Best way to light an Orange Translucent Button?

[Timoe]

Whats the best way to light an Orange Translucent Shawnzilla/FX style button?


I'd like to use a single LED mounted in a hole that is drilled in the center of the bottom of the button.


But I dont know where to get an Orange wide angle led.  Will white work?  Any suggestions on where to get orange?


Thanks

[MikeDeuce]

Hey timoe, I'm no expert, but I haven't noticed any differences using different colored LEDs on translucent buttons (unless they're just clear).

I took some pics of a blue LED and a white LED in a blue translucent, and though the white LED was rated at a higher MCD (hence the slightly lighter looking button), there was no noticeable difference in color on the button:

[bb040]

you might try using yellow it should still look orange

[rdagger]

I've found that white LED's work best with orange buttons.  The colored LED's are either dim or change the color.

[Timoe]

So you would use white even with the blue buttons?

[Tiger-Heli]

Kneivel recommends matching the LED and button colors here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,30565.0.html (Not contradicting Rdagger, just adding info to the thread).

[KillerArcades]

IMHO, the most important thing is to make sure you have the same LED's in all of your orange buttons for consistency (and have the resistors all the same, if possible with your wiring setup, etc) - otherwise you'll get different shades of orange in the different orange buttons.

I would prefer to have all my oranges the same color, then have one or two slightly different than the rest.

As for where to buy them, there's lots of places, everyone's inventory is always changing though, I got all of mine from a seller on eBay for really cheap.

As for the question of "how" to light them though, I prefer to have my LED's shining perpendicularly to the wall of the button. As opposed to shining up from the bottom. Less chance of going blind and then the angle of your LED doesn't have to be as wide since the light gets dispersed pretty well throughout the plastic of the button. Though, if you do this, you'll need to plan on two led's per light, otherwise the light will appear stronger on one side, etc.

However, it seems from what I've read, that there are some easier 'pre-made' solutions for mounting LED's if you're willing to risk your eyesight and light them straight up from the bottom. So, you should get good results either way. For me, using all clear buttons, I got much better coloration by shining my lights in from the sides.

[rdagger]

So you would use white even with the blue buttons?

Not necessarily, in the pic above I'm using a white LED for the orange and blue LED's for the blue buttons.  The blue LED's change the hue of the blue buttons, but in a cool sapphirine way.  You can buy orange LED's at SuperBright LEDs. They will probably illuminate the buttons in a different shade than the white, but it might work ascetically.  Try to get the brightest LED's, but they don't have to have the exact same luminous intensity because you can always adjust them with different resistor values.  I prefer wider viewing angles for a more uniform light distribution.

I built an RGB transparent button illuminator that can be set to any color.  It is based on Whammoed's Lightmite.

[MARINE1142]

My trans buttons do not look like the ones mentioned here. Mine have a base with threads for the nut to lock it on the CP has a spring in the middle with the top of the button comes over the spring and inside the base with two ears that come out the bottom. If you drilled a hole in the sides of the base woudnt the LED get caught up in the spring? If any one has these buttons or can tell me how to light them I would be most thankful.

[Tiger-Heli]

MARINE1142,

Sounds like you have the new transparent Happ buttons that Shawnzilla had produced about 6 months ago.

They look like these: http://home.earthlink.net/~shawnmuller/fxbuttonsproducts.htm , right?

Easiest (and priciest) way to light them is with an RGB Drive shown here for about $3.50 - http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=240

Alternatives are drilling a hole in the bottom of the button to mount them.  Also someone (?) was working on a nylon ring to mount them horizontally on.

Search for the FX Buttons thread as it was discussed a lot in there.

[MARINE1142]

It looks like just a board with an led on it, looks to me to mount on the bottom of the button. I  think i can do that with just a superbright led and a resistor. but from reading on this people say that the lighting would be good from the bottom but outstanding from the sides and i m always looking for things that are outstanding. Has anyone lit this buttons from the side? I will keep looking around the forum for answers. Thanks for the reply.

[KillerArcades]

I lit mine from the sides. Though I haven't come up with a wondeful "nylon nut" of a solution, I read about that idea and then scoured local hardware shops until I found a suitable alternative. I don't know if I can explain very well what I used, because I don't even really know what it's called - I found a clear "plastic" (most likely some form of nylon....?) semi-flexible tube that was in the water/plumbing/hose area of home depot. I used my PVC cutters to cut this  tube into little rings about 1/2" thick and then just drilled two holes into it on opposites sides of the rings and slid this up over/around the button and then used the button's black plastic nut to screw it snugly into place along with the button.

The tube I found was just slightly greater  diameter than the button itself, and it was thick enough to hold the LED's in place (a couple of my holes required a bit of hot-glue to help make sure they stayed put though).

Like I said, not sure if I'm doing a good job explaining,  I'll have to take  some pictures and post them on the web to explain it better, if  you're interested in seeing, that is.

[Timoe]

I am interested in seeing it ^

[MARINE1142]

I am interested in seeing the pics also getting ready to lit mine here soon and want the best possable way of doing it. Also I got this high out put leds some think like 9000 mcd or 9500 mcd but the viewing angle is only 20 degree does and one see a problem with these monting them either from the bottom or two facing each other? the buttons are red and blue and was going to use white light on both.

[KillerArcades]

ok, I'm actually out of town this weekend, too. on a business trip in Wisconsin. The good news is that I found out that there's an arcade auction up here tomorrow morning that I'm going to try to check out.

anyways, yeah, that could be helpful. take your time, I've got a "honey-do" list that's  grown rather long since I just finished working on my first cabinet.... so it'll be a bit until I get going very much in earnest on my driving cab, I'm afraid.