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LED options

huggers

huggers

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Sep 22, 2016
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West Dorset
Just about to LED my Sopranos. Not LEDed a game in ages and can't recall what bulbs I used last time. So what do people recommend? I'm assuming super bright colour matched for inserts? What is best for the GI? Do people tend to keep flashers as incandescent? Any tips appreciated, cheers
 
How Do Mate,

I have LED’d three machines, Street Fighter II, BBH and Tron.

Used non-Ghosting for everything. Like you said, I colour matched the inserts and generally used white (cool white) for the GI, although I did use green on my BBH and it looked good.

I have used both LED and incandescent flashes and I have to say, I prefer incandescents.

Just go easy with the colours and I don’t think you can go wrong. In my opinion, LEDs look awesome, but I know they are not everyone’s cup of tea!

Have you also chosen another machine yet?
 
Cheers John that's pretty much what I thought. Where'd you go for your bulbs? I think I bought from Comet last time. Also did you use frosted for the GI?
 
I have done both Comet and someone here in the UK (Mel from 1stopinpinball) and to be honest, I thought there wasn’t much between them.

Yes, I got frosted for everything.
 
Sopranos uses Whitestar boards I think, they’re not well suited to LEDs and you’ll probably get a blinky strobe fest unless you use anti-ghosting LEDs, or non-anti-ghosting with an OCD board (or those afterglow things maybe?).

another vote for Comet, frosted, but I tend to use sunlight whites everywhere for equal brightness and less of the clown puke effect. Easier to order in bulk too, no complex colour/socket shopping lists with anything out of stock (it’s always the one you need to finish the order).
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
Sopranos uses Whitestar boards I think, they’re not well suited to LEDs and you’ll probably get a blinky strobe fest unless you use anti-ghosting LEDs, or non-anti-ghosting with an OCD board (or those afterglow things maybe?).

another vote for Comet, frosted, but I tend to use sunlight whites everywhere for equal brightness and less of the clown puke effect. Easier to order in bulk too, no complex colour/socket shopping lists with anything out of stock (it’s always the one you need to finish the order).
Click to expand...

Yeah it is whitestar. I was leaning towards non ghosting 1SMDs from Comet but worried they would lack the brightness of the superbrights. Do you have a pic of a game done all with sunlights instead of colour matching. I'm pretty lazy and would sooner bulk buy than count up what I need
 
Monkeyboypaul said:
Sopranos uses Whitestar boards I think, they’re not well suited to LEDs and you’ll probably get a blinky strobe fest unless you use anti-ghosting LEDs, or non-anti-ghosting with an OCD board (or those afterglow things maybe?).

another vote for Comet, frosted, but I tend to use sunlight whites everywhere for equal brightness and less of the clown puke effect. Easier to order in bulk too, no complex colour/socket shopping lists with anything out of stock (it’s always the one you need to finish the order).
Click to expand...
I was thinking of doing that to my white water and Indiana Jones. I have the Afterglow boards in other machines with non ghosting LED’s and it works fine not sue about the ocd board though.
Be good to compare an all white sunlight to a coloured led conversion.
 
Andypc said:
My Indiana Jones and Whitewater both have Comet Sunlight White in the GI and look fantastic.
Click to expand...
I was thinking that but what about them for inserts too, would make it so much easier if it looks good?
Would love to see a pic of an insert with colour match led and a sunlight for comparison.
 
I don’t have any photos to hand, but it’s really a personal preference thing.

Red arrow (very common) & purple (SM’s Battle Royal) inserts look a bit better colour matched IMHO, but it’s subtle, and I’m not keen on red LEDs behind red inserts with White text on them. Greens are brighter with sunlight white over green LEDs. Basically if you use a common LED colour & dome type with the same traits then all inserts will behave the same way - attack, decay, peak brightness, light dispersion, general colour temperature etc.

As for LED OCD/afterglow - I’m all for them. Still find Metallica Premium hard to look at with the harsh brightness and digital on/off lighting.
 
I wish I had bought more Afterglow boards, gutted about that. Going to be forced to get some ocd boards as I have seen the difference and like the fading.

Think I will try the all sunlight white route with ocd’s as no Afterglows available unfortunately.
Would you put the coloured condoms on the sunlight rather than colour matching, like the red whirlpool for example?
 
M4carp said:
Would you put the coloured condoms on the sunlight rather than colour matching, like the red whirlpool for example?
Click to expand...

in that situation, lights above the playfield, i'd definitely use a coloured frosted dome - sorry i didn't make this clear at all! Some games might suit a slightly different GI colour too - it's up to you. (Ice Blue could be quite nice for WH2O maybe?).
I'd even change out Metallica's Green/snake clear dome LED with a frosted version, less harsh on your eyes.

Last time i bought a couple of 100x bags of 2SMDs from Comet: https://www.cometpinball.com/products/2smd-bulbs-100-packs
or mixed so i had 75% wedge, 25% bayonette, which about right for WPC games.
Some extra red, yellow and green frosted for above playfield lights too.

I've tried virtually all the LED brands/suppliers and personally prefer Comets.

Plus i've ordered in a few batches over the years and built up a little cache for myself now...

Used 3 of these on the TZ mini playfield to get the light to shine correctly up through the 500,000, 1,000,000 & 1,500,00 inserts.
www.cometpinball.com

Flex bulbs

Comet Pinball, Inc.
www.cometpinball.com www.cometpinball.com

LOTR was done with Warm White 2SMD frosted, except the ring modes within the ring - those are all amber, and the POTD greens. i bought a few spares, because you never know what you'll buy next!

56193F68-D39A-4716-8759-B7AA058BD691.jpeg75DFABBD-FCC6-4D43-805D-A10A1C833097.jpeg43EF6EAB-1C8B-4801-AD66-019B70565F2E.jpeg41734735-1448-48FB-A5E2-EB2EEF982040.jpegA904BEBF-C1AB-454A-981F-C8F82BBE416F.jpeg
 
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Thanks Paul good info and pics there and exactly what I was looking for, will have to put an order together from Comets.
Ive got LOTR too that was Spadges that looks really nice ( like yours) and has ocd, think it’s got pinkish gi around the slings that look good.
Dont think I’m brave enough putting colours in gi and will play it safe with whites I think.

I’m going to have to get me a box of spare LED’s like that!
 
M4carp said:
I wish I had bought more Afterglow boards, gutted about that. Going to be forced to get some ocd boards as I have seen the difference and like the fading.

Think I will try the all sunlight white route with ocd’s as no Afterglows available unfortunately.
Would you put the coloured condoms on the sunlight rather than colour matching, like the red whirlpool for example?
Click to expand...
What’s the score with Afterglows then? Not being made anymore?
 
Durzel said:
What’s the score with Afterglows then? Not being made anymore?
Click to expand...
Not sure but I know the guy in Germany was working on the gi version, don’t know if anymore Afterglows are bing made. I have 4 and they are great especially as they were way cheaper than ocd.
@Vimtoman as he’s the man who knows more and has tested the gi version.
 
I have a bunch of Afterglow board that will be installed as soon as my Gamesroom is up and operational (hopefully before Christmas!)... And one GI beta which again will be in the same boat (Many thanks @Vimtoman for that one!)

I'm sure the guys that do the Afterglow would be interested in doing another run, or advising on how to get them produced... The whole thing is open source, however i know the battle is getting them produced!
 
What is this afterglow? same idea as ledocd?

Just bought 100 comet warm white frosted leds for earthshaker GI. I am not a fan of the LED look but if I can get it to match / behave like the warm glow of lamps I am all up for it!
 
russdx1 said:
What is this afterglow? same idea as ledocd?

Just bought 100 comet warm white frosted leds for earthshaker GI. I am not a fan of the LED look but if I can get it to match / behave like the warm glow of lamps I am all up for it!
Click to expand...
Yep same idea but a lot cheaper. They were made to order but only one batch was made, you had to make up the cables yourself and I think most of us here had cables made up from Paul.
 
Going to put in a comet order this lunchtime. Think GI wise I'm going for the bright white modern look, just marginally prefer it
 
I use circuit maker but can open source / share the design for forks if others want to use the pcb :)
 
russdx1 said:
I use circuit maker but can open source / share the design for forks if others want to use the pcb :)
Click to expand...
Copying the pcb and just changing the layout is the easy part.
The software and all the hard work has already been done.
Whats to fork?
 
I just wanted to make a few personal tweaks as i like creating my own layouts (one being not using the arduino nano module but just adding the micro direct to the pcb) Also adjust it to work with system 11 (if it does not already work with that? are the connectors the same?) Then simply share my file in case any one else wanted a different version.

I don't understand why so much negativity towards wanting to do this?
 
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