Ord Mantell
Well-Known Hunter
This all started when I was snowed-in at a hotel room at the height of the covid lockdowns. I began researching the parts on the RF board, and made the goal of replicating the original electronics. I detailed everythign I found in my ESB thread here if you want to know what all the parts are: Ord Mantell's ESB build. This board with the found parts is the result:
There is substitution here for one of the chips, but that can be explained later. This board sat around for more than a year waiting for me to figure out how to solder it all together. Fortunately for me, Deancfh had a look and after researching it, figured out how to make it work. So I sent him all my parts and he returned it, ready to be put into the helmet. He did the hard part, which he can explain himself since he understands it better than me.
Deancfh is doing a tutorial for an easy to follow guide on how to install the electronics. What I'm showing here is that it can be done (with a little fuss), but I didn't fully document the process. It does require a tiny bit of soldering.
The RF is obviously is one of the trickiest parts because of the cramped space. This is a terminal fettler RF topper:
This is also a tough spot... getting the stalk wires into the helmet while also soldering the ground wire to the micro switch. I found the only way to do it was with the ear cap only partially assembled so I could access the front of the micro switch. I do not have the skill to solder it from the back.
And voila! A working vintage found parts RF electronics build installed in a lineage helmet. I will vintage-ify those batteries at some point probably.
The RF vintage LEDs are a special type of LEDs only manufactured during the 1970's
There is substitution here for one of the chips, but that can be explained later. This board sat around for more than a year waiting for me to figure out how to solder it all together. Fortunately for me, Deancfh had a look and after researching it, figured out how to make it work. So I sent him all my parts and he returned it, ready to be put into the helmet. He did the hard part, which he can explain himself since he understands it better than me.
Deancfh is doing a tutorial for an easy to follow guide on how to install the electronics. What I'm showing here is that it can be done (with a little fuss), but I didn't fully document the process. It does require a tiny bit of soldering.
The RF is obviously is one of the trickiest parts because of the cramped space. This is a terminal fettler RF topper:
This is also a tough spot... getting the stalk wires into the helmet while also soldering the ground wire to the micro switch. I found the only way to do it was with the ear cap only partially assembled so I could access the front of the micro switch. I do not have the skill to solder it from the back.
And voila! A working vintage found parts RF electronics build installed in a lineage helmet. I will vintage-ify those batteries at some point probably.
The RF vintage LEDs are a special type of LEDs only manufactured during the 1970's