Main > Main Forum

Replacement LED Lightbulbs

Pages: << < (3/3)

markronz:

Ok.   Yeah I'll have to figure out how to work my multimeter.  This is the multimeter I have:



Do you think you could give me some tips on which ports to hook up the wires to, and what I should have the dial set to, to properly measure the voltage?

markronz:

You have given me hope on this again.  Knowing the proper size base to search for is making searching for LEDs infinitely easier.  Just wish I hadn't ordered all those normal bulbs first.  If anyone wants to buy them from me, let me know :)

But I did a search and could not find any 6V bulbs really for those base sizes on eBay, but I found plenty of 12v bulbs.   I decided to purchase one of each the ba9s and ba15s LED bulbs for testing.  We'll see how they look at half power.  If they look better, or look equivalent, I might just end up buying the rest of them anyway.   As much as I hate to have wasted money on the other traditional bulbs, I just really want to preserve the back glass, since I'll never find another one, so I am thinking that LED bulbs will be cooler temperature-wise.  Long term preservation rules out over a one time loss of $25 for bulbs.

All the same, if you could still give me some tips on the multimeter it'd be appreciated, so I can confirm whether or not it actually works on 6V, 7V or 12v or what.

Nephasth:

Set your meter to DCV 20. Make sure the red lead is in the V-Ohm-mA hole and the black lead is in the COM hole of your meter. With the game on (and knowing the socket you're testing should be on), and bulb out of the socket, put one lead on the center terminal (round) inside the socket (be careful not to create a short with your test lead between the terminal and casing of the socket), and one lead on the edge of the socket. That will give you your voltage reading. If it reads as a negative voltage, that's just because your test leads are backwards, just drop the negative sign and this is your voltage.

Here's some white ba9s LEDs I bought in 6V: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200741905531 He also has other colors, just search "6V" in his store.

Here are the ba15s bulbs I went with (for the flashers on the pin): http://www.ebay.com/itm/140848229464 Not quite sure how they'll perform until I get them though, but for $7 for 10 I'm willing to try them out.

markronz:

Great!  Thanks so much for the information.   I think I limited ebay to only search the US, that's why I wasn't seeing some of these results.   I ordered a few 6v bulbs too for the BA9S one's anyway.   So we'll see which look better the 6v or 12V.   The BA9S ones are the more important ones by far since those are what is behind the back glass.  The BA15S ones would be nice to be LED too, but I'm less concerned about those as they just light up the pin area mostly.

And now we wait...   
:)

markronz:

Just thought I'd update this for completeness.   Sadly I tried out 3 different LED bulbs, some 6v and some 12v.   Sadly they didn't really work for my project.  So I've settled on just using the standard bulbs for this.  I've already replaced them all with new ones.   The LEDs just didn't light up the back glass right.

you can see the pics in the "Light Bulb Replacement" section, towards the bottom of this link:
http://www.markronsman.com/BowlingMachine/BowlerMachine.htm#20130125Update

Thanks again for all the help at this anyway!

Pages: << < (3/3)

Go to full version