So you want to hack you microwave, possibly creating a fire or even radiation hazard, just so you can have more light? Sounds like a really stupid idea to me.

Get to know how long it takes to cook different food items seems like a good idea to me.

 

When I want to see inside my microwave oven during the cooking process (to monitor my oatmeal, not overflowing the sides of the bowl) I turn the lights out in the kitchen and then weave side to side. Weaving while gazing through the small holes gives the illusion of transparency and I can see almost as if there were no obstructions.

Of course, if my neighbors saw me standing in front of the MWO weaving my head side to side they might call the white coat guys.

working on your microwave oven you def need to be extra carfull as it has a high voltage cap that if discharged to you it can and will kill ive heard of at least 3 pep ie service enginerrs being complacent and paying the price death i kid you not.

 

Welcome Tom Cassidy.

You know I fixed my microwave back a month ago (or so)? And just so you don't get nervous for me - I know and fully understand the nature of high voltage and capacitors - and the danger they present. It's never wrong to warn about the dangers - and thank you - but that was a different thread.

This post is about getting more light inside the oven. The "Thread Starter" (TS, or sometimes referred to as OP (original poster)) wants to better see inside his microwave as his food as is cooking. Sometimes we get a little foolish and go a little off topic, which we're not supposed to do, but it happens.

Sticking to what the OP wants, he wants to install LED lights - I get the impression he's talking about low voltage strip lighting with a bunch of LED's stuck to the roof of the oven chamber. We're trying to decide whether it's feasible - or even a good idea. Any ideas on solving the OP's problem is appreciated.

Again, welcome to AAC.

 

So what wrong with just installing/refitting higher wattage incandescent bulbs?

Is that extra few watts of lighting power going to really matter compared to the KW+ power draw the magnetron is using?

 

Apologiies if this has already been addressed

Adding LED's inside microwave for better lighting - possible with shielding?

Yes - provided they are placed outside the chamber (e.g. 'behind' the perforation-grid shielding the factory light source)...

Note: Although possible with conscientious consideration/design, I do not advise location of new 'features' within the chamber!

Best regards
HP

 

So what wrong with just installing/refitting higher wattage incandescent bulbs?

Did you say incandescent light sources!? Oh! dude! - That's sooooo yesterday! - They're not even environmentally friendly! Now look what you made me do! The shock of your backward insensitivity just made me wet myself! And it's all your fault! Better get with the program, man! [/snow_flake_mode]

Very best regards
HP

--Disclaimer--
My 'satirical drollery' (above) is without intent to target the OP or any other participant of these fora!

 

Weaving while gazing through the small holes gives the illusion of transparency

Very true! -- Unfortunately it likewise creates the illusion of severe autism!

TTFN
HP

 

Of course, if my neighbors saw me standing in front of the MWO weaving my head side to side they might call the white coat guys.

I wouldn't sweat the neighbors -- The NSA's likely observing you from the other side of the MWO door!

TTFN
HP

PS -- Yeah! Ok! I'll cool it with the OT posts

 

Did you say incandescent light sources!? Oh! dude! - That's sooooo yesterday! - They're not even environmentally friendly! Now look what you made me do! The shock of your backward insensitivity just made me wet myself! And it's all your fault! Better get with the program, man! [/snow_flake_mode]

Very best regards
HP

--Disclaimer--
My 'satirical drollery' (above) is without intent to target the OP or any other participant of these fora!

Yea I know. I'm made into someone's shit list on most every forum I have participated on this week for posting basic sense solutions to simple problems.

Heck I got banned on another forum today for apparently going counter to their liberal members (site admins?) sentiments on a post I made some 4 - 5 days ago.

 

for posting basic sense solutions to simple problems.

Sometimes I'm amazed! Someone wants to program a PIC to control a motor with a PWM. Why not a 555? IDK! KISS (Keep It Stupidly Simple) ! ! ! [{ or as others say "Keep It Simple Stupid!" }] But then I think someone is referring to me.

 

I never lived that way but my grandmother did until about the mid 1960's. The bathtub was galvanized and hung on the wall of the pumphouse.

The house was heated by propane but looking at the stove I always suspected that it had started out it life burning coal or wood. The refrigerator was also powered by propane. (I have never gotten over the idea of making cold by burning something).

She lived in a two room house. There was the bedroom and the kitchen-livingroom-diningroom. The "bathroom" was up the hill. (Don't know if it had a Sears catalog...).

More off-topic reminisces:
My grandmother's house was on a farm on the plains of northeastern Colorado.

The attic had be converted into an upstairs bedroom. I don't remember there being much more than a bed up there. I was accessed by some very narrow and steep stairs that were over the pantry. The stairs were so steep my parent would not let me climb them.

There was a chamberpot underneath my grandmother's bed. I remember using it once as a small child when it was real cold outside. I doubt that there was a chamberpot in the attic because of steep stairs.

I only remember being in the attic on one occasion. I shared the bed with my favorite cousin for a night or two when we were young. I don't know what season was but the quilts on the bed were so heavy that we could hardly move. The entire house was heated by a propane fueled stove in dining room.

The house electricity and a party-line telephone on wall. On a shelf next to the phone was a radio. I don't remember the radio ever being used while my family was visiting. On the other side of the phone was a sink with a hand pump. The sink drained from pipe sticking out from the side of the house. As a kid, I liked filling the sink with water and then pulling the plug. I would then run outside and down the steps of the front porch and around the side of the house to see the water come out of the pipe.

Water was from a well that had a windmill running the pump. If the wind did not blow then there was a way to switch from the windmill to an electric motor.
The pump filled a tank (cistern?) inside the pumphouse as well as water tank in a corral outside. I don't remember for sure but I assume that there were at least a few milk cows and maybe some beef cattle.

There may have been a washing machine with a clothes wringer (my mother had one like that) in the pumphouse. If not, the galvanized tub would have been used for washing and rinsing the clothes as well as bathing.

The pump also fed a garden. The garden had peas, string beans, carrots, blackberry and apple trees, rhubarb, corn, beets and likely many more fruits and vegetables that I don't remember. The corn, beets may not have come from the garden since corn, beets and wheat were commonly farm-grown for sale.

What vegetable not eaten fresh were canned (Mason jars, actually) and kept in a root cellar.
The root cellar was a "cave" dug in side of hill. It had shelves inside and a wood door on it to keep the critter out.

There was a barn where equipment was stored and maybe the cows were milked?

Farms in this part of the country were and still are pretty self sufficient with little waste. Grain is grown for sale and the stalks from the grain and fed to the cattle. The cattle make milk or are sold for meat. They also make fertilizer, of course. The milk and cream is used for drinking and cooking and fed to the cats that control the mice. The dog controls rabbits and other pests and is fed little other than scraps. Most of what he eats he catches himself. Anything the cattle, cats and dogs don't eat goes to the pigs which are sold for meat or made into sausage.

 

More off-topic reminisces:
My grandmother's house was on a farm on the plains of northeastern Colorado.

The attic had be converted into an upstairs bedroom. I don't remember there being much more than a bed up there. I was accessed by some very narrow and steep stairs that were over the pantry. The stairs were so steep my parent would not let me climb them.

There was a chamberpot underneath my grandmother's bed. I remember using it once as a small child when it was real cold outside. I doubt that there was a chamberpot in the attic because of steep stairs.

I only remember being in the attic on one occasion. I shared the bed with my favorite cousin for a night or two when we were young. I don't know what season was but the quilts on the bed were so heavy that we could hardly move. The entire house was heated by a propane fueled stove in dining room.

The house electricity and a party-line telephone on wall. On a shelf next to the phone was a radio. I don't remember the radio ever being used while my family was visiting. On the other side of the phone was a sink with a hand pump. The sink drained from pipe sticking out from the side of the house. As a kid, I liked filling the sink with water and then pulling the plug. I would then run outside and down the steps of the front porch and around the side of the house to see the water come out of the pipe.

Water was from a well that had a windmill running the pump. If the wind did not blow then there was a way to switch from the windmill to an electric motor.
The pump filled a tank (cistern?) inside the pumphouse as well as water tank in a corral outside. I don't remember for sure but I assume that there were at least a few milk cows and maybe some beef cattle.

There may have been a washing machine with a clothes wringer (my mother had one like that) in the pumphouse. If not, the galvanized tub would have been used for washing and rinsing the clothes as well as bathing.

The pump also fed a garden. The garden had peas, string beans, carrots, blackberry and apple trees, rhubarb, corn, beets and likely many more fruits and vegetables that I don't remember. The corn, beets may not have come from the garden since corn, beets and wheat were commonly farm-grown for sale.

What vegetable not eaten fresh were canned (Mason jars, actually) and kept in a root cellar.
The root cellar was a "cave" dug in side of hill. It had shelves inside and a wood door on it to keep the critter out.

There was a barn where equipment was stored and maybe the cows were milked?

Farms in this part of the country were and still are pretty self sufficient with little waste. Grain is grown for sale and the stalks from the grain and fed to the cattle. The cattle make milk or are sold for meat. They also make fertilizer, of course. The milk and cream is used for drinking and cooking and fed to the cats that control the mice. The dog controls rabbits and other pests and is fed little other than scraps. Most of what he eats he catches himself. Anything the cattle, cats and dogs don't eat goes to the pigs which are sold for meat or made into sausage.

How did you get into electronics?
A.H.W.

 

How did you get into electronics?
A.H.W.

I always liked taking things apart and seeing how they worked. Getting them back together was another matter.

Some background... My dad had been interested in radio when he was a kid on a farm. In fact he told about stretching long wires between farm buildings to act as antennas. He remarked how the wind blowing across the antenna would build up enough voltage to cause an arc. When he was young he took a raio course from National Radio Institute. He later took classes in TV and radio repair at a local trade and technical school here in Denver -- Emily Griffith Opportunity School. When I was about 10 or 12 years he did TV repair. Black and white TV's at the time. I learned a little about electronics starting then. When I was in high school he took a course from National Radio Institute to learn about color TV. This was a hobby to him at that time.

Much of my early electronics and science/technical education was reading TV repair, hobby electronics and science magazines that my dad subscribed to. In school I took all of the trade classes such as wood and metal shops. In high school I took several electronics related classes including radio electronics (a science credit), "computer math" and I was fortunate enough to learn the basics of how computers worked in an experimental computer electronics class. This was a shop class with test equipment and a Bi-Tran 6 teaching computer. At the end of high school I had no real plans until a good friend said he was going to take an electronics theory class at Emily Griffith Opportunity School. It sounded like a good idea to me so we both took the classes. The last class I took was Solid State Electronics -- no tubes. This was "new" in the late 1960's.

From there I got an entry level job in a test department at a small diagnostic ultrasound company later moving to the engineering department. I learned a lot from people around me all along the way. I still do some consulting in custom electronic circuit design.

 

I always liked taking things apart and seeing how they worked. Getting them back together was another matter.

Some background... My dad had been interested in radio when he was a kid on a farm. In fact he told about stretching long wires between farm buildings to act as antennas. He remarked how the wind blowing across the antenna would build up enough voltage to cause an arc. When he was young he took a raio course from National Radio Institute. He later took classes in TV and radio repair at a local trade and technical school here in Denver -- Emily Griffith Opportunity School. When I was about 10 or 12 years he did TV repair. Black and white TV's at the time. I learned a little about electronics starting then. When I was in high school he took a course from National Radio Institute to learn about color TV. This was a hobby to him at that time.

Much of my early electronics and science/technical education was reading TV repair, hobby electronics and science magazines that my dad subscribed to. In school I took all of the trade classes such as wood and metal shops. In high school I took several electronics related classes including radio electronics (a science credit), "computer math" and I was fortunate enough to learn the basics of how computers worked in an experimental computer electronics class. This was a shop class with test equipment and a Bi-Tran 6 teaching computer. At the end of high school I had no real plans until a good friend said he was going to take an electronics theory class at Emily Griffith Opportunity School. It sounded like a good idea to me so we both took the classes. The last class I took was Solid State Electronics -- no tubes. This was "new" in the late 1960's.

From there I got an entry level job in a test department at a small diagnostic ultrasound company later moving to the engineering department. I learned a lot from people around me all along the way. I still do some consulting in custom electronic circuit design.

Thats awesome.
A.H.W.