Add LED to Happ Comp Buttons

[WhereEaglesDare]

I saw a thread a while back where someone added LEDs to standard Happ Comp Buttons to accent the buttons, looked great, but now I cant find it... any help?

[Endaar]

There's nothing to it at all. With the button upside-down, just drill out a hole large enough for the LED. There is probably even a seam from the mold as to where the LED would go. If you have a large number of buttons, a drill press would speed things up, but it's easily doable with a regular drill and a little patience.

If you want, I'll take a pic of the red and blue ones I have on my cab so you can see what they look like lit up.

Endaar

[Rick]

If you want, I'll take a pic of the red and blue ones I have on my cab so you can see what they look like lit up.

Please do! I think I'm going this route, too.

[Endaar]

The pictures unfortunately don't convey things properly. The first two are standard Happ Comp buttons lit with blue and red LEDs. The body of these are opaque, so no light comes through. You only see the illumination in the center of the button. They look darker than in the pictures.

The third picture is a Novagem with diffuser, lit with an RGB LED set to 100% red. The Novagem has a clear body so the entire button lights up.

The Novagem picture is much closer to what these look like in person than the other two. Again, the standard buttons are much darker. I think the Novagems look great lit but I'm not fond of them unlit. Lighting the standard buttons is a nice compromise in that they look good unlit, but can be lit to indicate the active controls. (FWIW, virtually my entire panel uses Novagems; the lit 'standard' buttons are for pinball.)

Hope that helps.
Endaar

[saloonstudios]

Do you have any pics of the buttons with the room lights turned on? Just so there's a more relative balance. I'm interested in using opaque buttons with LEDs since it'd be cheaper and the LEDs would be more subtle.

[WhereEaglesDare]

Can you see any light on the buttons when the lights are on?  I havnt seen this before, the one I saw just had it to where there was a small ring of lights around the button plungers, but your buttons look fantastic! 

[releasedtruth]

I used the setup Ponyboy sells. It uses Happ leds drilled into the sides. Looks great, but getting a suitable fit wasn't fun. LEDs are sorta big and have the resister in a base. I'd try a cleaner method next time myself. I thought I saw a DIY somewhere.

[Endaar]

I'm finding it really tough to get photos that actually look like the buttons do in person, but hopefully these help a little bit.

These were taken with the cabinet under halogen track lighting. I never use these lights because they are way too bright to stand under, but I can't imagine having a cabinet in any area that would be brighter so it will give you a worst case scenario at least.

#1 shows the Novagems under direct light. The blue button is not as washed out in person as it appears in the photo.

#2 and #3 are close-ups of the Novagems under the same lighting.

#4 is the best side-by-side comparision I can get. The top button is a Novagem; the two on the side are standard Happ Comps.

#5 is the best shot I could take to show what the lit Happ Comp looks like. The bloom obviously isn't there in person, and the button clearly looks red, not orange.

Since the body on the Novagems is clear, the entire button lights up. Light is most noticeable on the button housing, and on the outer edge of the button itself. The color is slightly more muted in the center of the button because of the diffuser.

The standard buttons are almost the exact opposite. The button body does not light at all. Light is most noticeable between the button housing and the button itself, as well as in the center of the button. You can see this pretty well in picture #4.

Hope that helps!

Endaar

[darcyp]

i have some that i can take a picture of tonight. fwiw i really like the look of opaque buttons lit up.

[saloonstudios]

Those look surprisingly awesome. Did you buy your own LEDs and drill holes in the Happs or use some premade system like the Ultralux?
Oh and I'm assuming those are blue buttons with blue LEDs, do you think white buttons with blue LEDs would show any blue glow?

[RandyT]

As one who has done this a few times, you can forget coming to any real conclusions about how to light buttons based on photos.  If the photo has a pitch black background, or the area around the lighted part is heavily shaded, it's a bad indicator.  On a dark night, you can see a glowing cigarette ember from a mile away.  It doesn't take much to make anything appear lit in a dark room (which is also good to consider if you are going to use your cabinet primarily in a darkened environment).

The sensor in most cameras is just too sensitive to light, and will usually auto-adjust, making dim things brighter and bright things dimmer.  A high quality DSLR on full manual setting, with the buttons at the same level, with normal room lighting, a tripod and no flash might have a chance.  Otherwise, get a button of each color you plan to light, jam an LED in there and come to your own conclusions.

My experience with standard nylon has been that certain colors are ok, in that you can tell that they are being lit (usually just the centers of the plungers and whatever creeps through the gap), while other don't work very well at all.  Blue seems to be one of the better ones, while green....well, just forget about doing this with green .

RandyT

[saloonstudios]

Yeah, as far as exposure goes I know these photos are not an example of how bright these things actually get. I used to be a cinematographer and I'm still a photographer so I know exposure 
My concern wasn't how bright they got, but whether or not they were able to glow at all. I don't need buttons that will light my room I just want a cheap solution to add a little bit of flair to a CP. Thanks for sharing your experience though. I've never done one of these so I'm gathering as much info as I can-

[releasedtruth]

The Happ LED solution drilled into the side of the button gives a very nice glow without blinding you from the bottom. Divemaster or Ponyboy can give you more info. I've been happy with the result, but they are a little bit bulky and the resistor bayonet can get a little difficult to work with.

[Ond]

Can you see any light on the buttons when the lights are on?  I havnt seen this before, the one I saw just had it to where there was a small ring of lights around the button plungers, but your buttons look fantastic! 

You might mean my original mod posted here  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59359.msg971847#msg971847

[darcyp]

i was going to post pics, but none came out too well. the best pic ive seen of it is endaars 4th picture.

[Endaar]

Did you buy your own LEDs and drill holes in the Happs

I really didn't plan to light the solid buttons. What happened was I ordered a bunch of clear Novagems with different color LEDs, and then pulled those LEDs from the Novagems and used RGB LEDs instead. Since I had the extras, I decided I'd add them to the standard Happ buttons. Randy would have to tell you what type of LEDs they are; I've got no clue. They did have the resistor inline though.

I drilled the holes in the buttons myself; as I mentioned initially the LED was installed in the bottom of the button. There's what appears to be a seam from the mold which is exactly where the LED goes; it's the same place that the GGG buttons with preinstalled LEDs use.

You're correct that these are blue buttons with blue LEDs, and red with red. I haven't seen a white solid-color button, but my guess would be the effect would be minimal. You'd probably be better off going with the Electric ICE buttons if that's the look you're going for.

Endaar

[RandyT]

I really didn't plan to light the solid buttons. What happened was I ordered a bunch of clear Novagems with different color LEDs, and then pulled those LEDs from the Novagems and used RGB LEDs instead. Since I had the extras, I decided I'd add them to the standard Happ buttons.

Uh oh..... 

That explains a lot.  I was wondering why those standard buttons were looking pretty decent.  To get the same amount of light as a NovaGem LED, you would need to cram 5 normal "superbrights" into one of those buttons.  IOW, unless someone else is planning to do exactly the same thing, I'm afraid it will be nowhere near as bright.

RandyT

[kronic24601]

To solve the Green button problem, I used the Car 12v 6LED green bulbs in there... It STILL isn't 100% as bright as the others, but it is close enough.

I am using all four colors, DON'T use a yellow LED with an yellow button (use white) ... if you do it will look orange. Otherwise, use the matching color for the button.

If you are concerned about brightness, like Randy T says, you can go ahead and use a more powerful LED. The standard LEDs are 20ma, but you can buy ones that are 100ma. They are a little harder to install without Randy's board, but still doable.

I'd take pictures of mine, but I'm in the middle of a move, and they wouldn't come out well anyway.

[Endaar]

To get the same amount of light as a NovaGem LED, you would need to cram 5 normal "superbrights" into one of those buttons.

Ah, good to know. Thanks for the explanation.

Endaar

[releasedtruth]

I just did a test with my new 5mm 5000 mcd flat top blue leds on translucent blue Happs. Hole in the bottom method. I used the GGG diffuser discs, which work great. I need to get some pics, but interesting results. I used the standard 12V power with the 440 ohm resistor and it was nice and bright, then switched to 5V on the same resistor. Much less bright, but quite pleasing in terms of glow. Definitely something I'll now consider.