Author Topic: Marquee lighting -- how bright of a light do I need? (Read 3748 times)

sofakng · « **on:** July 05, 2004, 03:51:03 pm »

I was wondering how bright of a light I should use behind my marquee. I bought a GE regular white fluorescent light, 25 inches wide with 725 lumens.

Is this good enough or is it too bright, or not bright enough?

MiKman · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2004, 04:36:19 pm »

I have a 24 inch long 20W sylvannia (cool white) florescent behind my marquee and I'd say it's just about perfect. My marquee area is 27.5 inches X 7.5 inches.

Sylentwulf · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2004, 07:21:05 pm »

Just prop it up and turn it on. Too bright, keep your receipt and exchange it. I myself bought the cheapest $5 including bulb fixture I could find at walmart in a half-opened crushed package and it worked perfectly.

Ken Layton · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2004, 07:21:30 pm »

Depends on the size of the marquee, but most commercial arcade games and Jamma/AMOA compliant cabinets use an F15T8CW fluorescent lamp.

sofakng · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2004, 08:56:36 pm »

Well, mine is 33 watts... That should be fine I guess?

Ken Layton · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2004, 12:21:22 am »

33 watts! Holy sh** you want to blind everyone?

sofakng · « **Reply #6 on:** July 06, 2004, 09:50:15 am »

Well, suprisingly it doesn't seem that bright what-so-ever. Worst case I can always double-up my marquee artwork but I doubt I'll have to do that.

cbmeeks · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2004, 10:59:14 am »

Quote

33 watts!

What do you think this is? A tanning salon???

lol...sorry...Simpsons quote.

cb

Muttley · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2004, 11:24:22 am »

The original tube I replaced in my Total Carnage cab was a 15W. Don't think you need more than that really.

Muttley

sofakng · « **Reply #9 on:** July 06, 2004, 11:25:26 am »

So do you all suggest I return this to Walmart?

Ken Layton · « **Reply #10 on:** July 06, 2004, 12:05:57 pm »

If you are happy with it then you should keep it. In my opinion though it's overkill.

Sylentwulf · « **Reply #11 on:** July 06, 2004, 02:53:24 pm »

If it looks good, keep it, why not.
The only other concern would be cooking the marquee/artwork by exposing it to too much light.

SideShow Rob · « **Reply #12 on:** July 06, 2004, 04:04:13 pm »

Hi Guys...

Going slightly off topic...how far away do you guys mount the light from the marquee?

Ken Layton · « **Reply #13 on:** July 06, 2004, 05:43:43 pm »

In commercial arcade games the fluorescent tube itself is anywhere from 3" to 6" away from the artwork.

sofakng · « **Reply #14 on:** July 07, 2004, 04:02:37 pm »

Actually... I took another look on the box for my florescent light. It says "Energy used: 33 watts" Could that be different than "Energy produced: " ? I think I remember seeing in another thread somebody saying that the Energy Produced was less than the Energy used?

...or is my light in fact "33 watts"? It does say 725 lumens though. How does this compare to other lights?

MiKman · « **Reply #15 on:** July 07, 2004, 06:38:20 pm »

Quote from: SideShow Rob on July 06, 2004, 04:04:13 pm

Hi Guys...

Going slightly off topic...how far away do you guys mount the light from the marquee?

My light is 4.5 inches from the marquee

ceege · « **Reply #16 on:** July 07, 2004, 09:47:31 pm »

energy produced is (in general) LOWER than energy used .. because no electronic device is 100% efficient .. so your lamp might consume 33w of electricity to produce 30w of light...
because lights are simple, I would expect the efficiency to be hight, but I could be totally off on that

NIVO · « **Reply #17 on:** July 08, 2004, 02:42:18 pm »

another sugesstion.............
if you want to keep that particular one, and you have a HOBBY LOBBY near you, you can buy some plastic sheets that are milky white, that look and act perfectly like diffuser panels, and they are like $2. Double or even triple them up to get the exact brightness/dimness you require. They also sell colored ones as well. I recall I found them back by the posterboard supply area. Hope that helps resolve your troubles or atleast gives you an alternative.

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #18 on:** July 08, 2004, 03:56:42 pm »

Has anyone tried using other light sources (other than flouresant)?

When I get that far with my cab - I wanted to have the option of having all the lights in CAB (including marquee) dim/flash to beat of music. Cant do that with flouresant fixtures.

Has anyone tried a bunch of LEDs? Does their narrow angle prohibit this?

sofakng · « **Reply #19 on:** July 09, 2004, 03:23:39 pm »

IncrdblHulk7, wow that sounds really cool

Good luck with that.

As for my marquee light, I mounted it last night. We ended up splitting the wood that was part of a support strip but it's not real bad and it's not visible from the outside.

On top of that, the marquee is about 3 inches closer to the left. What that means is that the left side will appear brighter than the right side.

So, I was thinking about either mounting another support strip to block the light or using extra pieces of "diffuser-type" of paper on that side.

What do you think would be the best solution to make the light appear evenly across the marquee?

DennisInMN · « **Reply #20 on:** July 09, 2004, 03:47:44 pm »

I guess the first thing I would do it nothing. Wait until you get your marquee installed and see how it looks. If it is really noticeable then you can try to correct it.


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