical help

[kevinT]

I have noticed thee ol eyes are getting worse each passing year, plus looking at the computer all day at my office job doesn't help either.

doing wiring work seems to be getting more difficult.

My question is ...is anyone using anything to help, optically, with the tedious work of wiring and soldering those very fine wires?

[chevalij]

Hell yes! I'm 44 and already wear bifocals. Get something like this:

http://www.compleatnaturalist.com/mall/optivisor.asp

[TD_Madden]

I use an Ott-Lite" (ful spectrum light).

I also use reading glasses for fine wiork and for eye health take Ocuvite (eye-vitamin made by Bausch&Lomb).....

[Joe Gwinn]

I have noticed thee ol eyes are getting worse each passing year, plus looking at the computer all day at my office job doesn't help either.

doing wiring work seems to be getting more difficult.

My question is ...is anyone using anything to help, optically, with the tedious work of wiring and soldering those very fine wires?

Lots of light focused on the work, and not allowed to shine into the eyes.

Plus "computer glasses" (ask your opthalmologist) set to the actual distance I work at.

And magnifiers as needed.

[David Schwab]

Plus "computer glasses" (ask your opthalmologist) set to the actual distance I work at.

Boy, I need those! I'll be 50 this year, and I started wearing progressive bifocals 2 years ago. It's a pain to find that spot in between to look at the monitor... makes me tilt my head back.

I spent the last 8 years looking at a monitor all day long. Does a number on your eyes.

I use head worn magnifiers (like the Optivisor), and have one of those magnifying lamps. I mostly use that for a concentrated light source, but it does help when winding sometimes.

Joe, didn't you say you used a strobe light? Or was that someone else.

[Joe Gwinn]

Boy, I need those! I'll be 50 this year, and I started wearing progressive bifocals 2 years ago. It's a pain to find that spot in between to look at the monitor... makes me tilt my head back.

I've seen that in coworkers. My eye doctor talked me out of progressives, so I have ordinary bifocals, plus unifocal glasses for close work.

I spent the last 8 years looking at a monitor all day long. Does a number on your eyes.

As does simple aging.

I use head worn magnifiers (like the Optivisor), and have one of those magnifying lamps. I mostly use that for a concentrated light source, but it does help when winding sometimes.

I use the visor-mounted magnifiers also.

Joe, didn't you say you used a strobe light? Or was that someone else.

It was me. I built a strobe synched to the rotation of the winder, but then got deflected by a new project at work, and haven't wound that much. The hope is that I'll be able to see what the wire is doing, to see bad things happening, even at full speed. It does seem to work, but I have not yet used it enough to tell if it's worth the bother.

[NightWinder]

It works.....Spencers used to sell replacement bulbs that fit perfect in headstraped lights.

[David Schwab]

I've seen that in coworkers. My eye doctor talked me out of progressives, so I have ordinary bifocals, plus unifocal glasses for close work.

I kind of regret I didn't go with regular bifocals. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

As does simple aging.

Yeah, presbyopia. That's why I went from single focal lenses to bi-focals.

It was me. I built a strobe synched to the rotation of the winder, but then got deflected by a new project at work, and haven't wound that much. The hope is that I'll be able to see what the wire is doing, to see bad things happening, even at full speed. It does seem to work, but I have not yet used it enough to tell if it's worth the bother.

It's a good idea. Like the strobe lights people used to use on automotive engines. (maybe they still do, but I haven't had a car I could repair myself since my '63 Benz)

[Spence]

I find these are a great help :

[David Schwab]

I find these are a great help :

[ATTACH]755[/ATTACH]

You shouldn't monkey around with your eyes!

[Dave Kerr]

I can think of worse things to do than to ape Spence.

[kevinT]

I find these are a great help :

[ATTACH]755[/ATTACH]

hey now,

Don't knock the monkey's glasses. He makes some excellent sounding pickups. I particularly like his single coil he calls the Banana Wrap.

[David Schwab]

hey now,

Don't knock the monkey's glasses. He makes some excellent sounding pickups. I particularly like his single coil he calls the Banana Wrap.

Wasn't it Bubbles the chimp? So he did the bubble wrap...

[DoctorX]

That's great. One day we'll all get together for a face to face meet, and we'll all have thick coke bottle glasses with beady little eyes. Maybe we should get "pickupwinder's eyes" classified as an ailment so we all can claim disability.

OK...it was a crappy joke. But at least I ain't the only one squinting all the time.

I never knew about the strobe idea. How very interesting. I wonder if you could use bright white LED's instead of Xenon flashtubes.

Joe, any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Doctor X

[Joe Gwinn]

I never knew about the strobe idea. How very interesting. I wonder if you could use bright white LED's instead of Xenon flashtubes.

Joe, any thoughts on this?

I thought of LEDs too, but they were not nearly fast enough or bright enough. The issue is that to make the motion stop without blur requires a very short very bright pulse.

At 1800 RPM (30 RPS), a rotation takes 33.33 milliseconds. If the bobbin is 3.5" long, the outer tips will be moving at (3.1416)(3.5)(30)=329.9 inches per second. To make the blur less than the diameter of the wire (call it 0.003"), the light pulse cannot be longer than 0.003/329.9)= 9 microseconds. This is effectively impossible with a LED, but dead easy with a low-power xenon strobe.