Miniature Bulbs for Skeeball Rope Light

[acebh]

The chase / rope lights on my Bug Bash skeeball have some burnt bulbs.. they're on a flexible PCB board so I can just unsolder them with replacements if I can find the right size.  I tried pulling some out of some regular rope lights and although the bulbs look similar, they're much smaller (you can see the few mini bulbs I pulled out of a regular strand of rope lights).  Wondering if anyone knows where I might be able to find larger replacements?  They're a little larger than a regular LED bulb (but they aren't LEDs)... and have plastic bulb housing.

[acebh]

Think I found a replacement that should work.  There are 16 bulbs on each pcb board and 5 wires / traces on the PCB.  Each bulb connects to the 24v supply on one lead.  So then there's 4 bulbs per each of the remaining wires, wired in parallel.

Getting some 24v 50ma micro bulbs from here:
http://www.bulbtronics.com/Search-The-Warehouse/ProductDetail.aspx?sid=0011697&pid=MI2176

The diameter matches almost exactly, the length is I think a little longer.. but considering they're 50ma and I also saw very small bulbs for doll houses rated at 40ma I think I'll be safe from a current perspective.  I think upon further inspection all of the bulbs had broken filaments.  At first I was like, how can these be wired in parallel and not be lighting some of the bulbs, but i checked with a multimeter and looked very close at them and each ones filament was not connected.

Hopefully this works.. prob be cheaper if I could have found a strand of Christmas lights with them in it, but at least I'll know the bulb is good for 24v and $0.26 ea isn't a bad price =)

[acebh]

For the few people in the world that might own a Bug Bash or similar Baytek game that uses these types of rope lights with flexible PCB board.... the lamps from Bulbtronics appear to be an exact match in size & worked out wonderfully.  I had two completely non-working rope lights (top and bottom of marquee)... replaced 16 bulbs on each PCB board and they're working great now!

[Kevin Mullins]

Cool...... always like to hear tidbits like this.