
Remember the
Sequential Circuits Studio 440 with Vacuum Florescent Display? Here's another by Mark. Title link takes you to more shots.
"Here's my Prophet VS keyboard, which I have just retrofitted with a
vacuum fluorescent display by Noritake. Because the VFD is thicker
than the stock LCD by almost 3/8", the lengths of all the standoffs
between the front panel, the front panel PCB, and the switch PCBs
have to be increased. The pots and LED display have to be stood off
as well. Other important details: a blue filter for the VFD, a
neutral density filter for the alpha numeric LED display, double
stick tape to secure the filters, extra long pins to connect the
switch PCBs at their new mounting height. The most time consuming
part was selecting and ordering all these parts, installation was
done in a couple of evenings.
I'm not generally a fan of putting blue LEDs in old synths, but the
Prophet VS did come from the factory with a blue backlit LCD, and has
blue front panel graphics, so what the heck. The trick to installing
blue LEDs is choosing the right resistor value. If you just do the
math and install the recommended value, they can be almost blindingly
bright. Right now they are at a very comfortable brightness, though
I may change the resistors one more time to match the LED brightness
a little more closely to the VFD.
I hope you like it!"
Indeed. Wow!