pinball life LED - advice!

drwicket

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Ok so I am getting ready to order LED's for my terminator 2. I have decided to go with pinball life LED's for the main reason they are a third of the price of cointaker. I ordered a sample pack of the alblaze 1 44/47 bayonet base lamps and a sample pack of the alblze 1 555 wedge base lamps.

I have been messing around with different bulbs in different places and I think I have an idea of what I want to order. My only concern is it doesn't seem like they are bright enough. They look a lot better then the normal lights because the colors really pop when you are using a colored bulb on a colored insert. I am just not seeing the explosion of light that I see on most peoples pins when I see videos.

I really don't want to spend a fortune so I really need some advice so I can get an overall good look. Just curious on some opinions of what people have done in their machines.

Thanks!
 
The Ablaze LEDs from PBL are certainly cheap, but as you said, they aren't very bright. Granted, you don't want things too bright, but they are often too dim for the job.

I know you've seen the pictures of the T2 I worked on. It has Cointaker's kits in the GI and I think it looked great. If it were me, I'd go with Cointaker's kit for the playfield GI. Then at a later time when you want to spend the money, consider getting their backbox GI kit. Yeah, they are not exactly cheap, but in my opinion they look nice and are not over the top.

I'm not a huge fan of LEDs in inserts so I'll let others comment on that issue.
 
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I have the PBL ones in Shuttle and they're bright enough for me..

Maybe that's why some of the other guys are flipping out over LEDS R BAD....if the cointakers are really a lot brighter. I've only got a few spots where I've used the 3-led ablaze and it's mostly in GI positions hidden under plastics not directly visible.
 
pinball life LED's I ordered a sample pack of the alblaze 1 44/47 bayonet base lamps and a sample pack of the alblze 1 555 wedge base lamps.

The PBL single LED's are dimmer than incandescents in my opinion. The 3x can be pretty bright if not used judiciously.
 
I agree the PBL (ablazes) clear or even frosted dont have much lighting range. I tried it on a BSD and the game just turned out much darker than i expected, i switched back to 44s on the GI in a lot of places.

For T2 -i used the cointaker kit. Unbelievable - the nicest looking LED'd game i've seen. The kit is well worth it. Not too bright, not too dim, i think its perfect, and makes the game look like a new release.
 
If you are going to go with PBL's LED's then use the three LED ones. The single LED ones are only really bright enough to use in smaller inserts, in which case they are great. The three LED ones are plenty bright for GI and backbox lighting, though they don't have as even of light dispersion (sp?) as Cointakers Super Brights. But for the price I use them as much as possible, and only order Cointakers for the "must have" ones wehre PBL's won't work.
 
I used Cointaker Super Brights in my T2 and it looks fantastic, I was worried that it would be too bright, but suprisingly they are pretty much perfect. Just the right level of brightness for this game to make it really shine. Yes they are expensive but the light show looks so much better now with those in, it really is like a new machine.
 
The Ablaze 3x do tend to produce "hot spots" when used in the backbox.

Terry showed me this trick - just take the bulb lenses and touch them lightly to your grinder wheel. Scuff up/lightly grind down the 3 lenses, and it will diffuse the light a bit more. Not perfect, but an improvement.
 
The Ablaze 3x do tend to produce "hot spots" when used in the backbox.

Terry showed me this trick - just take the bulb lenses and touch them lightly to your grinder wheel. Scuff up/lightly grind down the 3 lenses, and it will diffuse the light a bit more. Not perfect, but an improvement.

Gonna try this tonight....may save me from having to junk the 3-led cool whites I have and find someplace good to put them...
 
The Ablaze 3x do tend to produce "hot spots" when used in the backbox.

Terry showed me this trick - just take the bulb lenses and touch them lightly to your grinder wheel. Scuff up/lightly grind down the 3 lenses, and it will diffuse the light a bit more. Not perfect, but an improvement.

+1 for this on dome top LED's that you want to spread the light out more evenly. I've done this with PBL's color changer's that have a dome top to get better light distribution. Just grind them flat and then hit the top with a buffing wheel on the Dremel and Novus 2.
 
Thanks for all the advice! I'm going to order the cointaker kit and just be done with it. I don't plan on ever getting rid of it so I might as well just pay the cash and get it over with. Is there that big of a difference in going with the super bright kit? I don't want it to be too bright. I am thinking the normal kit will do just fine. Any thoughts?
 
Cointaker's backbox kit uses Superbrights and it looks great. I don't think I'd use Superbrights in the playfield GI, what it comes with looks very good. If you email Melissa, she will send you a list of the LEDs that are included in the kits. You can then mix and match any substitutions you'd like to make.
 
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