DIY Skylight for the Dillon 550b

View · by **MarkL** on Tue Mar 18, 2014 5:45 pm

I was browsing around the other day and came across the Skylight product for the Dillon presses. Not that I'm cheap and do like to save a few bucks when I can, I liked this idea and since I have several hundred leds, I figured I'd fire up the CNC and Lathe and get to work.

Using 6 - 3mm Super bright cool White led's, I made 1 disk with the holes for the leads and 1 for the led's to hold them in the pattern I wanted. I created 2 series legs with 3 leds each in parallel which allows me to run either 9 or 12v on it. 9v source shown in the pics, seems bright enough without overdriving the leds into early failure. I then took some 1" cast acrylic stock I had and turned it down to make a housing for it and wala!

I still need to make a stop at Radio Shack before they close up for good and get a power plug that will work, but had to light it up and see how it worked.
Other than my time, I might have $2.00 into it.

Since I used clear acrylic, it even lights up on top, but realistically, I don't see me reloading in the dark.

View · by **45Badger** on Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:26 pm

Cool. When are you selling and how much?

View · by **stesch_s10** on Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:53 pm

will this work for the LNL AP? and again when will you sell and how much?

View · by **Ron Burgundy** on Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:53 pm

You'd better make a couple of these

View · by **MarkL** on Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:23 pm

Honestly, not sure that it would be worth it to make them. Maybe I could or might make a few in 'kit' mode, where assembly is required along with providing your own 9 or 12v power adapter. I don't even want to mention a possible price for fear of being overwhelmed with requests.

I had a universal voltage selectable pwr sup laying around, but what I found online seems to suggest around $15 for one that would work, sparkfun.com had a 9v only (Battery Eliminator - new term) for around $8. It's more the time involved than the cost of the parts, it's simple enough to put together if you can solder. The real Skylight with the power supply, it's not a bad price he's charging.

View · by **Makarov** on Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:39 pm

Very nice!
:bravo:

View · by **Vashjir** on Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:49 am

MarkL wrote:Honestly, not sure that it would be worth it to make them. Maybe I could or might make a few in 'kit' mode, where assembly is required along with providing your own 9 or 12v power adapter. I don't even want to mention a possible price for fear of being overwhelmed with requests.

I had a universal voltage selectable pwr sup laying around, but what I found online seems to suggest around $15 for one that would work, sparkfun.com had a 9v only (Battery Eliminator - new term) for around $8. It's more the time involved than the cost of the parts, it's simple enough to put together if you can solder. The real Skylight with the power supply, it's not a bad price he's charging.

Savers has power supplies of all types for 2-3$ I've used them for a ton of led projects. And I agree the soldering should be cake, the housing is the only thing that might require special tools.

View · by **MarkL** on Sun Mar 23, 2014 3:50 pm

After getting quite a few requests to make more of these, I found a 12v pwr sup adapter for $6, some 3/4" cast acrylic stock to minimize the machining for the housing, I could possibly keep the cost of parts to make, below $10 for a complete unit. However, I did a little more research and the person that makes the actual 'Skylight' has a patent pending on it.

So needless to say, I'm not about to step into that realm and risk the consequences if I start to make and sell them. Sorry guys, but it doesn't mean you can't make your own though, there's no proprietary circuit or technology involved, you just need a 12v supply, 2 - 120ohm 1/8watt resistors, 6-3mm super bright white leds (Got mine cheap on Ebay) and wire 3 of each in series with a resistor in a parallel circuit. (Even this could be varied with a single 5mm bright white led, the supply voltage could drop to 5v and a single resistor in a more simpler package for DIY, not sure how much light would be generated, might work though) Granted the housing could be tough for most, I have a small mini lathe, so it was fairly easy to make this part. The part to hold the led's could be done by hand but time consuming. It could be cheaper to buy the real thing or faster anyway.

12v Power supply: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9442

: ledckt.JPG (14.07 KB) Viewed 3756 times

Mark

View · by **george** on Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:19 pm

Here is a nice calculator for LED's for do it your self.
http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/ledcalc.php

View · by **stesch_s10** on Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:19 pm

I don't think you would be in harms way if you sold the various pieces seperate and we had to "assemble" them ourselves. But hey whatever you choose to do, is the way its going to be haha.

View · by **collateral** on Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:48 pm

Here is a easy solution for lighting a Dillon 550B. Tie wrap a Greenlee FL2AAF Flexible LED Flashlight to the back rail of the Dillon and bring the flexible light wand into the opening in the center between the dies. Installs in a minute and the light is directional. Very good battery life too. Makes the powder charge easy to witness.

View · by **SkyRock** on Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:35 pm

All the above are good ideas, but what about a "simple" powder checker? They're available from several manufactures.