Most white LEDs are really blue LEDs with a thin yellow phosphor coating (the eye sees yellow as red + green). I doubt they have much energy in the IR range.
IR LED is probably the way to go. How hard is it to get to that bulb? Marc On Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 4:02 PM Paul Koning via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On Jan 19, 2023, at 2:46 PM, David Gesswein via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > On Wed, Jan 18, 2023 at 12:42:26PM -0600, Jon Elson wrote: > >> On 1/17/23 21:18, Marc Howard via cctalk wrote: > >>> Does anyone know if that light bulb is still available? I’m not sure > what > >>> the response of that photo sensor is and that might rule out using a > led > >>> replacement. The fact that the bulb is almost certainty driven below > the > >>> rated voltage also complicates matters. > >> > >> If you need JUST ONE badly enough, you can probably keep it going. > Likely > >> an LED could be used as a substitute. But, a roughly equivalent bulb > with > >> the wrong base could likely be found and hacked. > >> > > > > Originally discussing RK05 head position sensor bulb. I have replaced > it. The > > offical part to replace it isn't available. You can open it up and put in > > a new bulb. I wasn't able to quickly find what bulb I used a number of > > years ago but if someone really needs to know I can dig further. One of > the > > small ones with wires. It doesn't use bulb with base. LED didn't work. I > > think sensor is IR. > > Hard to know what the sensor wants given that it isn't described in any > DEC documents I could find. The schematics do mention that the light bulb > runs on +5 volts, which suggests that indeed it might be below its rated > voltage. > > If the sensors want IR you could try an IR LED. Or a white LED on the > theory that it's a broadband light source... > > paul > >
