Hi people, a few months ago I started to think about an interactive RGB illumination for Star Wars sides LE.
I wanted a powerful light effect that can be seen even in direct sunlight.
so I made a variant of my lightsaber program and made a mirroring system, it mean the colors will be in phase between the two mods except that when the lightsaber was off, the sides would be lit in white .
I used addressable led strip (commanded by 3 wires in C language)
three size problems to solve.
1 / manage the good light ratio compared to the joule effect, has involved many tests and a very large external power supply.
2 / the homogeneous diffusion of the luminous flux
3 / How to safely insert the thick system behind the sides.
the led strip is 2 mm thick, not possible to place it between the side and the cabinet.
We must dig the box, the problem is that if the light module is too close to the white filter, we see them and it's not pretty.
it was necessary to move the module as far as possible from the white filter and even to insert a diffuser.
this involves digging into the cabinet a little more than 6 mm, or 1/3 of the thickness.
so I "milled" to the machine three strips on each side taking marks using the holes cut in the side.
we have to remove the backbox and the playfield to work properly and do not spoil anything.
the playfield is very heavy.
a shot video of the machining

you have to take your time and it is within everyone's reach, I had a serious accident recently and I did all this work on one leg.
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here are the 6 grooves made.
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on the door side, you have to dig a little deeper to insert a capacitor.1 (4) (resized).JPG
as there is a huge current draw at the moment of ignition, this one serves to prevent a collapse of energy
we put the led strip
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then, we put the diffuser1 (8) (resized).JPG
i made it in transluscent ABS in 3D printing
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it must be arranged so that the separation of the diffuser is hidden by the full parts of the side, otherwise, despite the installation of the white filter, it would be visible1 (10) (resized).JPG
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then i glue the white filter behind the side rail1 (12) (resized).JPG1 (13) (resized).JPG
Here is the inner sight with the passage of the wires.
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when the playfield is lowered, the highest part shows the passage of the wires and it is not beautiful.
fortunately there is the solution to install mirror blades that will hide the son and beautify the game surface1 (14) (resized).JPG1 (15) (resized).JPG
this is the box who control all the system1 (17) (resized).JPG
current consumption is 7 amperes per side.
to be perfectly safe, I installed power supplies that can supply 20 amps each.
7 and 7 = 14 you say, but after the tests it worked well except that the power supply had an operating temperature of almost 60 °.
I imagine the pinball always on making games on games at a pinball show ...
that's why I doubled the capacity to deliver power
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after several hours of operation, the temperature was still high at 45 °, it's still too much for me, so I decided to rafouter fans.
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I find illuminated fans on the web and then I come to the idea of customizing the interior and resume the theme of pinball, the dark side and the light side.
a bit of black and white vinyl with my robot Cameo and I did some decoration1 (21) (resized).JPG1 (20) (resized).JPG
the high voltage power supply arrives through the backbox switch.
I put two double lugs to retrieve the current1 (22) (resized).JPG
finished1 (24) (resized).JPG1 (25) (resized).JPG
and the final touch1 (23) (resized).JPG
the pinball was presented last weekend at a pinball show.
after 10 hours of operation without stopping, and a very hot day (28 ° outside) the sides showed a temperature of 37 ° outside, and power supplies about 32 °.
I watched these temperatures all day with an infrared thermometer because I was a little worried.
chek test passed successfully
a video in action, sorry not speaking english