Theoretical application of LED lamps...

alejandromad

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So my Charlie's Angels has the fading around the ladies in the backglass that seems to be so typical of this game. I have removed a number of the #47 bulbs and that has helped but I was wondering about replacing most of them with LED lamps like these...

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1882&parent=192

Keep in mind I would only put in as many as would be needed to light the ladies properly and, if I used the frosted white, I wonder if the light would be subdued enough to minimize the bleed through the #47 lamps have.

Here's a picture of how it looks at the moment, with some bulbs removed. I know it's not terrible but I would like it to be less obvious and I am not going to try touching up those transluscent areas.

Thoughts?
 

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I'm attempting the same thing. Triple thicked the backglass on my Firepower and ordered some frosted colored LEDs to go behind the areas with paint missing.

I colored some of the regular #44 bulbs with fingernail polish in a couple of colors first to get an idea how it would look.

Hopefully the LEDs will be here tomorrow and I can let you know how it turned out.
 
I have used colored bulb covers for those places behind missing paint on backglasses, like red behind the red sections of a Firepower backglass. The covers diffuse the light and eliminate the bright filiment. Haven't tried LED's.
 
LED's will highlight the blimish area more I'am sad to report, as my backglass had 2 small areas were the bulb would blind you if you were standing back in certain spots. I first removed the bulb in these areas and still wasn't happy, I then tried some LED's and all that did was make it look worse. You better had ordered enough LEDs for your backglass, because it will look lame with just a few LED's and the rest #47's regular bulb. I would attempt the Cling Wrap and Krylon Triple Thick to get the paint to lay down some, then go from there. If you do get the LED's today post up pictures of it? I know of only a few pinball machines that look good with LED's in the backglass or translite and thats a Twilight Zone, and Xenon comes to mind as well. I like the covers over the bulb idea and would like to see how that looks. What color spec did you get? Cool or Warm white? I hope you got the "warm" as your backglass has alot of warm like colors not enough soft color like you see in twilight zones translite. Hope it works out, good luck.
 
NeoTopher... please let us know how it looks... maybe even a 'BEFORE' and 'AFTER' picture (if that's not asking too much) so we can see the change. It might not work in your application but it could be good in another.

I am not sure if I wanna try painting the transluscent flesh tones. I have triple thicked the backglass but I am nervous about painting where light should shine through.
 
Got the LEDs today and got to play around with them a bit before I came into work tonight so I wasn't able to snag any pictures.

My backglass isn't too terrible, just a few flaked spots that were getting on my nerves. I ended up having to find a good balance of clear bulbs painted with white fingernail polish and blue frosted LEDs for the planes, frosted red LEDs for the whole top of the backglass and for the red lasers, painted white bulbs for the deathstar and mixed with a couple of painted green for earth. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I found that the painted white bulbs really help prevent the LEDs from washing out some of the colors in the backglass. The frosted whites just didn't cut it for that nearly as good.

I think fingernail polish on the bulbs is absolutely great because you can "direct" and control where you want the light to go or how colored you want the bulb by how you paint it or how thick you put it on. i.e. bottom half of a bulb blue to direct the color down with the top half clear, etc...

I must say that 3 bulb LEDs look great in playfield inserts though. The colors REALLY pop out at you in that application.
 
Got the LEDs today and got to play around with them a bit before I came into work tonight so I wasn't able to snag any pictures.

My backglass isn't too terrible, just a few flaked spots that were getting on my nerves. I ended up having to find a good balance of clear bulbs painted with white fingernail polish and blue frosted LEDs for the planes, frosted red LEDs for the whole top of the backglass and for the red lasers, painted white bulbs for the deathstar and mixed with a couple of painted green for earth. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I found that the painted white bulbs really help prevent the LEDs from washing out some of the colors in the backglass. The frosted whites just didn't cut it for that nearly as good.

I think fingernail polish on the bulbs is absolutely great because you can "direct" and control where you want the light to go or how colored you want the bulb by how you paint it or how thick you put it on. i.e. bottom half of a bulb blue to direct the color down with the top half clear, etc...

I must say that 3 bulb LEDs look great in playfield inserts though. The colors REALLY pop out at you in that application.

The "painted white bulbs", are these regular #47 incandescents? You gotta remember although the 47 is not as hot as the #44, it will get warm. I'am not sure on finger nail polish, but it could melt off the bulb, maybe or maybe not, but something to think about. What I use is Marks-a-lot permanent markers, it colors the bulb to a translucent look, I did 2 #47's behind the backglass on my high-speed for the Ferrari car to be red. turn out great, put 2 frosted led's where the cop is holding the "wanted list" that area is blue and led cool white have a bluish tint so it worked out great, I also did not use all the sockets in the light board behind the backglass, no need to so that cuts down heat and looks much better then a bunch of bright spots where bulbs are. Post up pictures? Let's check it out!
 
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