I didn´t like that my tape deck has no light on the left side, not even a power light. This looks asymmetric for me Where a back light should be, is just an orange sticker. So i made one. I don´t like to cut holes in old Hi-Fi devices, but this time i had no other choice... The light is made from 2mm acrylic and 4 amber SMD LED´s (1.6x0.7mm). The power comes from the original power source (7.2VAC) and is sent thru an bridge rectifier and a 100 Ohm resistor to the LED´s. Without a tape, the back light is a bit brighter than the display, but with a cassette it looks pretty equal.
Very interesting .. but you have created a mold for the logo on the front ... if so what technique did you use
The Acrylic is milled on my (self made) CNC. So no mold. Its engraved on the backside. Sorry made no Photo of it. Both sides are milled. The front is milled around the "window", so it sits flush, the backside has a slot around the window for the LED´s and the engraving. Engraving from the back looks better and makes cleaning easier. Here´s a picture from an earlier test.... There was a fifth LED underneath the Logo wich i removed in the final version
I decided to shine my Yamaha KX-493 too. I bought used KX-650 backplate with back light. I used 5V from cassette mechanism circuit board, add 180Ohm resistor. As circuit is under voltage even in stand by mode I used TIMER switch to turn on/off light (otherwise light is on even the device is turned off).
