cleaning up someone elses "mod"

[kc8adu]

butchered is more like it.
astron power supply.someone thought it was cool to drill in to the meter cases and glue led's in.lazy and stupid to drill tdc and slop on the krazyglue to the led.....right into the path of the needle!
yes the needle stuck.luckily i got it free without damage.
i should have took pics of the butchery but got too wrapped up in the repair.
so i will post the proper way to install led's in astron meters.
i used nichia 3mm diffused whites.
used 2 in series with 470ohm in series.connected to the 13.8v output.run about 15ma.will last forever.these meters have a white painted section over the movement.the led's are behind it pointing up.

[Logistics]

Re: cleaning up someone elses "mod"

Just had to reply because I laughed when I read the title of this thread.

Beautiful job on those analog meters. I may try this sometime as my Paps has a couple of old "Great American Sound" power amps that could use an upgrade to the light on the analog meters... at least on the one he's giving me.

[Peter9DO]

Re: cleaning up someone elses "mod"

Nice setup!

[kaboom]

Re: cleaning up someone elses "mod"

butchered is more like it.
someone thought it was cool to drill in to the meter cases and glue led's in.lazy and stupid to drill tdc and slop on the krazyglue to the led.....right into the path of the needle! yes the needle stuck.

Well, it couldn't have been anyone from this crowd...

http://cbretards.com/

...could it?

luckily i got it free without damage.
i should have took pics of the butchery but got too wrapped up in the repair.
so i will post the proper way to install led's in astron meters.
i used nichia 3mm diffused whites.
used 2 in series with 470ohm in series.connected to the 13.8v output.run about 15ma.will last forever.these meters have a white painted section over the movement.the led's are behind it pointing up.

Good! Using small ones gives you more room, and that important detail of using diffused ones eliminates bright spots.

[Jack Crow]

Re: cleaning up someone elses "mod"

KC8,
Yeah that is cool.
Nice ham shack too.
If you want to spend the effort, there is money in fixing old Astrons.
From this side of the country (Virginia) freight fees to ship them to California are bound to be stiff. I'm working with the local ham radio store.
The way I see it, I can fix most of the units for less than the UPS charges to take them home and back. I use my 'solid state load' box.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9010884...7626293190777/


Apartment life won't allow me much.
So I have some nearly clandestine VHF and UHF stuff.

On an elderly midland 13-509 220mhz xtal controlled set, the lamp was long gone, so I replaced it with a blue led that back lights the meter movement.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9010884...in/photostream
Looks very slick in the dark.

Did something similar with a Pyramid not too long ago.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9010884...7630824503388/

Like a ninny I used red LED's (could not find my blue ones, now solved).
So the meter pointer also red washes out visually. Not bad as a weak night light but no useful readings can be taken.

Perhaps we should ask the 'powers that be' here for a new section on 12 volt items. Your now fixing Astrons, Im playing with sucky Icom radios.

Would be a rational branching.

Jack Crow
Near your nations capitol, but not so close I can catch an infection.

[kc8adu]

Re: cleaning up someone elses "mod"

i fix lots of those old astrons.common as dirt and cheap dead at hamfests.the new breed of appliance operators act as if they will get some disease from a soldering iron and dmm.
thats ok i will grab their junk.
as for 12v stuff i have as much 12v stuff as 120ac.
a regular came into the shop with a fancy desklamp that took a expensive nonstandard bulb.he donated it.now it has 6 luxeon k2 led's on the metal reflector.and of course a powerpole on the cord.