bubble

[Hervé Colosio]

I will buy a monitor marell for a artemis sachtler because the tb6 which is sold with is too much expensive and is not useful has anything for traditional video

on the monitors marell it does not have a bubble neither traditional nor electronic. does someone have a idea to put a back lighted bubble and where to buy it .

or a green monitor whith electronical bubble for 2500 $

thank you for your help .

[RobVanGelder]

Back-lighted bubble:the traditional style can not be that difficult:

Buy one of those cheap levels from plastic and take the bubble vial out of it´s casing.

glue it in a tiny box with a led, a battery +resistor an a switch (1,5 volts will do already)

so that the light shines through it.

 

You can put this bubble with velcro or blue tack or dubble sided tape where you want, just have to adjust it properly, costs:about 4? or 5$

 

 

Or, find an old III(a) junction box with the electronic level inside and attach that to an LED display. This is how I made my level, also cheap, about 25? of electronics and some work. Find a good electronic technician and you have one in no time

:rolleyes:

 

Or just by a good, super good level (XCS) for about the same price or more as your monitor......

 

 

Rob van Gelder

[Thomas English]

rob,

 

your 3a bubble idea is wicked! im going to try and do it.

 

I ve only used the 3a once without the monitor up and seen them a few times intimately. did nt even know it had a bubble..... will me and my techie be able to work it out quite easily? or is there anything else i need to know?

 

thanx.... brilliant idea

 

thomas "anyone got a 3a j box knocking about" english

[RobVanGelder]

thomas "anyone got a 3a j box knocking about" english

Thomas, this is probably the difficult part: where to find those old J´boxes.......

 

But there must be some converted III(a) systems around that have LCD screens now.

 

The basics are simple: in the back part of this box, or better, the cover you will find a little electronic board with the electronic bubble vial on a kind of lever.

 

You just need this part, it has a connector with 3 wires, ground, +12 volts and signal out.

 

Keep this cover as a whole unit and find a little box (plastic) that can be used as the other side/cover.

 

Now you need a display: there is still available a 1 IC (chip) led driver available in 2 versions: logaritmic for VU-meters (sound) and linear for other scale-readouts.

Of course, you need the linear.

 

I will look in my archive if I can find the schedule of it but i´m sure an electronic techie knows what I mean. The chip is named LM XX13 or such. It needs a few resistors and such AND a voltage stabilizer and with 9 leds you will have a reasonable electronic level.

Just have to adjust it, which can take some time but after that....bob´s your uncle!

 

I have my led display via a curled cable so I can put it with velcro on a lot of places.

The sensor part stays fixed somewhere at the rig.

 

Success!

 

Rob van Gelder

[charlesneufeld]

Hey Guys,

 

The IC could be the LM3914, it is a fairly common chip used for bar/dot displays. I have not tried this chip, or this mod at all... I just thought of this chip from Rob Van Gelder's discription of his circuit. It should fit the bill, but check the datasheets to verify.

 

Charles :)

[RobVanGelder]

Charles, that´s it, I think the one I mentioned is the logaritmic one.

 

With the LM 3914 you can make 2 kinds of display, depending of the connections: full scale and floating dot, I think it has 12 led outputs of which you can visibly use the middle 9 so I went with a big green led in the middle and 2x 4 hi-brightness reds either side.

 

It´s a very simple schedule but you will need to make the output current much higher with transistors to get enough light out of the leds

Also, the stabiliser is needed (I think I used an 8 volts version) or the display will be dependend on the battery voltage.

 

I have to be honest, it is not perfectly linear, it is in my case a little bit more sensitive to one side. But much better than no or water bubble!

 

In the datasheets you will find several schedules and one of them suits our needs.

 

Rob van Gelder

[charlesneufeld]

Ya I would regulate it with a 5 volt supply to the chip and get some 5,000mcd+ LED's for good daylight viewing ;) Most new LED's, with this high mcd output, only draw approx. 20 - 80 mA so they can be run right off the IC.

 

Here is the link for the datasheet to save you some time!

 

http://www.national.com/ds.cgi/LM/LM3914.pdf

 

If you have any questions, I will be more than happy to help!

 

Charles

[Thomas English]

brilliant!

 

thanx a lot the two of ya! im buying the jbox as we speak!

 

next time im in thailand rob ill bring u a bottle of scotch to make a change from that sangtip

[RobVanGelder]

I tried this first without the extra power transistor but although the IC can output about 10-15 mA per channel it´s not enough and the brightness is not really constant, hense the constant power supply and the transistor, to get evenly bright leds. For the red leds I used those out of a 3rd brake-light, they are very bright!

The green has I think 3 or 4 leds in one big housing, to increase output and you certainly cannot put this one on the IC directly.

Also, the IC works best above 5 volts so that´s the reason to choose someting like 8 volts. 12 volts will not do as your rig´s battery might fall below that sometimes, affecting the measurement.

 

Just some things I discovered while building it.

 

Rob van Gelder