[time-nuts] Reducing lab noise with LED lighting.

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Wed Sep 19 04:49:22 UTC 2012


On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 7:49 PM, Morris Odell <vilgotch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:


> The discussion about LED flicker was interesting. As I understand it the
> human eye can act as a peak detector

Actually the rods and cones in the retina only respond the changes in
brightness.  the eye constantly moves so that the image always
changes.     It works this way because we needed to see only edges.

We don't see 120Hz as flicker but still it stresses the eyes and
visual system.  If you think of the eye as being "AC coupled" to the
brain it is easy to understand why to fast to see fast flicker is
fatiguing.


Back to noise in the lab:  As I wrote a while back if you want
efficient lighting that is "radio quiet" all you have to do is shop in
the right store.  Much of the lighting used in ocean going sail boats
is "quiet" because these boats will cary HF and VHF radio, GPS and
radar and run off battery power.  But don't expect radio-quiet cold
cathode fluorescent lamps made from power coated stainless steel to be
cheap, you pay for the quality.

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California



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