Nova 3 front panel

[jim stephens]

On 7/22/2016 10:39 AM, Vincent Slyngstad wrote:
> I'm not a big fan of the surgery involved in LED conversion, though I 
> understand why folks do it.  Particularly if they, like Emil, have 
> used the wrong bulbs and found themselves replacing them all the time.
I wouldn't do the surgery, but here's the situation.  Someone already 
used this panel for the source of lamps, or they were all burned out.  
There are only two bulbs left to remove.

The surgery wasn't bad, it doesn't look like there are lifted etch pads, 
so that part is good.  So this one is a good candidate for the 
conversion as any.  I'm not a stickler for historic accuracy, and if 
anyone gets it to use as a running unit, they will hopefully never have 
to open the panel again.

Thanks for the analysis too, that is good to know, as i still have 
1600's with 5v bulbs to deal with.  Luckily the 1600 uses socketed parts 
and the main issue with them is pulling the panels two 50 pin ribbon 
connectors off.  The connectors on the ends of that get worn out.

The Nova has an edge card connector (as does my buddies Eclipse panel) 
so that isn't a problem with this design.  Between the two problems I'll 
take the problem with the connector over the problem with soldering 
lamps any time.

thanks again
Jim

http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/07/nova-3-front-panel.html