[TowerTalk] LED fix for your rotator

[Hector Garcia,XE2K]

Bryan

thanks for sharing your experience and your solution,  for others looking  results like this  there are also 
a solution from Unified micro systems and have a good result

http://www.unifiedmicro.com/ml6.htm



just my 2 cents

 
J.Hector Garcia  XE2K / AD6D
Mexicali B.C  DM22fp / El Centro
P.O.Box 73 
El Centro CA 92244-0073
USA
http://xe2k.net
Tweeter @XE2K




On Sunday, August 10, 2014 9:50 AM, Bryan Swadener via TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com> wrote:
 


I use incandescents with a CURRENT regulator. That makes for no inrush current (5X running current) that kills the filament prematurely. A cheap and easy to implement LM317L can be configured using ONE resistor to set the current. Every 5% less than the lamp's normal current results in a 50% increase in lamp life. 5% less current won't be noticed in lamp brightness. All the info is in the LM317 datasheet. The only caveat is, the supply voltage needs to be at least 1.25V greater than the normal lamp voltage. Cost is about a buck each for the LM317LZ (rated 100mA).

I treated my olde Kenwood TS120S and TS130S rigs ten years ago, and have yet to experience another burned out lamp (the '130 is used mobile).  The best thing is, there's no ugly spotlight effect that is typical of LEDs (especially when you don't use wide dispersion LEDs, or remove the LED's lens).

vy 73,
Bryan WA7PRC

Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2014 11:26:13 -0500
>
>From: Gary <gary_mayfield at hotmail.com>
>To: "towertalk at contesting.com" <towertalk at contesting.com>
>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] LED fix for your rotator
>
>Nifty, I have run LEDs for several years. My experience has been very good as well.
>
>You can see my story here:
>http://www.kk0sd.net/rotorlight/rotorlight.htm
>
>73,
>Joe kk0sd
>
>> Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2014 20:28:01 -0700
>> From: jpk5lad at cox.net
>> To: towertalk at contesting.com
>> Subject: [TowerTalk] LED fix for your rotator
>> 
>> The older I get, the harder it is to read the dial on my CDE/Hy-Gain/MFJ rotor 
>> control boxes.  I never could get very good mileage on the 28 volt bulbs powered
>> by the internal meter power supply.  Those bulbs were not regular residents in my 
>> junk box, and several attempts to provide illumination some other way were less 
>> than successes.  I even tried the RotorEZ folks but they won't respond to their 
>> customers' calls.
>> 
>> Recently, I discovered an easy to provide, inexpensive, and easily reproducible 
>> way to light up those control boxes.  I just uploaded the article to my website.
>> Go to the home page on my website at:   <www.hayseed.net\~jpk5lad\>
>> On the lower left area of the home page menu, choose "Repairing Antenna Rotators"
>> This will take you to the "Repairing a Rotator" page that gives a selection of 
>> several articles on rebuilding and repairing ham antenna rotators.
>> 
>> The new article is titled, "Adding LED Illumination to Antenna Rotator Control 
>> Box" and is menu choice #4.
>> 
>> I hope this provides you with some useful hints to make your ham activities even 
>> more enjoyable.
>> 
>> 73,
>> Jim - K5LAD
>
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