Had some PMs asking about lighting these hinges and rails or Tron hinges and rails with el panel lighting. I don’t have the time to make plug and play kits but thought I’d give some tips and tricks on how to make your own.

I do have a lot of el panels and power supplies in sizes to fit siderails and hinges if people want to try and do this themselves.

Here’s the basics.

First you have to extend the wiring of each EL panel to route it through the machine. The panels only come with about 24” wire attached. Everything routes through the glass channel to the inside of the machine. Typically you’d add 4 feet or so. But, check your wire routing plan ahead of time and extend the wiring accordingly. You’re better off with too much wire lead then not enough...

The Hinges are tricky since they have to have enough slack to open and fold the machine head.

Some people route the wires in the glass channel and to the front of the machine. I prefer to route in the glass channel to the rear of the game and into the cabinet where the head and cabinet come together. You rarely fold the head and it’s easier to avoid pulling the hinge wires loose when folding the machines head down routed through at the rear of the game. If you route to the front, the wire leads can interfere with removing the glass and takes more care. Plus if you go to the front of machine with wiring, you have to account for enough slack at the hinges to allow them to open and not pull wires loose, which is tricky and more fragile.

The wires from the el panels go to a 4x1 splitter and into the el power supply. The panels are typically adhered to the backside of the siderails or hinges with electrical or duct tape or something similar. You want thin tape. I usually also tape the wiring path to the backside of the panel so I don’t have to worry about it dropping down or getting in the way of the screws securing the siderails and causing a short. It’s also cleaner and more professional looking overall. Not that anyone ever sees the backside of the siderail. But still...

There is lots of ways to change EL lighting colors. El panels are usually white and if sold in different colors, they have a color filter glued to them in the color desired. You can get these at eBay or hobby shops. A cool diy way to change color is use cheap plastic report binders like sold a staples and cut to fit the area. They are thin and translucent and come in a zillion colors. Just tape the filter or binder to the backside siderail first, then the el panel and voila, you can make any color you desire.

You’ll also need to make or modify a 12v connector to go into the games 12v power supply from the el panel power supply. This is probably the easiest part of the mod. The power leads from most power supplies are black and red and easy to identify positive and negative. If you can’t make your own molex plugs, you can by a 12v power supply adapter for your machine and solder your el power supply leads to it. If you don’t know how to do this basic step, you’d probably struggle with the rest of the mod. So, my advice would be don’t try it.

It’s a fairly involved mod that takes time but it’s not that hard. I’m a pain for detail stuff and take a lot of time attaching panels to armor and routing to make it clean and professional. I’ve seen some installs that are pretty slapped in. It’s worth taking your time. If you can solder and make connections your good to go. But it’s not a beginner mod that comes in a plug and play kit.

Hope that helps. Looks awesome when done.

Siderails are sold out. Have a few hinge sets left. They look awesome on an LE and complete the laser cut look