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New low cost Bally / Stern LED Displays

Green's an odd colour for pinball LEDs. Because red/orange was pretty much the only choice for plasma discharge displays for this era of games I suspect that's what most folks have in their minds eye when picturing the backboxes. Green and blue are modern customisations for this era and opinions are deep and divided about modding classic games, e.g., LED lamp upgrades.

I think it depends on the game. I only have my three to use as reference with which I am really familiar. For me, PARAGON will stay as original as possible. My restoration will return it to former but original glory. It just seem "right". VECTOR however just seems to be begging for an LED upgrade. I've tested changing a few playfield insert and GI lamps to LED and it's good. The future-retro theme would probably look great with blue score displays. GOLD BALL is an experimental restoration. The theme is flecked with electrical blue and neon pink, so again blue score displays could work well.

As for CENTAUR I thought green because I'm only really familiar with the Pinball Arcade version, which seems to pick out red and green as accent colours to the black and white theme. For some reason I always play it with custom green balls and it looked really odd when I played a real one with standard silver balls!

FLASH GORDON is red, green and gold all over! If it were mine and I decided to install new shiny eye catching LED displays I'd go for green to be a bit different. Red wouldn't be that much of a change although Superbright yellow would also look fab.

As a complete random musing (and I'm being a bit lazy) do they make 7-segment displays in WHITE?
 
Nedreud said:
Green's an odd colour for pinball LEDs. Because red/orange was pretty much the only choice for plasma discharge displays for this era of games I suspect that's what most folks have in their minds eye when picturing the backboxes. Green and blue are modern customisations for this era and opinions are deep and divided about modding classic games, e.g., LED lamp upgrades.

I think it depends on the game. I only have my three to use as reference with which I am really familiar. For me, PARAGON will stay as original as possible. My restoration will return it to former but original glory. It just seem "right". VECTOR however just seems to be begging for an LED upgrade. I've tested changing a few playfield insert and GI lamps to LED and it's good. The future-retro theme would probably look great with blue score displays. GOLD BALL is an experimental restoration. The theme is flecked with electrical blue and neon pink, so again blue score displays could work well.

As for CENTAUR I thought green because I'm only really familiar with the Pinball Arcade version, which seems to pick out red and green as accent colours to the black and white theme. For some reason I always play it with custom green balls and it looked really odd when I played a real one with standard silver balls!

FLASH GORDON is red, green and gold all over! If it were mine and I decided to install new shiny eye catching LED displays I'd go for green to be a bit different. Red wouldn't be that much of a change although Superbright yellow would also look fab.

As a complete random musing (and I'm being a bit lazy) do they make 7-segment displays in WHITE?
Click to expand...

I'm over the original orange plasmas. All of the original ones I own are burnt and dying (from people previously abusing them with failed power supplies, or just many many hours of operation)

The 3 machines I am LED'ing (Galaxy, Centaur, Fireball) all suit red, so disappointing I am not using any green or blue myself lol

Get yourself some blue displays while they are cheap ;)

They do make white 7 segment displays, but not cheap enough to put in a twenty-odd quid display sadly.

I have been trying to get some "proper" pinball type alpha-numeric displays made, in white, with the comma, but no one will do them in less than a 5,000 quantity, and I don't think there is a big enough market in the UK to use up 5000 white display segments :(
 
Luke, I'd love to order 2 sets of blue but fear that self-castration might be less painful than what my wife would do to me if I spent that much money on pinball instead of Valentine's weekend... :oops:
 
Nedreud said:
GOLD BALL is an experimental restoration. The theme is flecked with electrical blue and neon pink, so again blue score displays could work well.
Click to expand...
I was looking at my machine this morning musing this option. My personal opinion is that the backglass already has a lot of blue and matching LEDs would be OTT - but then perhaps that's cos I've pimped mine with electric blue legs!

I've got an LED that needs kulpa'ing later - I'm getting a bit fed up of chasing problems round robin between them all so am certainly considering this good work by Luke.
 
lukewells said:
I'm over the original orange plasmas. All of the original ones I own are burnt and dying (from people previously abusing them with failed power supplies, or just many many hours of operation)

The 3 machines I am LED'ing (Galaxy, Centaur, Fireball) all suit red, so disappointing I am not using any green or blue myself lol

Get yourself some blue displays while they are cheap ;)

They do make white 7 segment displays, but not cheap enough to put in a twenty-odd quid display sadly.

I have been trying to get some "proper" pinball type alpha-numeric displays made, in white, with the comma, but no one will do them in less than a 5,000 quantity, and I don't think there is a big enough market in the UK to use up 5000 white display segments :(
Click to expand...

White segment displays would look nice in my elektra :)
 
Hi everyone,

I am going to be placing my PCB order tonight for everyone who has paid for their pre-order.

I will have one spare set of 6 digit and one spare set of 7 digit pcbs only. If you want to buy either the 6 or 7 digit set let me know asap as this is the last chance to buy these until the end of May, when prices will revert to full price.

To confirm, all pre-orders will be complete by the end of March and there will be no more available till the end of May at the earliest.

Thanks :)
 
I thought this looked a great piece of kit too.

And Fathom was best in show IMHO. The definitive SS Bally in lovely condition too. Perfect, save those stock linear flippers. I know that Bally made them this way, but they are so stodgy.

How Fathom and Vector came out so close in time and with common team members beggars belief.
 
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Ladies and gents,

I've had a few inquire about the displays.

I have said that I am willing to do another run at the discounted price if I get 5 confirmed and paid for orders for full sets, before the end of June.

If not then I can't do them at the discounted price as the pcb's cost more in low quantities

Let me know asap if you are interested
 
Hmmmmm tempted to get some for Flash Gordon. @lukewells does anyone near you have a FG that you could chuck a green and red display in and take a pic? I know the red will look ok but would really like to see an example of the green before pulling the trigger :)
 
ronsplooter said:
Hmmmmm tempted to get some for Flash Gordon. @lukewells does anyone near you have a FG that you could chuck a green and red display in and take a pic? I know the red will look ok but would really like to see an example of the green before pulling the trigger :)
Click to expand...

I'll bet @Arv is the sort of person that has a FG tombstone ;)



I've decided that Gorgar needs green displays, but that means I now need to make up the PCB's for Williams system 6 :rofl:
 
I played it at 8 bit flip and saw your wonderful displays. So I would recommend to anyone.

For me though, I try to keep my games pretty original (say it quietly, apart from the linear crap)

I will cling onto the old school high voltage stuff for now, but thank you for tipping me off.
 
DRD said:
I played it at 8 bit flip and saw your wonderful displays. So I would recommend to anyone.

For me though, I try to keep my games pretty original (say it quietly, apart from the linear crap)

I will cling onto the old school high voltage stuff for now, but thank you for tipping me off.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words :)
 
Hey @lukewells, I know you wanted to make these cheap as pos but what would the extra cost be to have displays with the comma instead of the dot?
 
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