4 replies to this topic

[hboswell]

I was cleaning up my Sears 6339-a 76mm refractor this afternoon, getting ready for a potential night's stargazing in the next few days, and decided to open the battery compartment on the tray illuminator. And of course I fumbled the cover and one of the battery posts came loose - still wired but not where it was sitting. I've never bothered to open it before so I don't know how it should be positioned. I also don't know why I decided to open it today, but I guess that's another story. Anyway, if someone has one of these illuminators and could post a photo of the battery compartment without the batteries that would be really helpful!

 

Thanks,

Harry

[deSitter]

I was cleaning up my Sears 6339-a 76mm refractor this afternoon, getting ready for a potential night's stargazing in the next few days, and decided to open the battery compartment on the tray illuminator. And of course I fumbled the cover and one of the battery posts came loose - still wired but not where it was sitting. I've never bothered to open it before so I don't know how it should be positioned. I also don't know why I decided to open it today, but I guess that's another story. Anyway, if someone has one of these illuminators and could post a photo of the battery compartment without the batteries that would be really helpful!

 

Thanks,

Harry

On the examples I know the battery posts are held to the body of the illuminator by plastic screws. There is an insulator underneath. The screws are plastic so the metal of the body will not short the terminals. Old plastic can just disintegrate. If the post is just flopping on the wire, the insulator and screw are gone. You can afford to use one metal screw and no insulator on one post.

 

A better design would have been to use the metal itself as conductor for the housing of the bulb and just use one wire for the positive terminal.

 

-drl

[hboswell]

On the examples I know the battery posts are held to the body of the illuminator by plastic screws. There is an insulator underneath. The screws are plastic so the metal of the body will not short the terminals. Old plastic can just disintegrate. If the post is just flopping on the wire, the insulator and screw are gone. You can afford to use one metal screw and no insulator on one post.

 

A better design would have been to use the metal itself as conductor for the housing of the bulb and just use one wire for the positive terminal.

 

-drl

This is where I confess that I removed one of the plastic screws thinking that was needed to open the compartment 

[Kasmos]

I was cleaning up my Sears 6339-a 76mm refractor this afternoon, getting ready for a potential night's stargazing in the next few days, and decided to open the battery compartment on the tray illuminator. And of course I fumbled the cover and one of the battery posts came loose - still wired but not where it was sitting. I've never bothered to open it before so I don't know how it should be positioned. I also don't know why I decided to open it today, but I guess that's another story. Anyway, if someone has one of these illuminators and could post a photo of the battery compartment without the batteries that would be really helpful!

 

Thanks,

Harry

I don't know if this is clear enough, but I repaired one 5 years ago and here's the photo I posted 

 

IIRC, it just has a wire on each side of the switch that goes to each battery post with the batteries going between them.

The arrow points to the side that needed to be resoldered on mine.

 

BTW, the batteries were originally in a little paper tube that holds them and I'm sure many of them go missing.

I'm probably lucky that mine still has it.

Edited by Kasmos, 31 January 2025 - 01:28 AM.

[deSitter]

I don't know if this is clear enough, but I repaired one 5 years ago and here's the photo I posted 

 

Tray-Light-Solder.jpg

IIRC, it just has a wire on each side of the switch that goes to each battery post with the batteries going between them.

The arrow points to the side that needed to be resoldered on mine.

 

BTW, the batteries were originally in a little paper tube that holds them and I'm sure many of them go missing.

I'm probably lucky that mine still has it.

On mine the tube is plastic and has the battery orientation listed.

 

I added a 100 ohm resistor to one of these and replaced the bulb and socket by a red LED. This works great and is the perfect amount of tray illumination.

 

-drl