¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

ctrl + shift + ? for shortcuts
© 2025 Groups.io
  1. DRAKE-RADIO
  2. Topics

2-B Lights

 

Because the factory lighting for the 2-B's dial leaves a bit to be desired - particularly in the center portions of the dial, I tried something a little different and mounted a few SMD LEDs and dropping resistors on a small piece of prototyping circuit board. The LEDs point straight up from underneath the dial window.

The 2-B-1 picture shows them illuminated (without the rig powered off so as not to include the side lighting). The 2-B-2 picture shows the crude board (with masking tape to hold it to ad small piece of wood that elevates the board just above the top of the slide switch bodies). If you zoom in on the board, please excuse the very sloppy soldering work. Those 0805 chips are pretty small...

As you can see, this creates just a bit of a shadow of the needle against the white backing plate so I'm not sure how much I like this but at least it is more uniformly lighted across the dial. I may pursue a formal PCB with several more LEDs that might help eliminate some of that shadowing.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Thanks,
Barry - N4BUQ

2-B-1.jpg
2-B-2.jpg

 

Oh, and, the blue tape is just to hold the PCB to the piece of wood. I may cyanoacrylate them together but, for now, it's just a dirty prototype project.

Thanks,
Barry - N4BUQ

----- Original Message -----
From: "n4buq" <n4buq@...>
To: "DRAKE-RADIO" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 6, 2023 9:09:11 PM
Subject: [DRAKE-RADIO] 2-B Lights
Because the factory lighting for the 2-B's dial leaves a bit to be desired -
particularly in the center portions of the dial, I tried something a little
different and mounted a few SMD LEDs and dropping resistors on a small piece of
prototyping circuit board. The LEDs point straight up from underneath the dial
window.

The 2-B-1 picture shows them illuminated (without the rig powered off so as not
to include the side lighting). The 2-B-2 picture shows the crude board (with
masking tape to hold it to ad small piece of wood that elevates the board just
above the top of the slide switch bodies). If you zoom in on the board, please
excuse the very sloppy soldering work. Those 0805 chips are pretty small...

As you can see, this creates just a bit of a shadow of the needle against the
white backing plate so I'm not sure how much I like this but at least it is
more uniformly lighted across the dial. I may pursue a formal PCB with several
more LEDs that might help eliminate some of that shadowing.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Thanks,
Barry - N4BUQ
 

On 2023-05-06 19:09, n4buq wrote:
Because the factory lighting for the 2-B's dial leaves a bit to be
desired - particularly in the center portions of the dial, I tried
something a little different and mounted a few SMD LEDs
[...]
soldering work. Those 0805 chips are pretty small...
*** There are SMD LEDs out there with pre-soldered leads. People use
them for dollhouses.



I used them to restore the backlight on an Alinco DR-1200T 2-meter
transceiver. The original backlights were grain-of-wheat bulbs,
and they were all burned out. I was able to put two or three of those
tiny LEDs in place of each burned out incandescent.

And yes, they have blue ones.

- Jerry
 

Hi Jerry,

I've seen something similar to those. There's limited room where these lights are but LEDs with leads might just work.

While the picture doesn't reflect it, these LEDs are supposed to be white.

Thanks,
Barry - N4BUQ

----- Original Message -----
From: "jerry" <jerry@...>
To: "DRAKE-RADIO" <[email protected]>
Cc: "n4buq" <n4buq@...>
Sent: Saturday, May 6, 2023 11:06:07 PM
Subject: Re: [DRAKE-RADIO] 2-B Lights
On 2023-05-06 19:09, n4buq wrote:
Because the factory lighting for the 2-B's dial leaves a bit to be
desired - particularly in the center portions of the dial, I tried
something a little different and mounted a few SMD LEDs
[...]
soldering work. Those 0805 chips are pretty small...
*** There are SMD LEDs out there with pre-soldered leads. People use
them for dollhouses.



I used them to restore the backlight on an Alinco DR-1200T 2-meter
transceiver. The original backlights were grain-of-wheat bulbs,
and they were all burned out. I was able to put two or three of those
tiny LEDs in place of each burned out incandescent.

And yes, they have blue ones.

- Jerry

1 - 4 of 4