Would the color be orange (as an initial run) ?
Yes, orange - and believe it or not (Gav will know this) there are about 20 'shades' of orange so I am matching as closely as I can. I'll crunch the numbers and see if the project will be worthwhie.
I am trying for two common front boards, one with 6 and another with 7 displays - and two main boards that can be assembled for either 6 or 7 digits, one to suit Bally/Stern and the other to suit Zaccaria.
The problem with using LEd "off" colours ( anything other than red, blue, green) is colour variation. depending on just who makes them, the colour will not be consistent. An orange LED from one manufacturer will not necessarily match that from another. Its a real problem with LED.. youll see it all the time in your shopping centres... fabricated acrylic letters that are a pale blue colour when lit ( meant to be white), or letters with a creamy look next to letters with a bluey haze. White LED is made with a Blue LED that has a phosphour coating.. this phosphour coating is very thin and therefore subject to variation.
Same applies to Orange and even if using just one manufacture you cannot 100% guarantee that an LED display made in Jan 2011 will exactly match an LED display made 6 months later. Many LED manufacturers do very large runs and when supplying LED to overseas customers will ensure that the batch sent is all from the same BIN. But a second batch may be subject to BIN variation.
Personally, id like to see the LED displays in LED red.. but thats just me.. i like the deep red plus it would negate any colour shift issues.
I dont quite understand why its acceptable to replace white globes with LED on a playfield to get deeper richer colours ( and in many cases using LED brings up a new set of issues with strobing etc), but when it comes to displays we have to match the neon orange.
I hope Mike can get a manufacturer that will guarantee BIN variation wont happen, otherwise the investment in this would be huge and Mike would be sitting on a lot of 7 segment LED numbers for quite some time.
OR.... Pinballers just accept that a shift to LED would result in a deeper red colour and see it as a progression that had to happen.
OR... get original displays made again... do this and ill certainly gas them with neon for you all.
Mike, id be interested to know what current draw is required to change all displays to LED and the efficiency ( if any) of using these over the original cold cathode type
