Lighting Original Atari Volcano Buttons with Battery(s)

[mark shaker]

Kind Sirs:

I'm thinking of building a new control panel for my modular MAME Cab that uses original Atari Volcano Buttons.

Because it's an add-on to the cabinet, I don't currently have any way to power the Button's LEDs.

I assume that I can power the LEDs with a battery or 2 as long as I have the proper resistors.

I read that the LEDs take 2.2 Volts.

Would they light with 1.5 volts (say 1 AA battery)?

Would 3 volts (say 2 AAs in series) cause them to fail?
If so, what size resister should be added to bring down the voltage?


Thanks for your help!   - Mark

[RandyT]

I would first try running them from 1 AA battery per and see if they light and are bright enough.  If they are, then you are done.  If not, then you need to know how much current the LED's are rated for.  Once you have that info, you can use any of the online LED resistor calculators to figure out which resistor you need for them.

On the other side of the coin, however, why not just run a power line from the encoder you are connecting the buttons to?  Batteries are no fun, especially if you can not need to worry about them by running an extra wire.

RandyT

[Necro]

The run off one AA battery.  I've done it with my Omega Race cone buttons which are similar in spec to the Atari cones.  No resistors are needed for this setup as far as I know...

However, I also recommend just using an encoder or the 5V line from your PC to run them (with resistors, of course).

[mark shaker]

However, I also recommend just using an encoder or the 5V line from your PC to run them (with resistors, of course).

RandyT and Necro: Thank you!

I connect each of my Add-On Panels to my Cab with 1 or 2 DB15 Connectors. I have to check my notes to see how I wired the connectors, but I remember that each DB15 supports 2 Analog Inputs, 1 Optical Input and 4 Switches.

I'm trying to avoid updates to the cabinet itself, just to light a couple buttons. If I can figure a way to pull the voltage and ground from my available connections, without interfearing with their use, I'll do that. If not, I'll try the battery route.


I'll bust out a AA tonight to see if the single battery route works for me as well as it did for Necro.

   - Mark

[mark shaker]

Ok...

I don't really know how bright these LEDs are suppose to be, but:

1 AA produces a soft glow. It's noticeable is a well lit room, but not really exciting.

2 AA in series (no resistor) produce the same glow for a couple seconds before the LED burns out.

   - Mark

[RandyT]

Ok...

I don't really know how bright these LEDs are suppose to be, but:

1 AA produces a soft glow. It's noticeable is a well lit room, but not really exciting.

2 AA in series (no resistor) produce the same glow for a couple seconds before the LED burns out.

I hope you have spares!  As I recall, these buttons were never very bright to begin with, but keep in mind that too much current can actually make an LED dim before it kills it altogether.  Hopefully the LED is something you can replace easily, and if it is, then you can probably put something brighter in there.  Doesn't look easy, though.

The bad thing about brighter LEDs on a battery is a shorter battery life.  So if you can live with them being more subtle, your battery will probably last a lot longer.

[huygens]

Optical and analog controls both need 5v and ground so you should have a 5v wire/wires running to your panel already.