SSlmixed.com Forum
Tech discussion => 4K,6K,8K Series => Topic started by: marcmozart on February 28, 2013, 08:45:00 PM
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Today I played with LED replacements for the 36V bulbs. I ordered the following ones:
JKL Components
Z-T55-NW (neutral white)
Z-T55-G (green)
Z-T55-R (red)
They are available at www.rs-online.com in many countries. They are around 3 € for a single LED and prices can go below 2 € if ordering many.
Before I go into more detail on the LEDs... - can you guys help me with the colors that SSL used for the different switches? The old style bulbs had color caps in some places, but I am not entirely sure what was used where…
I found the following colors on my bulbs: YELLOW (more like ORANGE actually), RED and GREEN
I believe they were used as follows:
READY GROUP - orange
READY TAPE - green
CUT - yellow
SOLO - white (no cap)
a selection of these colors where used in the Centre Section, here are some examples
MIX (status) - green
MINI (speakers) - yellow
anyway this looked very random to me
I'd just like to know what thinking SSL originally had behind the selction of colors on these switches???
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Can't remember the center section but all consoles I've seen has red CUTs.
-Paavo
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Can't remember the center section but all consoles I've seen has red CUTs.
-Paavo
Thanks! Thats cool, as I'm thinking red for CUTs and green for SOLO would make sense (traffic light analogy... CUT / red means STOP for the audio of the channel - SOLO / green means "this channel has a priority... you get the idea)
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I played with the green and red JKL Z-T55-G and JKL Z-T55-R LEDs today, trying them in different switches and comparing with the old bulbs (my 4048G still has bulbs).
Here are my observations:
- the green and red LEDs are EXTREMELY bright, you can immediately spot the LED in between the bulbs
- the LEDs produce no heat compared with the bulbs
When putting one of the green caps (from the bulbs) on the green LED and a red cap on the red LED, the brightness was (slightly) brought down which is a good thing. The dazzle of the pure LED-light (without the switch cap) is very tough on the eyes.
However, one would not stare at a particular switch for a minute and it's easier to spot a CUT or SOLOed channel with the LED mounted, especially in a bright environment or even daylight.
Here's the datasheet for the LEDs:
http://docs-europe.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/116c/0900766b8116c064.pdf
I'm not an electrician, but I take that since no resistors are used, these produce very little heat. Should be a good thing for our consoles, right?
I've attached a picture that shows a comparison of the bulbs with a green LED. This LED had no additional green cap on top. (The solo button in the picture above did...)
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the original cuts are more of an orange/amber color, not really red. there are red ones though.
off the top of my hat: record mode, track arm, and osc to quad/groups are red.
mix mode, aux to monitor/sls, ready tape are green.
cut, ready group, mini, and a bunch of other 651 buttons are orange.
i personally wouldn't change the color scheme. it's what people are used to from SSLs all over the world, and also easy on the eyes. i hate having bright blinking lights in front of me when mixing, that's why i don't like bargraphs either.
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I agree and I wanna stick with what SSL originally used. I'm still waiting for the delivery of the "neutral white" LEDs and I've also found a company that can deliver the colored silicon caps for the LEDs. If possible, I'll try to find a cap that makes the LED resemble the original color.
What I like about the LEDs is that they all look the same, whereas each bulb has a slightly different brightness. Also I'm hoping that the LED last for a really long time.
the original cuts are more of an orange/amber color, not really red. there are red ones though.
off the top of my hat: record mode, track arm, and osc to quad/groups are red.
mix mode, aux to monitor/sls, ready tape are green.
cut, ready group, mini, and a bunch of other 651 buttons are orange.
i personally wouldn't change the color scheme. it's what people are used to from SSLs all over the world, and also easy on the eyes. i hate having bright blinking lights in front of me when mixing, that's why i don't like bargraphs either.
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Quick update on the colors that were used - some infos on centre section still missing... help!
RED
Record (Status), Track Arm, (OSC) to Quad, (OSC) to Group, Status Lock
GREEN
Mix (Status), Aux to Monitor/SLS, Ready Tape
ORANGE
Cut, Ready Group, Mini, and some more 651 buttons
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Hi there. James Stevens here from Austin, Tx, proud owner of a 6040E/G+. First time posting here, or on any forum for that matter. Thanks to all involved for such a great resource.
Back to LED's. Thought I'd share some of my findings regarding the JKL component bulbs. I'm comparing these colors to LED's I purchased from the fine folks at recycled audio. They are out of them at the moment. BTW, I did my VU meter lights with there kit, worked great and looks killer, took about day to do all and totally worth it. Can't speak highly enough of recycled audio.
Here's my findings:
JKL LED's with colored condoms from previous bulbs. In my opinion they are way too bright without the covers.
Red bulb w/ yellow cover - Makes a good warm red for cuts, stop etc.
Green bulb w/ orange cover - Makes a really nice green, for play, ready tape etc.
White bulb w/ orange cover - Makes a nice yellow, for solo etc.
White bulb w/ yellow cover - Makes a nice light green, looks very close to recycled audio green.
The white bulbs are strange without a cover, as they're more of a bright blinding silver.
Anyhoo, thought I'd share. Great weekend to all!
James Stevens
earstudioaustin.com
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Hi James,
welcome to the forum and really great input! Hope you hang out a lot here... as I'm currently installing my first SSL and everything is so much easier with the help of the wonderful people on this forum!
Peace
Marc
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I can live with changing some bulbs here and there sometimes, what I want to do is to illuminate my VU`s with some nice LEDs, anyone have any ideas about this, I saw some nice white/purple leds on a 4000 on youtube awhile ago, see if I can find the link again.
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Yeah, the VU meters are on my agenda as well.
I can live with changing some bulbs here and there sometimes, what I want to do is to illuminate my VU`s with some nice LEDs, anyone have any ideas about this, I saw some nice white/purple leds on a 4000 on youtube awhile ago, see if I can find the link again.
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Are those available in 48V? That might toss the need to dim them with the covers.
I did some replacements in the 90's with JKL, LEDtronics and others. The technology was new and the slides had finicky connections and the bulbs would go dark or burn because of the early tech.
My equation is always to look at the total cost. Lamps today are still at low prices, but the quality has decreased in a major way. I got JKL 1819's for UREI meters and they were blowing after 2-4 weeks. There is some labor involved with replacing them so I went with mini LED panels and am done with replacing bulbs. One less thing to do- wait! I got paid to open those 1176's every month!
The SSL meters are T1 3/4 bi-pin lamps. They offered field mods back in the day with yellow multiled lamps. I would experiment with colors other than violet first. . .
Mike
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Admittedly there's a bit more work involved, but if you're not too precious about retaining the classic 'incandescent' look of your E/G switches then this my be of interest.
Channels 1 and 2 are LED modded and 3 is old school lamps for reference. Colours are definitely colder with LED's but with a bit of tweaking they can be made quite pleasing, without any obnoxious glare.
(http://i.imgur.com/km6gz61.jpg)
And here's how it's done. Keep your blown lamps and fit them with an LED/resistor combo. Took me about 5 minutes to do 1 but I'm sure we can improve on that by getting night reception/interns to do the tedious bits. ;D
(http://i.imgur.com/xV3OGBi.jpg)
Let me know if this is of any interest and I'll follow-up with some values and part No's.
Cheers
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Cool - thanks! I'm definitely interested in the details!
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Ditto
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Right, where was I....
Nothing too complex here, just recycle your old lamps as per the photo, using the following values:
Resistor - 8k2 0.25W (dissipates ~0.13W)
LED - Rapid electronics (UK) Part no. 55-1545
The lamps that use a coloured ‘boot’ are fine as they are, but the white ones require something to diffuse the light and reduce glare. A square of A4 paper, cut out and wedged inside the switch cap does the trick! :)
YMMV Etc
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If you are going with single chip LED's then a bit of fine-tuning with all the variations of single colors available should get close to original color for the purists.
Mike
PS: I would recommend a regular vacumming of that console with a horse-hair brush to keep the dust from accumulating. I recommend to everyone here. Go for horse-hair, longer bristles in an old-school Electrolux style if possible and adapt the brush to your studio vac. Put a round piece of 5mm screen inside to catch all the EAO switch caps. You will not believe the dust collected on the screen only half-way across the desk! Should post a vac primer. . .
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If you are going with single chip LED's then a bit of fine-tuning with all the variations of single colors available should get close to original color for the purists.
Mike
PS: I would recommend a regular vacumming of that console with a horse-hair brush to keep the dust from accumulating. I recommend to everyone here. Go for horse-hair, longer bristles in an old-school Electrolux style if possible and adapt the brush to your studio vac. Put a round piece of 5mm screen inside to catch all the EAO switch caps. You will not believe the dust collected on the screen only half-way across the desk! Should post a vac primer. . .
Hey Mike, a picture of your adapted brush (with screen) would be wonderful, thank you :-) I used a standard "Henry" with brush attachment this week, but it did suck one EAO cap, that had to be fished out! :(
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work in progress...
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Ive been hanging on to the blown lamps for quite some time now to do just the same, id be intesrested to see what you guys have come up with, the important thing in the conversion is to make sure the led has the right amount of degrees of spread otherwise it will look way to bright and blinding...bring on the parts list!!!
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Ive been hanging on to the blown lamps for quite some time now to do just the same, id be intesrested to see what you guys have come up with, the important thing in the conversion is to make sure the led has the right amount of degrees of spread otherwise it will look way to bright and blinding...bring on the parts list!!!
See my previous post for resistor value and LED. You may need to order a few different parts and experiment with a spare switch and a 36V psu on the bench to find what looks good to you.
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Hi guys, I am also a proud owner of an SSL 4040 E/G and have built led's with resistors in the past, however I decided to revert back to the original lamps because I had an issue with polarity. Is there anyone using led's with resistors and experiencing the same issue with polarity?
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The only issue with LED polarity that I can think of could easily be rectified by turning the lamp through 180 degrees.
What problem are you experiencing?
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The only issue with LED polarity that I can think of could easily be rectified by turning the lamp through 180 degrees.
What problem are you experiencing?
Hi nycsudio1, I'm also looking forward to replace our desk lamps with LEDs could you please let us know more about the problem you were experiencing?
thanks
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Hi guys! Most LEDs are about 3V and 20 milliamps. Is the resistance to be interposed okay at 1800 ohms?
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Hi,
I have posted the info about the components I have used (http://forum.sslmixed.com/index.php/topic,279.0.html):
- LED reference: OSCH4L5111A
https://www.tme.eu/es/details/osch4l5111a/diodos-led-tht-5mm/optosupply/
- Resistor reference: MOF1WS
https://www.tme.eu/es/details/mof1ws-1k8/resistencias-metalizadas-tht-1w/sr-passives/
I use the original rubber caps for coloring and also plastidip liquid rubber (https://www.plasti-dip.es/vinilo-liquido/plastidip-goma-liquida-429ml/)
Regards.
Oihan
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Made the same thing! Great work! ;) Our SSL is now future-proof. What about the 2 tiny led underneath the VU Meter (not those on top)? I still haven't found a solution. Any idea? Photo in attachment.
Regards,
Franz.
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Figured out:
Led 3mm 20mA 3.0 V with 1.8k ohm resistor. Works great!