[Heath] Replacing dial lights with LEDS in SB-102

[rgroh at swbell.net]

I don't have an exact answer to your question but I don't think there is anything out there that gives you exactly what you want.  You are entirely correct that most LED's are pretty much unidirectional - i.e. they radiate in a front facing cone of light.  As an electronics engineer (now retired) I rather rapidly slip into the design mode and think about how I would make a solution. We need a structure to hold an LED (or maybe 2 or three **) so they shine down into the dial area. Then we need a small number of extra parts to drive the LED's (which need DC) from the existing bulb source (essentially 12 VAC).  Then we need a way to connect our new little LED assembly electrically to the old bulb.  All very doable but they will require a bit of thought to pull it off.  I don't own any Heathkit gear at the moment although I certainly have some other older radios that could benefit from an LED approach.  
Good luck - let us know what you find out.
** Two LED's might be a nice choice as you could put one across the other in reverse polarity arrangement.  Then one acts as a reverse protection diode for the other.  Also means a single dropping resistor.  So 2 LED's and one resistor.
73Bob Groh, WA2CKY 

    On Tuesday, January 3, 2017 8:40 AM, Joseph Smalley via Heath <heath at puck.nether.net> wrote:
 

 I have posted this question once before about replacing the dial lights with LEDS got a few suggestions.
One was using LEDS from the Superbrightleds company.  They make a great product.
Unfortunately for me the LEDS I purchased do not project the light in the right direction towards the plastic
circular dial.  These LEDS shine the light straight out and in the SB-102 that is down not at the circular dial.
Has anyone used a different LED from this company that projects the light at a 90 degree angle which would be

pointing at the edge of the circular dial.  If so what color did you use?  Was it Cool or Warm?
I see a few on there website that may be what I need but I want to make sure it could be used successfully
because those I purchased are not what I needed.
I did interact with there technical people but not sure if they understood what I wanted to do.
Any suggestions as I dont want to modify the SB-102 as I built it in 1972 and want to keep it stock.
73  Joe WA3CKA


 
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