Need a lamp?

[Raider L]

I need a lamp for my new gear indicator. But I only have the big lamp holders that came in my metal housed Autometer gauges. They are to big. It dawned on me last night that I still had all the lamp sockets that went to my original printed circuit. I looked to see if maybe I could make one out of one of them. Sure enough, with the brass tabs on the sides that are what clips into the printed circuit, I just might be able to solder two wires to the tabs.

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To start make sure the tip on the soldering iron is clean, clean, and properly "tinned". To begin with put the socket in an appropriate holder of some sort. Okay, then plug your iron in and go do something else. The reason being the hotter the iron is the faster the solder will flow, and that's what you want, because the least time spent on the thin little brass tab the better. You certainly don't want to get the tab so hot that it melts the plastic of the socket, it could mess up down in the bottom where the bulb goes.

Now that the iron is good and hot, prepare your wires by stripping off a small piece of insulation, the size will be determined by how good you are at soldering a tiny piece of wire without melting the wires insulating cover. Now what you need to do is "tin" the tab ends. Place the tip of the iron onto the tab for a couple of seconds. Brass is a good conductor of heat so just a few seconds will be plenty of heat on it. Now, feed a tiny bit of solder onto the tip near the tab so that a little drop flows onto the tab. Once you see that it's sticking and a tiny drop forms, get off of it!, and blow on the plastic socket to cool it down. Look at the little drop to make sure it's uniform and just covers the end of the tab as *seen above*.

Next, "tin" the ends of the wires with just enough to fill the wire up, no drop handing off the wire, a big glob of solder on it, none of that, just fill the wire then stop. The reason being is, you are not going to add any solder to this connection! The little amount on the tab and whatever you put on the wires will be more than enough *see above*. Now get the iron in one hand and the wire in the other and get the hand with the wire in a steady position. You cannot be waving the wire around while you're trying to get it soldered just on the tab's drop of solder. Now place the wire onto the tab, and here's where the "steady" part comes in.

Place the tip of the iron onto the wire and watch the drop of solder on the tab, and the solder on the wire. You'll see it turn liquid at about the same time, and if you have the wire placed down on the tab well enough as soon as you see it turn to liquid, get off of it, and blow on the connection until you think it's cooled down. Again, the least time on the solder the better, that's just that mush less heat on the plastic.
Now do the other wire in the same manner making sure you got the wire hand steady, apply just enough heat to turn the solder to liquid and get off. Now you're done, *see above*.

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You can see here the amount of solder it takes to do this little fix, not much. It would have been better had I thought ahead and put a little bend in the wire so the wires would be hooked around back of the socket, but no matter, there's no telling how it'll be put in wherever it needs to go. If I have to bend the wires, I'll have to be very careful not to damage the tabs. Insert the bulb and it's ready to go in to light up the gear indicator.

 

[Raider L]

This needed to have been first, but anyway you get it.

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The standard printed circuit lamp. The tabs on the side is what you're going to solder to.

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I've filed my soldering iron down to a needle point so that if I have to make repairs to a tiny place as small as that size tip, I can.
This bulb will not go into a hole like what once was in the White plastic box the printed circuit laid onto. There isn't enough of that white box left and it doesn't have any of those holes left in it anyway. So I'll have to "rig" a place near the indicator so it will shine down there onto the indicator.
If this turns out to be to big anyway, I'll have to find a small bulb and just solder wire to the bulb itself and just lay it in down there somewhere. No problem. I'll have this socket made up already for something else.

 

[SirRobyn0]

A guy could potentially use this to buy pass a problem in a circuit board either for a light or gauge.

I wonder how you plan to mount this light, or if needed the smaller one, my only concern is possible need to mitigate concerns of melting / damaging any plastic.

 

[Raider L]

@SirRobyn0,

I used to repair computer mother boards and monitor mother boards and other tiny electronics, and had to make a tip that would resolder the solder that was left behind when I would remove a small component. So I learned how to carry just enough solder or use the solder that was still there of a tiny little component.

To fix something that is embedded in plastic, that's why I said that the hotter your iron is the faster it will flow the solder. You just have to watch it close and get on and get off before anything does melt.

I don't know where it's going to go yet. I hope I find a hole that I've forgotten about down there somewhere. Otherwise it may get zip-tied to something near by. That's all I need it to do is kinda shine onto the indicator, it doesn't need to be very bright right on it. I kept looking at the schematic trying to see if I could find where the factory lamp went. I couldn't find it. So it may be a cut out, in the White plastic box of the oil pressure gauge that, I think, is nearest to the indicator. I know the indicator doesn't have it's own light hole. It gets it's light from something near by and there's this "glow" on it.

 

[squarelyfe]

I'd actually like to do this for my lower gauge since there is no bulb provision. BUT.. The thought of hacking a 1st gen 74 tach cluster has me cringing. Also it definitely helps to tin the solder onto the wire first when it comes to plastic that close to keep the contact heat time down.