Collinsville, IL
A while back I was working on a Williams Flash game. I had everything working except two displays. I decided to replace all the displays with new LEDs. I was searching for the best price when I remembered Wolffpac Tech. He makes Bally / Stern display kits. I made several of those kits. They’re nice displays, easy to assemble, and work very well. I contacted Dave at Wolffpac and asked why he doesn’t have Williams display kits. He said he considered them but doesn’t have a Williams game to test them. I offered to test them in my game and sent him my old displays. A couple of months later I received back a full set of prototype displays to test.
They worked great but needed a few adjustments. I advised him of my findings, he made some changes and he now has kits for sale. You can get them in red, orange, or blue. They are available on his website (https://www.wolffpactech.com/) and on EBay.
I got one of the first sets of display kits for my Flash game. Good old USPS did a number on the box but the contents were well packed and no damage was done.
It only has a few components and was super simple to assemble. The instructions were complete and easy to follow.
Just like the original, the main display has all the electronics – 14 resistors, 7 capacitors, and 9 IC’s. And of course 4 LEDs. The only difficult part (for me) was getting those IC legs inserted into the holes.
Lately I been using Blue-Tack. It’s like silly-putty. It holds the components in place while I solder them. Works really good.
After a short time I had the main display completed.
Then I moved to the slave displays. The LEDs pretty much dropped in. But a word of caution here – the LEDs can be installed upside down.
Always check your work before soldering. Fortunately I caught this in time.
After I completed the displays it was time to install them. One thing we learned from the prototype was the LED’s are thicker than the glass. This moves them too close to the glass. To remedy this Dave provides shorter spacers behind the display board.
I replaced the original spacers and installed the new displays. They fit just like the old glass displays and worked first time.
I’m not a pinball professional and don’t have a lot of experience with electronics but I found these displays very easy to build. And the feeling of accomplishment when complete is great. If you have a soldering iron you can build these. Plus this would be a good way to learn. Just keep checking your work. I use an 8X photo loupe because my old eyes aren’t as good as they once were.
This has been a fun and rewarding job. Give it a try.
Bob
Piershil
Moe
