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Incandescent bulbs or LEDs on LOTR?

Ryker

Ryker

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Mar 23, 2024
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Wantage
Hi all,

I’ve got a LOTR incoming and just wanted to gauge opinion on whether you think I should swap out the original bulbs which is still has, for LEDs. I get that LEDs will last longer, be brighter and won’t heat up like incandescent bulbs, but there is also something about the glow of the original bulbs which fits a game of this age.
What’s the general view of the forum please?
 
Lots of different flavours of LED nowadays, like warm, sunlight etc. Not sure what lighting effects you would lose with LEDs though.

I think the benefits of LEDs outweigh the negatives.
 
My LOTR came with LEDs so I have no point of reference really but in my opinion it looks superb with them.
I would think about an led ocd board or afterglow as I’ve seen that without it they can strobe quite badly on LOTR.
 
Having owned a lord of the rings the difference between Incandescent bulbs and led.

The led are brighter and more vibrant and you will appreciate the change, however you will loose the fading lighting effect this game has, you won't necessarily notice until you fit an afterglow board once you see the loss you can't go back it is significant on this particular game. If you only know led on the machine you won't notice.

Regarding the led OCD board any one know where to get one, stumbler hasn't done his for quite a while and I'm after one for my Elvis.
 
Found it

LED OCD Boards

LED OCD: smooth out your fading effects If there is indeed a final stop on the road to pinball LED lighting transcendence, it must certainly be our exclusive line of OCD boards. They hide quietly inside the backbox, providing a high end lighting upgrade for the discerning eye. It's the piece de...
www.cometpinball.com www.cometpinball.com
 
leave it incandescent,
Or
Daylight/Warm white LEDS with LED OCD.

In my humble opinion, the middle ground (LEDS without any LED OCD) looks too bright, too blinky, ghosts quite badly, and generally very ****. Especially on Whitestar.
 
Incandescent bulbs create a certain ambience that fits with a lot of themes of old and adds to the feeling when playing them.
It's a bit like going to a party and all the lights are left on which kills the vibe as opposed to having everything dimmed down to create a mood that makes people relax and let go.

If you go down the LED route then I find that SMD1 in Warm White bulbs are a great replacement for Incandescents and they will retain the look of a moody game.

SMD2 bulbs are brighter and more suited to games that you want to look blinged up.
 
The same debate LCD Vs old bulbs it's is a preference, I personally prefer LCD

However the real question is there a difference with LOTR there is relating to the dim effect.
 
With LED technology these days I can’t see why they can’t develop a bulb that looks exactly the same as a 44/555 in the same glass capsule with a little filament led the exact warm colour temp of incandescent bulb with a little capacitor to give it the same fading characteristics as incandescent bulb. So they would be led but look and behave identically to incandescent bulbs. This is my dream lol.
 
I thought this debate might generate a lot of opinion as I guess it does come down to personal preference.
I think I’m veering towards warm white LEDs with the Comet LED OCD to maintain the nostalgic look while benefitting from the added reliability.

Good to hear if there are any other opinions though.
 
Yesterday I replaced all the bulbs in my Spidey. After some research I decided to go with comet frosted, 1smd warm white. I have seen and played other Spideys with brighter leds, and I wasn’t a fan, bit too bright for me.
I’m happy with the result, as it brightens the inserts nicely, but not too far away from the look of incandescents.
 

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I can’t remember with led ocd but with the Afterglow board the LED’s aren’t full brightness as you would get without it and a little bit dimmer, I have had loads of Afterglow boards and always fitted the premium 2 fluted LED’s that you can buy from pinball leds uk. I tried Comets but liked the premium 2 fluted better.
 
Doggard said:
Yesterday I replaced all the bulbs in my Spidey. After some research I decided to go with comet frosted, 1smd warm white. I have seen and played other Spideys with brighter leds, and I wasn’t a fan, bit too bright for me.
I’m happy with the result, as it brightens the inserts nicely, but not too far away from the look of incandescents.
Click to expand...
I’m not a fan of LEDs at all, but that looks really good! Has that authentic incandescent bulb feel, do they flash really quick though?
 
Doggard said:
Sorry, not sure what you mean ?
Click to expand...
A normal incandescent bulb on a older game designed for them will have a slower turn off speed, almost like it’s slowly fading out (but pretty fast) a led bulb will just instantly turn off which looks a bit harsh and can also have flickering issues if the game tries to fade the lamps to lower intensities.

This video demonstrates the difference really well.
 
russdx1 said:
A normal incandescent bulb on a older game designed for them will have a slower turn off speed, almost like it’s slowly fading out (but pretty fast) a led bulb will just instantly turn off which looks a bit harsh and can also have flickering issues if the game tries to fade the lamps to lower intensities.

This video demonstrates the difference really well.

That’s a great demo to show the difference. Without the OCD board, the lights flash like they’re on steroids lol
Click to expand...
 
Wayne J said:
You may as well ask jam or cream first on a scone (rhymes with con).
Click to expand...
I know right but I thought it would be interesting to hear what everyone had to say. Most are in favour of the LEDs it seems though for that extra brightness.
 
One more question then….who sells these OCD boards in the UK or do I need to get it direct from Comet in the US?

And on Comets website they sell 2 types. One for the inserts and one for the GI. Should I buy both? Comet are suggesting it’s a must for the inserts because of the way this particular game fades these in and out during play but surely I want it for the GI too?
 
Ryker said:
One more question then….who sells these OCD boards in the UK or do I need to get it direct from Comet in the US?

And on Comets website they sell 2 types. One for the inserts and one for the GI. Should I buy both? Comet are suggesting it’s a must for the inserts because of the way this particular game fades these in and out during play but surely I want it for the GI too?
Click to expand...
The GI OCD is for WPC89 games, which has several controllable GI strings (5 I think)

For Sterns they do a GIzmo, which is just a smoothing effect on the single GI circuit. I like it, but incredibly niche. I had one in my LOTR, and it worked well, just subtle.
 
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Ryker said:
One more question then….who sells these OCD boards in the UK or do I need to get it direct from Comet in the US?

And on Comets website they sell 2 types. One for the inserts and one for the GI. Should I buy both? Comet are suggesting it’s a must for the inserts because of the way this particular game fades these in and out during play but surely I want it for the GI too?
Click to expand...
Just the inserts, the gi from memory on the lotr is the spotlights and lane bulbs and some other that are under the plastic, there always on.
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
The GI OCD is for WPC89 games, which has several controllable GI strings (5 I think)

For Sterns they do a GIzmo, which is just a smoothing effect on the single GI circuit. I like it, but incredibly niche. I had one in my LOTR, and it worked well, just subtle.
Click to expand...
I don’t get why they can’t just add caps to the led bulbs then there would be no need for these complicated board set specific led smoothing boards.

I’m going to look into this myself!
 
Why put them at the bulbs when there's two simple connectors for the lamp matrix on the boards?

I don't think it's that simple or someone would have done it!

I've used resistors on lamp sockets to stop strobing but that's different
 
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