LEDs in EM Arcade Games

dj10555

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Restoring a few of my EM arcade games and was considering installing LEDs. Has anyone tried this? There are lot of advantages to using LEDs but I would only want to do this providing they looked/worked similar to the original #44 bulbs. Do warm white LEDs give a similar color to incandescent bulbs?
 
It's a fact that LED's by there nature don't provide the ambient glow that incadecents throw. That being said. There are clear benefits for switching to LED. The first is the heat factor is very very low. That will save your play field plastics and back glass from melting and delamination. There are also energy savings if your a collector like me with multiple games plugged in for many hours.

This is personal preference. It will change the feel of an EM game if you convert. There are clear advantages and disadvantages. These are changes that will be noticed by you only not those who you entertain.

If you covert for all of our education I'd ask if you'd please post some before and after pics. Plus it'll make for great conversation.

Good luck with your decision...and have a great holiday
 
I tried a few leds and they do not glow as bright and not the right feel. of course above post is correct. it does help with the heat ....
 
I'd have no issues putting them in certain spots (IE if the game has coin door price insert lamps), but it really does affect the look elsewhere. They're getting better - better light distribution, and lots of colors that look more natural, but hard to beat the incandescent for that "original" feel.

Go with something that's compatible, but lower voltage - IE, #47 instead of #44 - where you can. Reduces heat, power, etc., and retains the original look.
 
I've been changing a lot of bulbs to LED's, but as mentioned before, they don't always look as good. The lower the K the better (3000K or less) work best, and frosted bulbs disperse the light better. Clear bulbs tend to make weird random shadows when the bulb has more than one LED in it.
 
Just thought I would check if anyone has tried some LEDs since the original post. I have tried a few but haven't found any which are close matches for #44, #455, #89 incandescents. I have got some LEDs which appear a close match and color for some #55 bulbs so will order a few more to do some further tests.
I basically want to cut the heat down in areas behind backglasses and behind plastics. There are also some areas which can be difficult to access to change bulbs so want to increase the reliability. Where there are a lot of bulbs installed in the one assembly the original bulbs tend to fail due to heat build up or vibration.
 
Led lighting

Check out Pinballlife.com. Terry has a wide range of leds. He has a wide variatity covering different angles of view and different kalvins.

I have also seen the warmer glow leds available from some of the car restoration stores pushing them for the older cars. I like the warm glow of the incandecent light bulbs.

I just installed a whisper fan on the back door in my Duck hunt to pull some of the hot air out of the cabinet.

RJ
 
for leds in em games I prefer putting them in the inserts only. I like the original look ofthe gi better
 
They do make a bulb that's supposed to replace the 455, but I'm not sure how good it is.

www.CoinTaker.com is kind of the 'king' of led bulbs. He had replacements for a lot of different stuff. He has a 455 replacement, but again I'm not sure how they look, and I think every EM game will look different with them.

Personally I don't put LED's in EM games.
 
LED Bulbs Verus Incandescent In Pinball Game

I have been testing an LED converted EM pinball game which I completely converted to LED.
I have found that the LED game uses less than half of the KW of an incandescent game from the same era. (1960's) I have a power meter inline with my switch bank.
The color rendition is less yellow than the incandescent one.
The wavelength spikes that are inherent in an LED bulb may cause the weird strobe effect on the ball when it rolls by an open bulb area. Particularly in the lower playfield area. But when using the newer yellow incandescent imitation type LED bulb in these lower bulb spots, this problem seems to be eliminated.
Overall the LED creates a clearer light than the incandescent. And the temperature is much lower and will keep the Backglass from flaking as well as the plastic parts from being damaged. I don't think that all collectors will like the look of the LED lighting but it is definitely advantageous in many respects over the traditional incandescent light source. The only way that you will really know is to try it out on one of your games.
I will list some of my other test results in more detail in a subsequent post.
 
I've said it once, I'll say it again.

Just say NO to LEDs.

Poor light quality / diffusion

New failure mode - Dead Short to Ground. If you're lucky, the GI fuse will blow before the heat burns the insulation off the wire(s).

Incandescent lamps generally fail open. Rarely, they fail in "short" and will burn brighter for a short period of time, before they "burn" open.

LEDs need to convert AC to DC, so they have a rectifier potted into the bayonet socket. If a rectifier fails DSTG, the smoke comes out fast.
 
I've said it once, I'll say it again.

Just say NO to LEDs.

Poor light quality / diffusion

New failure mode - Dead Short to Ground. If you're lucky, the GI fuse will blow before the heat burns the insulation off the wire(s).

Incandescent lamps generally fail open. Rarely, they fail in "short" and will burn brighter for a short period of time, before they "burn" open.

LEDs need to convert AC to DC, so they have a rectifier potted into the bayonet socket. If a rectifier fails DSTG, the smoke comes out fast.

Yikes...Thanks for scaring the hell out of me. Just say no to LED's got it.

OHEMIO
 
LED Issues

The meantime to failure rate on these rectifiers is pretty low. Not too concerned about that issue. Curious why you thought this was a potential problem? Have you had any experience with these things burning on one of your games?
 
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