Converting button bulbs to LED's

[Thor777]

just thinking about this some more you could even use a relay to close a contact.....
You could then strip down one of those hallmark cards that either have music or perhaps record your own voice.....
Imagine hearing "WINNER WINNER - Chicken Dinner" ( quote from "21" the movie).

  I LIKE the relay thought..You could hook up a bunch of those neon or chase lights you find at walmart auto section (they are 12 Volts) and mount them on the frame of your slot.. 

[stayouttadabunker]

I started something today....
You S+ fans are gonna freak!!!!
I put in back lit Double Diamond strips using  a 3CM Double Diamond glass kit with a Double Diamond Haywire chip, okay?
But I attached some #259 bulbs to the top of the reel motor...follow me?

Ran a ground wire from each bulb to to ground wire on the "Bet One Credit" switch's bulb...
Then I ran the positive side from each reel bulb to the positive side of the "Bet One Credit" bulb.
The symbols become all Back-Lit up when the Bet One Credit" light comes on!
Just nuts!!! It looks so cool!


I now have back lit reels on a S+!!!!!!!!!

Video sometime tomorrow! (I have a T-time at the golf course later... )

[Thor777]

I started something today....
You S+ fans are gonna freak!!!!
I put in back lit Double Diamond strips using  a 3CM Double Diamond glass kit with a Double Diamond Haywire chip, okay?
But I attached some #259 bulbs to the top of the reel motor...follow me?

Ran a ground wire from each bulb to to ground wire on the "Bet One Credit" switch's bulb...
Then I ran the positive side from each reel bulb to the positive side of the "Bet One Credit" bulb.
The symbols become all Back-Lit up when the Bet One Credit" light comes on!
Just nuts!!! It looks so cool!


I now have back lit reels on a S+!!!!!!!!!

Video sometime tomorrow! (I have a T-time at the golf course later... )

Awesome ..        Looks like we have a few people doing some brainstorming in the Lighting department...      What to do with my spare Laser....Hummmm 

[stayouttadabunker]

Thanks Thor!
I must slightly correct myself though...
There is only a SINGLE ground wire and a SINGLE positive wire connecting all the bulbs...
I think it's called a "parallel" circuit...
If one bulb burns out, the others will stay lit up....
sorta like a good set of Christmas lights?

Click on pics to make them larger and clearer>>

[Buzz]

    SOB  figure out the voltage going to the digital display when you get a hit. maybe have to go to a lower voltage bulb  hook your pos wire from the reel bulbs to dig. display  now if the bulbs don't cause such a voltage loss that the display will not add up the credits correctly you will have a true back light S+

[stayouttadabunker]

I think the display only gets power to the "Credits" display LEDs when,  it begins to add up credits.
I could easily add a small voltage relay to capture that and
send it to the back lit lights so that they only come on when there's a hit!
Good idea Buzz!

Anybody have some type of schematic for the display harness?
(I'm running outta bulbs here! I burned out a few trying this out...lol)

[5 ACES]

I started something today....
You S+ fans are gonna freak!!!!
I put in back lit Double Diamond strips using  a 3CM Double Diamond glass kit with a Double Diamond Haywire chip, okay?
But I attached some #259 bulbs to the top of the reel motor...follow me?

Ran a ground wire from each bulb to to ground wire on the "Bet One Credit" switch's bulb...
Then I ran the positive side from each reel bulb to the positive side of the "Bet One Credit" bulb.
The symbols become all Back-Lit up when the Bet One Credit" light comes on!
Just nuts!!! It looks so cool!


I now have back lit reels on a S+!!!!!!!!!

Video sometime tomorrow! (I have a T-time at the golf course later... )

One more time stayouttadabunker: THE THINGS YOU KNOW!!! 

[Thor777]

If you set your machine to ring on all pays....... and use the voltage from the bell feed you could trigger all sorts of events......

   Sounds like the solution along with a relay to trigger them reel lights ONLY when you hit on something 
(Thanks Jay for the Bell Voltage Idea!)

[pinballmike49]

Need leds for the S-2000 ?...see Jim at Blueridge. Hes got the 12 volt ones cheap and only charges a few dollars for shipping.

[ashyron]

Need leds for the S-2000 ?...see Jim at Blueridge. Hes got the 12 volt ones cheap and only charges a few dollars for shipping.

That's where I got mine and it was just a couple bucks for shipping.  Thing is though the 3 led bulb didn't last too long.  I'm glad I got replacements at the same time cause I have already replaced both.  It's probably something I did cause all they do is blink/flash uncontrolably.  Kind of like a kid with too much sugar, sitting there twitching, LOL

Note to self, order back-ups for your back-ups. 

[cruisepl]

 I am looking to change all of my bulbs to LEDs. After much searching on this forum and alot of help from Jim at Bettor Slots I have all the info I need to get White LEDs but how about green bulbs?  Jim turned me on to a great source for the green 12 volt bulbs for my Igame and S2000 machines. I found 6 volt green bulbs for my S+ but for the life of me cant find a 6 volt replacement for my Williams Machines #86.   I would also like to put LEDs behind the glass in hopes of saving a little electricity.

That being said I have two questions for the group:

1. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a 6 volt green LED replacement bulb for my Williams machines

2. How about a white LED replacement for the flourescent bulbs behind the glass F15T8 and F8T5 ?

TIA

[Brianzz]

2. Any LED stick in place of a florescent looked like a dime store grow light behind the glass.. looked horrible

[Magicslots]

Any LED stick in place of a florescent looked like a dime store grow light behind the glass.. looked horrible

I had been considering this too, especially since they now have cool whote or warm white LEDs.  Not that I doubt your word,
 but anybody got any pics that show the comparison to the standard flourescent?

Also, since this topic has come back up, and my recent self efforts resulted in a burned out resistor   

What is the best white led bulb to replace the 6.3 volt #86? 

[Brianzz]

Next time I'm out to the casinos I'll snap some photos, one of the casinos has replaced some of the high limit machines with these LED bars. The main problem is the top box, which has no reflection properties at all, the belly doesn't look bad but the top box appears to be lit with a candle.

[cruisepl]

I had been considering this too, especially since they now have cool whote or warm white LEDs.  Not that I doubt your word,
 but anybody got any pics that show the comparison to the standard flourescent?

Also, since this topic has come back up, and my recent self efforts resulted in a burned out resistor   

What is the best white led bulb to replace the 6.3 volt #86? 

I searched some more today and found the replacements for pretty much all  flourescent and incandescant lighting for IGT machines on Happs website www.happ.com
Not a lot of good things have been said about them on this forum so I am trying to stay away from them. Plus the LED replacements are expensive, couple hundred bucks to change out one machine. Probably why not alot of talk about doing this mod.

As for the #86  the white LED  that a few on this forum recommended can be found at mcmelectronics.com   item # 25-3225

[Buzz]

Brian  Hadn't thought about this for a lot of years, but use to put a piece of aluminum foil behind trailer light bulbs so they would reflect better, I guess a fellow could line the top box with foil. If used double sided tape would be easy to remove if didn't like the idea.  

[Magicslots]

The main problem is the top box, which has no reflection properties at all, the belly doesn't look bad but the top box appears to be lit with a candle.

The one I was mainly considering was the one directly above the reels,  I thought it might be easier on the strips when left on all the time?

[brichter]

But with Happ you'll have to buy a minimum of 20 for $26, and then they'll charge you the mystery surprise of $15-$25 EACH to ship them

I'll take MCM unless I really need at least 20. Then Happ might be the better deal for that particular product. But remember that you don't know what the SH "surprise" is going to be until the package arrives.  

Had to fix that for you, Jay...

[Brianzz]

Someone here had put the LED on the reel lights, a Munsters game, I'll look to see if I can find the post.

[KirkLasVegas]

Someone here had put the LED on the reel lights, a Munsters game, I'll look to see if I can find the post.

I did it Brian....
It's "OK"
Pluses.....
Brighter, colors look a lot nicer.
The "munsters" symbol looks GREAT
The bat is much brighter
The 2X symbol looks great
Cooler, a lot less heat....

Minuses......
They never go completely out...
They will glow about 20% brightness
and you WILL see this thru the reels


Kirk

[mah]

I found the perfect bulbs from www.pinballlife.com for $1.50 ea.
All different colors too!
The product ID numbers are :
abl_LED_wedge #555
I esp. like having a green LED for the "Spin Reels" button...
kinda gives you the feeling of "GO!"....lol
Check them out...

These bulbs are now $1.00 and they offer quantity discounts on top of that.

[stayouttadabunker]

Thanks for the update mah!   
kudos + to you...

[cruisepl]

The past week or so I have been on a mission to find and change all of my bulbs over to LEDs. My S+ is done and I am working on my POTC pinball machine now. Rest of the slots to follow.

Everything is kinda spread out through this thread so I figured that I would group some it together in the hopes that it helps somebody else in the future.  I do need to acknowledge a few others who have offered their input/expertise either through this thread or through email.  Thanks to Statfreak, Bettorslots, stayouttadabunker and magicslots. Hope I didn't leave anyone out or offend anyone.  If anyone has more to add please do so since I have only included info on machines that I own.

I have 5 different types of slot machines and 1 pinball machine in my gameroom, you would think that a bulb, is a bulb, is a bulb, man did I find out different.

IGT S+               6.3 volt original bulbs are #555
IGT S2000          12 volt original bulbs are #658 in the large button and #73 in the small buttons.
IGT Igames         12volt original bulbs are #73
WMS 401/550     6.3 volt original bulbs are #86

Previous posts and some emails pointed me in the direction of these 4 websites offering LED replacements:

www.superbrightleds.com   offers 12 volt replacements for the #658 and the #73 in a variety of colors. The #658 replacement is offered with 1 to 6 LEDs in a cluster for the larger buttons.
www.pinballlife.com            offers 6.3 volt replacements for the #555 in a variety of colors. They also offer replacements for pinball machines in a variety of colors.
www.bcspinball.com           offers 6.3 volt replacements for the #555 and the #86 in a variety of colors. They also offer replacements for pinball machines in a variety of colors.
www.mcmelectronics          offers 6.3 and 12 volt replacements the #73 is offered in white and green, #86 and the #658  I only found in white.

Can someone take this a little further and add the original bulb numbers for Bally, WMS Bluebird and others? Also add any other sites that offer the LEDs maybe some  members?  Possibly make up some sort of table or cross reference?

I hope this helps someone avoid the confusion that I went through when I decided to change a few light bulbs.

Cruisepl (the other Jay)

[stayouttadabunker]

That's an excellent idea! 
A complete reference sheet for all the different bulbs for different machines!
Seems like every time a whole new thread of topics gets
started when someone wants to change a couple of bulbs...

[knagl]

I'll be happy to take on this project. 

For the record, the PE+ uses the #86 for the buttons (at least the small buttons) -- I found those on bcspinball.com and put them in my machine a month or so ago.