That's unfortunate to hear. So much engineering history is lost. A friend of mine attempted to contact the grandchild of Burroughs corporation a few years ago and was told that all old records had been destroyed.
On Tue, Apr 16, 2024 at 6:41 PM Neil QQ <nei...@gmail.com> wrote: > I recall Nichia was making custom die for us that included multiple active > elements. We were trying to chromatically match the panaplex displays. > We mounted those die directly to a pcb. They were then overlaid with > plastic light shaping and diffusing elements. Back before glass made its > way into piston aircraft cockpits (thank you Gary Burrell) it was very > important that all of our panel units looked and behaved the same. We > spent insane amounts of money to make sure the display colors (OK, just one > color - neon) and mechanical control performance matched. When I left > King, the LED prototype was falling just short of meeting the high > brightness requirement. The polarizer and antiglare coatings were pretty > lossy. I don't honestly know if these ever made it into mass production. > The original unit targets were the KX155 & KX165. > > For those that knew King Radio, our historical, engineering centric > organization was destroyed in same manner as Boeing. ( > https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Blind-Tragedy-Fall-Boeing/dp/0385546491 ). > GE disciple, Larry Bossidy took over in 1991. Bossidy is to AlliedSignal > as Stonecipher is to Boeing. I had a front row seat as Gary Burrell was > forced out as King's Engineering V.P. He, along with Min Kao then formed > Garmin. Both of these men were and are amazing, high integrity > individuals. Garmin now "owns" the majority of piston aircraft > instrumentation. > > > > > > > On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 3:55:15 PM UTC-5 Audrey wrote: > >> Wow. Do you have any more details about these LEDs? >> >> On Tue, Apr 16, 2024 at 12:19 PM Neil QQ <nei...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> I do recall Krypton-85 as being one component of the gas brew. The KR85 >>> half-life helps explain why we sold so many replacement displays for seven >>> to ten year old units. As I recall, the brew included seven gases with two >>> of those being radioactive. The required light dynamic-range of aviation >>> displays is demanding. They must be readable in blinding sunlight and >>> barely lit at night to avoid night blindness. The gas mixture played an >>> important role in meeting those requirements. The details of the displays >>> themselves and the techniques for driving them were figured out long before >>> my time. >>> >>> The beginning of the end for the King panaplexes began in the late >>> 90's. We were down to a single supplier for the proprietary gas mixture. >>> If I recall correctly, that supplier was Dale Electronics (contemporarily, >>> Vishay) in Columbus, NE. At some point they informed us they could not >>> find a carrier to deliver the gas from Columbus, NE to Olathe, KS due to >>> new, onerous regulations for hazardous material transport. So we, King >>> Radio, sent in-house trucks to pick up the gas cylinders. >>> >>> One of my last great (in my head anyway) acts at King was having my crew >>> develop a retrofittable LED replacement module. It used bespoke, neon >>> hued, Nichia LED's. >>> >>> On Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 3:29:36 AM UTC-5 Audrey wrote: >>> >>>> Indeed my point in mentioning it. >>>> >>>> On Mon, Apr 15, 2024, 6:31 PM n1ist <n1...@arrl.net> wrote: >>>> >>>>> The Kr85 mark indicates that they have (or rather now have just a >>>>> little, since the half life is 10.7 years) Krypton-85 mixed in the gas to >>>>> help with the ionization >>>>> >>>>> On Monday, April 15, 2024 at 6:09:42 PM UTC-4 Audrey wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> That's fascinating Neil, I have a few boring Bendix panaplexes and >>>>>> was curious about their manufacture. I believe they're marked Kr85. >>>>>> >>>>>> On Mon, Apr 15, 2024, 5:47 PM Neil QQ <nei...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> Until, at least, sometime in the early 2000's 90's King Radio (aka >>>>>>> Bendix/King) was still selling NAV and COM radios using their own >>>>>>> numeric >>>>>>> panaplex type displays e.g. KX155, KX165. These displays were custom >>>>>>> designed and fabricated in-house in Olathe, KS. To the best of my >>>>>>> knowledge they were all neon orange monochrome. The gas used was a >>>>>>> proprietary witches brew that included several radioactive trace >>>>>>> elements. >>>>>>> I recall seeing a prototype ILS indicator similar to the one referenced >>>>>>> in >>>>>>> this thread. I don't believe the King display was commercialized. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> An ILS display shows deviation from the localizer (right-left >>>>>>> guidance) horizontally and the glideslope deviation (up-down) guidance >>>>>>> vertically. By "keeping the needles centered" the ILS will guide a >>>>>>> pilot >>>>>>> to the runway threshold. Such displays were also used for VOR >>>>>>> navigation >>>>>>> using only the right-left needles (or lit segments in this case). In >>>>>>> the >>>>>>> simplest case they would provide guidance to the VOR station and >>>>>>> identify >>>>>>> the cardinal radial direction that was being flown to reach the station. >>>>>>> When executing a simple form of an instrument landing system (ILS) the >>>>>>> pilot flies, at a particular altitude, along a "to" radial to find a >>>>>>> particular VOR station. Once directly over the VOR the pilot flies on a >>>>>>> specified VOR "from" radial until the localizer (right-left) and >>>>>>> glideslope >>>>>>> (up-down) needles move into the active range (no longer parked and >>>>>>> "flagged" at the display extremes). From there the pilot "keeps the >>>>>>> needles centered" until visual runway confirmation is obtained. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 11:27:41 PM UTC-5 Audrey wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> The seller is the author of this article. >>>>>>>> https://www.industrialalchemy.org/articleview.php?item=3247 >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Fri, Apr 12, 2024 at 11:36 AM Nick Andrews <nickja...@gmail.com> >>>>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Never seen or heard about this one before. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/276389569367?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=AkFpft62ST6&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=9S4jfnnKS4i&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> Anyone heard of this or have one? >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>>>>> Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>>>>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>>>>> send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >>>>>>>>> To view this discussion on the web, visit >>>>>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAJD4P-ivW5%3DSwf_3hXWVXdad%3DYzA89swwt%3DP%2BqRK2xEMKJ%2B5Gw%40mail.gmail.com >>>>>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAJD4P-ivW5%3DSwf_3hXWVXdad%3DYzA89swwt%3DP%2BqRK2xEMKJ%2B5Gw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>>>>>> . >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>>> Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>>> send an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >>>>>>> >>>>>> To view this discussion on the web, visit >>>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/42ea136c-7ed5-480f-9c29-2ba40025ac3an%40googlegroups.com >>>>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/42ea136c-7ed5-480f-9c29-2ba40025ac3an%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>>>> . >>>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >>>>> >>>> To view this discussion on the web, visit >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6e423ef4-db33-49a3-b32e-a10996ee34c9n%40googlegroups.com >>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6e423ef4-db33-49a3-b32e-a10996ee34c9n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>> . >>>>> >>>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "neonixie-l" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to neonixie-l+...@googlegroups.com. >>> >> To view this discussion on the web, visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/2fb48670-d192-44a2-a161-77a2e27720efn%40googlegroups.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/2fb48670-d192-44a2-a161-77a2e27720efn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "neonixie-l" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/1b52fd54-c3c6-4080-a993-c71e3c9af2bdn%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/1b52fd54-c3c6-4080-a993-c71e3c9af2bdn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/CAPDJQ6As5BeAtMTMsVXmdTjeu_UQavu8o%2BS4xfZ4BnKcb7%2Bejg%40mail.gmail.com.
