Using LedBlinky to turn on coin reject buttons?

[keilmillerjr]

I am building an arcade machine for home use using a pc and the wolfware howler controller. I have a suzo happ over under coin door from a golden tee machine.

I have been looking at the video for use of the controller with LedBlinky. My idea is to have only necessary items light up when operating the front end, and then necessary items light up when playing a particular game. This would include lighting up  the appropriate coin reject buttons. Has anyone done this?

RetroBlast claims it is a #161 Lamp and T3-1/4 Wedge Socket and operates at 14v.

I can find appropriate bulbs for the socket at superbrightleds.com, but they all operate around 9-14v. The howler outputs 5v. Should I connect r | g | b to a relay, using it to trigger 12v from the pc power supply?

[PL1]

The wedge-base LEDs used in LED buttons fit in the same socket as the #161.   



The 12v LEDs will light up when you apply 5v.


Scott

[keilmillerjr]

The wedge-base LEDs used in LED buttons fit in the same socket as the #161.   



The 12v LEDs will light up when you apply 5v.


Scott

I know they will still light up, but will they be bright enough?

[PL1]

I know they will still light up, but will they be bright enough?

I use 12v LEDs powered by 5v -- they look fine to me but YMMV.   

Not certain if the angle and range of the LEDs will work well for this application.

Maybe someone with a coin door can test it.

You can also get 5v superbright LEDs, but I'm not sure about the current-draw limitation of the Howler. (20mA/channel?)


Scott

[Nephasth]

Reject Button LED Test

Got the LED bulbs the other day. Got the 6V "cool white" version of these from LEDTronics. I wanted the incand white bulbs, but they were out of stock when I placed my order.

Installation is pretty straight forward. Loosen (don't take out) the mounting screw of the bulb base and rotate the base out. Swap bulb. Reinstall base.

Shot of the base rotated out with new LED installed. Original bulb is resting on the coin chute for comparison.


All put back together.


I'm waiting on some more of those crimp quick disconnects to wire these up, but wanted to see one lit up. I wired it directly to the power supply's 5V. The front of the coin door is lit up with a flash light to show both reject buttons here. Player 1's reject button is lit.


Close up of the reject button lit up in the dark.


Once I've got these wired up to the PACLED64s, I'll dim them down a bit since they're pretty bright in the dark.

Got my latest order from Paradise earlier this week, which contained the crimp quick disconnects I've been needing. I haven't been too motivated to wire up the coin doors though. It sucks being half crouched inside the cab to do the needed work. Also not very fun adding wires to existing and already secured harnesses. I did make the coin door end of the harnesses last night. This morning was spent finishing the cabinet side of the harness for the left side of the cabinet. Got the reject button lights wired up and decided to call it good for today, I'll get to wiring the coin switches later.

LED Bulb Comparison

A surprise was also thrown into the package from Paradise, a hand full of LED bulbs in a couple of different styles. Thanks Bryan and Susan! Since they're there and I've got half my coin reject light sockets wired to the PACLED64, I thought I'd see which of the three is best.



Bulb 1 - Came from LEDtronics. It's close to the same size as a standard bulb. Extremely pricy though. Over $7 per bulb with a minimum order of 10 if you order directly from LEDtronics. Does come with a 3 year warranty though.

Bulb 2 - From Paradise Arcade Shop. Pretty much exactly like a standard bulb. Only $0.65/$0.75 depending on which style your coin door requires.

Bulb 3 - Also from Paradise Arcade shop. Uses the same base as the standard bulb, but much shorter. Don't know what the price would be on these, they're currently not listed on Paradise's site.

Here they are in action.




All three bulbs do a great job of lighting the reject buttons. However, my preference is for bulb 2 (from Paradise). The diffusing lens helps distribute the light a little more evenly and also helps keep the reject buttons looking like orange instead of yellow (most noticeable in the inserts). The color is very close between bulbs 1 and 3, bulb 3 seems just a little bit brighter than bulb 1. I wonder if I got bulb 1 in the incand white color instead of the cool white color, if it would have helped keep the reject button looking orange instead of yellow.

I didn't expect bulb 3 to do as well as it did because it doesn't go into the light hole for the reject button. You can see what I'm talking about in these pics.



And with it lit up you can see how much light is lost from being so far back from the hole.


Even if you've never planned on using LEDs in your coin doors, for the price they are at Paradise, it's well worth picking up a few if you happen to be placing an order with them. If you don't have an LED controller, you can wire them up directly to your computer's power supply (red wire for 5V).