bulb to LED upgrade: WOAH.

vintagegamer

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Below are images from a site that shows an LED conversion on the Corvette pinball machine.

That is pretty darn impressive in my book.

corvette%20pinball%20flipper%20playfield%20detail%20with%20normal%20lamp%20instead%20%20led%20by%20pinball-led.com.jpg


corvette%20pinball%20flipper%20playfield%20detail%20%20with%20led%20by%20pinball-led.com.jpg






source: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...&tbm=isch&prmd=ivns&ei=UwIOTp67BMHIgQeO6InzDQ
 
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. NBA looks better w/ regular bulbs. LEDs are too brash in that one. I've seen Demo Man in person w/ LEDs....it works due to the cold sci-fi look of it.

I'm not a fan of all-LED all-the-time ...but I'm thinking about doing my Apollo 13 in LEDs when I shop it out...again, the cool sci-fi thing....I think it might benefit that one. We'll see!
 
I take it you have never seen LEDs in person? Some people like them all out, some like partial LEDs conversions, others can deal with a LED here and there (ME :) ) and others HATE LEDs with a passion.
 
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. NBA looks better w/ regular bulbs. LEDs are too brash in that one. I've seen Demo Man in person w/ LEDs....it works due to the cold sci-fi look of it.

I'm not a fan of all-LED all-the-time ...but I'm thinking about doing my Apollo 13 in LEDs when I shop it out...again, the cool sci-fi thing....I think it might benefit that one. We'll see!

Here's a 'before' pic of that pin for us in the studio audience :p

apollo_13.jpg
 
I take it you have never seen LEDs in person? Some people like them all out, some like partial LEDs conversions, others can deal with a LED here and there (ME :) ) and others HATE LEDs with a passion.

No I don't think I've seen any in person, none that I can recall. I also don't get out much. LOL
 
I used a mix in my Xenon.

The backglass uses blue LED's for the "circle" in the middle but there rest are incandescent... normal behind the glass and colored for the infinity glass...

The playfield uses a mix of colored incandescent and LED's. There are LED's inside the pop bumpers, under the slingshot plastics and of course on the tube... but the rest are colored incandescent except behind the drop targets where I used standard incandescent with colored sleeves (stock).

XENON_ARTSY4.jpg


XENON_ARTSY3.jpg


XENON_ARTSY5.jpg
 
I used a mix in my Xenon.

The backglass uses blue LED's for the "circle" in the middle but there rest are incandescent... normal behind the glass and colored for the infinity glass...

The playfield uses a mix of colored incandescent and LED's. There are LED's inside the pop bumpers, under the slingshot plastics and of course on the tube... but the rest are colored incandescent except behind the drop targets where I used standard incandescent with colored sleeves (stock).

XENON_ARTSY4.jpg


XENON_ARTSY3.jpg


XENON_ARTSY5.jpg

Very nice, doubleF, very nice.

I think that for some pins, especially scifi-themed ones as Metahugh said, it really breathes a whole new life into the machine. Again however, I'm only seeing them in pic form at the moment.

There is a place up the road from me that has arcade games and pins (I think) in it- I am kicking around the idea of taking my daughter up there tonight to check it out.
 
The thing to consider with LED's is that they are instant on/off. There is no dimming... just ON/OFF. So things that flash with flash ON/OFF/ON/OFF rather than dim-on-dim-off-dim-on... it's a much more stark "flash". That is good for some things, but bad for others.
 
I was just going to do led flashers, but a "I've got cash in my pocket and I can have them now" moment at the NW Pinball and gameroom show got me to buy the whole kit from cointaker. I really like it, the colors are much better.

I'll probably end up doing led's in my Revenge From Mars as well.

-Barry
 

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I have installed full cointaker kits in 6 of my pins and they look great. However, with my stern Indian Jones, I feel that regular bulbs compliment the biege, brown and gold colors better. Maybe an led insert kit, but that's it.
 
Buy the bulbs individually from pinballlife.com

You just need to plan what colors you want first if you don't want any left over. Personally, I just bought 50 here, 100 there and did about 5 games with them. As stated earlier, some games look great, others do not. I will be removing the LEDs from CFTBL, but leaving them in Iron Man, Demo Man, Monster Bash and Cirqus V.
 
Buy the bulbs individually from pinballlife.com

You just need to plan what colors you want first if you don't want any left over. Personally, I just bought 50 here, 100 there and did about 5 games with them. As stated earlier, some games look great, others do not. I will be removing the LEDs from CFTBL, but leaving them in Iron Man, Demo Man, Monster Bash and Cirqus V.

Do you need the new driver board if you just do a few bulbs? Or is it a straight replacement? (I'm guessing no if you've done arcade cabs w/them as well)
 
Straight swap will work fine for most games.
The "ghosting" from the bulb is that most LEDs that you buy now, come from the lack of being able to dim. Sure, you can buy those, but they are pricey.
For example, the CFTBL has a lot of dimming features in the GI, does not look good with LEDs. That's why they will be removed and replaced with color incandescents.
 
So I decided over the weekend to do some more research on these things, and shortly after my head was spinning..

On my Time Warp there are 5 jet bumpers with '47' bulbs in them. The plastics are blue, so I thought maybe blue LED's would look good in there. I poke around and I see ablaze LED's on eBay for sale 10 at a time, you pick the color. I start poking around before I buy to see what the feedback is on these, and the do's don'ts of LEDs. I find this youtube linky showing a guy displaying 3 different kinds of LEDs and what's good about them vs what's not, then he hits the topics of "ghosting" and bulbs not going totally out, even when that specific light SHOULD be out on the playfield. I'm like WTF. Next thing I know, I see there's LED bulbs with 1 LED inside, then ones with 3 LEDs inside, then ones with 9 LEDs inside!!!! I'm like you gotta be F'n kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I ended up buying nothing, and for the moment leaving well enough alone until someone tells me otherwise. That whole debacle turned me right off of LEDs for now!
 
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