LED ring light for microscopes and loupes

Most microscopes, eye loupes, and optical comparators do not have the ability to provide lighting for the top surfaces of the specimen being viewed.  If you want to examine a printed circuit board, you would have to use either ambient light or a hand held flashlight.  This instructable will show you an easy way to light the top surface of your specimen.  Most parts can be found in your junk box, but even if you bought all new parts, the cost would be less than $20  Interested?  Lets get started!

Step 1 Materials you will need

You will need the following items:

1. A wall wart or wall transformer of about 6 VDC or more and rated at 50 MA or more.
2. A clothes pin or similar clamping device
3. Two or more white LEDs and several resistors of less than 500 ohms.
4. A two inch square of thin plywood, plastic, metal or other stiff but workable material.
5. Some solid or stranded wire of about 20 to 24 AWG 
6. tape or shrink tubing to cover the wire joints.
7. A soldering iron and solder to solder the wires to the LEDs and wall wart.
8. Tools to cut and shape the plywood, wires, etc.
9. Drill bits or dremel cutter to drill holes for LEDs

There's nothing difficult or fancy here so feel free to improvise.

Comments

[balline]

I tried several times to upload actual photos with and without ring light, but I have had no success so far.

[Pierre1963]

My microscope has no lights. I used in tape and flashlight. Your project is welcome.

[mikeasaurus]

Neat!
Looks like you've got the camera already set up on your microscope, can you share some comparison pictures?

[randofo]

Very cool. Thank you for sharing this!