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tblake tblake is offline

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Showing Visitor Messages 11 to 20 of 20
  1. saxonmor
    03-03-2009 10:05 PM
    saxonmor
    Well, I had given up hope of getting it today, but then at 7:PM UPS showed up with my CD player. Right on the case is written "no lights", and sure enough, their aren't. The arrays are configured somewhat differently on this circuit board, but what took me an hour to define before took 10 minutes this time.
    The green LED's don't seem to produce enough light and I like the way the red looks, so I think I'll go with that. Time well spent my practice on the cassette deck. I'll post a pic when I get this one done. With all red (or maybe a yellow or two) it should light up nicely!
  2. tblake
    03-03-2009 12:25 AM
    tblake
    Yeah, thats just it. If they arent burnt out before its shipped, after being bounced around the brittle filiments break. Its not a problem for you though because your replacing them.

    Nice work on the tape player. What color are you going to put in the cd player?
  3. saxonmor
    03-02-2009 09:41 PM
    saxonmor
    I posted one kinda crappy picture at http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=944232 , but it'll give you an idea of what's possible. Thanks for the warning on the CD player. I wonder how many of the bulbs will be out when I get it!
  4. tblake
    03-02-2009 08:19 PM
    tblake
    Wow, nice work! You should write sort of a tech article and include a few pictures for us to drool over.

    I wish I had known about this sooner. My stock deck burnt out a few bulbs back in the summer time so I just sent it in and had them all replaced. It costed 20 bucks which wasn't bad, but they were replaced with regular incondescant bulbs. The company didnt do LED ocnversions. If any more burn out, I'll make sure to get ahold of you.

    Let me know when you get your CD player done. While your in there, get a cotton swab with some rubbing alcohol and clean up the laser. I had some issues with mine skipping on all CD's that weren't 100% new. It was so Annoying!
  5. saxonmor
    03-01-2009 08:46 PM
    saxonmor
    Well, success!..sort of. It is not so simple as soldering in a resistor and some LED's. The bulbs are in a number of varying parallel arrays, so you have to interpret the circuit and then compute the resistor value for each specific array. Then you have to remove the right jumper wires and solder in the resistor. I did all the calculations, then paused and thought, "Why am I spending all this time on this unit? It's a friggin' cassette player!" So I went to EBAY and bought a used OEM AM/FM/CD which hasn't arrived yet. BUT! Just to see if what I had done was correct, I went and bought the cheap-o LED variety pack and some resistors at Radio Shack and lo' and behold, it works! Looks trippy too. I have green LED's behind the preselected buttons, red on the lower row of settings and yellow elsewhere. SO! I am going to be posting that if anyone wants their unit converted over I will do it for a few bucks.
  6. tblake
    02-23-2009 09:32 AM
    tblake
    You can have a look at this write-up. I had a bulb burn out in a switch and converted it to LED's.

    http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=925884

    Also as far as calculations go, keep in mind that the vehicle will run at 12.6v with engine not running, and 14-15v when running. I used the below website for my calculations. The radio shack LED package I got didnt have specs, so I guessed a 1k ohm resistor, and it worked out well.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

    Good Luck, Let me know how it goes!
  7. tblake
    02-23-2009 09:31 AM
    tblake
    Wow, I'm not for sure. I have actually never converted my radio to LED's, so I dont really know. What I do remember is that there are a couple clusters of wires that connect to the face of the radio. If I rememeber right two of them supplied 12V to the illumination bulbs. I used a multimeter set to ohms to find out where each bulb recieved its power. If those wires only supply voltage to the bulbs, I see no issue with soldering in a resistor right there. Just have to observe polatiry when installing LED's. As they will only light one direction. You sound like your pretty knowledgable with electronics (even more so than me) so I dont think you'll have any issues.
  8. saxonmor
    02-23-2009 02:10 AM
    saxonmor
    Thanks for the reply. If I could get a little more input per chance... Where do you solder the resistor(s) in? There seems so little room to work with. I see what appears to be a common path which runs mostly around the perimeter of the board supplying the lamps (red lead.) Can a resistor be soldered into the lead that supplies the common without affecting other circuitry, or does each LED have to have its own resistor? Also, I calculate a 420 ohm resistor for a 3.3vDC LED @ 25ma. Do you come up with a similar figure? Thanks again.
  9. tblake
    02-22-2009 10:44 PM
    tblake
    Yes, a regular LED will fit in there, but you will have to also solder in a resistor to limit the voltage. The bulbs in there are incondescant type at 12V.
  10. saxonmor
    02-22-2009 06:35 PM
    saxonmor
    In one of your previous posts, you mentioned that Radio Shack has replacement bulbs for Lumina radios. I would prefer to switch to LED as I need to change some of the bulbs. But what are the specs? Is it a 12vDC lamp? Thanks. ~Kenn. saxonmor503@yahoo.com

About Me

  • About tblake
    Real Name
    Timmy Blake
    City
    Maple Lake
    State
    Minnesota
    Zip Code
    55358
    Country
    United States
    Occupation
    Loss Prevention Agent
    Interests
    Cars, My Job (security), Fishing, My Girl
    Biography
    Graduated from St. Cloud Tech Auto Mechanics. Considering a 4 year Automotive Engineering degree
    Gender
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