I've got a boatload of premium cointaker LEDs. I've read that these don't work as well with the LED OCD (basically any non-ghosting LEDs).

Should I go out and buy some non-premium ones or will these work just fine? I've got 2 machines I want to LED over but not sure which route to take. Figure I can always sell the LEDs I've got and recoup some money.

I have Comets no ghost in my Avatar LE and it ghosted then I put the OCD in. The lights look perfect now even with the OCD set at default. I know it's a pain but try your bulbs with the OCD, you might like it. Report back if you try this.

I would try it, I have no issue with no ghost bulbs, at least with default settings. Comet only makes no ghosting bendie bulbs which I use a lot mixed with normal bulbs.

Isn't it only an issue if you set it below 40%? What do most people have theirs set at?

Well, the circuitry that prevents them from ghosting also prevents them from fading on/off quite as smoothly, and prevents them from dimming properly. Basically anything below roughly 40% illumination (varies by manufacturer) it will just shut off, with virtually no room for dimming between the on and off states. It's not a huge deal really, moreso for GI OCD I feel, but if you're already shelling out the cash for LED OCD, I feel like you might as well spend the extra $50 on new bulbs to get it perfect. Just my opinion of course.

An old bump!

Question!
Anyone have the measurements for the GI OCD and the Led OCD boards? HxW?

Thanks!

Williams/DataEast LED OCD - 5.8" x 3.35"
Stern LED OCD - 4.95" x 3.55"
GI OCD - 6.0" x 2.225"

Assuming you're planning to use the customization, don't forget to leave room for the USB port.

Thanks Herg.

Any progress for Capcom games? My pinball magic is in need

It's coming along slowly. Most of my progress is documented here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/leds-in-capcom-games#post-2550560

In summary:
1. There are two kits made by hacking up a couple of the kits for Williams games that are running in a BBB and a PM. The owners of these games say these are working well.
2. There is some video of the BBB, and it is posted in the above thread.
3. I have preliminary video of the PM, but the owner says he will shoot some new video of the game after I made a couple of changes to the firmware.
4. A prototype board that combines the two controllers into one smaller design is in process. The bare board is being fabricated now, and I have parts on order.

Would that be just for Capcom, or are you redesigning/shrinking/combining the boards for other systems as well?

Just Capcom. It requires two controllers to handle the two matrices, and having two separate boards in this case only adds complexity. The only other boards that could be combined would be a LED OCD/GI OCD combo for WPC, and not everyone wants both.

As for shrinking them, I don't see much incentive for it. For Capcom, I tried to make it small to fit closer to the driver board, hopefully eliminating some cabling. For WPC, it would never fit close enough to the driver connectors, and Stern already does.

edit: I did read earlier posts but they conflicted with later ones. Still, I should have just read the FAQ. I guess I had an old link for the site/dropbox stuff which got pulled. Thanks for the new one!

Well, since nobody reads the earlier posts in the thread, I'll save some typing and just refer to the FAQ:

http://ledocd.com/faq_led.html

No. You just get better tuning of cheapo LEDs as the premium ones will try to 'fix' some of the goodness which is LED OCD, by having all that bridge/filter crap in them.

Besides, premium do not give you the nice ramp up/down incandescent feel of LED. They only try to remove flicker.

That's just it, the entire point of me buying an OCD was for the proper ramping/fading as I don't have any ghosting issues. Knowing this now (and what's in the FAQ), I guess I'll be replacing all of my Ablaze premiums. Thanks for the clarification.

Just to clarify, the bridge is fine. You can use "AC" bulbs with no issues. It's the filter crap that keeps LED OCD from working at it's best.

Depending on your current results, that might be overkill. You will get better results if you do, but how much better is somewhat variable. If you are happy with how it looks now, it's probably not worth spending all the money and time to replace the bulbs. You could install a few easy to reach "dumb" bulbs to compare the difference. You could also use the manual mode to see how your bulbs react to low brightness values.

I'm starting to wonder if a video showing the difference between the bulbs and how to use manual mode would be helpful. This question comes up all the time.

Great to know, thanks for the direct response herg. I'm looking forward to picking up an OCD soon after seeing how amazing games look with proper fading. Keep up the great work!

I now officially have LED OCD in all my games (Kiss doesn't count). Works like a champ in EATPM.

LED OCD remains a must have device for any game I own.

Good to know MF.. EATPM will be the next machine I install one in. Got any vids?

is mine without....

Definitely agree....I left my CT premiums in both my SM and TSPP, and noticed a BIG improvement.....had to ramp up my cutoff a bit and changed the delay time, but it does everything I want ( nice smooth fades) without having to change back to cheap LED bulbs....anxious to get one in my FGY now.....once you start, it's a must for all your machines, sadly...

No vids yet. I'm still tweaking the game to suit my taste. LED OCD install took maybe 15 minutes because my kids were distracting me. Swapped the GI with Comet sunlight and waiting for new ramps from Starship Fantasy. I have a topper waiting for me from Joe as soon as my wallet recovers!

And of course, the fade effects look fantastic.

Here is a different way to view LED OCD...

One of these machines has LED OCD and GI OCD installed, the other 2 do not...

Nice video! Do you mind if I link to it from my website?

Okay, I'm anal so I'll ask the question:

Why do the "RA" in "ELVIRA" on that machine not light up until the lights sweep back and forth. That would drive me batshit.

And it's because I'm anal that all my machines get PDI glass, a FF speaker upgrade, and LED OCD boards. The three most useful mods you can get for your machine. Best $600 you'll spend (for all three mods...not just the LED OCD!).

I'm just about to order a few more from Herg.

Speaking of which, are these necessary and/or available for Spike machines?

Not available.

Working from memory, I'm thinking Kiss looks pretty good stock. Granted, I was a bit tipsy last time I played it.

BTW, good to see you back Boob.

That's easy, ST has them.

Of course Herg. You've helped me tons.

Once I get my KBOP working I'll let know know how I did that also. It's next on my list.

Yep it is the STTNG. Not much room left in that head after the GI OCD, LED OCD and the control for the Flipper Fidelity speakers. I do have to downgrade my bulbs from CT Premiums to some cheap non-non-ghosting bulbs to better capitalize on the OCD.

Yeah, the game uses them much like the T H I N G in TAF on the speaker panel that carries over from game to game. You'da thunk during attract mode they would do a full sweep and not just the ones that were 'made' during the prior game. Maybe it was a 'Hey this machine is almost made, I'll play it!' kind of thinking.

Is there an LED OCD board available for the pinball 2000 platform?

No, nothing for Pin2000. Maybe I can take a look at it after I get some other projects under control.

I would go for one of those Herg for my RFM, it needs it bad.

Yes, the GI is controlled by the lamp matrix too and would benefit greatly from this board. A friend of mine is storing his RFM at my house for the winter and asked me to install his LEDs for him. It lost a lot of lighting effects for sure. Looks good otherwise.

I know it's a small platform, but if you do get to this one day, Herg, my buddy would easily buy one.

One thing I learned from designing the one for Capcom is that doing it without having access to a game is a total pain in the butt. You have to have someone on the other end that is totally dedicated to making it happen, and even then, it will take WAY longer. I have too many projects going right now as it is, but once they settle down, I will look into it a bit.

Cool deal.

In the meantime, will someone loan this guy an RFM please?

I'm about to order the Pinballbulbs led kit for my AFM. Do you guys think I would need the LED OCD for that kit? How about the GI OCD?

Well that makes 3 of us.

If I were a lot closer I would for sure.

Yup you'll need it no matter what led you buy kit or not. I don't think a GI OCD is needed.

Well, call me the worst salesman ever, but "need" is a strong word. The PBB kit will work, but depending on how particular you are about how it looks, you may "want" an LED OCD to go with the kit. It will look better with LED OCD, but I don't want anyone buying on false pretenses like thinking the PBB kit won't work without it.

Well you got us there Herg but for us perfectionists we NEED it.

I played an LED'd Tron the other night at someone's house. Oh man, forgot how awful the inserts look, so used to my butter smooth LED OCD ones. I could never go back! I need to make it a goal in 2016 to get more boards installed in my games.

This should be the sales tagline for the LED OCD product line. Herg you need to trademark this quick!

Thanks @Herg for such a wonderful product.. Best mod ever! Extreamly easy to install and works right away without uploading settings. Noticed the great difference once power on!

Does anyone have any recommend setting for fast blinking insert?

The "shoot again" insert will blink quickly during the last 3 seconds with the incandescent bulb and with the LED OCD installed the "shoot again" insert will stay lit for the last 3 seconds for led.

For stuff that you want to blink fast, and the LED OCD defaults oversmooth the blinking, you have two options.

1. You can reduce the delay value. This will allow it to move from one brightness value to the next more quickly.

2. You can change the ramp shape by decreasing the low-mid brightness values (B2 and B3) and increasing the mid-high brightness values (B5 and B6). You can take a look at the Iron Man file in the software archive for an example of this.

I installed the led ocd in my lotr and it looks so much better, less harsh and smoother transitions. I have all non ghosting leds. I tried playing around with the settings, but it was either too dim or too bright. Does anyone have settings for lotr they can share? Or is it that my non ghosters just won't be as effective?

Befote:

After

Just taking someone else's settings probably won't get you where you want since it depends on your bulbs max brightness, your ambient lighting, personal preference, etc. If you can make it too dim or too bright, what is keeping you from picking something in between? If there's not a profile in the defaults that is exactly what you want, just modify one to make it what you want.

Personally I would not only try different settings but different bulbs... for example start with 1/2 regular LEDs in the fellowship inserts since they are all in line. I have yet to see *anyone* do a LOTR with LEDs that looks better than incandescents, but I'm confident with the right bulbs and OCD settings it can be done nicely.

Since this is an opinion, it's debatable, but I will add that when I owned LOTR, I kept incandescents in it. This was after trying a number of different LEDs in those white inserts. It did feel a bit dim, but none of the LEDs had the color I wanted.