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Thread: LED Conversion

  1. #1
    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default LED Conversion

    I'm a big fan of LEDs for arrangeballs and any other machine. i've made the change on many pinball machines as well. they run cool, consume a fraction of the power, and last longer than you will. colored LEDs look fine but to replicate the original white color of incandescents then you need warm white, wide angle, LEDs. i use 5mm "straw hat" ones and i just bought 500 off eBay for 12 bucks. resistors which are needed can be had for a penny apiece. it's very easy to assemble each unit as it's just the LED, the resistor(s), and the silicone socket that the old bulbs used in an arrangeball. i typically use two resistors each at 1/2 half the ohms to better dissipate any heat the resistors generate which is minimal if at all. the pics show a crude proof-of-concept unit i made for this post that works great and costs about 16 cents. for the final product i cut the LED wire that the resistors attach to much closer to the LED, solder the resistors inline and then route that wire plus the other LED leg thru the two holes in the bottom of the silicone socket and up around the side as per the stock configuration. you can also route the resistor wire outside of the socket and then back up into the hole if they won't fit in the socket.
    here's a photo of a machine with a number lit with a regular bluish tint LED. as usual, the camera can't pic up how it actually looks and overexposes the lit number. for this machine it would need 16 LEDs plus each pinkish block on either side of the matrix takes 2. you can see the divider in the lit zero block that divides each one with a light on either side. so the machine would require 32 LEDs and 64 resistors for a total cost of a buck fifty plus a little solder and some time.
    online there are easy to use LED calculators to give you the resistance. couldn't be easier.
    LED calculator for single LEDs
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    EM Pinballs & Arrangeballs

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    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default Re: LED Conversion

    got a bunch of resistors and components in and made 22 LEDs for my Taiyo RSP machine. Took about an hour to make them all and install them. With these "straw hat" style LEDs the light is projected evenly and at a very wide angle so there's no funky rings of light or bright spots. I plugged in the machine voltage and LED specs into the calculator to get the resistance needed. I used two 1/2 watt resistors for each LED. I basically followed the example of the engineer who made a bunch for me awhile back. Anyway, as you can see these aren't going to win any prizes for a clean design but they work great and are a large improvement over stock lighting and best of all, the LEDs and resistors needed for this machine cost under two bucks total. There's also plenty of clearance around each pair of prongs on the light board for each unit.
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    Last edited by emmadog; 05-08-2012 at 11:44 AM.
    EM Pinballs & Arrangeballs

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