New Vishay 128x32 LED dot matrix display released

By PinballManiac40

March 31, 2010

This story got featured on March 31, 2010

Hi to all modern pinball fans. There is now a new replacement dot matrix display on the market to replace that old plasma display. It is a Vishay 128x32 LED display. It has already been released and comes in either orange or RED!!!! Prices are high right now, of course ,since it is a new release. I plan on populating every machine of mine as my budget allows me to. I'll probably get my first one late this summer.

This Vishay LED display in particular is one solid array. The PinLED one that has been out over a year now actually has several small array segments that can be replaced individually if you get one dot that goes out. What are the actual chances that one dot will go out anyway being that it is LED? In general, LED's are designed to last 8+ years, when left on for 24 hours a day 7 days a week and usually are brighter.

Myself, I'll be choosing this Vishay route because it is just my preference. I like how the viewable display is designed so close to the original plasma displays.

Here is a link to the specs.

http://www.vishay.com/displays/graphic-led/

Since Stern is now the only pinball company left, I'm hoping that eventually they will make a pinball that has a dot matrix display with 1 million possible colors. I think that will take the visual effects of the display to a new exciting level.

Play on!!!

Brian

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They must be expensive if I do not even see a price listed on the site. Oh well, maybe in a few years this tech will be cheaper.

Oh yeah. Mouser Electronics has an orange display for $267 and a red one for $387.

It would be a good replacement,but I would love to see Stern come out with an LCD display!

At the very least a display with multi-colors...say 1 million colors.

If they can get the price down to $200 for the amber then it might be worth it since they will last longer. But at $300+ you lose the long term cost benefit. But it's good to know there is another option.

I'm considering getting one in the next couple of months. I will offset some of the cost by selling the used plasma display out of my Dr. Who. It sure would be nice though if the price dropped some first.

These are quite nice but far from new. I had one of these from Vishay nearly five years ago. Had it installed in a Twilight Zone - the LED's were too fast for the animations...it was awful. The added current for the one I had (LED-128-G032) had a huge +5V current draw of nearly 2 amps. Try adding that one to the wimpy 5V regulator! The current generation runs at half that current but are still hogs (just like the PinLED's). Vishay asked for feedback on this one. I told them three things: reduce power, black solder mask instead of a green one and be able to control response time (tough task). They said they would cut power... and did. They said there was no way to vary response time (I was dreaming). And, they said they would change the mask color but so far haven't. I doubt you'll see a decrease in price - it's still the same price they were asking back in winter of 2005.

I gave the Vishay LED display a try. It functions very well with no animation problems. There is a display problem with the way they designed the matrix using dozens of small segments. These segments are either too close to one another or too far apart so you do not get a consistent lineup of the dots horizontally or veritically. So on the display test, a full lit display actually allows you to see lines where it should just be a solid rectangle. The problem is with the segments, which are not uniform from one piece to another. Highly disappointing. I'm glad I got my money back minus the shipping both directions of course.

So I did move on to the PinLED display. It also uses segments, but have many more LEDs per segment, which require less segments to make the full DMD display matrix. The display now attaches to the 9 VAC power line. There is no animation problems with this display. I am now satisfied with a LED DMD replacement. I installed a red transparent overlay over the DMD so now the DMD takes on a new look in the Twilight Zone pinball machine.