555 lights dumb question

cysnake

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I ran a string of 555 lights (6) for a mod on my gnr pinball. 6v was not enought to light up what i needed it to, so i ran 12v to the 555's. It looks fantastic! Now I believe I already know the answer to this, but im gonna ask it anyway. Is this going to make the light bulbs too hot and start melting stuff, or will it just shorten the life of the bulb or both? If worst comes to worst i guess im gonna have to use LED's.
I ran them in parallel if that makes a difference
 
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You're gonna have problems. The 555 bulbs are rated for 6 volts. You are running them at twice their rated voltage. This will make them very hot and their life drastically reduced to almost nothing.

In short, NOT a good idea.
 
You're gonna have problems. The 555 bulbs are rated for 6 volts. You are running them at twice their rated voltage. This will make them very hot and their life drastically reduced to almost nothing.

In short, NOT a good idea.

Yep yep.

If you want brightness, go with the 555 LED replacement bulbs, 6V will be more than enough for them and they'll be bright as all get out.

Of course, as a say that... I still haven't ordered any bulb replacements for my coin doors, but I've seen pins with LED bulbs in them, and they're amazing looking. And since they come in different colors, you can customize them to match the color they're try'ng to light up... if you have a faded blue light cover on the playfield, and put a regular white 555 behind it, it'll still look faded, put a blue LED replacement bulb behind it, and it'll be a brilliant blue.

Just my opinion, ignore as needed.
 
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