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LED Options..

TeaPea

TeaPea

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I'm sure this has been covered before, but I can’t find a thread so sorry if I'm bringing up something that’s already been covered before.

I prefer the bright colours on the modern Sterns produced by their LED's, I know a lot of people prefer the older style bulbs but I like the vibrancy of LED's and want to convert my old B/W games to LED, but want to do it in using the best solution.

I'm probably over thinking this but I don't want to get it wrong, there's so many different types of bulbs.

I'm happy to buy the OCD boards in order to retain the dimming effects, so if I'm doing that, is there any advantage to buying the "Noflix plus" bulbs from pinball centre, or the "Ultimate Optix" bulbs from comet? Both of which claim to eliminate ghosting and flickering?

Or am I better just buying cheaper bulbs from pinball-LED.co.uk or pinball heaven if I'm already fitting the OCD boards?

Any help appreciated my minds a bit blown with it all!
 
Some of the roms have been rewritten on old b/wms games to accommodate Leds and reduce the issues. @Paul sells them so maybe let him know what games you want to do it on, will save you the cost of an ocd board!
 
TeaPea said:
I'm sure this has been covered before, but I can’t find a thread so sorry if I'm bringing up something that’s already been covered before.

I prefer the bright colours on the modern Sterns produced by their LED's, I know a lot of people prefer the older style bulbs but I like the vibrancy of LED's and want to convert my old B/W games to LED, but want to do it in using the best solution.

I'm probably over thinking this but I don't want to get it wrong, there's so many different types of bulbs.

I'm happy to buy the OCD boards in order to retain the dimming effects, so if I'm doing that, is there any advantage to buying the "Noflix plus" bulbs from pinball centre, or the "Ultimate Optix" bulbs from comet? Both of which claim to eliminate ghosting and flickering?

Or am I better just buying cheaper bulbs from pinball-LED.co.uk or pinball heaven if I'm already fitting the OCD boards?

Any help appreciated my minds a bit blown with it all!
Click to expand...
Come round soon, or I'll pop over like I meant to last year, and I'll talk you through it all. Lots of options, but I've chosen a standardised approach that suits me. Got a few Comet bulbs in transit from the US right now - the same type Jon mentions above.
 
I mainly have comet leds and have been very happy with them
 
If you're buying the OCD boards then get the cheap LEDs, there's no need for expensive ones as the board makes everything look good. If you're not going with LED OCD then get the best LEDs you can, Comet are very good, not tried NoFlix Plus but heard good things and Pinball Daze has been getting some nice stuff in recently as well :thumbs:
 
i got the opmax ones for my ToM using white for the slings and purple up the side of the GI. They are seriously bright across the play field but don't hit you in the eye.

The ones from pinball-led are very good also, got them in my Monster bash.

Neil.
 
If you want it to look the best then generally there's only a few rules you should follow for making a game look good with LED's. Here's my suggested do's and don'ts...

Do:
  • use frosted lens in the GI, and that includes the backglass.
  • To get the modern "Stern" look, go for cold white, not warm.
  • Do the whole GI in white, no colours in GI.
  • When it comes to inserts, although colour matching LED's does look more vibrant, you can happily use warm white LED's in all inserts (except maybe white inserts, use cold white led's for those). This again will look more "Stern".
If using OCD boards you can get away with cheapo LED's, but beware these may not be as bright. Go for supers in your inserts. If you decide to use OCD only for inserts and not the GI then you should really consider using something like the NoFlix Plus for your GI. Just makes it more stable. If your game has dimming though you will need an OCD for GI.

Don't:
  • Ever bother using Yellow or Orange LED's. They aren't anywhere near as bright, so use warm white for those colours instead. If it's bulb on top of the playfield then you can reuse the old coloured condoms and put them on top of the (warm white frosted) LED.
  • Please don't ever put multiple colours arounds the GI. It's what TNT do and it makes every single game look like an absolute turd. Really, like a cheap kids toy. *vom*
  • Don't be fooled by the numerous "novelty" LED bulbs - like mega brights, ones with 3 or 4 individual LEDs sticking out, flat top, clear lens, concave. They're all absolute crap. Believe me I've seen them all. Stick with simple round-top frosted lens bulbs and the large single diode "flat" bulbs which are usually just called "super brights" or "super flux". These 2 types are fine for everything, but you may need a few bendable supers for some inserts.
 
Good advice PeteB - except the coloured bulbs in GI. It's ok to use coloured bulbs in GI as long as they are all the same colour. All blue in my BSD - looks great.
I use coloured flashers too - the white ones don't always look right.
I have been experimenting with various flashers - that's another topic altogether - the range available is as wide as bulb replacements


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I think its ok also but depends on the game - for example ToM, people put red into the slingshots which I think looks dreadful as the bunny ends up red, but purple in the GI at the sides looks fantastic. The opmax are very impressive stuck a few into ToM last night.

Neil.
 
Jonwolf said:
Good advice PeteB - except the coloured bulbs in GI. It's ok to use coloured bulbs in GI as long as they are all the same colour. All blue in my BSD - looks great.
I use coloured flashers too - the white ones don't always look right.
I have been experimenting with various flashers - that's another topic altogether - the range available is as wide as bulb replacements


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Neil McRae said:
I think its ok also but depends on the game - for example ToM, people put red into the slingshots which I think looks dreadful as the bunny ends up red, but purple in the GI at the sides looks fantastic. The opmax are very impressive stuck a few into ToM last night.

Neil.
Click to expand...

Monkeyboypaul said:
OpMax; ice blue (near), red (far), green (mid-sides) and a single purple, used in GI:

View attachment 40697

I liked it.
Click to expand...

Unless it's a spot colour, like where the designer originally decided to us a bulb condom in the odd place then coloured bulbs in the GI doesn't look right. It just washes out all of the colours in the artwork and plastics.

That AFM looks ok, the colouring isn't overly offensive but it's not quite the crispy Stern look TeaPea is trying to go after.
 
Coloured GI looks fine under ramps and places you can't see the artwork. I don't mind the odd one under a plastic as it just gives a nice effect next to a white led.
After buying a machine with some comet leds I'd definitely agree they are very good. If you want the standard lamp look then these are the ones to go for. Nothing wrong with some uk superbrights in GI in my opinion though. Shouldn't really be too fussed about the shape of the led as you're not really looking at it. I've had problems with the standard frosted dome white ones though. They've been fading out. Doesn't happen with the coloured leds, just the cool whites. Going to end up binning a load of them.
Comets have been spot on.
 
Just one quick question. Whats the point of an OCD board (and expense) if you can get dimming LEDs? I'm sure there's a reason..................
 
Tucks said:
if you can get dimming LEDs?
Click to expand...

You can't. At least not for pinball. Dimmable domestic LED's are available though.

The noflix plus bulbs will dim a little bit but no where near as nicely as the way an OCD board can control them.
 
Have these in my Avatar ,thay do look good but I have a couple out and have no idea who supplies them ? :hmm:
image.jpg
It does say its a 6.3v AC they are in the GI
 
There was a mix of lamps in that Avatar that I sold to you recently Carl. I put some coloured 89 flashers in it which @Sam C got for me from the States.

I didn't touch the GI as it had been done nicely with those Leds by the previous owner.

I did however put some incandescent lamps back in some of the playfield inserts, as they were ghosting badly with Leds (I'm too tight to buy an OCD board). :rolleyes:
 
Taken all of the clear bright inserts ones out and swaped with frosted ones ,loads better now ,got to admit not notice the ghosting ,but that's me :cuckoo:
Taken out the AMP toy and fitted another one ,looks like it's the one that should be in a LE :)
Awesome game it is :thumbs:

Found a VT of it on youtube by curious games :)
 
I just finished replacing the incandescent GI lamps with @PinballDaze frosted globes, very nice LEDs for GI if you like the bright modern stern look ( I do! ). I fitted cool white but available in natural and warm. Loads of light spread from these....

20170210_182154.jpg

Before, looking like someone had been chain smoking inside the machine..

20170206_160007.jpg

And after..
20170210_181134.jpg

Still inserts to do, but that will take a comet order unless someone else makes a good non ghosting LED ( not holding my breath ).
 
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