Starlite dial wanted! Alive and glowing.

[AE_Collector]

Question: Where can I find a good source for the solid-center AE fingerwheels and the 4-legged "spiders" they mounted on, and the large center screws that held them in place?

Several years ago Steve Hilsz had lots of the first two items available. Possibly the other items as well. Not certain if he still does or not.

Terry

[GG]

Hi Terry-  Thanks; I'll contact him about those. -G.

[dsk]

Santa didn't make this alone, but with some help from Terry and Stub its finally solved
http://tinyurl.com/88cm8kk

It works great, and the DIY adapter looks and works OK.

Here are some pictures, not easy to catch that green nice light.  Not to weak, not to bright.

Thank you Stub and Terry!

dsk

[dsk]

Power-consumption 0,72 mA At 230V or 0,17W totally.
dsk

[stub]

d_s_k,
         Your welcome. Great job!!! Now when the dial light wears out, you will have a spare to put back in your phone, well after you fix the broken plug.   Enjoy!! stub

[AE_Collector]

Power-consumption 0,72 mA At 230V or 0,17W totally.
dsk

That actually is a fair bit of power consumption isn't it? Not like a light bulb or anything but I'm surprised that it is that high.

Terry

[dsk]

If we say Watt = Volt x Ampere
I have a loss of nearly 90% in the resistors.  
The voltage over the dial is measured to 99V And since I have shunted down the voltage with a parallel resistor, I'm ending with only 17.4 milliWatts to light of a total of 165.5 mW.  
This waist of energy will cost me about 10 cents a Year  

dsk

[AE_Collector]

Oh I was thinking watts, not milliwatts. That is next to nothing.

I'll mail you some inexpensive hydro generated power from BC to light it for a year or two.

Terry

[dsk]

This is an interesting issue. I guess the light is some kind of capacitive load.

I just did some more testing, and at 230V with a series of restors of totally 1.25 Megaohms I got a voltage of 176 volts over the resistors, and 101 volts over the disk.
With this solution,  I may come down further in power consumption. 

I have made 2 adapters all ready based on the diagrams earlier in this thread, I guess I don't want to change any of those.  If the disks are equal to capacitors, it will be smart to not stress the voltage to ensure a long life. The 5 cents a year wasted on the resistors has to be compensated somewhere else in the budget  

dsk

[dsk]

I have many thoughts on phones, reliability, appearance, value and function, but I'm looking forward most of my glowing Starlite. Every night when I see or pass by it, so I'm looking forward.
Thanks to all of you who made it possible, and will share the joy with me.

dsk

[AE_Collector]

Glad that you are enjoying the Starlite d_s_k and I am also glad that you aren't "losing sleep" over the electricity it is consuming!

Did STub send you the AE fingerstop you needed for the 80E as well?

Terry

[dsk]

  Yes Thank you! Both of you.
The 80 looks original now.

dsk

[stub]

d_s_k,
          Your welcome, glad to help!!!!  stub

[dsk]

I want brighter light, so I made a new plug for 230V today, only 91 kilo-oms on each line. If the disk has 0 ohms it should be a power of 0.29W  (I have not measured, but it seems slightly brighter)
Now we have to see if it will survive at such high load 

dsk

[dsk]

Theory and practices are not always the same, measured voltage 234V Measured current 4.23 milli amps.  If power is approx volt x amps I end up with a power consumption of  a little bit less than 0.1 Watt! That will be about 1/7  of a dollar (14.5cents) pr year in extra electricity bill.   

dsk