Gameroom lighting. Show your solutions !

[Level42]

I'm currently planning my to be build Gameroom and I'm thinking of several options on lighting. First coming to mind is halogen spots in the ceiling on top of the cabs. These should of course be dim-able. I think Halogen has a very nice color light and will bring up the artwork really good. (I hope to have a little space between my cabs so to show the side-art, spots would be placed between cabs).

It's also pretty energy efficient.

The other idea was using colored (not black-light) fluorescent tubes  against the top or bottom (or both) of the walls to get a "streaking" light along the wall. This would be effect lighting.

I've also considered building my own LED lighting. The readily available LED lamps are too expensive IMHO.

I'd like to see your solutions !

[TheShanMan]

Great topic! I've been thinking about lighting for my next house's game room. I'm thinking about a combination of black lights and some kind of dimmable regular lights. I think the black lights should dominate though.

I was in an airport arcade (Charleston, SC) recently which gave me the idea - don't know why I didn't think about black lights before, but it is a great arcade atmosphere!

I am also very interested in hearing what people have done.

[richms]

If you shop around the lighting places, there are coloured tubes for the T4 or T5 linkable under counter lights. These are better because they have less watts per metre then the bigger T8's so you can have the light more distributed then if you had the fat tubes.

Otherwise do it rangi-style and put some coloured cellophane over the tubes.

I would avoid halogens - not energy efficient at all, and the point light source makes for contrasty shadows which may make the sides look crap if it scrapes it at a low angle, all the defects, and the edges of the sideart will be really pronounced. the LED retrofits for MR16 halogens are pretty lousy too, and not many are dimable since they have a capacitor in them they just pull all their power when the dimmer is on and make for noisier transformers and hotter dimmers. Forget the line voltage ones altogether.

[patrickl]

I've been using LED strips recently and they are great. I used it to light up the edge under the bath tub  (water resistant LED strips). Took me forever to design and built a fram for the tub, but I finally got it done and it looks great (if I say so myself  )

I'm amazed by the amount of light that comes from these strips. The bath tub is lighted by a total of 7.5 Watts white leds and it's quite a lot of light. So much so that it's overpowering the regular lamp that's on the ceiling.

They can change color too if you like. That's more expensive of course.

I was thinking about using this for the game room too. I paid about 100 euro for the bath tub solution and estimate a price of around 750 euro for my game room (14 meters of 24V full color strips totalling 120 Watt, RGB controller and power adapter) That's a bit pricey, so I'm not sure if I will actually go that way. Alternatively I could opt for lower power strips and get something like 65 Watts total for 500 euro.

Or maybe I will just use a smaller strip and use regular lights for the rest.

I'm not a fan of halogen. I had a lot of halogen lights, but they kept breaking a lot.

[richms]

Dealextreme have a new controller for the RGB ropelights that has a freeze on whatever colour you choose, which would be a good addition to the RGB ropelight they sell.

Its all 12v stuff tho with dropper resistors so you don't get fantastic efficiency out of it, but certainly better then halogens.

[Hoopz]

I've been using LED strips recently and they are great. I used it to light up the edge under the bath tub  (water resistant LED strips). Took me forever to design and built a fram for the tub, but I finally got it done and it looks great (if I say so myself  )

Sounds interesting.  Have any pics you can post?

[patrickl]

I've been using LED strips recently and they are great. I used it to light up the edge under the bath tub  (water resistant LED strips). Took me forever to design and built a frame for the tub, but I finally got it done and it looks great (if I say so myself )

Sounds interesting.  Have any pics you can post?

Forgot to take pictures, but I took some today and found one picture of the build on my GF's camera:


I build a wooden frame to support the tub and the bottom steps in. The whirlpool (Jacuzzi?) type installation on the tub made this a bit of a puzzle. also the whole left needs to come off for maintenance of the motor. The motor also needs ventilation, so I left a gap between the outer and inner bottom frame. The wood is painted with waterproofing paint (due to the ventilation gap it's exposed to humidity in the bathroom).

The LED strips are not yet in position here. They are placed on the bottom of the outer frame.



Tub with only the led strip on and daylight coming through the window. The color of the LED light is comparable to daylight. It's quite bright too. The 2.5m (8 ft) strip is rated at 7.5Watts.



Tub with all lights in the bathroom on. The color of the incandescent bulbs is a lot more yellow (color corrected so the LED looks blue)



Forgot to take a picture of the led strip, but here is something similar It's a flexible tape encased in a waterproof silicone housing.

[Level42]

Nice Patrick ! You need to do the cupboards under the sinks too !

[patrickl]

Nice Patrick ! You need to do the cupboards under the sinks too !

Lol, yeah. I wish these leds were a bit cheaper. I'd put them everywhere. I'd turn my whole house into a big mood lamp 

I first tried some Ikea LED strips (LED bars) under the steps of the stairs. Looks cool too. Trouble is that the Ikea stuff is just not very practical (only switchable per 4 strips). These strips (flexible tape) like used under the bath tub would work a lot better.

BTW they also have halogen replacement lamps. So if you go for halogen, you can always decide on LED lamps later (or vice versa).

[Hoopz]

Very nice.   

Glad there weren't people in the bathtub during the pics.  Knowing Patrick's sense of humor, I was half expecting that.   






 

[shardian]

Very nice.   

Glad there weren't people in the bathtub during the pics.  Knowing Patrick's sense of humor, I was half expecting that.   






 

IIRC, Patrick has the hot GF that wore the thong bikini...or is that level42. Bah, its one of you Euro's.

EDIT: I was right initially. Yes, I think we all would like to see patickl's GF give a demo of her new tub.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=44853.msg677546#msg677546

[Level42]

Glad there weren't people in the bathtub during the pics. 

What Shardian says: you couldn't be more wrong......

Not me Shardian, not me......I'm in a different league 

I bet someone will turn up with a photoshopped picture in no time....

[patrickl]

Very nice.   

Glad there weren't people in the bathtub during the pics.  Knowing Patrick's sense of humor, I was half expecting that.   

Ha, ha, actually I was filling the tub when I realized I needed to take some pictures to show the LED lighting. Indeed you're lucky I'm more shy than my GF

[ChadTower]

Thank god more that he didn't take a shot straight down like most ebay sellers... I can't stand feet in the photo.  This would be worse.

[patrickl]

Tssss

You can actually see me in the reflection on the wall. Well mostly the camera stand, but I'm behind it.

[richms]

dealextreme have led strips pretty cheap. Just be aware they are 12v DC so you cant just use a halogen light transformer like with the AC powered MR16 retrofits which have a rectifier and capacitor in the cap of them.

[Paul Olson]

Not really related to lighting, but something to think about while you are planning your lighting.

I was tired of trying to get behind games and run extension cords to get the games on. I have a friend who is an electrician, and he helped me wire up switches for each game. I have the capacity for 10 games in the garage now, which is the most I can cram in there since the arcade is limited to half of the garage. It makes life so much easier. One of these days, I will get around to printing out marquee stickers so everyone can tell which is which.

[patrickl]

Don't arcade machines come with their own on/off switch?

[Level42]

Yes, but some of them (like Nintendo) are all the way on the back lower side. Very hard to reach already, but especially if you need to put machines (almost) next to eachother.

It's great to have a central switching place where you can turn on the individual cabs.

Good tip, but I've actually already been planning something similar, or even more advanced. I want to be able to switch each game like you did, but it looks like to me that every switch directly switches mains power, which means a lot of (expensive) heavy mains wiring. I've been thinking of using relais and low voltage wiring instead. Or else, a domotica system (wireless or not)....

[Paul Olson]

Yeah, it wasn't cheap. The price of copper is ridiculous. I wanted another breaker for the games, so this seemed to be the best way to go. I think it was about $120 for the wire, switches, and breaker. If I would have known how much it cost beforehand, I probably wouldn't have done it, but I am glad I did now.

[ChadTower]

I just used a remote control outlet strip.  They go on clearance every year right after Xmas because stores stock up on them for people to use on outdoor Xmas displays.  One button on a remote and three games pop right on or off.  No custom wiring needed.

[Luigi]

We have simply put some light tubes on the cable ducts.

See some pictures here : http://www.thludwig.de/arcade/event_2008-03-22.htm

We first planned to hide them behind "angles" so they only light the walls and do not shine directly into the room.....but we liked it this way

[Level42]

That looks very nice Thorsten ! I think that's LED's ? Or the usual "christmas" strings ?

Man, I have _got_ to visit you guys !! What a lovely collection and game room, that looks like a proper arcade What area of Germany are you living ( I think I knew before, but I can't find it :S)

Love the wall Donkey Kong !!!

[Luigi]

It's the normal christmas stuff We plan to use LEDs in the future....they live longer and help to save power/money.

We are in 67435 Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.....Rheinland-Pfalz....near french border. It's only 2,5hrs to NL

[drawfull]

We do a lot of work with Viabizzuno, an Italian lighting manufacturer. Check out their Net wall lights (if you can sacrifice a little vertical wall space) and 094 system (google images). Both would work very well in a gameroom environment.   

[Level42]

It's the normal christmas stuff We plan to use LEDs in the future....they live longer and help to save power/money.

We are in 67435 Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.....Rheinland-Pfalz....near french border. It's only 2,5hrs to NL

4 hours and 45 minutes from my home to your place :S

I'll definitely come along one time. Let me know when you plan a "party"

[Level42]

Look what daddy got for his gameroom........ 







Real Neon

Was talking with my new colleague about my games and that I was planning a gameroom and lighting etc. Turned out he collected home consoles AND had some nice neon tubes !

The short one is red, the longer is blue.
I tested them with the showed transformer but they were quite dim. Looked up a lot if info about neon and it turns out that this transformer (2000V) is simply to low voltage for a "thick" and long tubes like this.

I won two brand new much more modern electronic transformers that have auto voltage ranging etc. etc. and are much more power efficient on e-bay, so I'll return the shown transformer to my colleague. I really like the neon a lot, they will complement my Pinball and "Pac Man" neons nicely

[patrickl]

Nice one.

Is that something you can easily replace when it breaks? Or do these things usually last so long that replacing them won't be an issue?

[Level42]

I've read neons do 40,000 hours. The power supplies I've bought regulate themselves. The are the latest generation and draw up to 66% less energy than the old electromagnetic transformers. They also auto regulate the voltage so it will give a constant light level through the lifetime of the tubes.

I've no clue how old these tubes are and if they've run for a long time....will have to take the gamble....

Here's info on the power supply I bought.
http://www.ventextech.com/pdf/GenIIIBrochure.pdf

This manufacturer also has a (windows) program to calculate what type of supply is needed for a certain tube length, diameter and type. It turned up with exactly this PS:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200251805135

Great price for 2 units IMHO. The shipping spoilt the fun a bit, but still a good deal IMHO.