I think Stern did a great job with the Batman66 LE/SLE topper. Of all the toppers they've done I think this one really compliments the machine. The only issue I have with it is the rotating beacon on top. To keep the design simple Stern uses 10 LED's that are lit an unlit in a way to simulate the rotating beacon on the Batmobile. It looks OK but is a bit slow for my tastes. Stern also uses white LED's which tend to make the beacon look a bit pink. If you just replace the white LED boards with Red ones its a big improvment. However that doesn't fix the rather slow rotating pattern. Here is the Stern Topper in action.
I first got the idea to replace the innards of the Stern beacon when I saw a used Rescue 911 rotating beacon at the Saratoga pinball show for just $1. I went ahead and bought it to see if I could make it work with the Stern topper. The pic below shows the Stern LED assembly which is easily removed.
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The rotating Rescue 911 beacon did fit inside the Stern housing with a little trimming but the big drawback was that it was noisey. Being mechanical in nature, it mades a noticeable "whirring" type noise when turned on.
I decided to try one of the more modern "simulated" rotating beacons instead. The Wolo Hawkeye 3010-R looked like a good candidate.
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It uses 108 LED's to simulate a rotating beacon and since there are no moving parts its totally silent. The pics below shows the Wolo with its 6 LED panels with 18 LED's per panel. It also has a switch that can be used to set the type of rotating pattern you want.
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I was able to fit the LED portion of the Wolo inside the Stern housing. I had to space it up a bit with some standoffs so the LED's would be centered within the slots in the Stern housing. Even though there are a lot of LED's in the Wolo you will still see them distinctly if you don't diffuse the light from them.
The Wolo comes with a diffusing lens that surrounds the LED's. This lens unfortunately is way to big to fit within the Stern housing. To make it fit I had to cut the top of the lens then a cut a chunk out of its side. I then reformed it into a smaller diameter and glued it in place. You can see the glue seam in the pic below. it looks rather crude but once its in the housing it looks fine.
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TO control the Wolo lights a used a great little mod called "T.I.L.T Mods basic F2S board" You can get them here:
https://www.timspinballmods.com/collections/mod-designer-tools/products/t-i-l-t-mods-basic-f2s-board-5v-version
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I had Tim make me a 12V version so I could use it to to drive the 12V Wolo and not have to bother with getting 5V to Tim's board. The way the device works is you give it power and a trigger. The trigger in this case is the flashing bat logo on the topper. Whenever the topper is on that bat logo flashes and will in turn activate the Wolo. Here is the board and a pic of it installed under the Wolo.
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The video below shows the new and improved beacon in action.
Ironically enough as I was finishing the mod tonight I had MeTV on in the background and tonight they were playing the Batman66 False Face episode. That episode uses the "False Inflatable Batmobile" gadget which also happens to be the gadget version on my Batman66. Holy Bat-coincidence!
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