Sammy/Aristocrat/Rodeo Reel Lamp Replacements

[WindDrake]

Hey guys.

So, been screwing about with the three Pachislo's I've got, and dealing with burned out lamps has been an issue.

I know that the reel lamps use a B8.5 base, T1-1/2 size, and are about 6.03 lumens at 12v, 0.05A. The lamps are in series, with 24vAC as the supply. Eiko calls these the 2721MF, and can be had for about $15/box of 10.

I puchased some white SMD wide-angle LED's on a B8.5 base off of eBay for my Animal Kingdom, as the reel lamps were all burned out, and this absolutely works, but you've got to do a lot of fiddling with the contact flanges. It sucks, but they actually look fantastic.

However, the original bases are quite nice and make great contact, so I wanted to re-use them.

So, I wanted to find out what lamp actually went into these. Come to find out, they are manufactured specifically for the 2721MF base, you can't buy them alone.

Taking the specs I found, I discovered that Eiko makes the #8640 lamp. 14v, T1-1/4 size, at 0.08A and 6.5 lumens, bare wire leads. These can be had for about $8 or $9 a box of 10, shipped.

Using that lamp, you can successfully replace the bulb in the MF bases originally in our Pachislo machines and they look great. However, their hot resistance is lower than the 2721MF, so you've got to replace them in pairs, otherwise the 2721MF originally in the machine will power-starve and only light up a little.

Pictures:

Here's what we start with.
Then you can see the leads, tab-welded into place.
We'll break those off, then remove the bulb.
Next, install the bulb and pull the leads hard into the side-plate notches, to retain the leads.
Now, trim the leads up to about here.
To keep everything secure, shove the leads between the side-plates and the plastic housing.

As an aside, you can't solder to the tabs, it's all stainless. This is why the original leads were tab-welded, like they do with batteries.

Enjoy!