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Author Topic: leds in black buttons?  (Read 2788 times)

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Hellfromabove

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leds in black buttons?
« on: May 17, 2003, 06:34:33 pm »
Hey guys, I was going to install some blue LEDs in some buttons but I wasn't sure which are good. I was wondering if the X-arcade buttons and black happs competition buttons were ok to but blue LEDs inside of. Would they show up? Plese reply. Thanx.

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BobA

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2003, 07:51:09 pm »
I tried the x arcade black and no light gets thru them at all. Even to a high intensity bulb from a flashlight and not a bit of light showed thru.  Don't have a black Happs to try.

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Hellfromabove

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2003, 11:52:18 pm »
Thanks BobA, I hope someone here has tried them with Happs. Please, if anyone has any info I would be greatful. Thanx.

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Kaeru the Frog

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2003, 12:01:41 am »
Can't see anything through my Happs button.

Hellfromabove

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2003, 01:26:39 am »
Ahhh darn. Man looks like I am f***ed. Oh well I will have to figure something out. Anyway if anyone else has info please post. Thanx.

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DinoRoger

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2003, 01:29:40 am »
Put the LED on top of the button.  Unfortantly this is rough on the fingers and not good for the LED.   ;D

phizzle

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2003, 02:07:18 pm »
You could dye a white button black then see if anything gets through.
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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2003, 02:45:43 pm »
This sucks.  Almost all my buttons are black and I wanted to do that LED thing that's currently being worked on where they light up on a per-game basis.
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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2003, 02:56:13 pm »
What is the point?  Why on earth would you put a blue LED under a black button?  You might as well use a red button!  If you want it to light up blue, you should use either a blue button with a white high-intensity LED (2000 mcd or more), or a white button with a blue LED (~1000 mcd should suffice).

For the record, the colored Happs buttons tend to be more opaque (especially the darker colors like red or blue) and I'm sure that the black ones are just about totally opaque.  The white buttons are quite translucent, and require much less intense LEDs to shine thru.

Also, if you don't understand anything about filtering, you should know that you will have a much harder time trying to illuminate colored buttons with different colored LEDs.  For example, if you try to light a red button with a blue LED, you won't see much, since red buttons look red because they filter out all other colors.  Only red or white LEDs will show through.  Remember, white light carries all the colors in the visible spectrum, so they will light up anything (as long as the button is translucent enough.)  I've found that using LEDs that match the button color give a much more saturated illumination and much purer color, but white LEDs make the buttons much brighter.

Also, if you use all white LEDs for your buttons, you don't have to worry about mixing voltages, as different color LEDs use different volts.  However, white LEDs cost a little more.  If you decide to use colored LEDs, I suggest making a lighting board similar to Oscar's, with a different circuit for each color of LEDs, using different resistors to drop the voltage for each bank (depending on which colors you use, and how many of each color.)  You'll have to figure out the resistor values by using Ohm's law.  Easy huh?

Good luck.

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2003, 05:40:41 pm »
I've been toying with the idea of actually installing the leds over / under the buttons on the Control Panel.
kinda like...

 o  - LED
 O - button

or

 O - button
 o - LED

This might take away a little bit of the true arcade feel, but it would work with black buttons.
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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2003, 10:13:28 pm »
SOmething Ive been thinking about is along these lines...

Ive got a wood panel with lexan overlay. I was thinking of drilling thru the wood but not he lexan- say 1-1/8" same as a button and mounting the led or lamp in the middle of the hole.. Put a picture on your overlay that lines up with the hole below- as long as your overlay is translucent enough, it'd show "backlit"  the first example that comes to mind is the dart player on an bar dartboard- Red for dont throw, green for throw

Hellfromabove

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #11 on: May 18, 2003, 10:31:02 pm »
Yeah hey guys last night I was in bed and was wondering if I should like dye them. I will try that out but hey where do you get this dye? Also does anyone know where to buy blue colored player start buttons? Thanx.

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phizzle

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #12 on: May 19, 2003, 12:20:57 am »
I hear rit dye works the best, ive seen it at target.
Doug Sax  dnsax@yahoo.com aka Phizzle

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #13 on: May 19, 2003, 01:19:06 am »
If you must have lights in your black buttons, you could drill a hole in the middle of the button, and then fill the hole with clear epoxy or something similar.  There would be a clear dot in your black buttons when the machine was off, but the dots would glow when it was on.

Hellfromabove

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #14 on: May 19, 2003, 11:47:25 am »
Hey MinerAl that's not a bad idea! I'll think about it. Thanks.

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Re:leds in black buttons?
« Reply #15 on: May 19, 2003, 01:27:58 pm »
lol, I think an LED would shine through MDF before it would shine through a black button.  
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