[ICOM] Re: Availability of lamp parts for IC-375A

[Bill NY9H]

ME TOO.....  I thought i was the only guy out there grinding LEDs!!!
My IC28,38,28( a second one)...  also my old PEET weather controller needed 
to get brightened up alot.

Also  my CDE roter controller....  had three leds over the meter...

I made several light bars to light up my console, but ended up scrapping 
due to not enough light...  maybe someday i'll try that again.. 
incandescent won.

after grinding to size , you can polish with 400 sandpaper..to regain focus.

bill

>I got a great deal on E-Bay.  I bought 60 Super-bright White LEDs for $15.
>I took a few to work and played with them on the bench.  I didn't like the
>focus.  And they were too big for some of the radios.
>
>I played some more.  I found that if you carefully worked the LED shell on a
>fine grinding wheel, it could be ground into a small enough size to fit
>anything.  Also, by grinding the lens flat, the focus was very broad.  So I
>have ground a number of them to just about the size if the bulbs, in an
>octagon shape.  BTW, the opaque finish the grinder leaves on the plastic
>seems to diffuse the light almost perfectly.  I use a 560 ohm 1/4w resistor
>to do the voltage drop.
>
>So far I have replaced the ALL the lamps in my IC-820, IC-PS30, IC-R9000,
>and Yaesu Satellite rotor controller.  I am quite pleased with the outcome.
>I will continue to replace the bulbs with the LEDs in every radio as one
>bulb fails.
>
>Yes, it is a lot of work.  But it is work that I will do once, and never
>again.  I can deal with that.
>
>Mike.  KD9KC
>El Paso, TX.
>
>
>----
>Your Moderator: Dick Flanagan K7VC, icom-owner at mailman.qth.net
>Icom Users Net: Sundays, 1700Z, 14.316 MHz
>Icom FAQ: http://www.qsl.net/icom/