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Marquee lighting... LEDs or fluorescent?

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SirPeale:

--- Quote from: Level42 on July 27, 2009, 09:36:31 am ---
--- Quote from: mj147 on July 26, 2009, 06:04:07 pm ---Yep my 8 dollar WalMart florescent has been going for 3 years and I have yet to replace the bulb.

--- End quote ---
I've got several original tubes in my original cabs which still work....go figure....

--- End quote ---

They can last a very long time, but 20 years is unlikely.  How do you know they're original?

Level42:
Just depends on how long they have been on....

F.I. I live in my current home for 12 years now. We have a fluorescent tube kinda' like the size of one used in a marquee under a kitchen cabinet. That tube has been on for every dark hour when we're at home. Of course we're not home every night, but the vast majority we were. It went bust a couple of weeks ago. Of course, if a cab was in an arcade on for 24 hrs/day, it won't last 20 years....but not all cabs were on that long....

F.I. My Meteor has a tube with Japanese markings on it. The cab came from Germany where it was very likely  imported when it was new. It's _very_ unlikely that they replaced it over here with a Japanese tube....

My SW has a tube manufactured in Ireland......the cab has the original importer stickers on it, so I'm pretty sure it spent it's entire live in The Netherlands and getting a tube from there (in the land of Philips) is pretty unlikely.

Of couse, there's no firm proof but it is amazing. 10000 hrs. are normal ratings for a tube. That's a VERY long time in home cab use....

Beretta:
about 14 months.. of full on use.
led's however usually have 100k hours+ life time, which is about 11 and a half years.

course i've only seen a LED fail once in which it was not over juiced, they die pretty quick if you give them more then they're rated for.

fluorescent last a long time, no debate, and really there is no BIG reason not to go with them.. but LED's i think are better in the long run.

not ot mention you could if you so desired wire up the marquee to flash or something.. wont bother LED's flourescents on the other hand dont like to be turned off and on.. especially not rapidly.

if for example you powered up to play a game for 20mins, then turned it off then came back a few hours later and did the same thing that sort of use would wear the light out a lot faster then it's rated "10k hours", leds on the other hand would'nt mind one bit..

although i suspect that type of use would'nt be to healthy for the crt either but dunno.

protokatie:

--- Quote ---not ot mention you could if you so desired wire up the marquee to flash or something.. wont bother LED's flourescents on the other hand dont like to be turned off and on.. especially not rapidly.
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Just to add clarity to that, it isn't so much the tubes that dont like to be cycled, it is the ballast (starter unit) and other electronic components that don't like to be cycled. Although it isn't very good for the tube to be cycled as well, it isn't the achille's heel here. The only real problem I could see with a tube being cycled is that it would have more thermal shock over time and thus lead to small "cracks" allowing in more air, and also the possibility that the phosphor layer would react and break down a little quicker.

Turnarcades:

--- Quote from: AndyWarne on July 27, 2009, 02:19:04 pm ---We sell a CCFL tube which runs from 12 volts which is intended for this purpose, so thats a third option.

Andy

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Seconded, we use cold cathode on our cabs and it works a treat - backlit nicely but not glowing like a beacon. The low power consumption helps and they are easily connected straight to a PC via an in-line IDE connection.

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