Self illuminating Tron stick? *** UPDATE with pics: Its alive, its alive!

[pinballwizard79]

If I take this: http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=319

Then shove ultraviolet LED's inside it: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&category=BARS&Page2Disp=/specs/LBM-x3SMD.htm

Do you think it will glow nice?

[SavannahLion]

I think I might be put off by being able to see the guts, but... I don't see why not. 

I say try it and see how it looks. I'm not looking at the stick right this second, but I imagine you can do it without any serious damage.

[saint]

Post pics! I'm intrigued.

[Havok]

You might also consider playing with the voltage sent to the LED's - I would think you wouldn't want it too bright.

[pinballwizard79]

How do I play with the voltage? Twist in a variable resistor dial or will my PC set fire?

I need some help with this, give me some guidance guys & I will be the beta (yay my first real BYOAC innovation/contribution/idea).

The SuperbrightLED's building is visible from my workplace too 

[Usul]

I did that a while ago: I used 3-4 UV  12V 1.000mcd LEDs. Was not too bright and wouldn't go lower. The challenge was the wiring through the HAPP joystick shaft that is really tight... I haven't finished this project yet.

[pinballwizard79]

It looks like there is enough room if thin wire & small LED's are used

[BobA]

How do I play with the voltage? Twist in a variable resistor dial or will my PC set fire?

I need some help with this, give me some guidance guys & I will be the beta (yay my first real BYOAC innovation/contribution/idea).

The SuperbrightLED's building is visible from my workplace too 

To play with the brightness of the LED you use the fixed resistor that is required for the circuit and only increase the resistance.  In other words do not exceed the max current by using a smaller resistor.  The safe way to experiment is to add resistors in series with the existing resistor or even a pot in series if you are feeling adventurous. Since there is a fixed resistor the pot can go to zero ohms but your LED is protected by the existing resistor.

[Usul]

It looks like there is enough room if thin wire & small LED's are used

My situation might have been a bit special, as I wired several LEDs + additional trigger buttons for the joystick. I think you should be fine with the LED string and w/o additional buttons.

[JustMichael]

I am just wondering how he will explain why he has only one tan palm...

An interesting idea!  You would need something to help disperse the light more evenly though

[Havok]

An interesting idea!  You would need something to help disperse the light more evenly though

You could try sanding the LED's to give them a "frosted" finish - that might disperse the light a little better.

[pinballwizard79]

I bet a thin coat of white translucent nail polish would soften the glow (or mix white & clear).

The more the coats the less direct the light.

Yeah thats the ticket

I could spray a thin coat of a milky white mixed with clear on the entire interior of the joystick too.

[pinballwizard79]

Wait....wait....wtf is this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Femme-Ultra-Violet-UV-Glow-Neon-Nail-Polish-/390261090062?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Nails_Manicure_Pedicure_CA&hash=item5add5fa70e#ht_1103wt_905

holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---

I wonder if I mixed this UV clear with white & painted the LED's if that would diffuse & dilute the light to a glow rather than a beam?

Too bad I do not have an airbrush to paint the interior of the stick (ahem hint hint to anyone who doe$)

[jennifer]

        I would think painting the inside of the handle with anything would give it a odd untronlike [< ? ] look. Maybe more of a diffuser setup
 [ like a juke ] ?

[drventure]

Very cool idea!

I'm bookmarking this thread...

[pinballwizard79]

Yeah Jennifer I am going to try the diffuse idea first as its the easiest route for sure. I also thought that paintint the interior of the stick would be untron like too... Then I realized a non glowing Tron stick is even more unTron like   

Once I get my new panel in I am ordering the Happ flight stick, GGG Tron mod & dropping by Superbright's on my way home from work. Pretty sure once everything is in my hands I can wrap it up during the course of 1-2 nights & I will post pics, vid & tutorial via a project thread.

Wish me luck or even better make one first so I can learn from your mistakes everyone.

[jennifer]

        Those handles were made to glow under a blacklight, maybe look more into a different light/spectrum bulb. Be careful however heat
  might become a factor.....

[pinballwizard79]

Right, thats why I am using UV LED's (black light LED's) http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/sale-food-accessories-services-5359/101-led-blacklight-89454/

[drventure]

A scorpion hunting black light?

Now that's one of the more interesting repurposing's I've seen for an arcade cab!

[pinballwizard79]

What? You mean you never went scorpion hunting with a tron cabinet? Damn you are missing a good time 

[pinballwizard79]

I figured out how to light up the Tron stick

Lady Gaga of course

[drventure]

Lord, she knows how to hideous-up herself well.

[Xiaou2]

It does not seem to take much to light up a Tron Stick.  The one installed on my buddies Tron machine was "blue-glow-blinding" us in a very brightly lit shop.

 As you may know, the blacklight on a Tron isnt exactly super bright.

 All you need to do is get a small amount of light pointed at the thing, and it will shock you at how bright it will glow.

 Maybe a lit up Ring of frosted plexi with leds under it pointing up at an angle at the stick.

 Be careful. The UV Leds are a lot more dangerous to the eyes than a typical blacklight... because the beam is so much more focused.

 I think that would look a lot nicer than frosting or painting the inside of that crystal beauty.

[JustMichael]

Lord, she knows how to hideous-up herself well.

LOL!  Often I wonder if she forgot 2 letter G's (Lady GagGag)

[pinballwizard79]

Just ordered all the goodies. Fingers crossed this works out

America, F yeah!

[jipp]

hey man, they be crossed.  i have a black light next to my guitar amp..  many years ago i got into playing with it on and just tripping out on the sounds that it would inspire ( early pinkfloyd sounding stuff ).. even had the nail polish.. the stuff i had was clear tho.. so no one knew my secrete.  yeah playing the ol guitar under a black light and pretending i was a teen a gain. laughs.

being a kid at any age is where its at.

chris.

[pinballwizard79]

Damn it looks good in real life, my camera isnt doing this thing justice.

Going to crack open my flight stick tonight to put the final details to rest

[Xiaou2]

Sorry, Do not like.

 Try just One of those leds (cover the rest).  I dont think you need more than one or two.

 Seeing a segmented line of blinding Leds in there looks like a carnival ride... but not as nicely lit/done.

[drventure]

I dunno. I think it looks pretty good. I quess I wasn't expecting to be able to "see" each led, and much as they'd all be frosted together to make the whole stick just kind of glow.

Still, looks good to me.

[pinballwizard79]

It looks 10 times better in real life, my DroidX isnt a UV friendly SLR camera. The dots are not that apparent as I stand here & quite frankly Id rather see a few dots if I look hard enough as opposed to a 2 foot long bulb in my face. Even my wife who hates to see me pull off something cool (gameroom related) couldn't fight back a smile.

The number of LEDS is perfect IMO & you are actually only seeing half of them   The stick is so damn unbelievably UV reactive that the shell itself is somehow brighter than the LED's (meaning it looks good, well diffused & not over powered but damn saturated with UV glowing awesomeness). I can think of no better way to illuminate a Tron joystick other than installing a UV flood lamp over my head.

This is one of those things I think you would have to see in person to grasp its true appearance. A lot is lost in a picture but this gives you a decent preview.

Anyway its a welcome addition to my blackhawk high/low spinner & new control panel, cant wait to finish this thing!

EDIT: Xiaou I knew you wouldnt like this, its not a IJ pin, CRT or Wico leaf.

[drventure]

Ah,, yeah, that'd explain it. The stick itself barely looks like it's glowing at all in the pics. It's the camera UV filter that's probably messing it up.

[ids]

I've no doubt it looks much better that the pics show.  Congrats - cool thing there.

I actually bought some loose UV LED's a long time ago with the same idea in mind, and I've been watching this thread since it began.  I held off doing anything due to the eye-damage scare earlier on.  Is this a legit concern?  Anyone know for sure?

[goldenageofarcade]

I just finished a dedicated Tron panel with an original stick.  I ended up mounting a thin self-contained blacklight fixture at the top of my cabinet, just above the marquee, it shines down and lights up the artwork and stick perfectly (as well as any white clothes anyone standing in front of the game is wearing).  One thing I found that any light hitting the monitor makes it the monitor look funny, it sorta has a brown glow to it, I had to play with the angle a bit to make sure the monitor wasn't getting hit by the UV at all.

I wonder if these LEDs will have a similar issue if the light spills out in the direction of the screen?

Otherwise it's seems to look pretty cool.  The pics make it look too bright, but as mentioned, probably just the camera reacting to the light...

[lilshawn]

i wonder if a single UV black light florescent tube just underneath the marquee would work better.

i'm guessing the camera is making the UV LED's more obvious then they really are IRL. but they do kinda stick out.

[pinballwizard79]

goldenageofarcade: My arcade is a big ol showcase cabinet with a bright 37" LCD, no concerns of light affecting the screen but that is a good point for those with traditional cabs. Did you make a thread of your project? I'd like to check it out.

lilshawn: Yeah dude the camera really brought out the individual LED's more than one would see in real life....problem is that wonderful diffuser effect I couldnt properly convey with pics earlier has been greatly minimized with the LED's now right up against the plastic to the point that it now looks just like the previous pics but in real life. No matter, there is a glowing Tron stick in my basement!

ids: I bought one of those Pachislo slot machine volume knobs to adjust the light, see pics below of various degrees of brightness. I dont think its dangerous as is, this LED strip is not blinding by any means (I have LED's in my trackball, 4 way joystick, coin rejects & scattered through out some of my pins). This strip here is much more tame than some of those which I would absolutely consider retina burners.

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Guys this isnt for a Tron cabinet, its for my MAME machine. Keep that in mind, my goal was to not let perfect get in the way of better if you know what I mean. Perfect would be a sit down Tron obviously & that isnt happening here.

So is this a Tron cabinet with an authentic & perfectly diffused florescent UV bulb? No, it sure isnt.

Is this a replica blacklight UV glowing Tron stick with an easily recognizable nod to the original from 30 years ago thats worthy of doing (it was either a black flight stick or a glowing one) with the Tron restrictor & a DOT apache spinner? Yep, it sure is & thats cool as hell to me.

It turned out pretty good IMO, much better than the non UV illuminated black one I had this morning. Fishing the wire in the case & especially through the metal rod was a ---smurfette--- so if anyone does this buy a spare strip just in case.

PW79

[Xiaou2]

EDIT: Xiaou I knew you wouldnt like this, its not a IJ pin, CRT or Wico leaf.

 I like a Lot more than those listed.  I just tend to speak up when theres something I do not care for.

 As said, I doubt you would need more than One of those LEDs to make the entire stick glow.  That way, you wouldnt have 24 visible "dots" inside the thing... which to me looks ridiculous.

 At very least, you could probably coil all of those LEDs inside the very bottom of the sticks base pointing up... and it would still look 100x better, Imop.

 It barely takes any UV to make a Tron stick glow.  Especially Randys new set, which are almost overpowering.   I put a new set on my buddies Tron machine, and even in his very brightly lit shop, the stick was so glowing so brightly that it was unreal.  His Tron blacklight is very dim, nearly invisible in the lit shop, and seemingly not anywhere near as intense as even One of those LEDs.

 Also, as said, too much UV is bad for you, and the amount of UV you have going on in there is enough to fry your eyes pretty damn good... as well as fade surrounding artwork, and reducing the life expectancy of the glow in the stick altogether.

 To each his own.  Im just spilling my opinions.

[pinballwizard79]

Xiaou2 I think you should make one too, if its better I will not hesitate to copy off you & also give props.... but till then