Looking for bulbs for a PL5000 series 2

George S.

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
Feb 18, 2020
Messages
4,602
#2
Technically, they're called "festoon lamps". This term will help you find them.
I used LED replacements, forget where I found them. Wasn't about to put hot incandescents back in.
Note the half wave rectifier they use in the lamp circuit to drop voltage(thanks to Joe for pointing this out).
Also note the circuit board has extra mounting holes to allow use of a shorter bulb if the contacts are repositioned on the PCB.
I ended up using the original bulb size.
Bypassed the half wave rectifier.
Used some big Dale chassis mount power resistors to drop the voltage, they came out of a 700 Pro that I WOPLed.
The LED's I used came internally configured for use in a AC circuit.
Think they were marketed for 60's Fisher receivers.
I plan to revisit the tuner this next winter.
I'll use a full wave rectifier and shorter DC LED bulbs after repositioning the contacts on the board.
Dutch, is your lamp reflector rusty and corroded?
Mine is, like I read many are.
I glued shiny aluminum foil to it.
The LED's are extremely bright, so I keep the setting switch to "low".
Next time I'll sand blast the reflector clean and paint it silver.
 
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