Telamon wrote:
In article
,
Peter Maus wrote:

Telamon wrote:
The lamp burned out and instead of replacing it with another
blue/green bulb I elected to use LEDs. I sanded the surface of the
LED case to make the light it generated non-directional. I used
three blue ones from Radio shack 276-316 in a line in place of the
bulb and outside the meter case I used a resistor to limit the
current. It looks pretty cool but very "blue." Now that I see the
result I'm thinking that maybe white LEDs like a 276-320 would have
been better choice as even the white LEDs look somewhat blueish to
me.

Anyone have any experiences using LEDs to replace bulbs on
receivers?

Yeah, I used a blue LED to replace an incandescent on a Telefunken
HD5000. The device was behind a green filter. The result was very,
very blue. With no trace of green.

I went back to white.

I've also used white LED's, which created a heated debate here, to
replace the dial light on my T/O 3000-1.

The results are good. Covering the bulb with a thin tissue produced
better results than sanding. Abrading with steel wool produced the
best dispersion results.

I've also done some experimentation replacing the fuse type bulbs in
my Marantz 2218 with LED's. The results, so far, have been less than
exceptional. I tried replacing the stereo pilot on the Marantz with
an LED, but the incandescent was integrated into the circuit, so I
need to build a resistive network that emulates the incandescent in
operation, and tap the LED out of that.

Digi-key offers a drop in LED replacement for a number of bayonet and
screw in incandescents both A/C and D/C. The lighting circuits for
both my McKay Dymek AM-5 and McIntosh C-26 are odd values so a direct
drop in isn't available. And the Mc Kay rips the lighting voltage out
of another circuit, so draw, and drop will have to closely
approximate the incandescents.

Then again, I'll only have to do it once.

The upside of LED replacement of incandescents is two fold. The lower
heat generated has enabled me to restore some of the cosmetics which
were damaged by the heat. And pretty early in the life of the
receiver, at that. The purity of colors has made for some very
striking dials. The light blue accents on the tuning scale and the
red accents on the function indicators are visible from the street
when the lights are low in the living room.


Right now I'm looking at the bluest meter on the west coast and the
moving red needle looks almost iridescent.

Things with LED's can get pretty surreal when there are colors
involved. And the color gels in place for the incandescents, don't
matter.

The bulb in the meter is an odd one. It's a long thin tube with a wire
out each end that solder to posts inside the meter case. The bulb has a
blue/green colored plastic shrink tubing around it. The radio comes
with schematics and parts lists but I could not find a number for the
bulb just the meter itself. The lighting looked better during the day
with some outside light falling on the meter face but in the dark it's
much blue-er. I'm pretty sure you know what I mean since you have done
the same.


Same bulbs as in my console. They run hot. Replacing them is a PITA.
So, I went with LED's too. I went with white, in that application,
rather than blue, precisely for the reason you stated.

Now, my Focusrite preamps have blue lighting on the meter, and that
looks pretty sharp. But the meter face isn't off white, either.

Sometimes, you gotta just cut and try.


Well I expect that it will stay blue for at least the week now. Maybe
next weekend I'll get around to replacing them with white LEDs.


You might find that white led's may be produce too much glare. And
the higher blue content of the output will produce a less natural
coloring than you've grown accustomed to with the incandescent.
Incandescents produce light with more yellow content than a white LED.
But a white LED will take a filter with better efficacy than a single
wavelength. Using a paper filter will serve you here in producing both
the right amount of diffusion, and a more natural color.




Besides not knowing where to get the bulb it is the only non-LED
indicator on the radio and I did not want have to worry about it
burning out again.

I'll have to give the steel wool a shot also. Thanks for the advice.


For what it's worth.