Translucent Microswitch Buttons*Taking Pre-Orders*

[Chris]

Acetone:

[AlanS17]

You could try shooting a dab of hot glue down into the button. It would make the spring a little tighter, but it ought to do the trick. I don't think the LED could get hot enough to melt the glue back down again. You could experiment with different kinds of hot glue like hot wood glue to get the desires effect.

[quarterback]

I haven't mentioned this before since it might not be readily available to most people, but buying some Lee or Rosco diffusion and cutting a little disc out of it would be a very cheap/easy way to do this.

Rosco or Lee (or Gam) gels are very available in Los Angeles (because they're used every day on film shoots) but are also present in many theaters and are available in some photo stores.

You could even make a little 'cone' to sit on top of the LED if you didn't/couldn't make a disc that would slide into the button.

216 would definitely work, is very common and cheap but might be too diffuse.  A nice opal, frost or 250 might be better.  But one ~$5 2'x2' sheet would certainly supply enough diffusion for a common CP and this is exactly what this stuff is made for: diffusing light.

OR, if you live in LA, go down to any rental house/expendable supply store and pick up the FREE swatchbooks.  They should be just the right size to get one or 2 discs out of each swatch.

This is what I'm talking about:
http://store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/leedifsheetx.html

[RayB]

OK it sounds like the solution here is not in messing with the button, but [as already mentioned before] to use the proper LEDs. Don't use a bright focused LED!

[tetsujin]

Acetone:  First tried nail polish remover (don't tell the boss! )  Dumped it in, swished it around for about 5 seconds with a cotton swab,  then dumped it out.  Looked great, even better when lit.  5-minutes later, it was mostly clear again and a little sticky. 

Maybe something to stabilize the plasic after application?  What neutralizes acetone?

(insert quick Google search here)

Baking soda, followed by soap and water.

I'll give that a shot with one of mine (probably an orange, since I'm still waiting for the full-on clears) - I'm not sure whether it will work, of course: if the acetone is sitting on the plastic or in the pits the acetone's etched in the plastic, then probably...  but if the plastic absorbs the acetone then maybe not...  But, hey, this whole etching idea wouldn't be nearly so fun if it were easy... 

[RandyT]

OK it sounds like the solution here is not in messing with the button, but [as already mentioned before] to use the proper LEDs. Don't use a bright focused LED!

Ray, the thing that is being battled here is tantamount to what one would encounter when attempting to make a piece of window glass glow a certain color.  Varying the wattage or surface characteristics of the light bulb behind the window does nothing.

At least one surface of the window must be altered to diffuse the light, or the light will just pass through and the glow will never be achieved.

RandyT

[RayB]

In my opionion, you get what you paid for. Shawn did us all a big favor and at a great price.

 

Part of the problem may be shining the light below the barrel rather than inside it.

[tetsujin]

In my opionion, you get what you paid for. Shawn did us all a big favor and at a great price.

Did anybody say otherwise?  I was under the impression that people were generally overjoyed about the FX buttons buttons.  There's a lot people can do with these buttons - and that's what this is about - trying to see what we can accomplish.

I had been thinking along the lines you were suggesting, about diffusing the light source rather than the button - but I think Randy has an important point, that the look of a "glowing button" is a product of the light at the surface of the button being diffuse.  If the light source is diffuse, then it'll look like the light source (behind the button) is glowing, rather than the button itself.

But there's all kinds of room for experimentation.  Theories are great for direction but in the end it's what people can accomplish with the real thing that counts.  It's an exciting time.

[tristan]

Maybe you could use some sort of fiber optic light source.

Any word on those yellow ones?

[n3rrd]

If you've got colored buttons, you could get some cheap cold-cathode tubes and run them underneath all the buttons at once.  They've got them for cars so they should be able to run off the 12v of your PC.

Or, if you have clear buttons, I think they make color changing tubes as well (or maybe those are actually leds)

Just to verify, they do make cold cathode tubes for computers.  Where the arcade building community is still, for lack of a better word, "underground", the computer-modders aren't.  Things like that caught on fairly quickly and they come with molex connectors.

They are actually fairly easy to find at a decent small computer shop, or most online suppliers.  For Canadian's looking for computer parts, check out http://www.ncix.com, I built my entire system from that site.  Good prices and convenient...

[markrvp]

Trying to photograph these buttons well is like herding cats.

[markrvp]

Here is a shot with flash showing the buttons in unlit and lit states.

[markrvp]

Here are some wiring diagrams for the way I mounted & wired the LEDs.

[markrvp]

Final image shows where I connected the black wire (12v ground) from the computer power supply to another common terminal block.  I then wired all the cathode wires to this block.

This quick tutorial demonstrates connecting LEDs IN PARALLEL to the computer's 12v power supply using resistors to provide proper voltage.

[CJK]

I haven't mentioned this before since it might not be readily available to most people, but buying some Lee or Rosco diffusion and cutting a little disc out of it would be a very cheap/easy way to do this.

Rosco or Lee (or Gam) gels are very available in Los Angeles (because they're used every day on film shoots) but are also present in many theaters and are available in some photo stores.

You could even make a little 'cone' to sit on top of the LED if you didn't/couldn't make a disc that would slide into the button.

216 would definitely work, is very common and cheap but might be too diffuse.

[n3rrd]

Trying to photograph these buttons well is like herding cats.  Some of the point and shoot cameras actually are doing a really nice job compared to what I just spent 30 minutes trying to accomplish.

Here are a couple of shots of my blue buttons in my control panel.  All buttons are lit with the single LED that Shawn sells with the buttons.  I drilled a hole for the LEDs in the bottom of the button the same way Whammoed & Knievel have demonstrated in prior threads.

The first shot more correctly shows how much brighter the light is on the top of the plunger.  The second shot mimics more how they look when viewed not directly overhead.

Just out of curiousity, but on the Knievel's cab with the lit buttons, didn't he light them from the side?  I probably mis-read your post.  Which is providing better results?  Obviously, the lit from the side method is more time consuming...  Is it not possible with these buttons?

I think that I missed something.

[KevSteele]

Tried this a week or so ago.

[thetered]

Just out of curiousity, but on the Knievel's cab with the lit buttons, didn't he light them from the side?

[markrvp]

Trying to photograph these buttons well is like herding cats.

[thetered]

I just had an idea, I am going to try a button lit from side and bottom this weekend     I don't really want to go through the trouble of two lights on each button in my cab, but I'm interested in seeing what one would look like!

[Kremmit]

What about doing this without drilling the hole?  Then the existing blue plastic would serve to diffuse the light.

Or is there not enough space for an LED inbetween the plastic and the microswitch?  Maybe an LED mounted right next to the microswitch, shining up through the plastic?

[thetered]

It wont fit between without a hole, and people keep bringing up the idea of external lighting, I've already voiced my doubt in the theory... but still waiting to be proved wrong!

But here is a big reason why (I havent used clear, only colors so I'm refering to colors) they are hard enough to light up as it is with the led inside it! Much less beside it.  I mean mine shows up great in dark and dim lights, but day light, not so much...

[gl.tter]

Anybody try the baking soda etc. to deactivate the acetone yet?

[tivogre]

Let me start by saying that I don't have any of these buttons (yet).... but I've been following the thread for a while.

I have an idea on how to light them that one of you may want to try.

I stole this picture from above and "drew" on it:



This will only work using a 3/4" CP top...

Drill a pair of holes at 90 degrees to each other as shown above.  Drill the first hole (the side of the LED) into the "edge" of the button holes.  Then drill a smaller hole down through the "bottom" of the CP that intersects the first hole.

You should be able to put the LED "body" into the edge of the cp facing the outside of the barrel.  The wires can pass through and out the smaller hole to below the CP.  I don't think this will interfere in any way with installing the button.

This way, It will be very near to the top of the barrel.  The light also wouldn't be shining "up" as much.

One LED in this fashion might do the trick... but you could do 2 (or even 3) around a button.

Hopefully I explained this well enough for someone to try.

I anxiously await results pics.

[UndeadMeat]

Just got my buttons! THANKS SHAWN!!!! They are so beautiful!

UndeadMeat

[shawnzilla]

Just got my buttons! THANKS SHAWN!!!! They are so beautiful!

UndeadMeat

  Glad you like 'em!

BTW, I just received an email from a BYOACer that he has had success using material cut from a plastic milk jug to diffuse the light in his buttons.

I'll post his details later.

[Franco]

Let me start by saying that I don't have any of these buttons (yet).... but I've been following the thread for a while.

I have an idea on how to light them that one of you may want to try.

I stole this picture from above and "drew" on it:



This will only work using a 3/4" CP top...

Drill a pair of holes at 90 degrees to each other as shown above.

[jfunk]

These look familiar:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6192464664&rd=1

[Goz]

These look familiar:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6192464664&rd=1

Just a matter of time once they became HAPP #'s... 

-Goz

[thetered]

...wax paper maybe?

[shawnzilla]

These look familiar:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6192464664&rd=1

Just a matter of time once they became HAPP #'s... 

-Goz

Um...that's my auction. Just haven't gotten around to announcing special auctions/giveaways on the website yet (still recovering from my computer crash)

[jfunk]

Ah, sorry!  Good stuff!

Glad it's you gonna be making the money! 

I'm planning on buying some..  But my cabinet is in hiatus until after we move 

*sigh*

Good luck with the auction!

[Scoobie]

Here is a shot with flash showing the buttons in unlit and lit states.

Off topic a bit, but did you cut your own button labels around each one?

[markrvp]

Here is a shot with flash showing the buttons in unlit and lit states.

Off topic a bit, but did you cut your own button labels around each one?

[KevSteele]

Okay, I just discovered that cyanoacrylate (super glue) will not frost the button plastic either.

I also somehow managed to burn myself with the stupid adhesive!

You see, I have a large bottle of cyanoacrylate, along with plastic pipettes to apply it (it's great for filling in cracks on pinball playfields) As I was putting a couple of drops into the button top,  I spilled the bottle all over my workbench.

I immediately ran and grabbed some toilet paper to wipe it up -- turns out this was not a smart idea - the TP bonded instantly to my finger tips, which immediately began to feel like they were being burned off. Worse, the paper literally erupted with thick, white smoke!

[gl.tter]

I immediately ran and grabbed some toilet paper to wipe it up -- turns out this was not a smart idea - the TP bonded instantly to my finger tips, which immediately began to feel like they were being burned off. Worse, the paper literally erupted with thick, white smoke!

[CJK]

From the MSDS for Loctite's brand of CA glue:

BURNS
 

[KevSteele]

I did a little googling, and ran across a couple of other super glue burn stories - all the same thing, too: spilled bottle, and paper towels or TP, bonded to fingers causing smoke and chemical burns.

Live and learn, I suppose.

Oh, and I know that super glue dries clear (if undisturbed during drying). My idea was to blow on it during drying, as the moisture in your breath can cause super glue to turn milky. Normally this is a bad thing (when filling in chips on a playfield), but it seemed like a good idea for this project.

A true "it seemed like a good idea at the time" moment!

Kevin

[gl.tter]

Oh, and I know that super glue dries clear (if undisturbed during drying). My idea was to blow on it during drying, as the moisture in your breath can cause super glue to turn milky.

Didn't know that.

[thetered]

if you have enough of it to spare than could you possibly mix in something with it like milk? just kidding, but something to cloud it up, I am coming up blank for ideas of what to try though.