MC502 panel lamps

[Thoan]

Looking for advice on my MC502 panel lighting.

The amp came with #8610 lamps (rated 6.3v). Each of the five is swaged into a steel ferrule with two long-ish insulated wires coming out. The wires are soldered at the other end. Thus, the lamps are not socketed, and of course are not available commercially with the swaging and long-ish wires. Last time I checked with Mac, they had some, but they were very pricey.

After three of them burned out, a chap who does LED lighting (and does not sell through eBay) made up a set for me. Three of these have burned out, and they were far too dim (I suspect the current limiting resistors were too big). The panel certainly ran cooler with the LEDs, even when they worked!

The MC502 seems to be something of an outlier here. I've got a lot of Mac gear, and nothing else uses 8610 lamps.

Has anyone run into this, or have any ideas beyond torturing standard 8610s into submission?

Thomas

 

[isotopesope]

i just picked up a MX-117 which also uses those bulbs... I found incandescent replacements here:
https://www.thethackery.com/default...bs-complete-set-for-mc502-ma6200-9-bulbs.html
mine are still intact so i haven't ordered anything yet, but I want to pick up a set for later.

 

[nj pheonix]

Try dgwojo.com
Dave is an AK member and the "go to" guy for many restorers

 

[c_dk]

I use cm7381s with leads I solder on and insulate with heat shrink tubing.

Since the grommets are usually hard as a rock I replace them with new.

 

[Thoan]

This is a follow-up in case someone curious about a resolution stumbles onto this thread.

It was not clear exactly what thehackery.com is selling (raw lamps or what?) so I wrote a very specific inquiry. Received an email back the next day, which did not answer my question. But if I need magnets I'll go back there -- their website offered quite a few!

I also contacted David Wojnarowski at dwojo.com. His website is pretty bare-bones and doesn't indicate whether he assembles LED replacements for the #8610 lamps, but he does. His prices are more than fair. Our email exchanges were convincing that he is thorough and knowledgeable. I ordered a set of LEDs and green "condoms," and they arrived in a few days. He even threw in a bit of solder <heh>! I installed the lamp assemblies a few days ago, and can report that they work and look fine. And I'm hard to please.

The grommets were replaced the last go-round with what appear to be silicone grommets (I can't remember the details), so I didn't have to deal with that. They'd lost none of their spring in the +/- 5 years they've been in, so that's the way to go. Still have bits of the fossilized original grommets embedded on the old incandescent lamps.

So an excellent conclusion, but it is still inexplicable why Mac didn't use #8610 lamps with a wiring harness/socket assy like the one used in the C710. Would have made everyone's life easier and less expensive.