Radio Cosmetics

[Phil501]

Hey Gang, Randy turned me on to this link a while back.....Was just curious about the blue channel display.....Has anybody done this. Was wondering what has to be done to install this?? I have a Cobra 148 gtl that I want to get blue led with the channel selector....Also, question about the blue meter......Is it just a blue bulb or something else..Just curious if anybody has installed this....... Thanks all

http://www.mtndewnutsales.com/

 

[Sonwatcher]

Phil,
I know you can change the color for the meter with a colored bulb. I bought mine at RS.I assume the display can be done the same way.

 

[riq165]

Hey Phil-

I recently installed a blue display in my Grant LT. I got my display from www.westgateparts.com part # 4233BA-Blue-1. It is a drop in replacement... well kind of. I hard wired the dimmer circuit to stay "dim" all of the time to keep the display from being too bright. Blue LED's have different characteristics from the red and green LED's. I have found that you have to "dumb" them down by lowering the current when replacing standard reds or greens. Now the tricky part... if you leave the stock amber plastic window your display will look gray blue. I solved this by using a slightly tinted piece of plastic cut from a CD Jewel case. I glued it to the front bezel with a very small amount of silicon. Be careful while cutting and cleaning the plastic... my jewel cases were cheap and the tinting on the plastic was easily scratched even by paper towels. You won't really see the scratches until it is in front of the blue LED. Score and cut several pieces while you're at it, hold them up to test, when you get the winner it looks very professional.

Once you have the display done the standard meter bulb will look very yellow. I used a blue led from westgate with the dropping resistor in the lead so it was pretty much plug and play. Remove the original bulb from the side of the meter along with the rubber mount. I just positioned the blue LED and siliconed it in the side of the meter. Try to do this while it is on so you can see the meter illumination. The LED's are somewhat directional, adjust it till the meter glows the way you like it. Let it dry before you let it bounce around in the car.

Here is a pic of the end results:

http://www.geocities.com/channel22a/pics/radios/GrantLTblue.JPG

Hope that helps.

73

riq165

 

[Phil501]

Hey guys, thanks for the insight...riq165, Boy it sure came out nice. Nice job man.......I'll probably open a can of worms if I tried blue channel display myself.....LOL..........73's

 

[riq165]

I failed to mentioned that I replaced the rx/tx led with a blue led that is only on during tx. There are red/blue leds out there, search the computer case mod sites, but all the places I looked were back ordered so I just used the single blue for tx so this would not become another radio on the bench with all the screws out in pieces. If you leave any of the original green LED's it looks dirty next to the blue. The LT backlight is all surface mount LED's 17 of them if I remember correctly, that was a project I was not willing to tackle at the time and may never get around to. Instead I wired the backlighting to the dim switch, dim it's off, brt its on... it does not look good on.

Happy moding.

73

riq165

 

[thedirtmover]

You can also "dim" the channel display LEDs by adding resistance. The bottom center 2 pins are +. Cut the trace leading up to the display and add 1k to 2k resistance. This will generally give the display a "not so brite" look. If the blue is still eye piercing, look into buying some colored filters. I have about 2000 different hues of filters purchased from edmond scientific. I experiment alot with White LEDs and can make any color imaginable (almost!). Look at this 959....Note how eye killing the display on the right is. When you do this on a radio with a dimmer control, make sure you do it with the control on low as adding too much resistance will make the LED go out. This was before adding both resistance and some filtering. The circut for the freq counter LEDs was almost not enough to light the LEDs and wound up being just right. Also note the green lights for the functions under the Channel Display LEDs. These are SMDs and one of them is a 2 color SMD. It has taken me a great amount of time to be able to get all the componets to completely "blue out" a radio like this. However, those little points cost more in the installation.

When I did this Jackson, I think I used the red lens cover that was in the radio stock,,,,,,,,sometimes they are the perfect filter. Sometimes when you use the stock red covers supplied with the radio with a white, you get an awesome Purple!

 

[2at124]

radio's look really cool can they be done to a 2950dx?

 

[thedirtmover]

Yes, they can. However, the process is a bit different. I have done some really cool stuff with the RCI 2950s.

Can also change the colors of the pushbuttons.

 

[bob85]

has anybody tried reversing the polarising filter on the lcd panel to make the background dark with the digits lighted, my buddy used to do it to everything from pocket calculators to hf sets, i thought he was crazy but it did work..

 

[thedirtmover]

Hey Gang, Randy turned me on to this link a while back.....Was just curious about the blue channel display.....Has anybody done this. Was wondering what has to be done to install this?? I have a Cobra 148 gtl that I want to get blue led with the channel selector....Also, question about the blue meter......Is it just a blue bulb or something else..Just curious if anybody has installed this....... Thanks all

http://www.mtndewnutsales.com/

I purchased a bunch of faceplate stickers from that link. That is the reason I started making my own. Very low quality. No protection against spills, you cant clean them, they dont stick very good. Check out the 959 there, thats a custom of mine, but it is laminated and the stick will last for the test of times.

 

[Switch Kit]

cosmetics ......sure is nice to have a nice and shiny ,clean ,bright looking radio huh ? .......and hopefully what's underneath the hoods is as good as it looks (-: .....I rememebr years ago that we all used to talk to this guy that went by Dinosaur ....he was only a mobile operator at the time ,this dude really sounded loud and clear no matter where he was at any given time , and I mean he sounded good !! ...he said at the time that he was just talking on a old 148 GTL .....alrighty then. We had a kind of a coffee break one day and old Dinosaur came by and a few of us met him for the first time , real nice guy , I remember a few of us couldn't believe are eyes when we looked into his truck at this radio that he had sounded so awesome on !! This 148 looked like it had been through hell and back !! or it had been baried under ground for a while !! the meter light was burnt out and the needle was stuck over to the far side and it was missing about 3 knobs and the channel selector knob was missing a chunk out of the side of it !! and the digtal display had a few segments burnt out as well ......It was almost funny I'll tell ya !! unbelieveable how good this dude sounded on that piss poor looking radio. I don't think I'll ever forget that.

 

[thedirtmover]

Yup, you should have seen that President Jackson there when I got it. It was trashed. Many hours of repair made one heck of a good radio. A cosmetic facelift didn't hurt either.

 

[Switch Kit]

over the years ,I could handle a little bit of wear and tear on a radio .....Lord knows I was the only one that had to look at it , but when it comes to faulty meters and burnt out L.E.D's and number segments ,That crap personally drives me crazy. )-: ....these are times that something has got to be done. (-: If at all possible anyways.

 

[2at124]

Yes, they can. However, the process is a bit different. I have done some really cool stuff with the RCI 2950s.

Can also change the colors of the pushbuttons.

WOW that cool looking how much does that cost

 

[thedirtmover]

$50. $20 more for changing the backcolor of the buttons or $40 for just changing the backcolor.