Hi all,
perhaps some of you BOP owners has noticed that replacing the helmet light bulbs with LEDs makes them flicker. Since I wasn't happy with this I made my own PCB that is a "drop-in" replacement for the normal chase light board. I know there are other solutions to this problems, but they tend to at least demand that you disassemble and remove parts of the helmet and I didn't want to do that.
The replacement board uses PWM to fade the LEDs to make them behave more like a standard light bulb and there is no need for any special LEDs. The board also creates a new regulated DC supply voltage (~3-9Volt depending on a resistor on the board) for driving the LEDs which is essential to make them flicker-free. This DC supply connects to the LEDs by routing a new cable from one of the previously unused pins on a board connector and attaching it to the free-hanging cable connector leading up to the helmet (white-orange cable).
It is also possible to use the board without the PWM-function (by adding a jumper to the board) and using it as a drop-in replacement for the normal chase light board together with light bulbs. Then there is no need for the extra white-orange cable, just remove the old board and attach this new one.
I'm not quite sure how the legal part is regarding making replacement parts for pinball machines. Perhaps someone can enlighten me, and if there is any problems I will remove this post.
I did this replacement board for myself, but I have some spare boards if anyone is interested and if the legal part is okay?
Here is a video (although hard to shoot) of the board in action together with some purple/pink LEDs:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mgi1wWpcmel2s3FpjWO4BgApkBiFuXS4/view