Galaxy 959 meter light??

[Galaxy 959]

I had my meter light changed out to green on my galaxy 959. Well it burnt out on the tech before he got it off his bench. We decided to change it to white because of the looks. Well I got it home and the first day it was real bright and worked good. It did not work for some reason with the dimmer knob either. My question is where is a good place to get a light? I want a green or a white. Is is it really that difficult to change it out myself?

 

[Galaxy 959]

I tried finding a video on youtube with no luck.

 

[Galaxy 959]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-PCS-CB-HA...a6f47b4&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=4&sd=171190914604
Is this the correct bulb?

 

[fourstringburn]

The bulb looks correct.

I replaced a bulb before in my old Galaxy 979. It's not difficult if you have basic soldering skills. You have to take the radio head apart to get to it. Just pay attention as you go along and take as you are doing it pics if you need.

Basically you take all the knobs off the front and remove the radio head screws from the chassis. Every board is modular and can be removed by removing screws. You should be able to see the Meter PCB to remove it.

Here is a pic of the Meter PC board. Just unsolder the old and replace the new.

Click on pic to enlarge it.

 

[fourstringburn]

If you don't feel comfortable soldering, for another $6 you can just replace the Meter board. Here is the link.

http://stores.goldeneagleradios.com/galaxy-dx959-dimmer-pcb/

 

[Galaxy 959]

I did get the radio apart and looks to be a easy job. Do you know what would cause the light not to dim with the dimmer knob? It didn't go dim and bright like the other lights in the channel selector and freq counter.

 

[fourstringburn]

Not sure why, It seems the dimmer circuit works because you said the other lights dim. The meter board is simple with it's modular connections, I don't recall how many though.

Possibly a loose plug connection on the meter board or a fault in the board itself happened during the bulb change out assuming the original board was dimming the bulb previously.

You could just replace the board since it's cheap enough.

 

[Galaxy 959]

Well I got this thing out and just touched it and 1 side broke off. I think the culprit was loose connection. It did flicker a couple times the other morning on the way to work when hitting bumps. I did re solder it but no go. I'm sure the loose connection blew the bulb.

 

[fourstringburn]

More than likely, but that doesn't explain the lack of that light not dimming, or does it?

 

[fourstringburn]

I would consider replacing the board and you'll get a new bulb to boot. This most likely will fix the dimming issue.

Notice the board name is called " Dimmer board".

Now that you see how relatively easy the bulb changing is, you can do it yourself in the future.

 

[Galaxy 959]

I honestly think that the connection was so bad it was as dim as it could get. Thats why the dimmer wasn't working. It was so dim you couldn't even notice it was on in the day time.

 

[fourstringburn]

Ok,

You did say at first the bulb was real bright and the dimmer wasn't dimming the bulb.

Change the light and see what happens. You were going to change bulb colors anyway. You can always put those on a new board if it comes down to that.

Good luck!

 

[Robb]

I used three white LEDs and a resistor when I replaced that bulb. It wasn't fun fitting them in that narrow space either; had to solder the LEDs in series and then grind one side of them on a grinder to get acceptable clearance. Sure looks good - tho . . .

 

[Galaxy 959]

I used three white LEDs and a resistor when I replaced that bulb. It wasn't fun fitting them in that narrow space either; had to solder the LEDs in series and then grind one side of them on a grinder to get acceptable clearance. Sure looks good - tho . . .

This is just 1 white led with no resistor. It was bright for about and hour then started going dim from there. I never tried to adjust the brightness till i noticed it going dim. I bet those 3 look awesome in yours. Im gonna get green to match the rest.

 

[Galaxy 959]

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/222564042934
Thinking about getting these.