Replacement LED displays

[pbj]

I’m sick of replacing parts on the master display board on my Firepower.  I was working on the flashers recently and yet another resistor burned itself in half while the game was on.  I’ve got a couple of iffy displays in player 3 and 4 position with segments that don’t work or make the board get red hot.



So, I took another look at LED replacements.  I don’t know if the price has dropped or inflation has dulled my senses but $110 shipped for a complete replacement set seemed reasonable.  Only catch is you have to manually assemble it.






45 minutes later the master display board was assembled.




The other four displays went quick.  I had this all soldered up and foam bezels slapped on in less than 90 minutes.  What the hell else is there to do at 4am?



Will smoke test these once everyone else is awake.

 

[pbj]

Okay, so.  Don't assemble boards at 4am.  It turns out that the chip orientation flips on the right side of the board versus the left, which meant I had a bunch of chips in upside down.  Lesson learned.

Soooooo....

Round 2 went a lot smoother.  It's difficult to photograph these because the digits are actually strobing, but here's Firepower with six digit LEDs on the left, Alien Poker with 7 digit gas plasma displays on the right.



In person, to my eyes, you would be very hard pressed to tell those weren't original displays in the Firepower. 

 

[pbj]

Better pic.

 

[bobbyb13]

Love this.
I nearly bought a set myself but was afraid of the 'build your own' at that point in regard to my soldering abilities.
Didn't realize that the original ones would tax ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- that much for current.
I'll have to keep this in mind while I fight with mine.

How many of these beasts do you own if you don't mind my asking?

[pbj]

At the moment?  4 and I've had them all a very long time.  Alien Poker is the last purchase and I bought that 10 years ago.   

Body count is probably somewhere around 50-60 games.  I used to churn 3-4 a year for the first 10 years or so I collected.  Cheap gas, had a truck, and would buy anything that was complete and within budget.  I went through a LOT of machines.  Now that they're on location I just let other people buy them and play them occasionally.  Our local barcade has 21 machines and I put in at least 4 games on each recently.  Couldn't feel my hands when I finally left that place.

 

[bobbyb13]

I'm surprised you're sitting at only 4 currently but no suprise you've been through many.
Space for these things is a limiting factor for most I think.

Whether one is into OG machines or repros or fan builds or whatever there is certainly a progression and ebb and flow to the hobby.
Keeps it fun and interesting to me at least.

I would love to start a barcade out where I am but I am up to my eyeballs in ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- before I even leave my driveway every day.

Firepower and Alien Poker look like fun machines.

Still need to figure out what is wrong with the EBD but I think I need to replace every ground wire in the whole machine.
All of the white insulation has that lovely turqouise color tone bleeding through it.
Eeek.