555 bulb in a 906 socket will burn out quickly.

Yep, as Chrizg said...
Physically yeah, they will plug in, but nope, different function. When I took apart my funhouse I was concerned at first because every flasher was out. Figured it could be something major, but nope, someone had just plugged 555s into them and every one was blown.

You definitely want to get the proper bulb for the proper function.
Personally I don't like LED flashers, so I just use standard 906's for flashers.

906 are 13v. 555 are 6.5. You will send 13v to a bulb only meant to handle 6.5v. If it only comes on for a second once in a while it might last for a bit before you blow the bulb.

-Jim

Oops! Thanks for the info

What about when talking LEDs? I bought some LED flashers for the shields and Return To Duty inserts on my STTNG, but they're crazy bright. Can I just use normal 555 LED's? Or, how to I make the flasher LEDs less goddamn bright?

If they are too bright for you then maybe you don't want LEDs =) Also, what LEDs did you use for the inserts? I color matched my STTNG inserts with CT Frosted I believe and they look awesome.

S

You cant mix the two because of voltage. a Flasher is rated at 12V-13v with a spike much higher, and your #555 are 6.3V. They will burn out fast and smoke, and is bad.
There are at least a dozen choices of flashers, that are directional, or different in light output.
But nothing wrong with Incandescent....they flash welll still.....

Yah I have seen melted LED's when the 6.3v is put into a 12v slot. Its quite amazing how an LED will melt

I don't want incandescents for at least some of them as they are behind a colored insert and I think the difference would become apparent. The shields especially might be noticeable as I use blue LEDs for the GIs there. The effect is actually very cool - it's just a bit too bright is all. Likewise the return to duty is now the same color as some of the red inserts I switched over, so it looks both gorgeous and consistent. I may leave incandescents for some of the above playfield flashers, though.

Oh well. I'll just have to find less bright ones Thanks everyone!

As a note too, many games the flashers get a 20v pulse, not just 13v. Anytime someone mentions melting an led or smoke, thats one of these games lol

I haven't really seen many dim LED flashers. That kinda goes against what they're normally used for.

It depends on how exactly it's "wired up", but you could get a flasher with multiple LEDs in parallel, then rip off one (or more) of the LEDs. That would break the circuit for one of the parallel paths so that it would have fewer lighting. It would be important to know if the bulb used parallel current limiting resistors, though. If not, you'd be increasing the current that flows through the remaining LEDs.

Something like this:
http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/8smdflexflash.htm

Yep. Just like the 6.3V LEDs that actually get 18V pulses when used in inserts.

I was thinking some type of diffuser might help as well, though I'm not sure where to find something like that if it didn't already come with the bulb.

Good idea on popping a few out though - I may have to look into that. Don't get me wrong, for indirect lighting, bright flashers make sense. It's just that these are right on the playfield so I'd like them to be a bit more tame.

Idk what flashers you are using specifically, but what if you just used a black sharpie or some black testors paint and covered a few LEDs? Quick and easy to test maybe

I have not tried this so dont hold me to it, But you may be able to intentionally "disable" or essentially drill out a few of the LED's on that flasher. I have never tried and I am assuming it would not work due to design possibly being a daisy-chain effect for power but I suppose it couldn't hurt to try.

Ah a sharpie that's actually pretty clever! I may give that a go! I bought them from the NiftyLED folks so talking to them about their thoughts on it as well.

If you're willing to swap out the (or add a) resistor you could modify a 555 LED into one that would work in a 906 socket and be a 'dimmer' flasher. Just calculate the voltage drop you need and then replace the/add a resistor in the base of the LED.

Can't #555 bases be used in a 906 if the #555 is 12V then?

They are the same base. Technically called a t10 base. 555 indicates 6v and 906 indicates 12v.

I've put 555 LEDs in 906 flasher spots before and they worked fine. Not sure how long they will last though.

But why would you even think about doing this?

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2924

The lowest Light LED Flasher I have is a Long Encapsulated Diode Cylinder......Like a tall flat top.
I wasnt sure about listing them but they are close to an incandescent in brightness, but LED, "White"
They are $.39 if you think you might want to try them.

Maybe this one would help as well....

4SMDT1012V.jpg

Because I wanted directional light and I had the angleable 555 LEDs on hand. Not sure if they even make a 906 led with that construction. Oh and just to be clear, we are talking about LED bulbs, not incandescents.

Flex flashers exists. Comet and ct have them.

Ok. Well the point is that I have done this and it worked fine for a few hours so if you wanna try out something and have some 555 LEDs on hand, my experience is that it works fine as a 906 flasher for a short while. I'm not sure long term though. I ended up switching back to 906 incandescents because LEDs were too flashy for me.

Highly recommend you dont do this simply because it worked once for you

I ended up accidentally taking off the top of one of my flashers while trying to pull it out. Oops. But that ended up being a lucky result because I was able to see how they oriented the resistors - they were wired right to the base with the leads of the resistor being the wires used to make contact with the socket.

As a result, it was a pretty easy swap. The originals were like 20 Ohm or something surprisingly small. All I had on hand in the small footprint and range were 220 Ohm. Gave those a shot and it's MUCH better. Almost perfect, in fact. I think the shield flashers might be a tad low but I just wanted a subtle effect there anyway.

These were using the NiftyLED 906 flashers. I suspect other flashers are different.

At this point I think the remaining flashers are in the Borg ship and around the playfield but I rather like OLDPINGUY's option since it looks flat. I bet that would go really well under the Return To Duty. So I'm pondering that.

For now, though, all is good!

Sorry to resurrect this thread I just wanted to ask the reverse way. Can you safely use a 906 Led flasher in a 555 spot? Not a GI but one that blinks?

It simply won't light.

Also a flasher bulb isn't anything special to make it flash per se. Just a 12v bulb. It can be constantly on with no issues, for example.