LED Flashers

[GORGAR 1]

Just a heads up guys if your after a LED flasher either the twist or push in type I have purchased the ones off Markc which have the 9 leds in them and they are awesome/I've only used the white ones and the flash is incredibly bright and crisp white. My Twister which has the flashers to simulate a lightning storm looks bloody awesome the machine just rocks when the flashers are on-I've tried different LED's but these have blown me away and also in my WH20 up the top in the mountains they look unreal when they flash, just thought I'd share my experience with you all.

Peter

[markc]

thanks Peter  we are selling heaps of Leds , and at the moment Damien is kitting out the Godzilla

thanks

mark

[Extra Ball]

the #89's Pete?

[GORGAR 1]

Im hopeless with numbers but the large flashers twist and or push-I cant praise then enough the bright white flash is awesome and blinding under white inserts.
I'll be ordering more so hope you have heaps Mark?

Peter

[FirePower]

the #89's Pete?

I put some cointaker red and blue 89 flashers in my Firepower.  They are certainly bright and vibrant. 

However, I reckon you can tell a difference between the original incandescents and the LEDs because the LED flash has a shorter duration. I speculate that the incandescent flash lingers longer as the filament cools.

You may also find that you need to make a small circuit modification if replacing incandescents with LEDs.  Excuse my poor ascii art below, but you need to take the resistor between the lamp and ground out of the circuit when you swap the lamp to a LED.




   solenoid drive --------/\/\/\---------(LAMP)----- +ve
                                            |
                                            |
                                            |
                                            |
                                             ---/\/\/\------ ground

[Wotto]

YEP- agree 10,000 %

I have these flashers in my Funhouse in the bumpers and in the sign at the back of the game – 1 x RED , 1 x WHITE, 1 x BLUE.

Amazing lightshow when these are flashing.

[markc]

Im hopeless with numbers but the large flashers twist and or push-I cant praise then enough the bright white flash is awesome and blinding under white inserts.
I'll be ordering more so hope you have heaps Mark?

Peter

we just got near 2000 more in and will be loaded this weekend , most popular ones now we carry upto 300 of each and when we re order its in lots of 100 from now
as you check the site like others you will start to see the stock levels grow as we replace them

[GORGAR 1]

the #89's Pete?

I put some cointaker red and blue 89 flashers in my Firepower.  They are certainly bright and vibrant. 

However, I reckon you can tell a difference between the original incandescents and the LEDs because the LED flash has a shorter duration. I speculate that the incandescent flash lingers longer as the filament cools.

You may also find that you need to make a small circuit modification if replacing incandescents with LEDs.  Excuse my poor ascii art below, but you need to take the resistor between the lamp and ground out of the circuit when you swap the lamp to a LED.




   solenoid drive --------/\/\/\---------(LAMP)----- +ve
                                            |
                                            |
                                            |
                                            |
                                             ---/\/\/\------ ground

Not sure what you mean I just put mine in and they work a treat

Peter

[beaky]

As fire power said you "may" have to.
You will only have to do this if the led lamps light up dimm when in attract mode or while the game is in play between flashes.

the resistor fire power is talking about keeps the filament warm on an incandecent lamp so it will light up quicker when they flash.

[FirePower]

In the words of Meatloaf you took the words right out of my mouth - not that I'd be kissing you Beaky.

I thought the bleed resistor was to keep the filament warm so it stood less of a chance of blowing when energised with the feed from the drive transistor, but this would also speed it up as it lights.  The reaction time of an incandescent globe is about 0.1 seconds.  By the way this is a very good reason to change your car brake lights to LEDs, the faster response time should lead to less chance of a rear ender.

Back to pins; The resistor doesn't seem to be present on all the incandescent flasher lamp circuits.  When I first got my Firepower it was not there and I blew a lot of 89 globes, so I stuck the bleed resistor in and the blown globe problem ceased. The resistor does run pretty warm so I stuck a 5W ceramic one in.  On my Gorgar which has a similar flasher there was no resistor and no excess globe blowing.

The schematic shows the resistor as a 330 Ohm, cold globes are about 3 ohms, ,more when they heat but roughly that would mean 80 mA flowing through the (non flashing) globe (28V / 330 Ohm).  If you stuck a LED in (the sums change slightly, maybe 28-5/330 = 70mA ) but this would be enough to get the LED to glow.

In practice, if you have the resistor in the circuit and stick a LED in and it glows then remove the resistor.

[FirePower]

Today I was playing around with my Firepower, moving a few LEDs around and cleaning a bit. So, with the play field up I thought I'd test this resistor I've spoken about.  When I installed the LED flasher I just snipped one of the legs on the bleed resistor and moved the wires apart.  My plan was if I didn't like the LED I'd just resolder the resistor back in.  Anyway, this makes it pretty easy to put the resistor back in the circuit - this I did with a jumper lead and the LED glowed very brightly and noticeably.

I put a meter in series to try and measure the current flow - a bit hard to do with a digital meter as it jumps around a lot, but it looks like it was about 100mA - more than enough to make the LED glow, probably enough to shorten it's life and also pretty close for comfort to the 2W rating of the original resistor.  On this basis I'd say it's best to take it out.

[beaky]

 the led flash lamps are designed to run on 12v but the flash circuit is 24v. 

not good for the led flash lamps.

the circuit in the pinballs have a resistor to limit the current to the incandecent lamps so they don't die after 3 or 4 flashes. so how long will the led flashers last?

[pinnies4me]

I bought some psp #555 white ones to try in AFM.

Couple of questions -

The ones that actually worked were good, but there were two duds out of six, so I was wondering if they are prone to manufacturing issues? I'll take those four out as the area needs six, but they were quite effective. However, if they have a high fail rate/defect rate, I'm concerned.

Secondly, do people find they tend to slip out of the sockets? I've had one just sort of slip up and out of contact, never had that happen with normal lamps.

[Extra Ball]

555s dont allways work unless you push both contact wires towards the outside of the bulb case..........in stead of straight up and down they should run off at angle (acute angle to the bottom of the led case). Also try turning them around, and insert them a couple of times.

If some are loose then push the contacts closer in your bulb holder.

[FirePower]

I bought some psp #555 white ones to try in AFM.

Couple of questions -

The ones that actually worked were good, but there were two duds out of six, so I was wondering if they are prone to manufacturing issues? I'll take those four out as the area needs six, but they were quite effective. However, if they have a high fail rate/defect rate, I'm concerned.

If I got two out of six dead on arrival I'd be seeking replacements. I bought about 150 with none dead on arrival. At about a dollar each they aren't cheap for what they are. As a solid state device they should have no problems and once installed the failure rate should be incredibly, almost to the point of imeasurably low.

I find the type 44's I've been using a bit tough to install in some sockets - the tip to side pin distance is pretty tight.  It is possible to rotate the LED part within the 44 base if you are not careful and you don't want to do this.  I remove the socket from the playfiled, give it a quick clean and if necessary adjust the socket a bit with needle nosed pliers.  I also rotate them by gripping and moving the metal part of the base.