Going to do a full LED light replacement on my TZ

[jar155]

Going to do a full LED light replacement on my TZ (now with pics!)

So I just got my full kit for replacing all the lights in my Twilight Zone. I'll be going 100% LED in the entire machine...well, that's my plan at least.

Have any of you ever seen one of these kits in person on a machine? I'm hoping that the LEDs aren't too intense, but this kit seems very well thought out and it should do a good job of using proper LEDs for each bulb.

I don't know if a lot of pictures have been taken of these kits, but I'm going to work in sections and take lots of before/after shots. I'll start with the backbox, take some pics, move to the flashers, take pics, do the inserts, take pics, etc.. What I'm hoping to do is show the impact of doing a few, about half, most, and all of them. Hopefully it's useful for those thinking about replacing their bulbs with LEDs.

So yeah, anybody done this to any of their machines? How did you feel about the results?

 

[KenLayton]

That ought to be good for a laugh. Your machine will look "funny".

 

[jar155]

Funny in the process, or funny when it's done? I'm hoping that it looks good when it's done and not so much funny to the point where it gets laughed at. If it turns out that way, I can always reverse the work, but I think it should look good.

When it's about 50/50 it will definitely look a bit odd, but kind of valuable to serve as a comparison between the regular bulbs and the LEDs.

 

[D_Zoot]

I personally don't care for LED's for GI. The light output from LED's, even the special ones, tends to be less uniform out the sides. In other words, they are too directional. The ones I have seen put too much light up on the undersides of the plastics, and not enough "spill" light onto the playfield.

For feature lights the instant on/off nature of LED's can make the attract "light shows" in some pins look odd, verses the soft on/off nature of incandecant, but LED's do really make the inserts stand out brightly and look good when fully lit.

Even though I personally don't care for the LED's I have seen, I am very interested in how your TZ looks and what you think about the results.

Looking forward to hearing back about this!

D

 

[RJ]

Led lighting

I guess it really depends on the type of LED's you picked up. I have used LED's on Coin Doors, Cherry Master Buttons, Redemption Game Buttons and Araknid Super Plus 6 Dart Boards,Behind the Throw Remove Dart displays, by bending the led legs up and soldering them to the board along with behind the Player Change Buttons, but not the coin door, to many complaints that it catches your eye when you are trying to hit the Bulls Eye. I do like the way they look in these applications.

I have seen LED's that have a wide angle of view and there is one or 2 colors that come close to the same color of light a 47 bulb puts out but you have to do your research. They do look ok when you put one of the colored condoms on the right style led. I did like the way LED's and colored incandescent lights were used together in the kits that Terry from Pinballlife.com offers on his web site.

I personely like the warm glow of the incandescent light coming from my Pinball Machine. I do hate having to change the few bulbs stuck back in the corner of the playing field that takes you an hour to get at, but I think it would look out of place if I changed out just those few bulbs.

Good Luck on your Venture

RJ

 

[Ghostkiller]

doesnt swapping to LED mess with the voltage on pins?

 

[RJ]

LEDs n Pins

{doesnt swapping to LED mess with the voltage on pins?}

No they make them in the same voltage and pin out style as the.Examples: Bayonet or wedge. 47 Bayonet style 555 wedge style and the larger 89 bulb style, along with assortment of other base styles. How many times can you use the word style? lol They actually draw less current are brighter, produce less heat and last alot longer than incandescents. Along with putting up with alot more vibration since there is no filament involved. Take a look at Terry pages www.pinballlife.com and you can see some of the styles and voltages that are available.

RJ

 

[Ghostkiller]

{doesnt swapping to LED mess with the voltage on pins?}

No they make them in the same voltage and pin out style as the.Examples: Bayonet or wedge. 47 Bayonet style 555 wedge style and the larger 89 bulb style, along with assortment of other base styles. How many times can you use the word style? lol They actually draw less current are brighter, produce less heat and last alot longer than incandescents. Along with putting up with alot more vibration since there is no filament involved. Take a look at Terry pages www.pinballlife.com and you can see some of the styles and voltages that are available.

RJ

I would maybe use them for under playfield uses but couldnt see using them for GI bulbs. I would think the lighting on the pf would actually be dimmer with LED illuminating instead of the normal incandescents because of the narrow dispersion the LED's have as opposed to incandesent not to mention when they have voltage applied they are on and there is no warm up time so on a flasher it may look a bit funky who knows. So far the pics Ive seen of these in action just werent to my satisfaction but I would like to try some under a playfield but then again, I think having the incandescents in say a 1984 bally spy hunter is just the way to go. Sort of like putting 22" wheels on a 69 chevelle ya know.

 

[oldskoolcoin]

I saw a playfield done up with them at a pinball show. Definately a different look. I don't think I would do it. The light is just not as soft and natural for ambient playfield lighting in my opinion. Not as warm or something.

 

[jar155]

Ok, so I started swapping out bulbs and so far I've done the backbox, the flashers, and some of the GI. The backbox and flashers look a million times better, it's not even close. The backbox lights have a frosted bulb around the LEDs, so they diffuse well. I also went with a much cooler white than what was standard, and it fits the art a lot better. The flashers are quite a bit brighter, and they just seem to pop in more dramatic fashion.

I haven't changed enough of the GI to tell what I think yet, as I got pulled away to tend to my newborn. By tomorrow evening I should have some stronger opinions on the matter. For now, I'm really pleased though.

Pics coming when I get a chance...

 

[jar155]

Here are the pictures of the backbox changes. You'll notice the big difference in light temperature. I felt that a cool look suited the theme much better than the warm glow of the original bulbs. To me, the white is much more fitting than the amber. Check out the pics.

Difference between the bulbs (left) and LEDs (right).

A closer look at the difference, and you'll notice the LED has a rounded and frosted bulb.

The backbox before...

...and after.

 

[koolmoecraig]

No way in hell I would ever put LEDs in for GI lights. They just look odd and harsh on the eyes.

On the inserts they can look good if matched properly.

Also, it effects the lightshows which usually rely on the slow fade of the incandescent bulbs for cool effects.

 

[koolmoecraig]

Wow. Aint no denying that improvement in the backbox.

 

[Ghostkiller]

hmmm that did do wonders for the backbox as far as the initial look but how does it look when flashing?

 

[tec9]

My Cirqus Voltaire had a full LED kit in it when I bought it. Looked kinda cool at first, but then just became too intense to look at for too long. It would literally give me a headache. So I replaced all the LED's back to bulbs. Looks much better, as I like the warm glow of bulb. The LED's seemed to bright, the color was off, and didn't disperse the light as well as a bulb.
-Mark

Your backbox does look nice with the LED's though!

 

[FMonk]

That looks fantastic on the backbox!

I don't know what it will look like on the playfield (some of the problems others have mentioned already), but I suppose it's worth a shot to see how it looks.

 

[Oryk Zinyo]

There were a few machines at the Seattle show that had the full LED conversion. I didn't like the look of the LEDs. They just seemed to light everything unevenly. There were spots of extremely intense light surrounded by areas that appeared dimmer due to the contrast. I also agree with the previous poster that they did start to hurt my eyes after a short time.

 

[Betelgeuse]

I also installed some LEDs in my TZ a while back. I thought the translite looked a lot nicer when back lit with white LEDs. I put red LEDs along the orbit path at the back which also looks great. I put blue LEDs in the slingshots and inlane guides, under the mini-pf (awesome!), as well as one in the piano and a few other choice spots. Admittedly, the blue in the inlane guides can be a bit glaring at just the wrong angle, but I think it looks stunning from the players angle. With the LED Gumball Kit and LED clock everything blends together nicely!

 

[oldskoolcoin]

Backbox does look killer. I would like to see before and after on the playfield too.

 

[gretz99]

I had my doubts about this, but the backbox does look nicer with the cooler colors. Will be interesting to see how the playfield looks.