Bioptron light teardown

[SeanB]

So I was at the auction 2 weeks ago, and this came home with me. $20 of the $150 I spent that day. Biggest item was a built in BBQ I bought with my friend, to put in his entertainment area. This was my spend.....

Here we have a Bioptron 2 light therapy unit, made in Switzerland ( cue the Hi to all my Swiss viewers) around 2002, which is basically a yellow light source, using a 12V 90W halogen lamp ( really odd power that, I would have expected a 100W lamp instead) in a optical arrangement that uses what appears to be a dichroic or polarising mirror ( haven't looked with a polariser, all I know is it dissipates half the beam power as heat turning it 90 degrees), and then a yellow filter glass.

Price new ( seems it is still a current production unit, or at least recently discontinued to still have plenty in a supply chain) is eFfing crazy, here in ZA I saw them advertised new and used from R74000 ( around $5000) to around 5000 GBP. Somewhat steep for what it is, but it does have a nice stand ( not shown here, it is in pieces in the garage) with quality metalwork and good GRP castings.

It of course does not work, with a label saying the lamp is faulty. Surprise surprise the lamp is still good, it is the main PCB that is faulty. Having a quick look with the Chocolate factory, and especially the translate ( or the text mangler to be more accurate) function, I got some Hungarian websites where they were more familiar with these units.  Seems stock faults are either the PIC microcontroller on the display panel losing it's marbles, which is fatal, you need a new board from Switzerland, made by Quattro Engineering, and they apparently think the board is made from gold pressed Latinum. The other common fault is the little grey mains transformer cooking itself, or the 5V regulator attached to it made from some discrete components.

I seem to have the transformer cook issue, so I will go unsolder the little 15VAC transformer and look for another one in the box of dead industrial controllers, which uses a lot of them. might need some slight bodging to get it to fit. Other alternative is to simply remove it all, and make a diode rectifier for the cooling fan and use an external 100VA lighting transformer instead, which will also work. I have some of those transformers, KolbeP did not get all of them........

[NiHaoMike]

Maybe convert it to LED? 100W LEDs are going for about $10 on Amazon.

[SeanB]

Fix was free, just finished it. Used old crusty electronics as well.....

http://mjlorton.com/forum/index.php?topic=814.msg5209

[pickle9000]

Looks like a broad spectrum light. So basically used as a sunlight replacement. Much more common to see a uv based light that is used for psoriasis treatments.

Amazing how much medical stuff costs, that is the game though.

 

[SeanB]

Sad thing is that the prices for common things like glucose testers, blood pressure and things like nebulisers are dropping every year as demand means there are more suppliers. The retail price though at the end of the chain is rather steep some times, I can see both prices, and you might have a markup of 400-1000 percent between the price which the manufacturer charges and the final consumer price.

Niche stuff though still has an eye watering price though, and this light certainly falls into that category.

just went and got the stand and put it back together, so now it is complete again and on it's wheeled adjustable stand, and cleaned the sticker residue off the yellow glass front and the body. Now looks like theater equipment again. wonder if it came from the "laser therapy" clinic down the road. I might pop it on eBay later and see if it will sell.

[Hydrawerk]

Bioptron is rather crap for the price. https://www.google.cz/?gws_rd=ssl#q=bioptron+skeptic
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5017/does-bioptron-vip-visible-incoherent-polarized-light-therapy-heal-wounds-and-h
I would not call it a medical stuff.

[SeanB]

Hey, it cost me $20, and I did get some good practise out of fixing it. that was essentially free, even though the spares were at work so I had to go there, but as I was going anyway to do other things it was no added cost. As a light it is pretty good, startup and shutdown is done quite well, so as not to stress the lamp too much, and it has a reasonable fan to do cooling of the electronics and the mirror. timer is adjustable from 1 to 95 minutes, and is powered from the SMPS controller voltage reference. It is not a bad light, and if I was going in for a fancy room heater or a yellow mood light it will be nice.

[Fraser]

It may not apply in this case but medical kit for use in direct contact with/or proximity to, patients needs all manner of approvals and tests. Have you noticed how many component manufacturers state that their products must not be used in medical equipment. I believe this is due to the very strict reliability and safety regulations that apply. I compare it to MIL spec equipment as it has to be tested and approved to much higher standards than general consumer kit.

This regulatory requirement combined with lower production numbers presumably explains the horrendous prices charged for medical equipment when new ? If not, the OEMs are just ripping off the medical profession !

As to whether the light is a genuine treatment or just a placebo....no idea. There are light therapies for skin conditions though.

Aurora

[SeanB]

True Fraser, but you can buy medical devices like glucose testers ( direct contact with blood), nebulisers ( you inhale the product from it)  for under $50 direct from the wholesalers, and the manufacturer of the nebuliser I use every so often has a plant near me. Then the patient price can be many times more than that, an example is in a hospital, where a swab used to sterilise an injection site is billed at $2 each, while I buy the same swab in a box of 200 for less than that per box. Yes there are strict standards for medical devices, and for medicines, but the prices that are often charged is more based on what the market will bear.

[Fraser]

@Seanb

I have to agree, the world of medicine, whether it be human or animal, is very expensive for the patient. In the UK there has recently been publicity regarding the Government negotiating the price they will pay the OEM for a specific drug that is badly needed by NHS patients. I know the OEMs need to recover research costs but I do get the feeling that, as you say, the price is set more by what the market can stand. As in the UK we have the NHS paid for by the Tax payers....we all end up getting fleeced !

[Hydrawerk]

These bioptron products are bloody expensive for a bulb lamp. They cost some 1500 Euro.
http://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/1312368_-pro-1-inkl-tischstativ-bioptron.html
http://www.abc-arznei.de/product/bioptron-pro1-inklusivetischstativ-und-oxyspray.420659.html?p=65536
Want a "healing" lamp? Buy an IR lamp for some 60 Euro or less.
https://www.alzashop.com/beurer-il-50-d269065.htm
https://www.alzashop.com/beurer-il-30-d269063.htm

Bioptron is bloody overpriced. 
BTW it is sold by Zepter. http://www.zepter.co.uk
Zepter is a distributor of overpriced weird stuff, that I will never buy.

[helius]

This is a quack medical product.

[Hydrawerk]

I like the quack word. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackery
In Europe, we call them a charlatan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlatan