Tascam M600 console VU meter bulb

  • Thread starter Thread starter ron-e-g
  • Start date Start date
sasquatch said:
Ron,Ghost

Each meter bulb has 47 ohm resistor in series with it.
Does that determine bulb voltage?

Gary
Click to expand...
I saw that on the PCB rendering picture that Ron posted, Post # 12 of this thread, but wasn't sure as I haven't seen a schematic of that meter card, so I didn't want to comment on it.

But the impression I'm left with is that the bulbs Ron recently purchased would seem to be closer to the 8 volt 53 mA variety, if the brighter bulbs are of the 200 mA variety, as that would explain its brightness looking to be about a quarter as bright. If there was something faulty at play with the circuit itself that's feeding that dim bulb, one test to verify that would be to desolder the bright bulb and swap it over to the dim bulb's VU. If it remains as bright as before, then we know the board is fine and just his new bulb is as I just suggested as being a 53 mA bulb and not a 200 one his vendor claimed it to be.

If TASCAM parts is out of stock on the original bulb, (Ron never confirmed if he enquired to them about that), then the other source he mentioned in this thread, (the one he didn't order from because of their $25 minimum order rule); those were 100 mA bulbs, and if he wired two of those up in parallel, he'd get a fairly even brightness to the original brighter bulbs...assuming there was enough room in the VU meter housing with the lens put back on.

Anyway, I think I'm about done here in this thread as I'm suspecting Ron isn't absorbing all of this techno babble and I'm probably just frustrating him at that point, which I didn't want to do.

He said he's got a repair dude coming over to look at it. Hopefully, he'll get to the bottom of this.

Cheers! :)
 
Update

Omar, My friendly neighborhood electrical repairman just left. He measured the voltage, across the bulb contacts on both meters, that are mounted on the same board in question. They measured 7.55 volts. He then took the bright bulb from the board and installed it to where the dim bulb was and it was indeed bright.

So in conclusion the console has no problems. Now on to, what the heck bulb do I use? Ghost you mention those other bulbs.....

Ron
 
ron-e-g said:
Update

Omar, My friendly neighborhood electrical repairman just left. He measured the voltage, across the bulb contacts on both meters, that are mounted on the same board in question. They measured 7.55 volts. He then took the bright bulb from the board and installed it to where the dim bulb was and it was indeed bright.

So in conclusion the console has no problems. Now on to, what the heck bulb do I use? Ghost you mention those other bulbs.....

Ron
Click to expand...
Sounds like what I suggested in post #21 is what Omar did.

Ron, you've got a few options here.

1 -Go through all the bulbs you just purchased to see if any of them are in fact the 200ma bulbs that the supplier claimed them all to be. You don't have to solder each one in to do that either. Just touch the lead wires of each bulb to the terminal points to see if one of them is brighter then the first one you soldered in. Maybe you'll get lucky and find a 200mA one in there...you never know! Also, desolder and remove the dim bulb first, if Omar put it back in.

2 - call TEAC parts and enquire if they have the 8 volt 200 mA bulbs.

3 - perform a more exhaustive search for electronic parts suppliers who might have that bulb if TEAC is out of stock.

4 - If the first 3 options don't pan out, go back to the first supplier who was offering the 8 volt 100mA bulbs and wire two of them in parallel to yield a similar brightness to the original bulbs. I realize that the $25 minimum order sucks but that's life. Maybe look through their catalogue of other parts and see if there's anything else they sell that you might need now or down the road.

5 - live with a dimmer bulb. There are worse things in life to deal with. :D

Cheers! :)
 
Just got this from the bulb supplier.


mystery has been solved!

The factory advised that they had inadvertently had a mixup of 8V and 12V bulbs but thought
they had caught all! Nice. Wish they had told me so we could have checked them all!

I'll get in a fresh shipment in about 3-4 days and I'll replace what you received.

I hate this! Drives me nuts. Don't know why each voltage bulb does not have a different tracer
color so they can be identified!

I am sorry but had no way of knowing!

Bear w/me a few days. They come from a few miles away!
 
^ glad to hear that...hope it works out this time for you.

Cheers! :)
 
Update,

I guess my console has been modified. Seems the original bulb was a 8v fuse type. And the previous owner changed them to the 6v axial (for brightness). So I installed the 6v on the burnt unit, and I can't tell the difference!

I can finally put this one to bed!

Ron
 
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