MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

A friend gave me a Steindorff scope that I have been cleaning up and putting into usable condition. It has a substage illuminator 'Koolite' which works adequately at magnifications up to about 250x, but beyond that it doesn't seem to have enough brightness. Pictures of the Koolite here. It has a standard E26/E27 base bulb, 15Watts, 110 volts. Any suggestions for a better bulb?

This is a great candidate for an LED retrofit. With a little creativity you can build a very nice unit. With a 3W LED you will have as much illumination as you will ever need with that scope.

lorez

I should have mentioned that the illuminator box will not handle any higher wattage without the chance of melting.

lorez

lorez2 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 3:32 am

I should have mentioned that the illuminator box will not handle any higher wattage without the chance of melting.

.
Which makes it a near-perfect candidate for LED conversion

MichaelG.

lorez2 wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 3:27 am

This is a great candidate for an LED retrofit.

Can you post an example of an adjustable LED unit to look for? I have the creativity, but little experience with LED's. Thanks.

That is a nice looking light unit.
I notice that the bulb filament doesn't seem to have its flat side facing the lens (?)
I have had a look at a couple of old mirror-replacing tungsten filament lights and 15 Watts seems par for the course. Indeed Cooke Troughton and Simms sold 4 Watts units.
Do you have a mirror for the microscope too?

There is a 3W LED, a small circuit board box, 1 X 1.5 X 3 inches approximately and a potentiometer. There are lead wires for the line power 110V. I've installed 200 of these over the last 4 years in all sorts of different models and the failure rate is 1%. Sadly, I am unable to post photos on this group (due to my technical ineptitude and suitable software), but if you would like a personal photo I can send one. Send me a private message to discuss the deal of the day.

lorez

Chas wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 2:47 pm

Do you have a mirror for the microscope too?

No, no mirror, but that is OK by me.

If it was mine … I would first try popping one of these inside:

But luckily I found them on ebay about 3years ago
. .
Things have moved-on since then, and I haven’t seen them listed recently
USB powered, with a switch in the lead and a magnet in the base
… claimed to be 3W if I recall correctly, they are plenty bright enough for most of my requirements.

MichaelG.

I cant help with modifying the internals of your illuminator but for what is worth I use a standalone light, like MichaelG : These are sold as video lights and they are rechargable, so no wires are needed.

The one on the right is just a tiny bit over 2.5 Inches across and if it will fit between the legs of the stand is maybe the preferable one.

Quite wonderfully, there are inexpensive E27 to E14 and E27 to G9 light bulb adapters, so perhaps with one of these you could put a small fridge-door sized light bulb inside your light unit???
With older objectives the problems that that LED-light cause seem (to me) to be more muted, so you could go LED to start with as it would be an easy swap if it wasnt acceptable

Edit: There is also a small bulb mount called G4 that has two pins 4mm apart, some of the G4 lights are single-sided led boards and some are low voltage too. Again, there are E27 to G4 adapters out there.