[sampson_smith]

I was wondering if anyone out there has encountered a mismatch with the LED's of their Gilmore Lite and Dedicated Power Supply? I have the impression that my amp and power supply were purchased at different times (I am not the original owner of either). The amp's LED is a deep blue - almost violet. The DPS, on the contrary, is a lighter greenish blue - almost turquoise. Given that the GLite + DPS is a beautiful creature, I would like to have the LED's matching. I hope I am not asking too much. The blue light of the amp actually matches the LED's of my silver DacMagic perfectly, and so I wonder where I can find another matching LED to replace by soldering. (I have never soldered before, so that is another story. More Q's on that to come...) Any information on this minor quibble is very much appreciated.

 

[justin w.]

digikey L14006

 

[sampson_smith]

Awesome! Thanks very much for the reply, Justin. I may have to eat humble pie here, but this LED (L14006) is actually the same variety that you kindly sent me last November. I had made a similar inquiry back when I originally wanted to match the LED's. I was thinking of contacting Headamp directly again, but I assumed with the Pico Slim and other projects, you would have your hands full. That considered, thanks for keeping your ear to the ground and offering input on this decidedly minor aesthetic question.

Based on what I can see, it appears that the LD14006 Blue LED from Digikey is actually the lighter blue-green LED of my DPS and not the 'truer' blue of the GLite itself. Maybe this will not be the case upon actually running current through the LED; it is hard to tell what the already installed pair really look like, nestled in the unit when it is off. If you happen to know of the product number of the 'bluer'/violet LED that you had previously used, that would be appreciated (assuming I'm making sense here). I have tried to navigate Digikey's site but have not had much luck without the serial number specifics.

Thanks in advance. As always, loving my amp like no other!

-Vince

 

[justin w.]

the LED you don't like is probably clear when turned off

 

[sampson_smith]

Really? Well, I'll be. If the LED is near-colorless when off then I bet the LD14006 is the correct one after all. (I guess the appearance of the replacement one, when off, is deceiving, as it appears to be very similar in color to the LED that I want to replace.) It is about high time, then, that I open the GLite and DPS up carefully to double check, and then let you know what I find. Thanks very much for the assistance, so far.

 

[sampson_smith]

Yup... you were right, Justin. The LED was colorless and the one you sent me is indeed the correct one. Unfortunately, I have ran into a snag replacing the old LED with the new. I needn't go into here, as I have emailed you about the slight predicament.

 

[sampson_smith]

For an update to the above, I was able to replace the Gilmore Lite DPS LED effectively, after getting around to learning about some soldering basics. I have now found the the LED of the DPS is much dimmer than that of the amp (albeit now the correct color). I assume the LED current limiting resistor of the DPS now needs to be changed to a lesser value. If anyone has any advice as to what that ohm value (or color labeling combination) is, I am all ears! In the http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f6/changing-led-483411/ thread, which I started to discuss switching the LED properly, I have brought up another query. Based on the pictures of the circuit boards on the Headamp site, is it possible to glean the proper ohm value of the DPS LED resistor? (This is assuming that the supply voltage is the same for both components.) I am having a hard time making out the colors, as detailed below. If anyone knows better than what I have figured out so far, please let me know. Thanks!

***

From the initial thread:

I figured that I would be able to look at the blown-up pic's of the GLite chip boards on the Headamp website to see what the color indicators are on the resistors. I'm starting to think that I am colorblind, because I cannot decide what the colors are of each resistor's bands.

For the GLite: http://www.headamp.com/home_amps/lit...board_high.jpg (click to 'zoom')

The resistor, which is just to the top-right of the LED looks to be violet ['7'] - green ['5'] - blue ['6'] - red [x 10^2] - violet [+/- 0.1%] = 75600 ohms?! (This seems extremely high, especially since the GLite LED is the brighter of the two.)

For the DPS: http://www.headamp.com/home_amps/lit...board_high.jpg (click to 'zoom')

The resistor, which is to the bottom-right of the LED looks to be violet ['7'] - green ['5'] - black ['0'] - brown [x 10^1] - brown [+/- 1%] = 7500 ohms.

***

Again, I am fairly sure that I am not seeing the colors for what they are truly supposed to indicate. If you have a second and know your way around resistor nomenclature, feel free to check and validate/dismiss my measurements. Thanks in advance!

 

[sampson_smith]

Anybody?

 

[GreatDane]

I get an "error 404" on those links. When I owned a GLite & DPS , the LEDs didn't match either but I was not the original owner. Despite my perfectionist nature, I wasn't bothered by it much.

 

[sampson_smith]

I understand where you are coming from, GD. I am starting to think that my 'perfectionist' nature has got the best of me, now that I have burned out the other, original LED of the amp itself (via a short around its resistor, if I haven't gone on about that enough) and now have the original non-true blue replacement LED's from my local electrical shop to install, after sorting out this resistor craziness. I guess this is one way to learn the basics of soldering and the properties of resistors and LED's. Consider me now (mildly) educated!

 

[sampson_smith]

Problem solved! I was able to switch the resistors and LED's of the DPS and amp a couple days ago with great success. They are now the same brightness and hue! Thanks all for all of the support and advice with this favorite of desktop amps.