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- May 14, 2014
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I found today for $30 an "as is" Toshiba SC335 power amp. It amplifies and the meter lamps work but the meters do not. Took them out of the amp and there is no continuity so presumably they're unfixable. I'd like to look for new replacements but because they're "power meters" not VU meters I'm not sure what to look for.
2 or 3 years ago, I acquired a nice Realistic deck with a dead VU meter and got 2 (so they'd match) new ones from Element 14 which were made by Anders, UK. Since one of the original meters worked, I was able to measure resistance across the coil which pointed me somewhat where I needed to go. The new ones were pretty much the same resistance and very close to the right width & height - just a tiny bit larger than the opening but since the face was plastic, I was able to enlarge the holes with a file.
The meters in this amp say "power watts/8 ohm" and the main scale is graduated from 0 to 100. There is a secondary scale beneath it which is .01 to 5. Presumably this is a dB scale? Actually, belay that as the amp has a muting switch and a meter range switch. In any case, there's nothing for me to measure so I have no idea what kind of meter I should be looking for.
The Element 14 site has "power meters" of the same style and with different DC voltage ranges. The amp is rated at 40 wpc and the online Ohm's Law calculator says that is 17.88 volts. If I use 100 watts as per the max scale of the meter, it's 28.28 volts.
Would it seem reasonable then for me to look for a power meter of the correct physical size with a power range of from 0 to 30 or even 35 volts DC?
Or am I barking up completely the wrong tree here?
I noticed that the scales on the meters I've seen so far say DC Amperes. If this is they type of power meter that I need and can find some, I was entertaining the idea of doing a scale swap.
Excuse the duplicate image, only wanted to post one.
2 or 3 years ago, I acquired a nice Realistic deck with a dead VU meter and got 2 (so they'd match) new ones from Element 14 which were made by Anders, UK. Since one of the original meters worked, I was able to measure resistance across the coil which pointed me somewhat where I needed to go. The new ones were pretty much the same resistance and very close to the right width & height - just a tiny bit larger than the opening but since the face was plastic, I was able to enlarge the holes with a file.
The meters in this amp say "power watts/8 ohm" and the main scale is graduated from 0 to 100. There is a secondary scale beneath it which is .01 to 5. Presumably this is a dB scale? Actually, belay that as the amp has a muting switch and a meter range switch. In any case, there's nothing for me to measure so I have no idea what kind of meter I should be looking for.
The Element 14 site has "power meters" of the same style and with different DC voltage ranges. The amp is rated at 40 wpc and the online Ohm's Law calculator says that is 17.88 volts. If I use 100 watts as per the max scale of the meter, it's 28.28 volts.
Would it seem reasonable then for me to look for a power meter of the correct physical size with a power range of from 0 to 30 or even 35 volts DC?
Or am I barking up completely the wrong tree here?
I noticed that the scales on the meters I've seen so far say DC Amperes. If this is they type of power meter that I need and can find some, I was entertaining the idea of doing a scale swap.
Excuse the duplicate image, only wanted to post one.
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