You could stick a couple 12v led strips to your burnt out bulb. One towards the top pointing a little up and one towards the bottom pointing a little down and wire to your 12v.

My bulb and ballast went out on my TWD. Replaced ballast. Bought an LED replacement bulb. It is option C, plug and play.

Natural daylight (5000 K)
https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/light-bulbs/led-light-bulbs/feit-2-led-fluorescent-tube-replacement-light-bulb/p-1444430410284-c-7482.htm

Cool white (4100 K)
https://www.menards.com/main/electrical/light-bulbs/led-light-bulbs/feit-2-led-fluorescent-tube-replacement-light-bulb/p-1444430410089-c-7482.htm

They work great...too well. They are crazy bright, and cause glare on the playfield glass. However, since they do not illuminate 360 degrees, you can rotate them so not all of the illuminated portion is facing towards the translite. They really bring out the colors...I bought one of each. I ended up using cool white on TWD, natural daylight on Metallica. (The original fluorescent tube/ballast on Metallica were still working, but it was much dimmer than it used to be.)

The only cons I have seen so far (a month or two of location use) is they slightly (briefly) flicker when the flippers are energized, and they seem to run very warm...wamer than I thought they would.

I also tried the Sylvania version of these, and it did not work at all.

-Mark

There are so many cool LED light panels out there that there's no way I would ever have a flourescent tube in a backbox ever again. If you want to get creative, you can build your own. There are plenty of threads here that show how. There are a ton of options. Color changing, dimming during gamplay, strobing, blackout when GI lights go out, etc.

Yet another option is with Matrix,
You can grab 6.3v from your GI,
For always on, or soon color controlled
Change, or Matrix into a feature insert,
for event driven display.
Extra ball light, blinking anywhere
Or size on backbox, etc.
In addition, 12v Matrix will be released
soon, allowing flashers on the game to
Control flashers anywhere else
All plug and play in a anap!

Many ways to go....all are
Great!

It just depends on what look you
Want.

I bought this Self Dimming LED kit from Arcade Upkeep to replace the tubes on my POTC and love the results. http://www.arcadeupkeep.com/backbox-kits/4587457160 Customer service was top notch and it's hard to beat the price for a dimming all in solution.

I bought the same exact thing for my Ripley's a few weeks ago. Even with a Bent Plastic, I always kept the fluorescent tube out to avoid glare. Finally sprung for the dimming LED kit and it works fantastic.

-E

Just adding info to this old post...

I bought the exact same 'plug and play' LED bulb above from Menards and it does not work. (bought 2 actually, neither work)
Never buy anything from Menards, if it has a problem they do everything they can not to give refunds.
They want to take out a 25% restocking fee AND the original cost of shipping to you, despite it saying right on the website for the product 'plug and play, NO RE-WIRING NEEDED'.
I wish I'd read any of the million one-star reviews online before buying something from them.

I'm not upset at the poster above, I'm upset Menards is such a scam company.

I’ve replaced a couple Stern fluorescent bulbs with LED tubes. I’ve done Metallica and AC/DC. There are two types of LED tubes... single end and dual end power. I used single end for my retrofits. I used a Maximus T8 LED tube (M-9FL-T8-840-2) that can be bought from HD or Amazon for about $10. This tube can be rotated to diffuse the light at the angle of your preference and you can get it in a few different color temps. I used 4000k as I believe this is what newer Sterns use.

You can use the existing tombstones and simply rewire the circuit... Cut the ballast wires, next cut the red and black/wht wire off the right side tombstone and then cut the thicker black wire off the starter. You’re now left with a single white wire and single black wire on the left side and a single black wire remaining that was connected to the ballast. Pull the black wire that was connected to the ballast down along the left side that was connected and connect it to the black wire that was connected to the starter and you’re done. The Maximus bulb is labeled with “L N” on one side so that’s the side I connected to the left tombstone. There’s a push button on the other side of the bulb... push it in and you can rotate the bulb to your desired position.

Hope this is helpful!

Holy crap, that sounds pretty involved. I don’t remember where I got mine, but I take the old bulb out, out the new one in and remove the starter. No issues and easily changed back for the purist.

This is the way to go. Get rid of those freakin fluorescent tubes and ballasts and put in an LED tube. I put an LED tube in a TX Sector recently and it looks amazing. Comes on instantly and the full spectrum light makes the old yellowed translite look better.

I recently tried getting a plug and play Feit Electric LED tube and it wouldn't fully light (was very dim). I had one installed in my TWD from a couple of years ago that worked perfectly. They must have done something differently from the first one I bought to this last one. Anyone have any suggestions on a PnP tube?

I been looking for a PnP option as well. I don't mind removing the starter but don't want to have to cut out ballast or splice wiring. Other issue I have found is most PnP lights I found are cool white whereas I would prefer warm or natural.

The route I went is definitely not for the purist however it’s quick and cheap and produces no flicker. Start to finish, I was done in 10 minutes. I tried a few different bulbs that were marketed as PNP however they were made for electronic ballasts and didn’t work (GE, Philips and Feit). The current Marco bulbs are $50 and I’d much rather spend that on a mod than retrofitting a light bulb. The Marco bulb has the same specs as the $10 bulb I installed and still requires cutting/splicing. To each their own.

ArcadeUpkeep's led solution is top notch.

I second this. I have two of them and they are the best value out there and great functionality with 2 customizable brightness settings for attract mode and during gameplay.

K u guys got me wanting to do this.

I’m going to buy a led tube but I haven’t looked at the back box. How hard is it to remove the ballast?

Any pics with steps on how to do this

Thanks.

I replaced tubes in the two Stern's. I forget what it is called but you remove this cylinder thing with just a twist and replace the tube. Super easy.

I might try this one someday. Supposedly PnP and works with electronic ballasts with no rewiring.

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/200388/GREENCREATIVE-97841.html

I apologize for resurrecting an old thread. The florescent bulb in the back box of my LOTR was not working. I tried replacing the bulb and the starter with no success. I purchased two of these LED bulbs from ebay: Aura Light 2FT LED Tube Light Bulb T8 T12 24" 15W 1825 Lumen 5000K Frosted 2'. They are made in Sweden and advertised as being usable with or without ballast. Two bulbs were less than $20.

I had considered cutting the wires from the ballast and starter and it was confusing to me. I put the bulb in without cutting any wires and it worked. The light from the back box is much better than the original florescent bulb.

I did the same thing with my Stern POTC and again, the light worked and is much better than the floresecnt. I did take out the starter in both games. Is there any down side to just leaving the ballast as it is?

This is the ebay link: ebay.com link: Aura Light 2FT LED Tube Light Bulb T8 T12 24 15W 1825 Lumen 5000K Frosted 2

I actually need to replace my lotr tube as well. Be interested in any led pnp options .

Any updates that people have tried? I'd like to replace the fluorescent bulb in my Stern IJ but am trying to decide whether I just want to swap for something that'll work or go to LED strips.

Thanks,
Jeff

I went with LED strips for all of my SAM games. Once you do it once or twice, it becomes really easy and relatively cheap. Definitely the way to go imo.

Arcade Upkeep has a dimming backbox panel. love it

Definitely this. I have it on Both my SAM games and it's very nice that you can have it dim to a level that you set during gameplay.

The proper bulb is only a few bucks. What's the reasoning for moving to LED? I saw one SAM game with a dead bulb and someone had ran one of those cheap sticky LED strips across the dead tube and wired it in to 12v. Crazy to me when the factory part is easily obtainable.

Reasoning is cheaper to run, brighter, won't burn out sooner.......

Also the dimming panel from Arcade Upkeep allows for customizable brightness. One setting for attract mode, and another (typically dimmer) setting during gameplay to reduce glare. The translite is also more evenly lit from multiple LED strips than from one fluorescent tube in the middle.

Thank you all for the Arcade Upkeep product tip, I'll likely pursue that route.

Thanks,
Jeff

Heard somewhere that fluorescent tubes can cause damage to circuit boards over time or something like that. Not sure about that but just hate fluorescent tubes. I have not seen the arcade upkeep panels but looks pretty slick. Going to pick one up for my MET.

Oh wow, just saw shipping costs for the arcade upkeep light panel. $69 for shipping!?

The heat from the tube can cause the connectors right there to get brittle, for sure. My LOTR needs a new connector for that reason (eventually, reseating fixed my 5v voltage drop rebooting issue for now).

Just did my SMVE with Arcade Upkeep

6F5547C4-23AD-4B7C-ACE4-67C8804E75FA (resized).jpeg

D8615271-577F-46E7-ACFE-2AA31823BB5C (resized).jpeg

Enter your shipping location and that will change

no that's obviously wrong......give Brandon a shout, great guy, will answer all your questions,

No that shipping price is obviously wrong, give Brandon a shout, he'll answer all your questions

Thank you to Brandon at Arcadeupkeep - easy install and the results are outstanding. So happy to get rid of my broken florescent setup.

met (resized).jpg

I just installed three ArcadeUpkeep LED panels. HUGE improvement and one of my favorite mods I have ever done. The glare from older machines that couldn’t dim was always a big pet peeve of mine, to the point that I would line the front edge of the fluorescent tube with electrical tape to dim it a bit on some machines.

The dimming feature was the real draw for me, but I was shocked at how much more even, clean, and crisp the art is now. It’s especially noticeable on Spider-Man which pops like crazy now. I know there have been a few other brands making similar, but game specific panels, but the color bombing always looked funny to me. These are perfect, and let the art show as intended rather than being washed out with colors. Very nice.

My one minor complaint, which is no fault of the product, is on Avengers because of the old style back box, you can see the shadow from the Color DMD LCD panel. Took me a minute to figure out what I was seeing, lol. But really, not a big deal.

Overall, huge bang for your buck upgrade. Highly recommended! Attaching a few before and afters, but pics do not do it justice!
58219F6D-D26D-4AB4-92C5-9ADFA78E6ACC (resized).jpegDA8CAC44-EF8F-4403-BB2B-4A91DDD63A17 (resized).jpeg1F900A3B-E6F3-4320-B3BC-7A2C9860528B (resized).jpeg87B9A711-12E1-4EDF-8796-AC0D4EFB1BE5 (resized).jpeg1A66A953-DF67-480E-ACFE-9C74730795D7 (resized).jpegF76D13EF-92BA-4AEE-AE3E-F5D0CA8B417C (resized).jpeg

Hopefully someone can help me out, I rewired a Transformers to power a 2-ended LED tube, Neutral on the left side, Live on the right side. I bypassed (and removed) a non-working ballast and removed the starter. But now, the LED tube doesn't seem to light up when I turn it on. Sometimes it turns on and seems to stay on, but when I turn the machine off and then right back on, it will go out and stay out. I get no flickering or anything, I've tried fiddling with the connections but they seem solid and Im getting consistent AC voltage between the tombstones. I get no flickering or anything, I've tried fiddling with the connections but they seem solid and Im getting consistent AC voltage between the tombstones.

Has anyone run into an issue like this? I have confirmed that the LED tube will light consistently when connected straight to 120V. So Im not sure if there might be an issue with my machine, but the circuit seems pretty straight forward.

Many of the economy LED tubes do not like to be turned off and quickly back on. They have low-cost power supply designs that don't know how to start when the supply's capacitors are half charged at startup. I have a ton (15) of lower cost 4-foot LED tubes in my garage ceiling and they all exhibit that flaky power cycle behavior. I usually wait 30 seconds before I turn them back on in the garage. That said, I have a Stern SAM machine and swapped the tube with a higher priced GE replacement LED tube ($20 from Lowes) and it seems to be much more resilient to power cycles. And as an extra benefit, it required no rewiring of the backbox, just swapped right back where the original flourescent tube was.

I need to replace the ballast so I was trying to avoid that by going with a direct-wired LED tube instead. The thing is, it's not just when I quickly power cycle it. If I let it sit, it still doesn't necessarily turn on. I feel something is preventing the internal components from triggering the tube to turn on. I dont know if maybe the LED tube is simply not drawing enough current to make current flow or what.

In the manual, bottom of pg Y10, on the right you'll see there is nothing special driving the tube. I suggest you get a new tube and see what happens. Then start measuring the pins for AC voltage as shown on the schematic.

schem1 (resized).jpg

I tried a new tube, same thing. Made sure the wires are properly seated in the holder. Tested voltage at the 1f/m4 connector, the connector in the backbox, and on the holder itself, all are at 130V which is well within the voltage of the LED tube.

I left the machine on with the tube currently working, I'm gonna see if it's still on after an hour.

I feel like if I turn the machine off, remove the tube and then put it back in, it works. But I'm gonna test that later and see if its repeatable. Basically, it seems like something with the LED tube is not interacting well with the transformer when its turned off.

How do the bulb socket metal blades look? clean and shiny or oxidized or corroded? Could be as simple as a socket swap.

Ok. I came home after an hour and the bulb was still lit. But I decided to test the 30 second wait before restarting and it seems like that's the issue. In my case, it seems like 1 minute is what it takes, but I was able to get it to light if waiting that long 3 times in a row.

Thanks Markharris2000 for your insight, I don't think I could have come up with that on my own. In most cases, I don't see the minute delay being much of an issue but I may try and order a "better" tube online or something. But, for now, the backglass IS lit! So I'm calling it a success.

Honestly, in the future, on a different machine, I might just consider running 12V to some LED strips placed in the backbox or something instead. Although this actually looks pretty cool too: https://www.arcadeupkeep.com/shop/dimming-backbox-panel/. Though I think, for me at least, the shipping is about the same as the product.

That is my go-to backbox solution for my stern games. Love it.