My tron pro does not have LEDs - I think it is just the premium/LEs

The LEs will have the LEDs installed that make it tough to switch them in & out. The Pros will have regular bulbs with lamp matrix. I prefer the lamp matrix with sockets that make it easy to change bulbs in and out myself. Not everyone will like the colors they chose and I am sure some may prefer incadescent bulbs. I wish they would of just used regular sockets and matrix with LEDs on LEs to make things much more easily interchangeable.

+1

If they wanna use LED's just put them in the normal lamp sockets. I'd prefer to be able to mix & match to my own liking.

I'm pretty sure it is all

Without even seeing the new setup, here's probably why Stern did what they did:

From viewing some videos, it appears Stern is using tri-color LEDs - which can generate up to 7 basic colors at full steady state (RED,GREEN,BLUE,YELLOW, CYAN, MAGENTA and WHITE). These cannot be controlled accurately (or not worth doing) with a traditional single color lamp matrix as they consume too many I/O lines. So, with some creative software, each lamp can have it's own independent color using an off-board LED lamp driver (serial, usb or whatever).

The serial bus route to control lamps if definatlly a step in the right direction. It probably the biggest leap in their pinball technology. Now if they can just get rid if their crappy rollover switches that would be awesome.

Avengers has been rumored to be the first all led pro.

i'd think roll overs could easily be replaced with proximity resistors. Just have one of those in each lane instead.

I can only speak for X-Men LE (but I believe Tron LE was the same way). The leds in X-Men LE are just white LEDs on a small circuit board (not color changers as you have speculated). These small circuit boards are each connected to an LED control board under the playfield. X-Men has 4 of these LED control boards linked together under the playfield.

As for the GI lights in the game...they use regular 44 and 555 sockets. The GI lighting can change in the game, but they way it does it is not from using color changing bulbs. There are basically red, white and blue GI bulbs scattered throughout the game. Each color is on a different line. So if the game wants the GI to be red...it just shuts off the white and blue line. If it wants the GI to be blue...it shuts off the red and white line. ect, ect.. to get whatever combination of GI lighting it wants.

AC/DC does have some color changing inserts. I am not sure how these are done.

I'm confused about this myself with respect to replacements:

So what are the specs when ordering replacements (IE--what specific bulbs do you order: in the past you'd ask for 1LEDs vs 3LEDs in 44s or 555s, etc...so what do you ask for now?)/and who sells them?

Seems like the game list this applies to thus far is:

1. TRON LE
2. ACDC
3. XMEN

I thought CT made the new controlled lamp LEDs but not certain of that.
At this time I think you have to get replacements from Stern directly or possible from your distributor. I am assuming that eventually you will be able to get replacements from a retailer.

I think the list so far is Tron LE, AC/DC premium and LEs, and X-Men LEs.

Once again, speaking for X-Men LE (as it is the only one of these recent games I have) the lights under the inserts are tiny circuit boards that have a cool white light coming out of them. If one of them would go bad you would have to get a replacement from Stern or a Stern distributor. As SealClubber said, I would guess in the future some pinball parts resellers will probably start selling these boards, but I'm sure they are fairly reliable and I have never heard of anyone having problems with them. The tiny boards are actually soldered on so it's not as simple as plug and play or changing a bulb. All of them on X-Men LE are cool white and as far as I know there are no other color options available.

As far as the GI lights go. They use a regular 555 or 44 socket. The bulbs that Stern is using in the GI are cointaker double LEDs.....but any 555 or 44 LEDs should work.

Tron LE has incadescent GI and the LEDs attached to circuit boards for inserts.
TF LE has CT LEDs in GI and the LED boards for inserts
AC/DC, same as TF LE, but they introduced 3 different GI colors and multi color insert boards
Xmen LE has CT LEDs in GI and LED boards (no multi color)

Biggest issue there is the TDA Proximity chip is now obsolete. I have not found replacment from any chip company yet. I expect to see replacment proximity parts starting to climb in price in a few years because of that.

K2

AC/DC Premium has three LED subsystems.

1) RGB LED and GI - deliver 4 channels of GI and 16 channels for RGB. This board is controlled by the serial port on the CPU board - not the power-driver board.

2) Serial LED system, replacing the lamp matrix. This system feeds a string of boards that either have the LEDs and serial controller on the board, or also feed separate LED lamps mounted individually. I just replaced my AC/D target insert boards with blue LEDs to get the color to look bluer - the white LEDs blow through the blue, making it more of a tint than a color. Pics here: http://smu.gs/Ovc9ER

There are no longer any lamp matrix connectors - the LED system is controlled by an FPGA on the power-driver board.

3) The flames board, which uses the strobe and data interface from the power-driver board.

The target insert on the left has a blue LED underneath it. The left center insert is a light blue, and the right is an original white LED.
acdcblue.jpg

So, I've read that Stern switched to serial LED controllers rather than using the lamp matrix, and best I can tell it was between Tron Pro and TRON LE. Correct?
Anything after then will have LEDs from the factory and no option to use incandescent bulbs, correct?
Any idea what the new Tron Pro machines will have?