Stern LED's - don't do it! Oh, and played a new pin (Rolling Stones)

shardian

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Stern LED's - don't do it! Oh, and played a new pin (Rolling Stones)

Converted an Elvis to LED inserts and flashers today. Wow, those Stern Whitestar insert holders are craptastic!!! It doesn't help that the 555 bases of those LED's are worthy of being sold at the dollar tree. I'm going to have to go back and hot-glue alot of them in so they don't keep falling out. He has the shaker motor installed, so there will be never ending issues.

On a high note, I got to play a fully restored Rolling Stones pin. Damn that is a fun game! For a game made in 1980, it has ridiculously excellent audio.
 
assuming the elvis pin isn't yours? aside from the PITA factor, how does it look with all LED's?



i played it while i was at disney....really didn't care for it. but then again, i'm a theme guy, and elvis just doesn't do it for me.
 
What do you mean by "insert holders"? What is an insert holder?

insert lamp holders - that better? Stern uses these really crappy ones. There is a plastic retainer ring that is screwed into the wood. Then the 555 holder pops into this ring with two really weak retainer clips. I you even slightly bump it, they pop out. Then the retainer ring knocks the bulb out of the holder so it isn't just a quick 'pop it back in' process.
This is the worst on the large inserts that require an H5 LED. Those led's are too big for the retainer - you have to take off the retainer ring and put the LED in from the top. Then the LED is too tall for the holder and rests against the actual insert, which knocks it out of the holder.
 
Huh, I've added LEDs to Lord of the Rings, Simpsons Pinball Party, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Spider-Man without any problems. If anything I found it much easier than the twist style #555 bulb holders in the WPC games which seem to have tons of problems maintaining a solid connection.

Where did you get your LEDs? It's possible that the ones you have are thinner or something. I've never had problems with either Pinball Life's or Cointaker's LEDs. I have had some of BC's and another brand have a loose feel in the connectors before.
 
I don't know which brand they were. He got them at the Allentown show. He also got a sweet RGB LED replacement backbox lightboard custom made for Elvis. It is ridiculously sweet.
 
I don't know which brand they were. He got them at the Allentown show. He also got a sweet RGB LED replacement backbox lightboard custom made for Elvis. It is ridiculously sweet.

Hmmm, that custom backbox lighting makes me think it's Cointaker.
 
Hmmm, that custom backbox lighting makes me think it's Cointaker.

Yep, they are definitely coin taker LED's. They are polarized, yet have no identifying marks. I had to swap a bunch of them around, which also sucked. The 5 high power LED's the kit had for large inserts were way too tall and didn't sit near as far down in the sockets as a standard bulb - very cheap feeling. I had one 44 H5 break when I was putting it into one of the hard to reach playfield back panel sockets.

So would I have had a more pleasant experience with another LED manufacturer? This was my first LED experience.

The backbox light panel 'looks' cheap, but once it fires up and starts cycling the RGB light show, you forget all about that. It is nice.
 
Pinball Life's LEDs are a bit higher quality and are non-polarized, so you won't have to constantly be turning them around. They're probably a bit better built overall.
 
I have heard mixed reviews on cointakers stuff, but haven't heard anything bad about pinlife's stuff plus I think they are cheaper. The only thing I have heard about pinlife is that they don't have frosted led's for the GI.
 
I have heard mixed reviews on cointakers stuff, but haven't heard anything bad about pinlife's stuff plus I think they are cheaper. The only thing I have heard about pinlife is that they don't have frosted led's for the GI.

Actually, cointaker doesn't use frosted bulbs for GI. Their GI kit was a bag of superbright LED's - the flat ones.
 
Not saying that is what they use, but have been told to use their frosted for GI. I am going normal bulbs, but color matched. Leds are nice, but just to bright.
 
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