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Cobra 142 gtl meter light upgrade?

Some good info posted and linked to. The only thing I can add is if you do happen to bugger up the lamp holders a rubber grommet works great as a replacement. ;)
 
One of them developed a small tear, but I was able to repair with some liquid electrical tape (Plasti-dip) judiciously and it's good as new.
 
All Right! Got a pair of those 12v w/resistor LEDs in and it's workin'
Thanks for all the friendly helpful responses! :)

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congrats turbogus!

so was it easier or harder than you thought at first?

they look great BTW. makes ya want to just stare at 'em dont it? LOL

nice job.
LC
 
I really didn't want to pull the PCB from the chassis to address that R162. An odd thing though, I noticed when I ran my voltmeter to the hot contact wires the voltage was variable, but I was glad it came to life with just soldering these new LEDs in and not a flicker from the lights from that variable reading.


(y) The Men Who Stare AT................Radio Meters :rolleyes:

Now, if I could just find some mini 8 coax for my friends' van project that'd be great. This damm consumer desert I live in :headbang forces me to purchase online as I need a 30' length. So much for buying local.
 
you will find a better deal on better quality coax if you buy it online instead of locally anyway, so at least thats one positive. :D

you dont have to pull the PCB from the chassis to do any work on it.
no one does that unless their plan is to transfer one board into another chassis.
just thought you might want to know that in case you want to do any other work to your radio.

as for the variable voltage reading, if you measured it on a digital meter and noticed some small fluctuations on the right side of the decimal point, then that is just meter error and should not be noted as a problem.

if its fluctuating .5 volts or more, then you might have a dried out filter capacitor on your power supply board. (it looks like a smaller soda can, and its much larger than any of the other ones in the radio)
if you decided at some point to replace it in order to provide better power supply filtering and less ripple to the radio, then that is certainly something we can walk you through.

if you can do the LEDs, you can do that too.

one test you could do is run the radio from an external power supply that is known to be in good working order.
then take that same voltage measurement and see if its still fluctuating the same way.
if it is, the filter cap was not the problem.
if it goes away with the external supply, then replacing the cap has a good chance of fixing it.

yes, i know you are saying to yourself, "why bother, it works." and i agree; im just letting you know of the options you have if/when some other weird issue rears its head.

BTW, The men who stare at goats is one of my favorite movies. very underrated IMO.

good luck with the radio, and i hope you will continue to come to the forum and read/post.
you will be surprised and maybe a bit overwhelmed at how much there can be to learn in this hobby.
have fun,
LC
 

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