LED Button Identification and tips?

[aldub516]

Hey all. So a guy I know who has a pretty decent history of arcades had asked me to complete a CP for him since he just doesnt have time with work and the kids. He dropped me off his CP which i believe is an old golden tee Cp. He also gave me a bag of stuff which i will be surely asking about in the next few days. He included 2 zippy joys, a minipac, and a bunch of led buttons. I was blessed enough on my first build to use andys ultimate ipac along with his rgb buttons, and it was basically plug and play. I would like someone to help me I.D these buttons, so i can be specific in future trouble shooting, and any tips someone may have for whatever they are. Obviously it seems the black switch holder clicks into the bottom of the button somehow, and then the switch into the black part. Everything feels a little bit stiff, so before i snap a piece off somewhere, please point me to any tips you may have for these particular leds, or anything i should know before i begin. My main questions are going to revolve around how to power these things. As i said my first build was plug and play basically with ultimarc. In this case, its new territory. Im assuming i need a led controller.. anyways thanks for the endless help. Hoping to bang this out in a day.. I need to simply drill the 6 player buttons on each side, and install all the buttons and peripherals with the ipac ready to go.








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[Phreakwars]

Piece of cake.

There are different types of LED's 5v and 12v AC/DC and just plain DC.

First of all, do you know what voltage they are?

They look like they are 12v DC type LED's

If so, (and even if they are 5v), get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812196873

And also get a sharpie, or fingernail polish, white out, etc, ... just something you can mark on the socket with. Or even a little mark on the exposed end where you plug the daisy chain into.

Plug one end of the extention cable into your power supply, then snip and strip the other end according to what voltage you need.

For 12v, strip the yellow wire and one black, for 5v, strip the red wire and one of the blacks.

Next plug the LED bulb into it's socket and test the bulb to see that it lights up.. If it doesn't, reverse the wires and try again. Take note of which side was positive and which was negative and mark that side..

My son's housings for his LED were white, so a simple dash with the sharpie on the negative side told me which daisy chain wire went where.

Just keep doing that till you have every LED tested and marked, and you should be golden. Then all you need to do is make a POSITIVE daisy chain, and a NEGATIVE daisy chain and connect the ends to the extension cable to plug them all in. NO LED CONTROLLER NEEDED!!!

If you are lucky enough to have AC/DC type LED's, and they light up no matter what polarity you use, then your all set and won't need to test all the others.

EDIT: One more helpful tip.... If you want to power on a power supply without hooking it up to a computer, just get a paperclip and short the GREEN wire on the 20/24 pin connector to one of the black wires... viola... instant power.

[aldub516]

boom.. thank you. Im in the middle of the drilling but ill read over that a few times. Ill reply with any questions. Appreciated

[PL1]

I run 12v LEDs on 5v and they work great -- 5v is the safe way to power your unknown-voltage LEDs without letting out the "magic smoke".   

The first question is do you want the LEDs always-on (easy and inexpensive) or animated effects like lighting only the controls used by the current game? (more complicated and more expensive)

If you want to go animated, you will need an LED controller.

If you choose to go always-on, you will just need two 0.250" daisy chains and your choice of a molex power tap, a "wall wart" power supply, or a USB power tap. (you'll need to verify that you aren't drawing over 500 mA for a powered USB slot or 100 mA from an unpowered hub slot)

My favorite always-on wiring memory trick is to connect the ground side daisy chain to the side with the large black tab that holds the microswitch.

D.C. Ground = black wire = black plastic tab.   



If the LED doesn't light, unplug the LED from the socket and turn it 180 degrees.

Also, Diode Check mode on your multimeter should (dimly) light up the LED so you can tell if the LED is backward before you hook everything up in your panel.

Mounting the microswitch: Tilt the microswitch about 45 degrees, hook the shorter tab into one hole, then tilt the microswitch to snap in the taller tab.



Connecting the LED socket to the body of the button: Line up the tabs on the inside of the button body with the L-shaped slots on the LED socket.

Press in and twist to lock it into place -- you may need to rock the socket back and forth a bit to get it to engage both sides at the same time.



Yellow button + yellow LED = muddy orange 

Yellow button + white LED = sunshine yellow (much better IMHO)

Paradise and several other places like jammaparts.net sell replacement LEDs.


Scott

[aldub516]

thank you. thats great info. And im going to opt to keep them lit. He seems to not really care he just wants it up and running. I personally hate these colored buttons especially a bunch of different colors. But yepp. Gonna give the above a shot and ill follow up when im read to do it. My dremel bit just broke for the plexiglas holes so im hanging it up for the night. Thank you for all that feedback! especially about putting it together. It seemed tight as hell so i figured id ask. For all i knew they werent even the right 2 pieces.

[aldub516]

After settling down and re-reading all of this, My mission seems very easy Just to make sure.. The terminals on the LED part are a size up from the normal .187 disconnects..  0.250 would be that larger size? I wish i could find a daisy chain in a store but that seems like no luck so ill order a few. thanks for the help.. Tapping into the pc power supply, a new trick

[PL1]

The terminals on the LED part are a size up from the normal .187 disconnects..  0.250 would be that larger size?

Yes.

I wish i could find a daisy chain in a store but that seems like no luck so ill order a few.

GGG and Paradise have daisy chains designed just for this.   

 


Scott

[Phreakwars]

GGG and Paradise have daisy chains designed just for this.   

 


Scott

Yep,  got mine from Paradise.. although they were out of black .250 and sent me RED instead, no biggy, I'm running the LED's in the most recent project daisy chained both RED .250. They are 5v AC/DC LED's so same color daisy chain wires is no biggy.

[Phreakwars]

Tapping into the pc power supply, a new trick

I actually have a special power supply on my shelf just for testing things on the Molex connectors. Not just LED's, but fans, hard drives, CD Rom's, etc. I have most of the wire's cut with just a couple molex and a SATA available, and the power supply is permanently shorted on the green lead to a ground wire. I turn it on by flipping the switch in the back. I use it for testing things like LED's ALL THE TIME. Great way to make use of an old power supply that is otherwise useless.

I find having a WEAK power supply on hand helps you know the limits of the stuff your using when you add hardware to it.

[aldub516]

You guys rock. My only issue is lack of patience for the daisy chains. I'm going to check my microcenter but looks like I'll be ordering. I just want to bang this job out. I love learning new things though. Question , how would I determine 12v or 5v for these leds since I don't know where they came from

[Phreakwars]

Do like was suggested and try using them at 5 volts and see if they work, then try 12 or just stick with 5 if 5 is working.

Those LED's look exactly like the ones my son has with the rounded off top and those are 12v, while the ones I got from paradise arcade look more like a flat LED on a circuit board. Those are 5v AC/DC

[aldub516]

Ahh, gotcha. Thank you sir

[PL1]

Question , how would I determine 12v or 5v for these leds since I don't know where they came from

If you don't have an extra LED to risk on 12v testing, you can carefully unwrap the leads from the LED holder and measure the current limiting resistor.



Assuming that the LED drops 1.8v and is designed for 20mA current draw, a 12v LED resistor will be 560 ohms and a 5v LED resistor will be 160 ohms.

A 2.2v 20mA LED will use a 510 ohm resistor for 12v and a 150 ohm resistor for 5v.

http://ledcalculator.net/


Scott

[aldub516]

success. i was able to tap into the pc power with that extension cable. Got the led lit. Now just waiting for my daisy chains. Question though. The led lit up with the 5v running through it. Does this mean for sure its 5v? or is possible its running low power and truly need 12v? i dont wanna cause a problem by plugging it into the 12v wire.. Is there an inherent super danger trying it out with the 12v wire? or should i assume since it lit up with the 5v that its a 5v and im good..

[PL1]

The led lit up with the 5v running through it. Does this mean for sure its 5v? or is possible its running low power and truly need 12v?

I run 12v LEDs on 5v and they work great

i dont wanna cause a problem by plugging it into the 12v wire.. Is there an inherent super danger trying it out with the 12v wire? or should i assume since it lit up with the 5v that its a 5v and im good.

5v is the safe way to power your unknown-voltage LEDs without letting out the "magic smoke".   

The only "danger" powering a 5v LED with 12v is that it will be really bright for a few seconds before it burns out and you have to order a replacement, if you haven't done so already.

Bottom line: IMHO there is no up-side to trying them on 12v if the LEDs look good (bright enough) running on 5v.  YMMV.


Scott