Keithley 2000 / 2015 / 2016 / 2010 VFD to LED Display Conversion

[KhronX]

Any idea about the ballpark cost of one of these? 

The pricing will stay the same as it was for our initial display.

You could have possibly considered either typing out the actual number, or at least posting a link to wherever the "initial display" price was mentioned 

[tooki]

Are you going to be offering the new color for 53131A/53132A/53181A also or only for the Keithley line?

These are brand new LEDs that weren't available when the 53131A LED project began.
Honestly we need to sell the first batch of blue displays before we can offer the new color, assuming there's still demand.

I love the new color.

But FYI, cyan LEDs have existed for many years now. I bought my first pack of them over 5 years ago, and I had known of their existence for years before that. One could make potentially even nicer displays using regular pure blue LEDs and adding phosphors to the encapsulation epoxy (in other words, make them the same way white LED displays are made, but with less phosphor, to skew it to baby blue). And of course white LED displays, filtered with a color gel, would have been another, very viable approach. Pure blue LED displays are awful.

[Shimonu]

Where will these be available for purchase?

[dimmog]

But FYI, cyan LEDs have existed for many years now. I bought my first pack of them over 5 years ago, and I had known of their existence for years before that. One could make potentially even nicer displays using regular pure blue LEDs and adding phosphors to the encapsulation epoxy (in other words, make them the same way white LED displays are made, but with less phosphor, to skew it to baby blue). And of course white LED displays, filtered with a color gel, would have been another, very viable approach. Pure blue LED displays are awful.

I meant LEDs in a form factor suitable for display production. Of course, this color has been around for a while.

[dimmog]

Where will these be available for purchase?

They will be available on hubequip.net or ebay

[KungFuJosh]

Are you going to offer the 53132A LED displays in different colors too?

Thanks,
Josh

[dimmog]

Are you going to offer the 53132A LED displays in different colors too?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/keithley-2000-2015-2016-2001-vfd-to-led-display-conversion/msg5966177/#msg5966177

[KungFuJosh]

Are you going to offer the 53132A LED displays in different colors too?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/keithley-2000-2015-2016-2001-vfd-to-led-display-conversion/msg5966177/#msg5966177

Thanks. I already ordered the blue one anyway. Too bad they don't have color switchable ones.

[tooki]

I meant LEDs in a form factor suitable for display production.

Meaning what exactly? I would have figured that display manufacturers buy LEDs as bare dice from an LED foundry.

And of course, as I said, making phosphor-converted light blue doesn’t require any special LEDs at all, just the same blue they use for white LED displays. That’s literally just a matter of using less phosphor in the epoxy (and ideally, tweaking the phosphor blend to get just the right hue).

[dimmog]

I meant LEDs in a form factor suitable for display production.

Meaning what exactly? I would have figured that display manufacturers buy LEDs as bare dice from an LED foundry.

That's not accurate. The display manufacturer uses standard off-the-shelf SMD LEDs that match the required package dimensions, color, and power specifications.

[tooki]

I meant LEDs in a form factor suitable for display production.

Meaning what exactly? I would have figured that display manufacturers buy LEDs as bare dice from an LED foundry.

That's not accurate. The display manufacturer uses standard off-the-shelf SMD LEDs that match the required package dimensions, color, and power specifications.

Oh, it’s not the kind where the display is potted in epoxy, like individual LED displays are? (Those have essentially a metal leadframe inside, with LED dice bonded directly on.)

Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that the manufacturer could have procured the desired color SMD LEDs. Sure, cyan isn’t as common as regular blue, but definitely are available in basically the whole range of packages and power levels.

[Taviman]

Unfortunately, the K2700 uses DD-61, which is different from DD-52.

[dimmog]

Unfortunately, the K2700 uses DD-61, which is different from DD-52.

You're correct. They appear to be partially compatible. Unfortunately, the only difference seems to be in the annunciators.

[BU508A]

I was planning a oled conversion for my 2 units with dim display.
But your solution will save me a lot of time so I will be following this post.

Benno

Have you seen this?
https://github.com/RM-Engineering/Keithley-2000-replacing-the-VFD-with-a-5.5-inch-OLED-

[BennoG]

Have you seen this?
https://github.com/RM-Engineering/Keithley-2000-replacing-the-VFD-with-a-5.5-inch-OLED-

Yes I have but it involves destructive modifications to the front pannel.

[BU508A]

Have you seen this?
https://github.com/RM-Engineering/Keithley-2000-replacing-the-VFD-with-a-5.5-inch-OLED-

Yes I have but it involves destructive modifications to the front pannel.

Yes, that is definitely a drawback.

[dimmog]

The Keithley 6485 and 6487 Picoammeters appear to use the same display as the 2000 model.

[skysurfer]

Hi,
I would be interested too for your project! This is a great instrument that is poised to death without these kind of conversions. I will stay tuned!
Laszlo

[minsik]

also interested in a 2015THD kit when available. Great work.
Confirm order placed and paid for 16/10/2025.

[dimmog]

Hi everyone.

Sorry for the delay, those tariffs aren't helping. Here's a long-awaited update: we've finished the board design and tested several prototypes.
We expect to begin mass production in about two weeks!

[KungFuJosh]

That looks great!

[BennoG]

I can not wait, can we preorder ?

Benno

[the Chris]

That's awesome, you made the digits larger than the original ones, a big plus imho 

[dimmog]

That's awesome, you made the digits larger than the original ones, a big plus imho 

Yes, the digits are larger. This is one of those cases where manufacturing limitations actually worked in our favor.
I personally really like the bigger digits compared to the original display, which I always disliked for their small size.
That's why I used the 34401A more frequently than the Keithley.

However, there is one drawback. Since the display visible area is slightly larger, the conversion process is a bit more complex. Thanks to the Keithley engineers. 
I'll make a separate post describing the minor front panel modification in detail.

[dimmog]

Front Panel Mod for Keithley 2000/2015 LED Display Upgrade

So, about the front panel mod for the LED display upgrade. For some reason, Keithley engineers decided to paint
the left and right edges of the display window to hide some parts of the original VFD (see pic 1).
Not sure why they did that, but for the LED display, we need to remove some of that paint.

It wasn't possible to make the LED display with the exact same digit size (tech limitations), but honestly, that turned out
to be a good thing. The new digits are much bigger and now is way easier to read from across the bench.

The mod itself is simple and takes about 20–30 minutes. We found that the paint on the acrylic window dissolves nicely with
regular nail polish remover. This is super important - don't use 100% acetone nail polish remover, it will melt the acrylic.

Here's the basic process (also covered in the instructions that come with the LED kit):

Mask off the areas with painter's tape. (see pics)

Apply some nail polish remover and let it sit for a minute or two.

Use Q-tips dipped in the remover to gently rub off the paint.

After that, the window might get a few fine scratches. 
You can polish it with Novus plastic polish (I used a two-step process, worked great).
This step is optional though. It'll look fine without polishing too.

We're still deciding whether to include the necessary materials in the kit or just leave that up to you.
Nail polish remover and Q-tips are easy to "borrow" from your wife or girlfriend anyway, and the Novus polish can be grabbed on Amazon.

What do you guys think. Should we include all the materials in the LED display kit?
Keep in mind we probably can't ship liquid chemicals overseas, so this would be for North America only.