Pics of my BF LED swap

[stangbat]

I'm working on installing LEDs throughout my Batman Forever. I've got the backbox and playfield inserts changed as well as almost all the flashers. I still have most of the GI left and I'm waiting to do that until I get a ring kit so I can kill two birds with one stone when I've got parts removed from the playfield.

I purchased frosted warm white bulbs (not superbright) for the backbox and the bulk of the playfield GI. I picked a few spots for the playfield GI where I'm going to put in colored bulbs. I also installed colored bulbs under all the playfield inserts. This by far is the best thing to do, the inserts look awesome.

After installing the LEDs in the backbox, it looked spotty. Even with the frosted lens, LEDs still are pretty bright when viewed head on as is the case in the backbox. Below you can see what I'm talking about. It is especially noticeable on Chase's forehead and hair, Batman's right shoulder below Chase's chest, Riddler's forehead and shirt, the lower left part of the moon above Batman, and around Forever in the bat symbol.

My solution, a dab of black paint on all the LEDs to cut the direct spot effect. You now get more diffuse lighting from the perimeter of the LED. The picture below was shot at the same f-stop and aperture as the previous picture. You can see the spotlights are toned down quite a bit. I think you can easily see the difference in the pictures, but it is definitely a noticeable difference in person.

Note: A few of the LEDs in the first "before" picture already have the black paint on them. As I was swapping them out for a direct comparison and the photos, I didn't have enough unpainted LEDs to swap them all out. But I did put unpainted LEDs in the locations that show the worst effect. So needless to say, if all the LEDs were unpainted it would look worse than what you see in the first picture.

If I'm being totally honest, I like the look of the backbox better with the incandescent #44 bulbs. It is warmer and I think it looks a little better with the faces. Even warm white LEDs are pretty white compared to an incandescent bulb. But I'm not going back, I'm leaving the LEDs in place.

I'm also putting a dot of paint on some of the LEDs for the playfield GI where they are under plastic and appear spotty.

 

[Steelhorse]

Nice job, never thought about putting paint on them. For G.I. did you also use frosted warm white too?

 

[stangbat]

Nice job, never thought about putting paint on them. For G.I. did you also use frosted warm white too?

Thanks. Yes, I got warm white frosted for the bulk of the playfield GI. I'm using some colored bulbs in the playfield GI for accents. We'll see how it looks when I'm done and if I like it.

After swapping everything out yesterday I of course realized I had some mistakes in my quantities and had to place another order this morning. Thankfully shipping is reasonable and placing another order isn't a big deal from that respect.

One of the biggest differences in using the LEDs in the playfield inserts can be seen in the white inserts, such as the bat symbols. With the incandescent bulbs they had a yellow tone. With the LEDs they are a brilliant white. Not brilliant as in overpowering, but sharp and crisp. And the blues such as the C-A-V-E inserts and the pop bumpers are fantastic.

 

[Steelhorse]

Yes I have put LED's in all my inserts on High Speed and some green frosted ones in certain places. No LED's for G.I though except the green ones. Did you use frosted for the inserts? Tried some for the backglass on High speed but they were the A-blaze 3-led and they were spotty, so I just put them in the white insert, they do look the best there. No LED's in the backglass unless I get some warm white and put paint on the tips, lol.

 

[tomdotcom]

I used frosted LED's from pinballife for the translites in my Fishtales & Bram Stoker's Dracula. They are not spotty at all, and look great. I also used some colored ones in certain spots on the translite to make colors pop. Ie. green behind the big fish on the right, red for the sun on BSD etcetc

I hate how LED's pulse so fast in the inserts, it's like the game is on hyperspeed or something, really ruins the attract mode IMO. I still have some in my fishtales inserts, but I didn't do the whole machine. Using colored standard bulbs for GI is also a cool idea, I used blue ones for the lower half of my BSD playfield and it turned out great.

 

[stangbat]

Did you use frosted for the inserts? Tried some for the backglass on High speed but they were the A-blaze 3-led and they were spotty, so I just put them in the white insert, they do look the best there.

Yes, I used frosted on the inserts. I was leery of not doing so because I didn't want it to look spotty. It worked great for all cases except the B-A-T above the top lanes. I think because of the distance and angle, I needed an LED without the frosted lens in this case. So I reordered superbrights with no lens for those three.

I used frosted LED's from pinballife for the translites in my Fishtales & Bram Stoker's Dracula. They are not spotty at all, and look great. I also used some colored ones in certain spots on the translite to make colors pop. Ie. green behind the big fish on the right, red for the sun on BSD etcetc

I hate how LED's pulse so fast in the inserts, it's like the game is on hyperspeed or something, really ruins the attract mode IMO. I still have some in my fishtales inserts, but I didn't do the whole machine. Using colored bulbs for GI is also a cool idea, I used blue ones for the lower half of my BSD playfield and it turned out great.

I used Cointaker's warm white frosted. I'm not sure if it is the LEDs that are the reason for them looking spotty or if my backglass art is more prone to showing it. I probably should try some other LEDs at some point and see if there is a difference.

As for pulsing on inserts, it doesn't happen on my machine. The only lights that pulse are the two spotlights. And I don't consider it annoying since it is only them and you can't directly see the bulbs. If every light did it, I agree that it would be annoying.

 

[shardian]

I've been tinkering with LED's lately. My latest use of them has been to put red GI led's in the very back of Freddy. It looked good when I dropped all the plastics back down. I can't wait to finish the shop out and see how the red looks.

I still don't think I'll ever do a complete led retrofit, but I will most definitely do little mods with them as I see places to do them in good taste.