what is involved with putting and led kit in your pin and...........

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what is involved with putting and led kit in your pin and...........

is it worth the effort?

Here is a kit I see on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WHIRLWIND-C...513?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5fc2c3d1

I consider myself a true rookie on the subject of working on pins, but fairly good at working on video games. Nothing special about my skill set, but I get by.

seeing as this is the only kit on ebay I suppose it's a reasonable price? Is this a daunting task?
 
from what I saw at the NW pinball show you basically open the back box and pull out the original lights and put the LEDs in their place. then pull up the play field and do the same. As for the price on the kit, it seems to me they usually run in the $180-200ish range so that's probably a reasonable price but you may want to do a little research on your particular pin. Maye check coin taker. I know they sell LED's and kits for certain games.

Just checked coin taker and their kit is the exact same price as the ebay listing.
 
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It's not any more daunting than changing out any other bulb.

Putting together your own kit can be a bit tedious, and if you're not careful, end up with a lot of wasted money. Buying a premade kit can do the same if you don't like their selections.

Is it worth it? I think it depends heavily on the game and your personal preferences. It cost me around 250 to do STTNG, but it has a CRAPTON of leds, and I bought mostly non-flicker premiums and flex'es from Cointaker. You could do it a lot cheaper if you knew which inserts specifically were going to flicker/ghost with LEDs in them and get the ghostbusters from Pinball life for the inserts that do, then normal Ablaze for the ones that don't.

The only acceptable LED I've found for GI is cointaker's frosted cool and warm whites. Nothing else in the LED world throws enough light out the sides to illuminate evenly and properly, IMO.
 
The difficulty depends on if your changing the entire pin to LED or if your only doing certain parts. The backbox will be extremely easy/straightforward. Changing out the inserts should also be pretty straightforward, however some 44/47 can be awkward, and some parts may need to be removed to get access to bulbs (not familiar with Whirlwind, just speaking generally). The GI lights will be more difficult, as you will need to remove plastics and likely other parts to get access to all the bulbs. This would be a good time to change out rubbers and clean hard to reach areas if you haven't already.

As for what LEDs to use it depends what you want. The kits usually have the inserts color matched and may or may not use colors in the GI. I personally prefer just using white LED's for everything. I use LEDs because they run cooler and they use less power.

Here are some links for you. It may not be a bad idea to pick up a sample pack from Pinball Life or Cointaker, that way you can check out the different styles and colors. Everyone has their own opinions, with your machine yours is the only one that matters.

Ablaze LEDs:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=192&pg=1

Cointaker LEDs:

http://shop.cointaker.com/

Cointaker Whirlwind Set:

http://shop.cointaker.com/category.sc?categoryId=115

If you look at Marco's listing for the LED kit you can see what bulbs make up the kit:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/05-1844

By the way, if your disassembling the top of the playfield anyways, may as well pick up some cliffy protectors and colored rubber posts:

http://www.passionforpinball.com/whirly_pros.htm

http://www.passionforpinball.com/colorsleeves.htm

If you scroll to the bottom of the color sleeves page you can see a Whirlwind with the Cliffys and colored posts.
 
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Personally I wouldn't buy a kit. I could 'LED' 3 pins for $250 in LED's.

Just buy some LED'S and the start tinkering...Changing one here, one there.

If you can change a bulb, you can do this.

A few can make a massive difference and you certainly don't need to change EVERY bulb.
 
This is a very touchy subject that has been beatin' to death in previous threads. Personal opinion is what's going to be your descision. Whirlwind has a lot of blue, so putting in LEDs for GI may look alright, but IMHO I really don't like LEDs as GI, except for Blue/Black space theme games (Black Hole, STTNG, etc.) I do like them color matched under the inserts, although I use white under the yellow inserts. The normal yellow LED looks pretty bad and dull to me. In the backbox you have to be careful because a lot of the LEDs will show a halo effect as it shines through. Then there's the whole normal vs. super bright vs. ultra bright. Ultra bright just seem to be overbearing and though they do save power, they get just as hot if not hotter that the incandecent bulbs. Do a search on youtube for "whirl-wind pinball led", there are a couple of videos of that pin with coin-taker LEDs. If you like what you see go ahead and get a kit. If you still have doubts, then just buy a couple of different type bulbs of different colors and experiment. See what you like.
 
pinball life sells sample packs you get white,red,blue,green,orange,yellow,and purple.
you get flat head,concave,and frosted. buy a couple of packs of these and try them out. i think they are about 6.50 a pack. i did this for pinbot and had a lot of fun trying out different combinations on it.
 
Those look like the Pinball Life / Ablaze LEDs. I don't like their frosted LEDs for reasons stated above.

GI = General Illumination.
 
Ok I appreciate all of the advice. For the record what does GI refer to? I saw it mentioned a couple of times.

General Illumination = Bulbs that stay on to keep light on the playfield or are in the backbox.

I'd like to add that putting LEDs as GI lighting totally kills the game for me. Actually, I don't like them anywhere because they are either on or off and many programmers do lighting effects that depend on the warm up and decay time of a regular bulb (usually in feature lights).

To each his own!
 
General Illumination = Bulbs that stay on to keep light on the playfield or are in the backbox.

I'd like to add that putting LEDs as GI lighting totally kills the game for me. Actually, I don't like them anywhere because they are either on or off and many programmers do lighting effects that depend on the warm up and decay time of a regular bulb (usually in feature lights).

To each his own!

ok, well I can see why guys debate this. This is good info. I think I will start by identifying the bulbs that are out and replacing them, and I will decide later if I want to go led's.

I was looking for a "100% yes, no brainer" to go ahead with it. I may still do some of it, but for now I think I will just chance the burnt bulbs and clean up my playfield.
thanks gentlemen
 
Personally I wouldn't buy a kit. I could 'LED' 3 pins for $250 in LED's.

Just buy some LED'S and the start tinkering...Changing one here, one there.

If you can change a bulb, you can do this.

A few can make a massive difference and you certainly don't need to change EVERY bulb.

^^^^THIS.


It is very easy to do, but DO NOT buy a kit. Just figure out the LEDs you need yourself and order indvidually. You do not need the crazy superbrites, they are way too bright, and buy buying single LEDs individually like the Ablaze 1's, you will save a ton of money.
 
I agree with GameyMCgame...buy bulbs of different colors and tinker. I'm thinking of adding led's to my Close Encounters. It seems to me that the best choice of colors depends on the colors in the plastic's above the lights and surrounding play field. Close Encounters has a lot of reds and oranges with some blues in the plastics. I'm thinking I'll get about 6 each of red, orange, yellow and blue and perhaps some green and purple concaves. Concave bulbs emit light out the sides more than the top and flat tops emit most light out the tops. Any lights turned on during game play that sit under a colored lens would simply need to be white flat tops. A guy on youtube did his Close Encounters with led's and I think it looks pretty good, although somewhat dim on the play field. What I really liked was the plasma light he added on top of the bumper. Wish I new where he got them?
 
I personally only change the LED's below the playfield inserts. I hate the look of directly visible LED's. Plus, for $20 to $40 each machine gets "done".
 
Ok I appreciate all of the advice. For the record what does GI refer to? I saw it mentioned a couple of times.

How does this look?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FROSTED-PIN...375?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b83f920f

I do appreciate the feedback. This is my only pin, so I'm not afraid to put a few bucks into and see what happens.

Installing LEDs is the same as a regular bulb - just twist in or out. Before I took the plunge and bought a full LED kit, I experimented by putting LEDs in select inserts (the planets on my pinbot). I found that I really liked the sharper more intense colors of the LEDs in inserts.

Some games definitely seem to lend themselves to LEDs more than others. My T2 is 100% LED for both playfield and a mix of colored + whites in the GI. and it looks great. I'd have no issues going with insert LEDs - just be careful about using the super-uber-bright ones as they can overpower your vision in low light.

I'd recommend to experiment with the GI before doing a full conversion. I bought some white GI bulbs from Cointaker and really liked them in my T2. They put out a very clean white light, unlike the bluish hue that the older 'white' LEDs had. Cointaker also sells frosted colored bulbs that can be used for GI. I'd recommend using colored bulbs where it makes sense - for example I used red GI around the slings on my T2 to give the area around the terminator robot art a darker, meaner look.
 
well this is a great discussion.
someone care to give me a direct link to where you suggest I buy these and I will experiment with some of them I suppose.

thanks everyone
 
ok I"m about to order some. do I get bayonet base or wedge base?
Or do I have to go pull some bulbs to see? figure you guys know so much you probably know off the top of your head what whirlwind uses.
 
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