Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

topic posted Thu, January 25, 2007 - 9:30 PM by  David
Okay, I realize that there are people out there who sell the pop-up led kits, but I don't want to buy it, wait for shipping and have pride, so I want to do it myself. Has anybody successfully done it the hard way: taking an LED, installing it and a new resistor? If so, do tell. I tried to just install an LED (naiively), and burned it out because I disregarded the fact that the old bulb drew much more power. If anybody doesn't know, I will be back to tell you about it soon, I am going for white LEDs so I can finally see my stylus in the dark. one love
posted by:
David
Colorado Springs
  • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

    Sat, January 27, 2007 - 8:39 AM
    The resistor you use will be dependant on the diode you use. If you take an electronics course or get a book you'll be able to figure out which you need of each. The kit I use has two mini high intensity LED's in it. It's a pain to install it and get everything aimed up properly and considering everything thats in the kit, I'd be hard pressed to assemble the same thing together for less cost than it already is, plus my time is better spent on other pursuits than reengineering the wheel. I pay $20 a kit, but for that price is also the convienance of not having to assemble the stuff in the kit either. NOT that its complicated by the are already 25 steps just to change the popup light.

    BTW what version of the service manual do you have and what kind of multimeter are you using?

    I'm always up for a good story, let me know how it goes for you.
    • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

      Tue, February 6, 2007 - 5:06 PM
      Why would you replace the resisitor? Why not just get a properly rated LED?

      I've done this dozens of times, and never had a problem.
      • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

        Fri, February 9, 2007 - 8:33 PM
        What have you done dozens of times?

        What kind of LED(s?) do you use? [As in what do you consider a properly rated LED. This includes man., model # and values.]

        And which resistor are you talking about on which version of turntable?
        • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

          Thu, February 15, 2007 - 4:25 PM
          I've replaced LEDs (amongst other things) dozens of times.

          I either order the LED kits from here:

          www.turntabletech.com/visualmods.htm

          Or get them from Mouser or Digikey (though I would have to look up the part #'s and such, as I haven't ordered them in well over a year).

          As for the resistor - I'm assuming he's talking about the one he damaged. I don't specifically know which one he's referring to, but getting the value for it is as easy as reading the line code on the resistor itself.

          Is there a reason you're coming off as extremely questioning?
          • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

            Fri, February 16, 2007 - 10:29 PM
            Nothing personal mate, just looking for a better way.

            I am questioning you because you questioned me:
            I wrote: The resistor you use will be dependant on the diode you use.

            you wrote: Why would you replace the resisitor? Why not just get a properly rated LED?

            I wrote: What kind of LED(s?) do you use?

            you wrote: I either order the LED kits from here:

            www.turntabletech.com/visualmods.htm

            The reason I'm asking is because I've used several of these kits and all of them have resistors that are placed inline prior to the diodes, in fact the kit you pointed out (here: www.turntabletech.com/visualmods.htm ) has two leds in parallel and still uses a resistor.

            Really I just want to know what kind of HI-LED(s) you found that fits in the popup light housing without the use of a resistor. Because every kit I've used has a resistor in it.

            The other thing is that the purpose of the resistor attached to the popuplight has nothing to do with a LED and in fact is part of a secondary circuit path. The DPDT switch in the popup light.
            • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

              Thu, October 11, 2007 - 2:52 AM
              I'm curious too. We (1200s.com) no longer build our own pop-up LED assemblies. Instead we use the TurntableTech mods, or those other mods from China. We work on an average of 10 turntables a day, plus all the other gear we service, so time is of the essence. So anything to make it go smoother & quicker, is alright by us. Cost is less too. You can get TurntableTech's LED kits on ebay for about $12.00

              But curious on NOT using resistor for an LED exchange. All the kits we use, have resistors installed, and even the ones we built from scratch we utilized.
              • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

                Fri, October 19, 2007 - 8:17 AM
                I think the resistor serves the purpose of turning off the pop-up light with whatever circut it is built into. Also, It depends on if your replacing an actual bulb or LED's already in place.
                • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

                  Fri, October 19, 2007 - 8:24 AM
                  Another thing, if you do end up DIY, be careful when soldering the 33 and 45 buttons, they are VERY close together, and while shorting the LED contacts does not burn anything out, it does make it so the 33rpm or 45rpm are the only light that is activated. It does not affect the ability to use 33rpm or 45rpm.
                • Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

                  Sun, October 21, 2007 - 1:11 AM
                  In the modification to LED if you snip the resistor that is attached the popup light it will go off completely instead of dim changing the SPDT to a SPST. The LED mod kit comes with a resistor that is placed in series to drop the voltage to acceptable levels for the LED to not burn out.

                  For example a 3 or 4 Watt LED can produce 83 Lumens of light but only require 3 volts @ .1 amps anything above that and the LED burns really brightly before it dies a permanent death. By placing a resistor inline you are putting a limit to the amount of voltage that the LED will receive, in turn the amount of amperage it draws is in proportion and the extra energy is wasted off as heat. All LEDS have some sort of limiter or voltage regulator prior to the LED otherwise they would not last at all, the other option is to place a bunch of LEDs in a series to create enough resistance so that a resistor is not necessary, The problem being the space in the popup light currently only accommodates 2 mini high intensity LED's at a time, not nearly enough resistance.

                  As soon as I have a moment I'll break out my schematic and some pictures of me testing the LEDs on my multi-meter.and I'll show you the math.
                  • This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.

                    Re: Technics 1200 LED upgrade!!!

                    Mon, October 22, 2007 - 11:18 AM
                    ... i guess you could always go nuts and drill some holes into your turntable and install some decorative lighting to add the resistance?

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