Has anyone figured out who has the best price on led's?

dudljoe

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Has anyone figured out who has the best price on led's?

Looking to do a couple of my pins in leds. Not shure who has the best deals out there. If anyone has looked into it allready. A little help is always appreciated.
 
Leds

I prefer Cointaker, not the cheapest around, but you get what you pay for. I ordered the T2 kit for my pinball and it looks fantastic, went with the super brights and they are just right.
 
For under the inserts, pinballlife for sure. For GI, don't get anything less than cointaker's super brights. All others look stupid in comparison.
 
pinball life - 39 cents usually for quality ablaze.

For the lowest cost, Pinballlife offers a discount on the 1-LED ablaze 44s and 555s - 27cents each when you buy 100 or more at a time.

It's a very inexpensive way to convert to LEDs, although they are polarized, so if the don't light up in the 555 socket, rotate them 180 degrees.

They are a cheap way to do inserts and backboxes, and I use them in GI as well for some applications.

I did my Doctor Who (almost) entirely using the cheapo ablaze LEDs and I think it looks fantastic for the price.

It's very much a matter of personal opinion as to what looks good. Don't let anyone tell you what you "should like".
 
Yeah the super brights are blinding. Good quality, but very bright. PB life i have been happy with.

The thing about cointaker is their kits are pretty good if you want to do the machine all up - just ask for non supers.
 
LED's

I think Cointaker is the cheapest honestly. I have to say I use his LED's on all my machines. The only issue is that the led's fall out from spotlight lamps. For this application I use a dab of silicone to anchor them to the holder.

I recommend wide angle white's for inserts. If you want to change colors of an insert or brighten it up I would use colored LED's but seriously, in my opinion, white wide angles are enough. I also use the #44 frosted whites for the slings.
 
id like to get some LEDS for my machines but im not sure where to get them either. i dont want to buy a kit. i would rather just buy a bulk load of each color and have them on hand. (the same as pinball rubbers) that way i have some extra ones.

but my main concern is whats this i heard about you have to buy special leds that have a diode in them for certain games??
and i heard something about other machines you have to alter one of the boards in it if you want to use LEDS?

the games i want to put leds in are
getaway
creature from black lagoon
twister
corvette (maybe)
junkyard

are any of those problem games for leds? i have heard creature is not a game for leds
 
I have done both Pinball life and cointaker LED conversions. I like the cointaker lights, especially the newer minis.

I do believe kits are the way to go, but can buy individually.

Also I am not a big fan of complete kits, I leave the GI alone and mainly do inserts and controlled lamps
 
Ive done 35-40 led conversions, when i do shop outs or restores.

Coin taker LEDs are the best hands down.... They have a bulb that runs around .79 per, that blows anything away. (ill post a link below)

I used to buy the super brights for restores, and some of them where way to bright. I get a better price on the .79 bulbs, but i buy them in the muti 1000's.

Mellisa is the best, and has helped me with some other pinball party stuff also.

These bulbs are in the middle between the superbrights from Cointaker, and the ones from pinball life. Im talking about the brightness of the bulbs

heres the link

http://shop.cointaker.com/category....FC2E57569222A35F0.qscstrfrnt04?categoryId=136
 
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Pinballlife seemed to have the best pricing when I looked, and seemed like a no-brainer since I have 3 pins I'm working on now and therefore qualify for a bulk discount on several of the bulb types I needed.

Quality wise I have no complaints other than the flashers would be better if the light from them was more focused. The frosted bulbs are great replacements for playfield and exposed lighting. And the 3-LED bulbs are good for larger inserts and stuff you want to really stand out.

So Cointaker isn't pushing the same Ablaze bulbs? I know they got some other stuff like those adjustable 'snake' bulbs.

Oh and I was recently at a guy's house who had a bunch of pins redone with Cointaker stuff and they looked about the same FWIW. I'd have to see two pins side-by-side- in person to tell the difference, and even then depending on the bulbs used I probably couldn't do so.
 
When you buy an LED kit, what else are you getting besides bulbs? Any circuit boards or other stuff required to convert to LEDs? If not, I might pick up a few bulbs to test out.
 
You just get a bunch of LED bulbs.

The exception to that is those kits for more recent pins that replace the fluorescent in the backbox with a more traditional setup using bulbs. And those are always separate kits that run about $200 by themselves.
 
You just get a bunch of LED bulbs.

The exception to that is those kits for more recent pins that replace the fluorescent in the backbox with a more traditional setup using bulbs. And those are always separate kits that run about $200 by themselves.

Thanks. I might just order a few to test on my IJ.
 
Yeah I'd grab a handful and maybe do a quarter of the pf or something. You will probably love the results (incandescents are just so hot and give off a dingy/yellowed light after a short while), but it's good to figure out whether you want to do partial incandescents or a full conversion as well as what bulb types suit your tastes.

There are full tutorials out there, but based on the Ablaze (Pb Life) line my selections are typically like so:

flat top single LEDs - pf inserts, coin door, above pf sockets that are obscured or not bright enough with frosteds (use the appropriate color)

flat top frosted single LED - exposed lighting, condomed bulbs, pf plastic illumination (typically use white unless a certain effect is desired, or use appropraite color if replacing a condomed bulb)

concave single LED - y'know I haven't found much use for these yet, but they are for spots where the socket is horizontal to or angled at the object you want illuminated... think I used a few for flipper illumination and inserts which had lamp sockets at a 45-degree angle.

3-LED bulbs - large pf inserts, inserts towards end of pf that don't stand out well, and other pf inserts you want to stand out a little more (use appropriate color)

Flashers, any type - obvious (use appropriate color, or probably just white for backbox use)

And then there is the backbox - which would probably be best done with flat top singles, but don't have an opinion on that yet - and the instructions cards - probably frosted singles?

I love doing little customizations to make things really pop, too. That is why I tend to avoid the kits.
 
a color changing led sometimes are good in the backbox too. i recently got a few for a shop job on an old pin Elektra (2 bulbs right abover her hands with flames) makes it look like glowing orbs. and I added one to a High Speed right in the star of the police cruiser, sometimes resembles a police light. I've only got some from pinball life and do think they are little dull IMO
 
I just ordered a crapton of LED's for my Space Shuttle. I'm pretty sure I have enough to LED out the entire playfield except flashers (Too damn expensive and cointaker is the only one that carries LED 67's. 4$ a bulb? Hell to the no. 4$ for two boxes of bulbs replaces all flashers in this machine 2.5 times!).

Got some stuff to play around with too like some purple ones and color changers to try and put in the pop bumpers. :)
 
I have used LEDs from Cointaker, Pinball Life and BCS. The ones that I like the best are from Cointaker (currently have them in 3 of my 7 machines). The Ablaze from Pinball Life are also nice, but not as good as the minis. BCS, do not waste your time and money on (I had so many problems - Some of the LEDS lasted less than a week).
 
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