Thanks Steve...you are a wealth of information! I will re-read after the kids go to bed so I can concentrate on what I'm reading undisturbed :o)
Lisa -----Original Message----- From: Norton, Steve [mailto:stephen.nor...@ngc.com] Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2010 1:35 PM To: silver-list@eskimo.com Subject: RE: CS>Lasers and thinning hair - low cost options and DIY info I know I did not provide ant DIY info on my previous post but time was short. So here is a little help if you want to make your own low cost unit. You can easily make a good unit within your 30.00 budget. For easy of assembly I would recommend using http://www.futurlec.com/LED/LEDCLR15.shtml at a cost of $2.90 plus $4.00 shipping. The power supply I show later can power up to 7 of the modules so you can get more of them if you want to be able to radiate a larger area at once. Or if radiating fingers, you could radiate both sides of your finger(s) simultaneously. If you look online, many commercial units use 630 nm LEDs. That wavelength gives up a very little in penetration depth vs 660 nm while reportedly being more effective for healing than 660 nm or the higher frequency wavelengths. I know that laser diodes get more press (and cost more) than LED based units but I don't think that the lasers provide better performance. The unit above has 15 LEDs that operate at 15 ma at 2 volts. That means that each LED uses 30 milliwatts (mW) of power. Conversion efficiencies of a red Led is normally in the 45 - 50% range for current technology low power LEDs. The red laser diodes in laser pointers are usually around 10 mW output. So you would only need a conversion efficiency of 33.3% for 1 LED to get out the same amount of light as a laser pointer. That means that with 33.3% conversion efficiency the module above gives as much light output as 15 laser pointers. Not too shabby. Much older red LEDs had a conversion efficiency of only around 20%. If the LEDs in the module are those old LEDs, it will still provide as much light as 9 laser pointers. Sill not too shabby. And at a much lower cost. Now on to the power supply. 15 volts is not a convenient voltage for batteries although you could use two 9V batteries to get 18V and then use a series resistor to limit the current to 30 ma. But I would recommend buying a 15V plug in power supply. One is available at American Science & Surplus for $3.50. Adapter # 22752. See: http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/3850 However AS&S has a minimum purchase of 10.00 so you will need to buy some additional items to get to the $10.00 minimum. Maybe you could use some additional laser pointers: http://www.sciplus.com/search.cfm?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=search&; utm_content=cf&utm_campaign=celsearchtest&formfield1234567891=169&formfi eld1234567892=5&formfield1234567894=&term=laser&btnHand.x=17&btnHand.y=7 And there is a flat shipping cost of $5.95 for orders up to $15.00 so the lowest cost could be $16.00 to you. So your total cost would be around $7.00 plus $16.00 = $23.00. Putting the unit together will be easy. Remove the connectors from the LED module and the power supply, expose several inches of the two wires in each cable and strip away some of the insulation at the end of each wire. Now connect (twist together) one wire from the power supply to one wire from the LED module. Any wires are ok. Now connect the two remaining wires. Insulate each connection with tape. Plug in the power supply. If the module lights up you are done. If it does not. Just reverse the wire connections, plug it in and the module should light up. Note: you can do this method with the LED module ONLY because putting a reverse voltage of 15 volts on the module will not harm it. DO NOT use this technique with other electronic equipment. - Steve N -----Original Message----- From: Norton, Steve Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 2:57 PM To: silver-list@eskimo.com Subject: FW: CS>Lasers and thinning hair - low cost options Lisa, The following link provides some excellent technical information: http://heelspurs.com/led.html Since you are looking for a very low cost option here are some choices. You can buy one of these for $2.90 plus shipping and connect it to 15 volts DC. The wavelength of the LED is 632 nm, which is good. http://www.futurlec.com/LED/LEDCLR15.shtml If you can determine pin numbers and solder wires you can wire 3 of the following displays in series and connect them to 6 volts. This will be complicated for someone who has not done something like this before. They cost $1.40 each plus shipping. The wavelength of the LED is 660 nm, which is about ideal http://www.futurlec.com/LED/LEDM57R.shtml A little higher in cost at $8.90, plus shipping is the following. It is simple to connect since there are only two wires and it uses 12 VDC. The wavelength of the LED is 630 nm, which is still good. http://www.futurlec.com/LED/LEDMR16RD.shtml All these low cost options use LEDs rather than laser diodes. I expected laser diodes to be more efficient and give out more light for the current input but from what I have found there is little difference in efficiency. I would not hesitate to use these devices. I wouldn't bother with blue LEDs for your application. It won't have much affect except to look pretty. Here are the pages that provide the prices for the options above. http://www.futurlec.com/LEDMatrix.shtml http://www.futurlec.com/LED_Lamps.shtml I hope this helps some. - Steve N - From: Lisa [mailto:blacksa...@comcast.net] Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 1:18 PM To: silver-list@eskimo.com Subject: CS>Lasers and thinning hair Hi All, With intrigue I've been following the email trails on laser therapy. I am greatly interested in trying this out on my thinning hair patch which I believe is a result of a thyroid issue (which has now been resolved) OR possibly following the hcg diet 2 years ago. Regardless, I have this one spot in the front of my head which has thinned - I can't seem to tell if there's any improvement and would/have tried a variety of different things to fill it in. Since I haven't worked in two years, the lasers out there are way out my reach also...can anybody suggest something that I can put together at home? I do have a laser pointer which actually has several tips on it (which are a variety of shapes). Will this work? I could probably spend up to $30 on something but that would have to include S&H. eBay has a laser comb/brush which has red and blue LED's...it's $50 but I'd wait to buy that if I knew it would work (it would come direct from hong kong). Soooooo...do any of you brilliant minds have any ideas for me please? Lisa -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Rules and Instructions: http://www.silverlist.org Unsubscribe: <mailto:silver-list-requ...@eskimo.com?subject=subscribe> Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/silver-list@eskimo.com/maillist.html Off-Topic discussions: <mailto:silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com> List Owner: Mike Devour <mailto:mdev...@eskimo.com>
