LEDs are sweet

[Extra Ball]

Finished replacing all the bulbs in FT and Dr Who with LEDs. Most of the PF LEDs in Dr Who I assembled myself, its about 20-40 cents per insert, but time consuming (bought from ledsales in australia). The pre-mades are a mixture of Ablaze (from RTBB), and Cointaker.



My home-mades:

[Caveoftreasures]

EB they look great. 
Quick question.
Q- Is the final colour and brightness dramatically better than standard bulbs. Is it a big difference or only minimal ? I am considering doing my machines, but it might take me ages to do the fleet. I would buy in bulk so i would save. how much brighter and better percentage wise do you think it makes ?

From here it looks brighter.

[Strangeways]

They look GREAT !

I will be installing LEDs in my CV. Pictures like these are impressive. Thanks for sharing !

[Extra Ball]

Its brighter, but more importantly gives the inserts more definition. The numbers/text, artwork on inserts is really better defined. Its probably the easiest, and most dramatic of all pinball mods.

[Caveoftreasures]

i am sold.
where do i buy multiple colours, ready to go, put straight in LED'S from,by the box load, lots of different colours.
what about flashers, and all the different sizes of different bulbs.can we get all and every in LEDS  n colours. bulk purchases to do 25 pins ?

[Wotto]

Nice Greg 

Can U do me a favour and take the same shot with the PF glass off the games one day so we dont get the DMD reflection

[beaky]

if i am right the led that is pictured is a standard led with a resistor soldered on and covered with insulation. (when i say standard i mean a standard ultra bright led not one of those ones that have a wedge base and just plugs into the socket.

this looks like a much cheaper option than buying those pre made plug in jobs.

or i could be wrong and they now sell them like that

[Caveoftreasures]

if i am right the led that is pictured is a standard led with a resistor soldered on and covered with insulation. (when i say standard i mean a standard ultra bright led not one of those ones that have a wedge base and just plugs into the socket.

this looks like a much cheaper option than buying those pre made plug in jobs.

or i could be wrong and they now sell them like that

see my previous post.lol
 need the suppliers details. but i dont want to stuff around making 800. 

[Extra Ball]

Beaky yes the one sitting on the pliers is my own work. I take the bulb holder out of the board, and solder in a ultra-bright LED with a resistor onto it.
This tells the story:
I love LEDs in pins, but my wallet wont stretch to buy enough that I want. So after seeing the results like others get I decided to make my own, well my own way of easily installing them. Once I got the resistors onto them, came the question of how to mount. I know soldering straight to the pcb would make sense, but I dont want to wreck my lamp pcbs.

This was proto-type no1 (snapped-off bottom of a 555 incandescent bulb). Feel free to laugh, but it did work, just not very well lol



Then decided to solder them into the lamp holder sockets. With a bit of mucking around I reckon I have got it rite, and am happy with the results. Putting the white sleeve (just 4 core wire covering) was my best innovation lol Easy enough to mount them this way, I will not wreck my pcbs, and easy to de-solder should the leds fail. Oh I found the easy way to get the polarity rite was to solder the long leg (resistor mounted one) to the side of the socket marked with a "-" on it. I found I can get 2 LEDs easily enough in the one socket for larger inserts.



DIY LEDs at 20 to 40 cents each.
:cool:

LED resistor calculator: http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

[beaky]

where do you buy your leds from?

[johnwartjr]

I'm intrigued by LEDs, but have not made the plunge yet because I understand they won't 'dim' like GI does, and the rapid cycling gives some people headaches.

I'd like to try them in my MB or NF. Maybe my SS, as it's next in line after the Creature. Who knows!

[Retropin]

have played a STNG with all LED mods throughout... looks AWESOME. Being able to match LED colours to insert colours really gives a new depth to them all.. the purples were just beautiful.

As for the constant cycling - this shouldnt happen on a pinball.. the flicker on many LED signs is due to the SMPS that runs them... some of these are only 30 - 40hz and is noticeable to the eye.
Frequency on a pinball transformer is 50hz and is a  different way of delivering 12vDC ( or do DMD's have SMPS in them?? i doubt it)

[Extra Ball]

I dont put LEDs in the immediate flipper area because I find they reflect off the ball, making it a little harder to see. That maybe just for me, I know other guys dont seem to have the same issue.

[pistolpete78]

Looks excellent Greg.  I don't have the patience to make my own like you, so am eagerly awaiting my Cointaker order to do Theatre of Magic inserts and flashers.  Love the LED's in inserts and flashers, but my thoughts are to leave GI as std incandescent, just gives a more "natural" feel.  Any thoughts on this guys. 

[Red Series 3]

I have been doing a lot of research regarding leds. I have a funny feeling that the home market will be nearly 90% led in the next couple of years. Their is a planned roll out of halogens in the future
During my research i sourced the company that supplies to cointaker and the single leds(normal / wide) can be had for around the $40 mark per 100.
Their are other products like the multi led that will cost more(I posted on another forum that i could get leds for around the $70 mark per 100)This covered the cost of every line from the 4+1hp led products to the single leds.
I have samples coming in from another company that offers a 3 yr warranty on these pinball leds (i thought this was amazing) The price point is very similar. Except that different colours are more expensive
The company that supplies to cointaker offers 12 months warranty on these pinball leds.

I'd say wait a couple of weeks if you can, it could work out a but cheaper in the long run.