The original incandescent light bulbs give the light plates and the digit drums a yellow tint. Especially on older light plates, the entire legend turns to a rather hard to read yellow. Bright White LEDs are normally calibrated for 5200K (daylight) and will help quite a bit with the faded instruments.
In the image above and the below, the radio had that has been re-worked from incandescent to LEDs is the one on the left and on the bottom respectively.
Removing all the original lighting and replacing it with LEDs is quite labor intensive ... it takes about a two days to work a single radio head ... but the results are awesome.
Awesome results indeed. The LED lighting really gives those faceplates a modern, clean look.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, did you also replace the green "selection" bulbs as well?
No, the green selector bulbs are still the original incandescent bulbs. They are screwed into the actual housing of the radio head, and a standard LED didn't fit well .... so I decided to keep them. But, if you have an idea of how to replace them I am happy to take your input on it.
ReplyDeleteI would be afraid to suggest anything that might possibly damage those radios. However, I have used generic hot glue to seat small LEDs into larger holes (3mm LEDs into a 6mm hole), and the glue works as both a means of transmitting the light over small distances and as a diffuser.
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing about hot glue is that it's relatively pliable and shapes nicely with an X-Acto blade. But that can also be a downside as its softness tends to attract dust over time.
I would place the LEDs relatively close to the surface of the radio faceplate within the bulb socket, fill in the hole from the front with glue, leaving some excess to cut after it hardens.
Assuming your virtual cockpit isn't as dusty as my high school engineering lab was, I wouldn't worry about it.
Hopefully this gives you an idea. Good luck.
Not a bad idea, Nick. I do use hot glue on and off to secure cables inside of enclosures. I also found a 4mm size LED that might do the job. I am doing to do an audio panel next ... so there are lots of small LEDs that need to be put in place.
ReplyDeleteI'll put up some pictures for you so you can follow the progress on the audio panel.
Any updates? I hope this project hasn't stalled.
ReplyDeleteNo, no Nick. I am still at it, the problem is that I got pulled into a huge project at work that will last throughout the summer. So I had to throttle back a little on my L1011 project.
ReplyDelete