Control Panel LED Wiring??

[lettuce]

Whats the best/easiest way to wire up LEDs for the push buttons on a CP?? What i have started to do is pop out the button itself from the pushbutton shaft, bend the 2 legs from a LED outwards, and place the led in the pushbutton shaft, so the led legs come out the buttom of the shaft, and place the button back in the shaft making sure the led sits in the middle of the spring, then solder the LED.

The problem i have doing it this way is, you need to have the buttons placed in the CP already so you know how long the wires need to be (just to make sure they reach the buttons), this makes soldering really tricky. And also if you ever need to remove any buttons and in my case the plexi-glass covering the CP, you would have to unsolder the wires going to the LED's!! Is there an easier way to do this??

[lettuce]

Anyone?

[MYX]

Hey Lettuce,
On my PBs, There is a small circle right under where the switch would eventually fit. I drilled that out. Then you can push the LED into place. I think I used a 3/16 bit.

See Mccoy's pictures. It is his example that I am folowing.

As to bit size. I would search for that to make sure. Mike Deuce talked about it some time back when he was working up the idea for the button inserts. But I am pretty sure it was 3/16. I drilled my translucient buttons about 2 weeks ago and the GGG ice were pre drilled.

The part I am trying to get through is how to lay the wires so they are not getting bumped by the button action.

Hope this helps.

[lettuce]

How did u get the LED to stay in place, would it just drop out the bottom of the button?

[MYX]

I can not say as I am just at the point of puting my LEDs in as well. But I have read that when you push them in, is a tight fit.  If you press hard it just stays.  ok I am not saying any more as I could get arrested in some states. I think that Mike Deuce said that he put a drop of epoxy in. But not sure. I am making a full set of wires with resistors in line before I actually start putting them on the CP. I like to do similar tasks at one time (keeps me brain straight ).

[Silver]

Yes it works well if its a tight fit. I think I drilled some 4.5mm holes for a 5mm LED and you can just push it in and it stays there.

Also, once you fit the mircroswitch, there is only a small gap from the bottom of the LED to the top of the microswitch (so the legs have to bend out sideways). This means even if it comes loose, it will not be able to drop as the microswitch holds it up.

[Buddabing]

I think the best way is to get Randy's Electric Ice pushbuttons.

[MikeDeuce]

Hey hey

I did indeed use a 3/16" drill bit for a 5mm LED.

3/16" = 0.1875 in
5 millimeters = 0.196850394 in

It's a very tight fit and I have not had an LED fall out yet.

I don't think they ever will fall out, since right now I can only remove them with fine pliers by gripping the back of the LED. But if it ever becomes a problem, white glue is probably better... I think I mentioned thinking CA glue would be a great way to make it permanent, but white glue would be a lot smarter I'd think!

[lettuce]

Thanks for the replies. Would it be ok to wire a cluster of LED's, say 6, to a 2 plastic terminal block (or chocolate block, as there know over here in the UK) one for + and one for -, and have one wire going out of each block, so there wouldnt be so many wires, so in other words 6 wires in and 1 wire out?

[lettuce]

anyone

[KillerArcades]

yes, and no. It depends on how you're grouping your LED's. For the negatives you can group them however you like and it won't matter, because they all go back into the same terminal anyways.

but for your positive leads, you need to keep them in "groups". By that, I mean, if you're using an LEDWIZ, for example, you'll need to keep things grouped by the output terminal on your LEDWIZ. which all depends on how you want things to turn on/off. If you just want all your buttons to be controlled together (and if so, you're not needing an LEDWIZ, most likely),  then yeah, you could have them all run through chocolate bars however you like.

But, if you're using a variety of LED's/colors, then you'll need to have things grouped by resistor, etc.  and again, if you ARE using an LEDWIZ, then you'll need to have things grouped by their controlling output terminals.

That make any sense. *scratches head* not sure if I explained that well enough, but you should get the idea. Or let me know where I started talking in circles and I can try again.

[NightGod]

Short answer: as long as they are all the same type of LED (need the same resistors), yes.

[lettuce]

Hi, yeah they shall all be fitted with resistors, and go to the 12v supply of the PC. I would be grouping the buttons together by player so they shall all be the same LED type and colour. On a side note, what does the LEDWIZ actually do, and how is it an advantage having it over just wiring up the LED straight to - & + inputs??

[Circo]

I use mine for the attract modes, and also in mame and all other emulators I use it to light up the correct controls for the games.  Really cuts down on the confusion of what to use.

[MYX]

Hi, yeah they shall all be fitted with resistors, and go to the 12v supply of the PC. I would be grouping the buttons together by player so they shall all be the same LED type and colour. On a side note, what does the LEDWIZ actually do, and how is it an advantage having it over just wiring up the LED straight to - & + inputs??

Go to the PowerMAME Demonstrations page. There are several videos of the Wiz in action. Basically, you can have powermame light up the game specific buttons. You can animate the buttons for an attract mode. If you use RGB LEDs you can change the color of the buttons. You have to see the demonstration to get the idea. Once you do, more ideas start to spring up. I bought one and am in the process of wireing it up. Can't wait.

[lettuce]

Hmm, that demo of the LED-Wiz and powermame has got me intrested in getting one now. How do you wire the LED's up to the LED-Wiz? Is i just simply srew terminals on the Wiz? (- & +). Do i still need to add resistors to the LEDs, the LEDs i have at the moment are certain colours (red, blue, green, and yellow) would this be a problem for the LED-Wiz?

[MYX]

Each LED needs a resistor. It does not matter what color LED you use. You can use 3 channels and light an RGB LED. set the channels for different levels and make any color you like.