Did you look into the "Hover" option on the Pinstadium lights? They are adjustable mounts for them so they attach to the playfield instead of the sides of the cabinet. With them installed you can raise and lower the playfield without having to detach and reattach the Pinstadium lights.

We sell spotlight kits which have a few different ways to attach to the GI on Spike 2 games. One option is alligator clips to the lugs of a GI socket, and another is to replace a GI bulb with one of our bulbs that has a built in connector.

https://www.cometpinball.com/products/spotlight-kit

If you look at our Deadpool Kit, you can see how big of a difference they make.

I’d recommend two double spotlight kits, one on top of each sling, matched to the GI color of your game. Which game is it?

Sweet! GOTG uses Cool White for the GI I believe, and JP uses Warm White from the factory.

10-12 spotlights? You're not going to get the "power" of Pinstadiums from spotlights. With that said, I wouldn't make pinstadium the standard either.

Best way is to use Ryan's spotlight kit and tap off of a GI bulb, or buy individual spotlights from Pinball Life or PB Resource and do the same. you shouldn't need any additional hardware. Just find a spot that doesn't obscure the ball and solder some wiring to a GI bulb. Add in your choice of wedge bulb. In your case, you'll want some kind of white. Just 2 or 3 spotlights should be enough. I usually go with one on one of the slings, and one midfield, both pointing towards the back of the game.

Scribbles & Ryan let me know if there's anything I can do to help, every soul we save matters!

I've been wondering about adding some lights that are insert-controlled. Is there a way to do this on a spike 2 game, other than by rewiring something? I've considered just making a 2-way adapter to the light board I'm interested in.

Comet's spotlight kits are great. Here's a before and after of my Deadpool with a single pair installed. (Note that there's more going on here than just the spotlights; their DP kit also gets rid of the horrid red GI.)

IMG_20200229_211328 (resized).jpg

IMG_20200328_185542 (resized).jpg

I believe the hovers stick to the playfield or the plastics. I think this depends on the game and what is along the edge of each side of the playfield.

Yeah, I did one on each sling. If you did the doubles it wouldn't be Pinstadium bright, but I bet it would illuminate the middle quite nicely.

Yes, looks like this:

Screen Shot 2020-04-08 at 11.04.02 PM (resized).png

It's embarrassing that I don't know the answer to this...but does the GI have it's own fuse on Spike games? All previous systems have them, but I couldn't find anything int the manual for GOTG other than a single 8A fuse (but I don't know what that goes to).

For games with a separate fuse for GI, the worst you could do by overloading is blow the fuse.

So, I've never tried to overload. You'd be fine with several sets of spots, but I don't know where the limit is.

For games that have socketed inserts, you can use quick connect bulbs to power mods that are driven by the state of whatever insert you want. Unfortunately, we don't have anything that would work for Spike LED boards, but would love to have a product like that.

Beautiful before and after...thanks for posting!! It's neat that Stern is trying stuff out, but the stock red GI along the sides of Deadpool was a "miss", in our opinion.

Actually, Stern's factory GI was Cool White and Red, both with clear lenses. What you see in the pic is frosted sunlight bulbs (of the same brightness). It sounds like you (OP) want to smooth out the brightness so that it's more even (and not so dark in the center of the playfield). Frosted GI bulbs would help with this...they're less harsh on the eyes than the clear lenses can be.

Our spotlight kit is a convenience for people who don't want to figure out which parts they need (it comes with #6 and #8 hex posts, and multiple types of connectors)...but we do have all of the individual components for sale as well (and in fact, they're listed out on the Spotlight product page). Soldering does always make a better and more permanent connection, if you know that's what you want.

For the back, you can also add longer strips (a 50SMD strip is the right length) and stick them underneath the back lip near where the glass slides in. You might still get a little reflection on the playfield or plastics depending on the game. After installing it, you can lift the playfield without worrying about it. Our Twilight Zone kit includes this, so you could look at that to see pics and video (and I have mine attached through one of our brightness adjusters, so you can turn it down the brightness if needed).

Thanks everyone who has put in a good word for Comet products!

Here’s our game with a white backboard light and a white trough light, everything else in the pic is stock lighting. We have these strips custom made and they put out a lot of light. You could add two more spotlights in the middle and that would give you plenty of light. If you can’t solder, I could wire up spotlights so you could easily connect to your game.

https://lermods.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fdeadpool-pinball-led-strip-backboard-light-kit

https://lermods.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fdeadpool-pinball-led-strip-trough-light-kit

Someone asked about triggering off insert lighting, you can’t do it unless you tap into the wiring, which I would not advise doing, or you can solder to a light board if that’s how the insert is lit. You can use a relay system if you want a mod to trigger off an insert, we do this for many of our mods.

FA1B4099-31E0-4CC6-8485-B708DAAC0B40 (resized).jpeg

Thanks guys!

I am thinking of making a harness that will allow me to run wires from the board in question (this is on an EHOH) but is removeable without damaging the game. I -think- I have the right connectors.

Just a word of caution that modern Sterns are built using properly calculated power budgets. A node board may detect fault if you overdraw power.

If you are adding a lot of lights, I'd consider an additional power supply or pulling power somewhere other than existing bulbs.

Aah thanks for the heads up!

I don't think so, they are driven by node boards, which shut down if they sense a short or overload.

I think there is only the main power fuse in SPIKE 2 games. I believe some of the early SPIKE 1 boards were fused, but people come to discover the boards would blow before the fuses did...so they just removed the fuses from the boards all together.

dammit...so close.