Tascam 320b meter lights

Old thread, but thanks so much for this great photo tutorial! I just dragged out my dad's old 320B and those VU meters are too valuable to leave in the dark!
It's nice to find this kind of info on forum when the equipment in question predated the internet and is practically invisible online. 👍🏼
 
Hi,

I’m in the process of selling my M512, and meter lamps number 5&6 are dead. Does anyone know the process to follow in order to open the meter bridge to have access to the Vu meter lamps ?

Thank you
 
Super easy on an M-500 series console or M-50. There is a panel on the back of the meter bridge affixed with screws. Remove the screws and the panel. You’ll now be able to see and access brackets that fasten pairs of meters to the meter bridge chassis. Remove those screws and you can remove a pair of meters from the bridge. It’s possible…can’t recall from memory…you’ll need to remove multiple pairs of meters to access the 5/6 pair. I can’t recall if they are connectorized or hard wired. Anyway, once you get the 5/6 pair accessible you use a razor blade to slice the clear tape holding the lense to the meter assembly. Don’t do all 4 sides…do 3. Then you can tip the lense of each up and out of the way and you’ll see the lamp soldered in. Assuming you have the replacement lamps, just desolder the old, solder in the new, and reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. Disclaimers abound. Do all this with the device disconnected from the mains power. Proceed at your own risk. I’m not responsible for you zorching yourself or your device. I’m posting all the steps from memory so verify with your service manual and/or other resources.

[EDIT]

Note, IIRC the lamp installation on an M-50/M-500 is polarized. The replacement lamps usually have one side either marked with a band or the glass is beaded at one end. Observe the installation of the factory lamps and mirror the installation of the replacement lamps to the factory orientation. Again, this is from memory. I can’t recall if the M50/M-500 series or the M-300 series have a DC power rail for the meter lamp illumination…if it’s AC the lamp orientation doesn’t matter. If it’s DC it matters. Easiest thing to do is, again, observe the orientation of the factory lamps and mirror the installation of the replacements to the factory orientation…and not worry about the power rail spec.
 
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Thank you so much ! Actually, on my console the meter lamps are of the fuse type, they seem to be clipped. I have bought 8 regular lamps (for my Tascam 58 reel to reel) and 8 fuse type lamps.
 
gianluca68 said:
The lamps could be replaced by a bit of a LED strip:
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Single Color Warm Strip 12V IP20 240 Led Per Meter-Veekaylight.com

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You can cut 3 leds and power them by a resistor to adjust intensity.
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But…but…the warm incandescent glow…

LEDs are a great option, but I personally like incandescent lamps for analog VU meters.
 
bleachboy said:
Thank you so much ! Actually, on my console the meter lamps are of the fuse type, they seem to be clipped. I have bought 8 regular lamps (for my Tascam 58 reel to reel) and 8 fuse type lamps.
Click to expand...
Ahhh that’s right. I remember now. The fuse lamps. And at the time I couldn’t find replacements that were the same length, so I soldered in leaded lamps. Obviously that’s changed. But the polarity caution remains. On the fuses lamps sometimes there’s a red or black dot at one end or the shape of the metal cap is different on one end, so just mind that in your replacement. I should just pull up the schematic to refresh on whether the lamp power rail is AC or DC on the M-50/M-500 series…I *think* it’s 6V AC. Anyway, where did you source the lamps? I like 1000bulbs.com.
 
ecc83 said:
Sweetbeats...The man is a legend!

Dave.
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This legend stuff…I really appreciate it…makes me smile. But it’s all a bit of a ruse you know because I’m a hobbyist like so many others here. That’s all. And, Dave, to use you as an example you have hands-experience with electronics-related things I know nothing about. And there are others here I just marvel at what they know and appreciate we have the collective resource. My knowledge-base is very focused. And I depend heavily on a small cadre of people that are so much more knowledgeable than I am. So, I appreciate the kudos toward my somewhat obsessive interest. But it’s been cultivated by everybody else.
 
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