Upgrading to LED's... WOW what a difference

[stevenp61]

Different stroke for different folks, definitely!

As for backbox bulbs, a friend replaced bulbs on 2 machines with LEDs. He can't even tell if they are on now during the day, and regrets it.

I don't think bulb heat is a problem on any home pin--do you really keep yours on 10+ hrs/day, 5+ days/week? If not, don't worry about the heat. Or get some #47's, which are cooler and not that much less bright.

Anything can be overdone, LEDs or colored bulbs. Personally, I don't like my pf too bright and glowing. Just like far too may people adjust their tv's with contrast and color saturation way too high--the tv picture should look realistic, with similar tones and saturation as the people and objects next to it in a normally-lit room. That's an easy rule of thumb for adjustment, but check it out for yourself. Same for pins--LEDs can be TOO bright and take away from the color balance.

One reason I like some colored bulbs under plastics is because they blend better when you can see the bulb from certain angles--better than seeing a glowing white spot. And they can really enhance the pf colors, like having yellow bulbs near the gold LotR ramps.

All imo, of course. Do what looks best for you! Although I'd still suggest checking if you like LEDs in person before shelling out a lot of $$$ for them.

 

[Lindsey]

One thing I like doing occasionally is adding color to "white" inserts.

That's one of my favorite uses for LEDs. Colored LEDs under clear inserts can be awesome.

 

[khabbi]

Here's a pic, I had to use a slow shutter so it looks bluer in the picture than it really is.. and it's not too bright, it's perfect for me... and I think the LED's go great in this pin..

 

[toolguy]

One thing for sure is LEDs in punball machines are here to stay! Like them or not!

I am a huge fan of LEDs in pins and all my machines have some, but I will not do the entire machine and GI. I do not like the look of LEDs for GI even with warm LEDs.

I just ordered some of the flashing #555 LEDs from Coin Taker. Finally someone made a flashing LED!

Besides the niece effect and LED has, do you really want to re-lamp when a bulb burns out in those hard to get to places, or places that require you to take apart things to get to the bulbs? LEDs are perfect for places like that. There are so many positives for LEDs over normal bulbs, its not even funny!

LEDs are showing up more and more in the new Stern's, again like them or not.

My eyes do not see the flicker, or strobe, unless its so obvious but I suppose some people can see this.

I have LEDs in my house my cars, pinball machines, arcade machines, and flash lights. They are much brighter and of course give off less heat. Perfect for cars, because as a normal bulb ages and gets dimmer, and LED really does not. Interiors on cars benefit from the lack of heat and of course do not pull as much amps from the cars electrical system, freeing those amps up for other things. Plus they light quicker and thats a safety issue on a car.

 

[metahugh]

At the very least the inserts, and some warm whites in the GI's.

That's sad because you lose so much especially on LOTR. Notice in attact mode how the lights sweep from left to right and back? Say goodbye to that once you convert to LED.

I had a friend that was new to pinball convert his LOTR once he got it. We got to talking about LEDs and I spent some time explaining to him exactly what you lose with LEDs. Needless to say he converted back to incandescent on the whole. He left some LEDs in certain spots which I think is totally fine.

It's your game of course, do what makes you happy!

 

[metahugh]

Here's a pic, I had to use a slow shutter so it looks bluer in the picture than it really is.. and it's not too bright, it's perfect for me... and I think the LED's go great in this pin..

I have to say that looks pretty cool. I'd still switch the inserts back though.

 

[lilman573]

I agree, it is different strokes for different folks.. I have been throwing the idea around about redoing my High Speed in LED.

I saw a perfect example at Pinfest. I did like some spots, and Cointaker even walked over to talk about the placement of certain LEDs... He had an awesome price on LEDs at the show!!!. I decided to take a handfull of each to see what i liked. The superbright, way too bright for GI. I like the frosted cool i think it is. I tested green superbrights in the GI slot under a few of the plastics and didn't really like it. It changes the whole look of the game. High Speed is a pretty dark game, and the glowing green just didn't look right. I think i still have a superbright green under a plastic on the right side. I will take a picture later on. The color matched LEDs i used for the inserts give it a nice rich color.

The LEDs looked amazing in the backglass. I will be getting a complete LED kit for that when the time comes.

Bottom line, you need to try some out for yourself. Each person will have a different taste.

That IM looks amazing by the way...

 

[Steelhorse]

I agree, it is different strokes for different folks.. I have been throwing the idea around about redoing my High Speed in LED.

I saw a perfect example at Pinfest. I did like some spots, and Cointaker even walked over to talk about the placement of certain LEDs... He had an awesome price on LEDs at the show!!!. I decided to take a handfull of each to see what i liked. The superbright, way too bright for GI. I like the frosted cool i think it is. I tested green superbrights in the GI slot under a few of the plastics and didn't really like it. It changes the whole look of the game. High Speed is a pretty dark game, and the glowing green just didn't look right. I think i still have a superbright green under a plastic on the right side. I will take a picture later on. The color matched LEDs i used for the inserts give it a nice rich color.

The LEDs looked amazing in the backglass. I will be getting a complete LED kit for that when the time comes.

Bottom line, you need to try some out for yourself. Each person will have a different taste.

That IM looks amazing by the way...

Hi, I have High Speed also and have done Super Brights behind the backglass, and I found the warm Super Brights perfect for the backglass with cool white behind the cops as there color is blue and the cool white was perfect for this, warm white is behind all the High Speed letters and ferrari, and I have LED's under all inserts. I have a few frosted green under some plastic's on the playfield as well, but my G.I. is regular incandescents as I dont like the way the led's look for G.I. I'am really pleased with the backbox LED application. I have not changed the flashers to LED , one reason is High Speed uses #63 bulbs for the flashers, can't find #63 Led flashers oh well as I think the #63 regular bulbs is bright enough, much more brighter then any #89 reg.flasher. Theres no need to buy the kit that there offering for High Speed, see in the kit you get red super brights to go behind the lettering and and dark blue super brights to go behind the cops which is too dark of a blue and dont look good, cool white is a much better choice in that location.. I spent like $40 or so for the Super Bright LED's for the backbox, design your own kit, figure out what you like. Lets see some pictures lilman573? LED's are all about the "eye of the beholder!"

 

[stangbat]

I've put quite a few LEDs in four pins and I agree with most of the sentiments expressed. It really comes down to the game and your own personal tastes. I've found some games look great and others don't benefit quite as much.

Batman Forever really looked great with color matched LEDs on the GI. It didn't look overdone. Plus getting to a lot of BF's GI is very difficult and you don't want to have to replace bulbs on it very often. LEDs make sense in this game's GI. However the backbox did not look very good with warm white LEDs. Incandescents gave it a much warmer look.

Jurassic Park is kind of iffy. Color matched LEDs in the backbox work good on it, making the orange and yellow of the sky blend nicely and the white "Jurassic Park" stand out but not be overbearing. As for the GI, it doesn't benefit from color matching like BF. There isn't as much GI lighting and it just doesn't seem to make as much of a difference.

I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with DE SW. Too much blue in the GI lighting overdoes it IMO. You need to find a balance. DE SW's GI lighting is easy to get to so playing around is easy to do.

I'm not sure what I'll do on my TSPP. There are some bulbs I definitely don't want to have to replace again so they will probably get LEDs. I'm going to have to experiment. Same with AFM. I don't know what I'll end up doing with it.

As for flickering, I haven't really seen it, but I've mainly worked on DE games. The only bad strobing/flickering I saw was on BF's playfield spotlights. It was terrible and I had to put incandescents back in them which was too bad. It needed more lighting on the playfield for play in dim situations but LEDs were not the answer.

As for inserts, I've found some benefit more from LEDs than others. White inserts look great with a white LED behind them. They lose the dirty yellow look and really pop. Some orange and yellow inserts benefit nicely from LEDs, and I've found blue inserts to look much better with LEDs. Red seems to get the least bang for the buck. Green, it depends.

So in summary, I guess I'm kind of in between. I really like the benefits of lower power consumption and heat and not having to replace bulbs. But I haven't yet found any warm white LEDs that I'm really happy with when it comes to replacing GI bulbs. But they are probably out there and I just need to keep looking.

 

[FrizzleFried]

I used a mix of LEDs and incandescents in my Xenon. I planned on going all LED on the backglass but colored incandescents looked better around the infinity glass with LEDs in the middle circle. The playfield also has a mix with most red lighting being incandescents and most of the blue lighting LED's... though I did stick with incandescent/colored tube skirts behind the drop targets and at the left spinner location.

 

[Steelhorse]

I used a mix of LEDs and incandescents in my Xenon. I planned on going all LED on the backglass but colored incandescents looked better around the infinity glass with LEDs in the middle circle. The playfield also has a mix with most red lighting being incandescents and most of the blue lighting LED's... though I did stick with incandescent/colored tube skirts behind the drop targets and at the left spinner location.

That looks really nice!!

 

[lilman573]

Shot some pics..

Here is a full playfield shot. You can't really tell which inserts were done. I did the left lower side in clear concave leds and the right lower side in frosted cointaker's leds.


Right side ( Cointaker frosted )

Left Side ( concave )


Stop Light done in clear concave LEDs


Super Bright Green under the plastics... I don't really like this look, it changes all the white lettering to green. I will be changing it when i fully shop the pin out. I think the frosted look good.

 

[pudluther]

I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with DE SW. Too much blue in the GI lighting overdoes it IMO. You need to find a balance. DE SW's GI lighting is easy to get to so playing around is easy to do.

i just had my DE SW shopped and had LED's installed in the GI and backglass. i LOVE the way it looks now....the soft glow whites really bring out the color in the plastics and the blue in the playfield. the only colored bulbs are on the hyperspace panel, the emperor ramp plastic and a blue one in R2.

 

[toolguy]

You R2D2 looks awesome! My bor in law has the same pin and I'll have to tell him to do his R2D2 now.

You machine looks great.

 

[toolguy]

Xexon always looks great with LEDs! Nice job!

 

[Gruber]

I think your Xenon looks very good!

 

[pudluther]

You R2D2 looks awesome! My bor in law has the same pin and I'll have to tell him to do his R2D2 now.

You machine looks great.

thanks, man.

 

[pinballed]

I guess it depends on the machine. I did my STTNG complete with LEDS. Trick is, gotta have the odd super bright in the pf here and there, the bg too, really brings out the Borg, some of the characters, etc. For the pf I used frosted cool white...looks like lighting on a spaceship. Guys who own STTNGs come over and marvel how good mine looks with LEDs...done the right way. I'm not a fan of the kits, I'd rather experiment and see what works best for my tastes.
For example, I LED's my TSPP inserts, but left the gi's standard 44's. It just looks right. I did my Genesis completely in cool white and it looks sickly cool. But I', not gonna do my HS. Nope, I cant picture it with LEDS.

Oh, my old T2...all LED's up complete...wow, it looked killer.

So, depends on the machine and your tastes. Pros are...in most machines it looks killer, bulbs last way longer, way less stress on your board and no heat to melt your playfield plascits and warp your translites

Stan

 

[ComputerSpace]

I'm considering putting LEDs into my Revenge From Mars. Anyone know of anyone that has done it, or if there are any kits for it out there? Would like to see some pics of one converted to LED's before I pony up the bucks. I've seen kits for SWE1, but nothing for RFM.

Thanks
Tom

 

[pudluther]

I'm considering putting LEDs into my Revenge From Mars. Anyone know of anyone that has done it, or if there are any kits for it out there? Would like to see some pics of one converted to LED's before I pony up the bucks. I've seen kits for SWE1, but nothing for RFM.

Thanks
Tom

kit:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/product.asp?ic=05-1587



i looked for some pics/vids but the only thing i could find were a few vids with saucer/alien LED mods.