Pinball led's

smisch

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2010
Messages
808
Reaction score
7
Location
clinton twp., Michigan
Picking up a Black Pyramid, leds for playfield? Thoughts and place to order them from?

How much brighter will it make the playfield? I don't intend on replacing all the bulbs but perhaps certain areas?

Thanks

Peace
 
Picking up a Black Pyramid, leds for playfield? Thoughts and place to order them from?

How much brighter will it make the playfield? I don't intend on replacing all the bulbs but perhaps certain areas?

Thanks

Peace

Typically, the older the game, the worse LEDs look in it. I like them in newer games mainly for the bright white LEDs as opposed to the yellow white bulbs. I don't use them in GI, mainly under the inserts and in the backboxes. I am definitely not one of those people that has to go and change the color of any white insert to something ridiculous, or even worse, color changing. With LEDs, less can be more.
 
Gotta admit I miss the warmer colors in the GI on Space Shuttle, but hey....theres a LED for that.

But the red white and blue bonus grid, roll lanes, and pop bumpers are the bomb. :p
 
I did my Taxi and love it. It does have that colder white look instead of the amber now, but looks so cool when it freaks out... The LED's go from off to full bright so fast.

I know the die hard old school guys hate them, but I love 'em. I did color match all of mine so the inserts and all don't look weird.
 
Eh I like them, but primarily for the lower heat, longer life, and less dingy light. They can change the look of a game substantially, and you can overdo it. And as mentioned the GI may be best left with incandescents. Definitely something to do a little bit at a time and see what suits your tastes.

I did a entire South Park though and I like how it turned out. My Jokerz! and FunHouse pins will be redone with LEDs soon as well, I think they'll look pretty nice as long as I don't start tossing in colored GI lighting and color changing bulbs (ugh).
 
I thought the color changers looked pretty good in my pop bumpers, lol.

Not sure I would ever use them on an insert though unless it was a clear/white "SHOOT HERE FOR EXTRA BALL/SPECIAL!!" type insert...just doesn't make any sense otherwise, and the ones I had of course don't sync up with the ones around them so it's just a mess of color otherwise. I haven't even put one into an insert....only bought the three of them for the pops, but they're not bright enough to get the job done.

Going with the UUUUUBEEERRRRR output r/w/b to match the other aspects...just haven't ordered them yet, still have to rebuild the other two pops with the colored skirts and the playfield swap coming up too so not really on a high priority.
 
Thanks,

I am not going to go crazy with them, just some behind the plastics I'm thinking.

Under pf plastics is one of the worst uses for LEDs. They don't have the dispersion of regular bulbs (even the 'diffuse' ones) so you'll get spotty illumination rather than lighting up the whole plastic. Plus, they are worse on the eyes if you can see a part of them directly past the edge of the plastics.
 
Can someone post some before and after pics so we can easily see the difference. I am almost done with my T2 restoration and am debating doing LED's throughout it.
 
For me, every game (DMD era is what i use) gets LEDs in Inserts, backbox and flashers. Always - i think it looks great, and i have not had one person who saw my games saw anything negative - usually, complements. I think alot of the negative comments i read come from peoples use of LEDs years back, when they ghosted and such. Since then, the "supers" at Cointaker look incredible compared, a lead ahead.

GIs are a little different. They tend to set off a blueish white color. Every game i have ever had - i tried GI LEDs but switched back to 44s because i couldnt take it.

The ONLY game i think looks good with this - is T2 - First time i ever kept LEDs in the GI.

BSD as well, but only in select spots.

For reference - games i have owned / own and did inserts but NOT GI - SM, IM, Tron, TZ, taxi, RFM, AFM, IJ, TAF, HS2, TSPP, BSD, T2, LOTR, probably others i cant remember.
 
For me, every game (DMD era is what i use) gets LEDs in Inserts, backbox and flashers. Always - i think it looks great, and i have not had one person who saw my games saw anything negative - usually, complements. I think alot of the negative comments i read come from peoples use of LEDs years back, when they ghosted and such. Since then, the "supers" at Cointaker look incredible compared, a lead ahead.

GIs are a little different. They tend to set off a blueish white color. Every game i have ever had - i tried GI LEDs but switched back to 44s because i couldnt take it.

The ONLY game i think looks good with this - is T2 - First time i ever kept LEDs in the GI.

BSD as well, but only in select spots.

For reference - games i have owned / own and did inserts but NOT GI - SM, IM, Tron, TZ, taxi, RFM, AFM, IJ, TAF, HS2, TSPP, BSD, T2, LOTR, probably others i cant remember.

I agree, it comes down to the game and what you like. I have Twilight Zone, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Dirty Harry and each one is different to some extent. They all have full LEDs in the backbox, as I like to accentuate the colors of the translite with different colored LEDs. TZ has no GI leds and only the white colored inserts have them. Dracula has GI leds, part white and part blue. All its inserts and flashers are leds (color matched). Dirty Harry has all white GI leds and color matched inserts.

The inserts are kind of a given, in most cases. Just color match and deal with the little/if any ghosting. The backbox can take a bit of creativity and trial and error. And GI comes down to what you want the PF to look like. I like leds for GI in alot of cases, however I don't like it on my TZ. And if you get creative you can color diffent parts of the PF with different colored leds. Like my Dracula which has blue leds for GI from the center targets on back.

BTW, pictures and videos really seem to make leds look brighter than they are in person.
 
Yes, very important point from the COUNT - Videos of LEDs NEVER do them justice. If i was to decide on LEDs from videos, i would of never bought them. Seeing them in person is the only way to go. In fact, when LEDs were new to me, and i watched videos of them, i passed.

It wasnt until i kept reading constant commentary on RGP - that they saw so and so a game at a show done in LEDs and it looked amazing, that i decided to dabble.

Damn, right now i have so many LEDs in my bulb drawer, i am addicted to them!
 
Careful, I get ghosting from cointaker supers in my FT inserts. Doesn't bother me but does bother some. I find cointaker's brightness overpowering though and I will probably remove some of them, or replace with pinballlife's leds.
 
Nitrozoom - just wondering - are you using the Cointaker Supers?

I ask because i just did my T2 which came out great (complete LEDs from Cointaker - Supers). Before i did it, i had LOTS of advice not to, it was too bright, etc - i only went with it to "buck the trend" i figured i could just switch it out and use the Left over LEDs elsewhere. The only thing i can think is Cointakers recent update to the supers, which are the smaller heads on the bulb - much different than anything they put out in the past.

For me, the Ablaze LEDs from Pinball life - the non frosted are too bright (hurt my eyes!) and the frosted ones are too light, not enough color (for GI anyway). Wish they were "in the middle" somehow, since they are SO much cheaper than cointaker.

I guess where this is all going is that one will never know until they try it.....
 
Yes they are the supers. It's so bright that I have to play with the lights full on, otherwise you often can't see the ball, just blazing inserts against a dark playfield.

I have had good luck in the past with pinballlife's 3-led bulbs. They are not as bright as the cointakers and about half the price. At some point I'm going to switch some inserts from cointakers to those and see if it helps. If not I will put some of them back to regular bulbs.
 
Yes they are the supers. It's so bright that I have to play with the lights full on, otherwise you often can't see the ball, just blazing inserts against a dark playfield.

I have had good luck in the past with pinballlife's 3-led bulbs. They are not as bright as the cointakers and about half the price. At some point I'm going to switch some inserts from cointakers to those and see if it helps. If not I will put some of them back to regular bulbs.

The cointaker frosted is the way to do where you find they are too bright (for me, it's usually in the GI's). More light than a standard 555 or 44, but a lot less than the eye searing supers.
 
i just did my black pyramid, i just emailed you the results of what works and what doesnt.
 
Careful, I get ghosting from cointaker supers in my FT inserts. Doesn't bother me but does bother some. I find cointaker's brightness overpowering though and I will probably remove some of them, or replace with pinballlife's leds.

Don't use supers unless you want to go blind. Cointaker's new mini supers are cheap and awesome for inserts.

As for the whole GI thing, if they are in/near cool colors, use normal white, and if near/under warm colors, use warm white. It's very simple! :)
 
Back
Top Bottom