[R-390] Panel meters

[Curt Nixon]

Remember those little Christmas trees with a light in the bottom and all 
the branches are plastic fiber?  An LED with a couple of strands of FO 
on it will get into some pretty tight spots.  Makes changing the LED 
very easy also and only tiney holes required, if that, into the meter.

Curt
KU8L



rbethman wrote:
> It "may" be very difficult to back light the meters in an R-390A.  The 
> dial face is NOT translucent.
>
> Measurements would have to be taken, and then see *IF* there is room at 
> the top, between the dial face and the glass to "squeeze" an LED in that 
> space.  I'm pretty positive that the hard drive style "flat" ones could 
> fit.  It would require a small slot to be cut into the meter body!
>
> To keep the LED from being harsh, the surface could be either "etched" 
> or "roughed up" with an abrasive to dim it down.
>
> I don't know if a round one would fit.  Then again, I haven't given a 
> lot of thought to lighting them.
>
> Most of the meters that have back lighting, have transparent or 
> translucent bodies, AND either the lamp is outside the meter, or the 
> dial face is at "least" translucent, so that the light can come through.
>
> Bob - N0DGN
>
> On 4/21/2011 1:45 PM, Dennis Wade wrote:
>   
>> I'd like to hear more about how one would add back lighting to a
>> meter; not just the '390A meters (hazardous material issues), but
>> backlighting meters in general.
>>
>>              Dennis
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 9:21 AM, Tisha Hayes<tisha.hayes at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>     
>>> This may be blasphemous but I always wanted to change the panel meters from
>>> white on black to black on white with some additional scaling.
>>>
>>> We have the JPEG and TIFF renderings of the panel meter faceplates but they
>>> are very grainy looking
>>>
>>> I figured it I went with black on white I could laser print it in vellum
>>> paper and glue it to a translucent bezel. Remove the old, radioactive bezels
>>> and add backlighting to the meters.
>>>
>>> Before someone gets all excited about me handling radioactive materials I
>>> used to be licensed to handle radioactive sources (Cobalt 60, Radium 226,
>>> Cesium 137, Americium 241, Polonium 210), including those that posed a
>>> threat of airborne contamination so I know the right steps, have the proper
>>> clothing and respiratory protection and have the equipment to monitor for
>>> external contamination (alpha, beta,gamma).
>>>
>>> Definitely not something I would want to (or legally could) do for someone
>>> else. The freaking NRC would be all over me if I went into the home business
>>> of retrofitting radioactive panel meters or dial knobs.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Ms. Tisha Hayes/ AA4HA
>>>       
>
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