I don't have a Whitestar game, but does it have a 3 pin plug by the coin door for a dollar bill validator? Easiest thing to do would be just add a connector and hook it up there to get your 12V. That's where all the pre-made kits plug in.

Also those cheap little plastic solderless connectors are the devil. I would recommend just soldering strips together rather than dealing with those little nightmares.

The best way to do it imo is take the 12 v on the led strip and connect it to the postive side of one of your flashers the take the neg and put that on the ground of your flasher

Another option is to use a DK Pinball GI Buddy so that you can have the LED strip come on and go off with the GI.

http://www.dkpinball.com/DKWP/?page_id=827

Once the kit is assembled it's easy to set up. It's a small board so it's easy to mount somewhere in the back box. It has 2 inputs (12v and 6.3v) and 1 output (12v).

I used one for a 12v LED strip (60 led per meter), tied into the GI, for additional lighting on the playfield. The board is rated at 400ma so, you'll have to keep that in mind when determining the amount and type of led strips you use for the under cab lighting.

If you don't need it tied into the gi just steal power from the coin door. I've done it on several games in the past. Problem is the adhesive tends to come loose and the strips fall down too often.

I have mine epoxied to the bottom of the cab because the adhesive is no good. Also don't accidentally use the waterproof LED strips or you get to deal with removing the sealer. Cab lighting is kind of a pain.

We have a new product in testing now, that will universally fit any game, SS to Spike, User controlled colors, for any high voltage...Pops, Flashers, Solenoids....One Bulb under the cab....Brighter and easier then anything else....the will have attachments, and variable controls, to work with our new, soon to be released MATRIX lighting system.

Keep an eye out, coming soon......

Art

Seeing this a lot. My advice is to add s separate power supply for under cab lighting.

Assume 20ma per led. If you use 3 meters at 60 LEDs per meter you are needing 3.6Amps

It will be much higher if using the RGB LEDs.

You could rewire the service outlet to turn off with main power switch or add a switched outlet. But pulling that much power through the existing circuits (designed for bill acceptor) may not be wise.

Not sure but food for thought.

I'd like to know where this +12v dc is on the coin door? I know there is high power ac there for a bill acceptor (which will fry a LED strip hooked to it I would imagine).

On X-Files there should be +12v and +5v on an unused 3 hole connection near the service outlet (inside the cabinet just below the right flipper button). This harness, which was in every Sega / Stern for year (including X-Files) was originally intended to power a printer or a printer interface board that could be connected to print out audits from the game. It was labeled as "FOR THE PRINTER SUB-ASSEMBLY" in the game manuals. I'm really surprised Stern kept it in the games as long as they did. With every new game release I expected it to be gone. The new SPIKE System games do not have this connection.

On the connector, the top hole (near the point in the plastic connector) is the ground and the bottom hole is the +12v.

Stern_connection.jpg