So i have heard that flouresent lights can affect digital scales along with many other things but what about LED lighting?  i am thinking about converting my flouresent

shop lights to led, it will be expensive but I do like the light output of LEDs.  Also i am not talking about the regular screw in led bulbs i am talking about the 4ft led

Shoplights.  Thanks, KC

Short answer: LEDs should be fine.

Long answer: Fluorescent lamps work by creating an electric field with mercury gas between an anode and cathode. That electric field causes a lot of the noise that can affect digital measurement equipment. The ballast (the power supply for the fluorescent lamp) can have an effect too - if the lights are connected to the same circuit as the instrument, and the two aren't properly designed to prevent significant feedback, there may be effects due to power or voltage fluctuation. Fluorescents consume power differently than many things, as they are negative voltage differential devices (their resistance goes down as the current through them increases, the opposite of typical electrical loads). The ballast is a highly inductive device that keeps the lamps from sucking more and more current until they burn up, and that usually creates feedback that can affect unprotected electronic transducers connected to the same circuit. LEDs shouldn't have either problem, if they are well designed. They do not create a field the way a fluorescent does, and they operate on DC, which can be easily transformed from AC without causing noise problems.

Will ferrite beads help this noise problem? I don't have any problems that I can tell. I installed ferrite beads in my Lyman DPSlll. I have florescent lights in the circuit.

LED's are the way to go, put them in my entire house. If your a Costco member, they put them on sale every couple of months or so. They are like half price (electric company rebate). You just have to keep checking to see when they are on sale.

I don't use a digital scale, but I recently switched from florescent to LED and I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Can't say enough about the led's from costco. The difference it made over my lathe was impressive

If interference is a concern some smaller UPS devices will filter and clean up power. You only need it for the filtering ability not the battery backup, so (I think) even an old UPS with a nearly-dead battery will be fine.

 
Yes and no..   Some UPSs with nearly dead battery will alarm audibly and annoy the heck out of anyone..    A small APC 350 from an office store is usually <$50

Ferrite can help for some things.  Florescent lamps themselves can give off electrical fields that are coupled into conductors, like the power adapter for a scale, and using ferrite chokes works well here. But if the guts of your devices aren't well shielded, you might have some problems, depending on where everything is located in relation to everything else.

Florescent systems use a variety of tricks to generate an electrical arc within the tube, which produces a plasma that excites the phosphors on the inside of the tube, which in turn emit visible light.  Older florescent fixtures used ballasts and starters that were, to be honest, electrically noisy as hell.  Modern fixtures and CFL lamps (the kind that screw into regular lamp sockets) use much more advanced techniques which reduce the noise level to almost nothing - from the support parts, anyway.  The tube itself is still an electrical plasma container, and the plasma itself generates interference.  Coiled lamps usually pretty much cancel most of the interference from their shapes, but don't use one really close to sensitive devices, just in case...

LED systems themselves produce essentially zero interference.  The power supply itself might have some noise to it, but typically these are well enough shielded that it's no problem.  I'm in the process of converting all of my home lighting to LED.  One failed CFL lamp a a time.  My hobby room's overhead light is CFL, and I have one arm lamp on the bench with a CFL, while the other has an old-fashioned incandescent bulb.  My Lock n Load AP press has an Inline Fabrication LED kit, and a home-built LED array aimed down at the shell plate so I can visually check powder throws.  Lots of light is my friend, and the ONLY way to get that much low-temperature light in one spot is with LEDs.

This is a good point, but even the best power filter can't block interference coupled into low voltage lines AFTER the UPS has filtered the input power.  Using an UPS to filter your incoming power isn't a bad idea, but it doesn't do anything to protect devices from noise and crap generated by what you plug into it.

This is all great info, thanks.  I have been in the process of converting my whole house to leds alsoi just about have it, i think i will check costco i did see the 4ft lights there the last time i was there i would assume that the leds would be way brighter, i do have my outlets and my lights on diferent circuits but it doesnt take much to convince me to upgrade the reloading room.

Good luck with your LED conversion. I purchase quite a few LED bulbs as a test from Lowes for my house. These bulbs have been in place for almost a month and I have had two of them fail already. Not very promising! The bulbs that failed were made by GE and UtiliTech (UTI) both are Chinese crap.

V

I've had two electronic scales and never had any trouble from flourescent lights with either.  Yes, I have multiple fluorescent tubes directly overhead of my bench.

The first was the original Dillon D-Terminator.  The second is a VIC Acculab-123.

If you have a noise source and electronics that are susceptible, you can try to filter the line, as described above, but you may also get electric and magnetic field coupling into the device.  If the stray field is coupling into your device down-stream of your filter,... well, you get the picture.

The easiest way to test is to turn off the lights.

What I have found is we are dealing with scales that are very, very sensitive.  

They respond to wind currents that you cannot feel.  Try enclosing it in a box to isolate it.

They respond to vibration, as well.  Get it solidly supported (so it does not rock) on a stiff benchtop and a stiff floor.

They also respond to stray electrostatic fields.  If you can change the reading as you reach towards the pan, you have a static problem.

Ditto.. No issues with my chargemaster on same circuit as the two flourescent lights hanging above it.

Your experience is atypical.  LED devices should last essentially forever.  I hope you don't have any more failures...you shouldn't have had any.

I know, but I was a little suspicious when I installed them and they are hot to the touch, just like a regular light bulb but a slight bit cooler. They do have to have a transformer and diode bridge in the bulb to reduce voltage and convert it to DC so I am guessing that is where the heat is being generated and also where they have failed. It is true that LED's should last a very long time but the downside is the electronics that run the LED's.

V

Anyone care to share some makes/models of LED lighting that would be appropriate over my 'under construction' bench? I have the base built and am looking to add a couple of cabinets above it for storage. The plan is to place lighting below the overhead cabinets.

Like most of you, I replace with LED as the old bulbs die. I have not installed a new LED dedicated device. Yet.

Hey everyone, I was at Costco yesterday and their LED bulbs were on sale again. So if your in the market for LED bulbs it's a great deal. P.S. I had mine for about a year, ( I have about 50 through out my house), and none have failed.

The only problem that I have with the LED bulbs at Costo is that they are warm white.  The light they give is too yellow for my liking, and actually too yellow for the receptors in my eyes.  I need an actual cool white or a daylight color.  If Costco sold those, I would have replaced the whole house by now.  Now, it's just a few at a time from Home Depot or Amazon.

If the face of your cabinets will extend a bit beyond the bottom as they normally do, strip LED lighting is a fantastic option. The light shines straight down and the cabinet"lip" keeps the LEDs out of direct view. And they are CHEAP!! Here . . .

5 meter strip of LED lights - $6.99

Remove the tape backing and apply under your cabinets. The reel of lights comes with a couple of connectors, one of which connects to . . .

Power Supply for LED Strip - $8.99

Plug the strip into the power supply, and the PS into the wall. Need an on/of switch and dimmer? Add . . .

Mini RF Remote for LED Strip Lights - $5.99

Off, On, 25%, 50%, 100% and more.

Seriously, it's a snap to install. $22. Done. No heat. No noise. Other parts and stuff available.

ETA: I use a 15"sq storage cube to shield my scale from air currents on all but the front side. It got pretty dark in there, so I taped 18" of LED strip lights under the roof using the parts above. All lit up, no heat, no air currents.

I have ~14' of lights looking for another application :)

Those self adhesive LED strip lights are the cats meow for under cabinet placement. That power supply listed is way overkill for those LED strip lights. Almost everyone has a 12 volt wall wart charger left over from something that is perfect.

Vince

I'll try to take some photos of my bench setup,  but I have a strip of LEDs under a shelf that sits over the bench,  two LED bulbs in the ceiling and the Inline fabrication press LED setup (Which they replaced entirely when the adhesive finally failed after four years of use).  It's very well lit and extremely low power consumption.

Pictures are always helpful. I have a standard light in the middle of the room (9x8) and an LED strip under the press (Lee Cast Turret), so light at the shell is good. I'm looking to light the bench top itself. I also have a light/magnifier combination.

It's not the LED's that burn out prematurely, is the cheap Chinese electronics that drive them.  That's the difference at Home Depot and such between the medium socket 60W equivalent bulbs that cost $10 and the ones that cost $25 both from a manuf. like GE or Sylvania.  Even the stated bulb life is different.  The best long lasting ones are still pricey.  That said, even the cheap ones are worth changing to, if for no other reason, than the lower electric bills!  lately, the cheap ones are warm.....curious....they used to be cool.  It think the market drives that ..... more people like the cozy feel of incandescent color temp.  I also prefer a little more temperature....but I hate blue/white.