Early Winter Evening

[Peter.N.]

Hi Ken

It depends what you mean by succesfully. I did manage to restore the illumination on mine but with a bit of a bodge. As you will appreciate, the bulbs are very small and I think your idea of using an LED, with a suitable resistor, is an excellent one. I used a panel light bulb, its wire ended so you can solder it in, but it is to big, so I made a larger hole in the plastic with a soldering iron! Its fiddly, but if your OK with electronics it shouldn't be to difficult.

Peter.N.

[xmexclusive]

Hi Ken

Yes you can use some led's but you need a series resistor as well, have to get the polarity right and all these components have to be very small. I have looked at using leds for dash lights as well and have some in use but the problem of led low current draw then means that the cars "lights on dimming rheostat" has no effect on reducing the brightness for night time driving. It is a while since I took one to bits but if your radio is a standard Phillips the front with the bulbs is easy to change. I have a few somewhere for spares and will find a worker with good bulbs to salvage the front from if you want as long as I get your bits to play at putting led's in.

John

[kenhall1202]

Hi John

Thanks a lot for the offer of a working 'front' for my radio. I'll have another look first and see whats involved in changing the blown bulb(s), as I have managed to root out several very tiny bulbs which appear to be 6 volt. I bought them many years ago (in a Bangkok fleamarket of all places!) to repair my son's 'Scalextric' type racing cars, but never got round to it. If they are suitable then wiring two in series ought to be OK.

Regards

Ken