B2 meter illumination

brinsmead

brinsmead

Active Member
Many B2 aficionado have replaced their meter illumination with LED's, that soft yellow glow of the incandescent bulb on the meter dials that shouted vintage seems to be lost to history.
Do B2 owners who have LED's in place of the incandescent meter illumination like the colour temperature or is it that owners have thrown away or lost their set of 4 lamps ?
 
You can use "Warm White" LED's to more closely match incandescent lamp color spectrum.
 
thankyou,has anyone fitted these LED's.
A very good member has icey blue, but I wanted more to bulb colour
,
 
brinsmead said:
thankyou,has anyone fitted these LED's.
A very good member has icey blue, but I wanted more to bulb colour
,
Click to expand...

Brins - I used 360° diffused LED's supplied by Superbrite LED. I tried white, blue, yellow, and red. The closest match to the originals are the yellows ... but I find any of these colours look great in the B-2. I know it changes the original incandescent look but since one or more of my bulbs were burnt anyway and it's a bit of a PITA to change them I thought I'd give the LED's a try and personally I like the results. I used the original Stanley holders for the LED's so I can always change them out for bulbs if I want. :thmbsp:

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Last edited:
Thankyou V for that brilliant coverage, illustrated as only you can do, I’ll use the setup in your first photo.
That soft yellow glow is beautiful.(well my preference)
I’ll order 4 of those, and use the Stanley holders as you suggest
Thankyou again
 
brinsmead said:
That soft yellow glow is beautiful.(well my preference)
Click to expand...

They're not quite as bright as the picture indicates. Don't forget that you'll need a suitable resistor in series with the +12V lead feeding the PCB and you'll need to pay attention to the LED polarity. :yes:
 
B2 Relays

Have a look at those newer Omron relays vrs the 35 year old job, this works in favour of the old adage of they don’t make em like they used to.
I noticed one of the inner fixed contacts was way out of position and the swinging contacts were only hitting the corner of it in the on position.
I’ve had those operational for just over 12months, it ok for a while then would drop out occasionally, didn’t notice that when I put in.
 
Last edited:
brinsmead said:
Have a look at those newer Omron relays vrs the 35 year old job, this works in favour of the old adage of they don’t make em like they used to.
I noticed one of the inner fixed contacts was way out of position and the swinging contacts were only hitting the corner of it in the on position.
I’ve had those operational for just over 12months, it ok for a while then would drop out occasionally, didn’t notice that when I put in.
Click to expand...

Well that's certainly discouraging. So far mine are still working fine but I know it's just a question of time before they become problematic again.

I wish there was an alternative to these. A good friend of mine and fellow B-2 enthusiast who also happens to be an excellent design engineer was looking at designing a solid state replacement ... but to date it hasn't happened. :(
 
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