After inquiring about his neon replacement bulbs, Mackey was kind enough to supply me with two of his replacement neon bulbs to test and relay the results back to the forum. So, to be clear with disclosure: I received these at no charge for review purposes. But, on to the meat and potatoes.
The units I installed them in were two Pioneer Audio-Timers, the PP-215 and PP-215A. The A model had a slightly different display mechanism, with slightly larger numbers. Other than that they are mechanically identical, but keep that in mind during the comparison photos.
The 215 in brighter light, for a sense of scale:
(Note that the unit to the right is a microcassete deck, not a regular one. The silver dials on the unit the clock is sitting on are about an inch in diameter.)
A few notes about the bulbs before showing you the before/after, there are two important things to note. The first one is that these bulb assemblies are extremely well made, Mackey claims to have sourced tubing and resistors complying to specifications comparable to the originals, and they feel like factory replacements in terms of build quality. Their leads are very long, and have pre-tinned wires. Secondly, the bulbs are very short. The Electrodes do not light up along their entire length (this occurs across both bulbs supplied, so I doubt it is a flaw) so the light comes from a shorter length of bulb than the originals. This may or may not be an issue in your unit, but in mine it made it slightly difficult to make sure the light lit the entire face of the numbers.
Ok, here is a before and after comparison of the 215A using a potato camera set to the same ISO and shutter speed.
[Before]
[After]
Note that those pictures were taken while the unit was running on 120VAC, while the clock was designed to run on 100VAC as I imported them from Japan. The following two photos are taken while the units are on 100VAC.
This photo was of the two units next to each other, with the top unit (215A) having its bulb been replaced already. You can tell the bottom one is much dimmer, and at night it is hard to read the minutes from more than a meters.
This was taken after both units had their bulb replaced. The bottom is much brighter overall, and it is easier to read at night.
If Mackey can find a more efficient way of constructing these and make them available (he mentioned it is very time consuming) I definitely recommend them.
The units I installed them in were two Pioneer Audio-Timers, the PP-215 and PP-215A. The A model had a slightly different display mechanism, with slightly larger numbers. Other than that they are mechanically identical, but keep that in mind during the comparison photos.
The 215 in brighter light, for a sense of scale:
(Note that the unit to the right is a microcassete deck, not a regular one. The silver dials on the unit the clock is sitting on are about an inch in diameter.)
A few notes about the bulbs before showing you the before/after, there are two important things to note. The first one is that these bulb assemblies are extremely well made, Mackey claims to have sourced tubing and resistors complying to specifications comparable to the originals, and they feel like factory replacements in terms of build quality. Their leads are very long, and have pre-tinned wires. Secondly, the bulbs are very short. The Electrodes do not light up along their entire length (this occurs across both bulbs supplied, so I doubt it is a flaw) so the light comes from a shorter length of bulb than the originals. This may or may not be an issue in your unit, but in mine it made it slightly difficult to make sure the light lit the entire face of the numbers.
Ok, here is a before and after comparison of the 215A using a potato camera set to the same ISO and shutter speed.
Note that those pictures were taken while the unit was running on 120VAC, while the clock was designed to run on 100VAC as I imported them from Japan. The following two photos are taken while the units are on 100VAC.
If Mackey can find a more efficient way of constructing these and make them available (he mentioned it is very time consuming) I definitely recommend them.
Attached Files