[Pro2006] Pro2006 LED mods

Bob Whiston [email protected]
Mon, 12 Apr 2004 14:11:50 -0600


At 06:37 12-04-04, you wrote:
>What are the front LED mods? Replace the backlit display?
>And lastly, where can I find info on doing this mod...
>
>look here for a view:
>
>http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1p5vc/2006/2006.jpg
>
>http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1p5vc/2006/2006modlook.jpg

         OK...  The `S-meter' sort of makes sense for those times one 
doesn't have the radio hooked up to a computer via an Opto456 
board  (Hinit!  Hint!  I am *still* trying to find someone who has an 
Opto456 board for sale so that I *can* use my 2006 with my computer!) and 
wants to have an idea of what the signal level is.  But...  The other two 
mods???  I guess that *I* may be a little `dense' in that I don't really 
see a need for `centre tuning' and `carrier on' indications?   Unless the 
radio also has the ability to be tuned via a `knob' in somewhat of an 
`infinite' series of freq step `al la' an `olde fashioned' tunable `police 
radio' of days past?  But then that would be effectively defeating the 
basic purpose/design, wouldn't it?

         On the backlight thing...  Has that radio had the EL panel 
replaced with an LED mod along the lines of what I outlined many years ago 
when it became apparent that the EL panels were dropping like flies or is 
it just the change of the `dimmer switch' over to being an `off/on switch'?

         For those not familiar with the actual change from the panel mod I 
outlined way back when...  I suggested that what one *could* do was replace 
the EL panel with a piece of `opal glass' type plastic that had a series of 
LEDs `optically' mounted around the edges and a piece of `foil' mounted on 
the back.  Not only would this be a good rplacement for the EL but it would 
also allow one to choose the colour that backlighted the display.  (One of 
my two `MIA' 2006s actually had that mod in it and I had actually made it 
such that I could choose between green and amber.  Blue LEDs were a lab 
curiosity at that time so I hadn't mounted any blue LEDs.  To change the 
colours I had to pop the cover and flip a switch but now days I bet it 
could be done even more `elegantly' via the front panel switch itself with 
a series of presses and a small bit of extra circuitry.  Just make it such 
that one has a series of steps of `colour', off, `colour', off, 
ETC.?)  Bill Cheek was going to put the mod into one of his books but 
cancer got to him before we agreed on just which version to be published 
but, I think that the basics had already been `published' enough on FidoNet 
enough that there should be a few other radios out there with it in them 
that *someone else* should have a radio with it installed not just my `MIA' 
radio.

         Is there more to the 2006 part of your web site?  *If* so what is 
*that* URL?


---
     Doleo ergo sum,
        Bob Whiston

        "Too late to work within the system, too early to shoot them all."