Advice needed: New back glass makes new LED's look like crap

amsvette

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Advice needed: New back glass makes new LED's look like crap

I'll try and make this quick. I have a 1971 Bally Round Up pin that has a less than stellar back glass. Most of the lit art resembles lace. I found a reproduction back glass for it and pulled the trigger. It is really pretty...for an ugly cowboy whorehouse theme. It turns out this reproduction is reverse printed vinyl on glass. I didn't know this, and it doesn't surprise me that it's not silk screened as original. Only problem I have with it is I had purchased some new colored LED bulbs for the back box. Cool white for general lighting, warm white for skin tones, yellow to light the major areas of yellow, and red for anything that is supposed to light up red. The lights looked great behind the original faded/flaking back glass. Apparently the vinyl is thicker as all I have is a dimly lit circle seen behind the art.

Do I:

1) Live with it?
2) Buy brighter LED's?
3) Reinstall the original filament bulbs?

If I reinstall the original bulbs do I risk damaging the new vinyl art on the back glass?

I'd love some advice!

P.S. I've included a picture of the original, and the reproduction. On the lit picture of the reproduction, I have reinstalled two original bulbs, one in her breast, and one in her dress to compare them to the LED's in the rest of the back glass. The 4 people above player 2's score are from left to right; LED, bulb, LED, bulb.
 

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The led's need to be frosted, are they?

If not you can simply sand the led with 600-800 grit sandpaper. It basically diffuses the light. Should look much better. Just sand them all over until they look nice and dull. Give it a try.
 
They are single LED bulbs with a frosted dome on them. They are Ablaze 1-LED #44/#47 Bayonet Base Lamp With Frosted Lens, purchased from Pinball Life.
 
Hmmm The original glass has a white paint on the back to diffuse the light. I remember from my days making HD projectors that lcd's used to have a white diffusing plastic layer to diffuse the cfl's or led's. Maybe try to find some of that and put it behind the translite to diffuse the led's? Or use some clear plastic and paint it white as a test.
 
LEDs will always produce more of a hotspot than an incandescent. I know Comet pinball has some designed to throw the light out to the sides more. You might order a sample pack to see how those look, but I suspect you'll end up switching back to incandescents.
 
I figured that was the case. I'm concerned the heat of the incandescent bulbs may affect the vinyl art on the back glass. I suppose the machine will never see that much use, but it still has me worried as the reproduction back glass was expensive.
 
put a coat of paint over the bulb, same color as the spot the bulb is is lighting. then you will hardly see the glow.
 
Could try a plastic "diamond pattern" plastic lens from a commercial florescent ceiling fixture. They are great for reducing light points.
 
first thing dump the colored bulbs. There is nothing that was "supposed to light up red (or yellow)". There are red and yellow areas designed to be back-lit by "white (incandescent)" light. The colored lights will light other areas and look like crap.

The old bulbs will likely not hurt the repro, but keep the LED's just try to diffuse them more. The ablaze are cheap but effective. going with a brighter LED will likely just give brighter halos, there's just not enough distance to spread the light effectively. You could try covering the tops of the bulbs with a marker to dim the light coming right up form the bulb, but you'd have to play around to see what balances and does not create a dim spot.
 
Led use

I bought a sample kit of LED's from Coin Taker. After much reading and then using all the samples I came to the same conclusion that most others came too. Frosted LED's for the back glass (white).The play field may have many other variation based on color style..etc
There are videos when to use warm and when to use cold LED's. They helped a lot for my play field.
 
you will more or less get the same effect no matter what bulbs you use. its the translight, not the bulbs. you will have to experiment to try to minimize it. i find painting the top of the bulbs the same color as the affected area is effective.
 
more light will make it look worse. you need to eliminate the center hotspot, not make it worse with a brighter light.
 
Ha!
I keep the 47s in there for the Backbox personally. Only exception was Monster Bash...and Iron Man I used the strips that rotated colors. Looked ok, but that has a tube light anyways...

I don't know if we leave these on long enough to do any damage to his new back glass. I wouldnt think so.
 
more light will make it look worse. you need to eliminate the center hotspot, not make it worse with a brighter light.

Respectfully disagree. Please have a look at the lights I linked him to, they emit light out the sides, all 4 sides AND the front so you get light going every which way....and as an owner of bgrestro repro backglass I know a little bit about this subject.

Have a look at my reproduction backglass lit up with these leds. There's a thread about it on pinsider, here is the link with pics. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/searay-bgresto-style
 
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