(Topic ID: 235100)

Bally 6803 Eight Ball Champ Display flicker

By newbieinKC

5 years ago


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  • 22 posts
  • 7 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by Skidave
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#7 5 years ago
Quoted from newbieinKC:

When you say "increased load on +5 line", do you think the current required to run LEDs is way higher than what the plasma control boards consume from +5V normally? I would hate to fry my 6803 control board (which is nearly irreplaceable) to fix a problem with my power module (which has aftermarket options).

Pretty much any aftermarket LED display is running off of the +5v power supply and will add additional current to the 5v regulator. For this type of display (Bally 6-digit or 7-digit displays) it'll be somewhere between 0.8-1.5A for a set of 5x displays in most cases. The nice thing is, the displays on Bally machines are multiplexed, so theoretically this load the regulator sees is "pulsed" and not a constant load. This is also worse-case with 8's lighting on each display (ie. all segments lit up). I wrote some technical stuff a few years back when I did load testing explaining the numbers more.. took a bit of time to get a good test setup, but gave me something to shoot for in my own display designs as I wanted to "play nice" with the 5v regulator.

The Pinitech UNO / Pinitech TRADITIONAL displays I'm selling light the displays plenty bright IMO, but are more conservative in current consumption than some of the other aftermarket display sets. What I found is "low current design" gets tossed around a lot in marketing & I wanted to ensure I could back it up if I listed that as a feature myself. As such, I chose to limit their max current to something that still lit them plenty bright, while also keeping them lower current than quite a few other aftermarket display sets. At max, displays I'm selling are going to be around 100mA current per display (0.5-0.6A per set). That's less than a number of other displays on the market. I figured why not. No reason to drive the LEDs hard, since at some point driving them with more current doesn't gain you a lot in terms of brightness. Plus, I can feel comfortable advertising them as a "low current design" this way.. even if someone's using 7x displays in $6MM

#10 5 years ago
Quoted from newbieinKC:

Sold. You should see my PayPal in your inbox. Can't wait to get them. My son and I will have a fun time finishing the DIY.

Shipped out today! If you have any questions once you get everything, LMK!

I recommend just assembling one display initially & verify it works in your game. That does two things -- first, it gives you something to model the others displays you build off of & once you see it light-up in the machine, it provides A LOT of motivation to finish the entire set

#13 5 years ago
Quoted from newbieinKC:

I took a pic with all white and ROY G BIV (clockwise from top left: Red, Plasma Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue)

Looks nice! Seeing a picture of the multi-color in EBC, I really like it!!

Here's why..

  • It fits a pool theme since in pool you have to take turns & you can associate the color to which player you are.
  • Pool balls are different colors, so it makes sense for the theme there too.
  • Livens up the backglass!

I honestly wasn't sure what I'd think of it but even with the backglass graphics, it doesn't look out of place at all. There's a display in different areas of the scene, making them tie into the backglass graphics as well. Pretty cool idea!

Quoted from newbieinKC:

I am trying to figure out now if I just keep my old displays that work well but who knows for how long...

Definitely get those tossed up in a classified ad if you don't think you'll need them for another game anytime soon! Nice 7-digit displays I'd think $35ea or so as long as they're bright, lighting digits uniformly, no burn marks, etc. Should be able to recoup a good bulk of the cost of the LED set!

#15 5 years ago
Quoted from newbieinKC:

If I keep it this way, I am going to pump up the red and green intensity a bit. I left the potentiometers at stock level and it seems like the plasma orange filter results in a little bit lower intensity than the originals. Seems fine to me, but if someone is going to try to match one display they would probably have to play around with the intensity to get a close match. I am sure they will be able to make the match.

Yep, after I test them to verify millamp current output at high brightness end of the potentiometer range I also test the pot functions correctly and display dims down nicely. Then I just turn the pot horizontal. You'll likely want to turn up brightness depending on color. Easy enough for people to dial it in as they wish I don't get technical with setting any color any specific way.

#17 5 years ago
Quoted from jj44114:

No offense, but the original HV displays look better.

I welcome anyone try an orange digit led display to see what it looks like in-person. You can mix the orange digit led displays with plasma and they don't stick out like many led displays would. I think that's a pretty awesome thing to have achieved. Of course, if you're talking about other colors in games, many people like customizing the look of their games and aren't hung up on orange/plasma for long. Judging things from pictures is also tough, as displays do look a bit different in-person due to camera speeds and multiplexing, as well as lighting conditions, etc.

But, I won't have to speak much about these for long. Enough people are trying them that plenty more feedback and comments on the look of them will come in over time. So no worries, to each their own. Buy what you like.

#21 5 years ago

When I started offering these custom digit displays last year, I fully expected to not be able to satisfy EVERY die-hard plasma display fan. I knew there'd be a certain small percentage that regardless if you 100% matched everything, just KNOWING it was an LED display, they wouldn't like it. My bet is I could go to a pinball show, throw window tint over a plasma glass display (with a different style comma than the others), call it an LED display.. and have some people say it didn't look as nice as the originals because they in-fact believed it was the "new led display". That's what it amounts to for some of that crowd, and I'm okay with that!

My goal was to satisfy the other 90% of the people that have been looking for displays that matched plasma displays better. Personally, I think I'll have achieved that goal, but again, I'll let others be the judge. That's the fun part for me, seeing what other people think as they see these in-person.

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