The LED'ification of my Yamaha CR-2020

w1jim

I can fix it but good...
Subscriber
One of the shortcomings (IMHO) of the CR-2020 is that the tuning scale is not illuminated. I have attempted with reasonable success to illuminate the dial.
What I did was to take 7 extra bright / wideangle white LEDs and wire them in series, hooking them up to the 24 volt bulb power connections. I mounted these on a piece of perforated board that rests on the top terminals for the push button switches. I placed a small dot of silicon sealant at several spots to secure it in place (yet make it easily removable). I then angled the LEDs toward the front and placed several strips of silver metallic tape on the underside of the wood top to reflect the light downward into the front of the receiver.
I don't feel it is bright enough but I'll have to live with it for a while to see.

I also placed 2 green LEDs in the location of the dial pointer bulb and replaced the 4 meter bulbs with the same LEDs. Those I think look pretty cool.

Besides the LED conversion I recapped the top boards including the power supply, power amp, tuner and the exposed preamp / phono amp sections. I replaced the tantalum caps with electrolytics. Also I found that one of the amp sections had some hard to find cracked solder joints at the output power transistor socket junctions.
I also performed the service bulletins pertaining to the power supply and the power switch rewiring.

JimB
 

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Definitely an improvement. I agree about the non lit dial being Yamaha's short coming.

I think I would try a white LED for the pointer.

Nice mod.

Rob
 
OK, OK, two to one - I changed the pointer to white LEDs. This should also help to make the dial easier to read.
I also put in some regular binding posts for the speakers. I mounted them on a piece of acrylic plastic.
I spent too much time chasing down a few more wobbly connections and an intermittent transistor. If I pressed it the sound would get all cruzzy. Appears to have been a crap connection inside the tranny.

Tomorrow the spouse is out of the house; time to bring it out of the dungeon and crank it!

JimB
 

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