(Topic ID: 81976)

Non-ghosting LED's

By Lovef2k

10 years ago


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  • 33 posts
  • 13 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 9 years ago by OLDPINGUY
  • Topic is favorited by 6 Pinsiders

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    #1 10 years ago

    I was wondering if the non-ghosting LED's sold by cointaker eliminate the need for the Alltek LED/Lamp driver for early solid state games. Usually I go with an alltek and use super brights and/or the retro LED's

    #2 10 years ago

    Sorry, they don't. You need a lamp driver board or add resistors across the sockets. I call this issue strobing, ghosting is more of a dimly lit led when it should be off. Please feel free to give me a ring if you need more info.

    Regards

    Chris

    #3 10 years ago

    If you are doing a playfield swap, its really easy to add the resistors to the new lamp sockets as you repopulate the game. Even if you aren't doing an entire game does not take very long. In some cases especially lamps driven by the Aux Lamp driver don't even need resistors I have found. A pack of 100 470 Ohm resistors is like 4 bucks, instead of the $100 for the Altek board is a big motivator for me as well

    #4 10 years ago
    Quoted from CoinTaker:

    Sorry, they don't. You need a lamp driver board or add resistors across the sockets. I call this issue strobing, ghosting is more of a dimly lit led when it should be off. Please feel free to give me a ring if you need more info.
    Regards
    Chris

    Thanks Chris, I'll try to get my order in today.

    #5 10 years ago
    Quoted from Xenon75:

    If you are doing a playfield swap, its really easy to add the resistors to the new lamp sockets as you repopulate the game. Even if you aren't doing an entire game does not take very long. In some cases especially lamps driven by the Aux Lamp driver don't even need resistors I have found. A pack of 100 470 Ohm resistors is like 4 bucks, instead of the $100 for the Altek board is a big motivator for me as well

    I wouldn't mind adding the resistors, my only thing with that is, what if I wanted to go back to standard lamps later down the road, would the resistors need to be removed? I would think yes?

    #6 10 years ago

    I've had good luck with CTs in my BW games with no additional driver. The non-ghosting frosteds work great. I had them in hs2 and TAF with zero ghosting or strobing.

    #7 10 years ago
    Quoted from Lermods:

    I've had good luck with CTs in my BW games with no additional driver. The non-ghosting frosteds work great. I had them in hs2 and TAF with zero ghosting or strobing.

    Me too, but I think like he stated "Early Solid States" are a bit of a different animal...

    #8 10 years ago

    no you can leave the resistors there if you switch back to incandescents.

    #9 10 years ago

    I'll try out the No Flix Plus on some of my early Bally's & Stern's and see how they act. I put them in all my moderns but I haven't tried any classic machines with them yet.

    #10 10 years ago
    Quoted from Xenon75:

    no you can leave the resistors there if you switch back to incandescents.

    Yeah I also noticed that Bally games with the aux lamp driver ran LED's fine. So how do you wire the resistor, is it parallel to the solder tab and base or in series with lead?

    #11 10 years ago

    Just wire it across both tabs of the socket. Or in the case of a controlled 44 lamp socket, one lead of the resistor on the tab, the other lead on the common wire.

    #12 10 years ago
    Quoted from fattrain:

    Me too, but I think like he stated "Early Solid States" are a bit of a different animal...

    How early is early for SS that needs a lamp driver?

    #14 10 years ago

    I just decked out my Space Shuttle inserts with all retro LED's from Coin Taker which looks ridiculously awesome, but now I am seeing ghosting or strobing in some of the inserts. All the sockets in Space Shuttle seem to already have resistors on them. Did I just buy the wrong lights and actually need the non-ghosting?

    #15 10 years ago

    Yep, you have wrong bulbs. Those are only good for GI.

    #16 10 years ago

    Again... cue sad trombone.

    #17 10 years ago

    I have no luck with the retro either. They don't fit the new sockets sold by Marco and other vendors. I'm speaking of the 44 style. Something to do with the base of the lamp itself. On the other hand, the CT minis, supers and frosted fit without a fight. I have not tried using the retro in a game with the original sockets yet, hopefully they will go in without having to file the nubs.

    #18 10 years ago
    Quoted from popeboy:

    I just decked out my Space Shuttle inserts with all retro LED's from Coin Taker which looks ridiculously awesome, but now I am seeing ghosting or strobing in some of the inserts. All the sockets in Space Shuttle seem to already have resistors on them. Did I just buy the wrong lights and actually need the non-ghosting?

    Contact Chris or Melissa about your problem. If you bought the led's recently, they will most likely let you exchange them. They are great people to deal with. Plus they will know what the best lamp for your game will be.

    #19 10 years ago

    A good opportunity to share.

    I keep samples of over 16 different 44/47 bases. Some new, some from 1960's Ballys, Gottliebs, pretty much everything. Now I have bulbs I sell, and of course bulbs through the years from all the suppliers we all buy from.
    100% without a doubt, there are differences in 44/47 sockets. Some bulbs are tight, while that same bulb is loose in another. Some sockets can be squeezed or spread, others, some LEDs just dont make contact and light.
    I know we wish this was all 100% interchangeable, but I have since learned there are subtle differences.

    I hope you get the game looking exactly the way you want....I can share in the struggle.

    #20 10 years ago
    Quoted from Lovef2k:

    Contact Chris or Melissa about your problem. If you bought the led's recently, they will most likely let you exchange them. They are great people to deal with. Plus they will know what the best lamp for your game will be.

    No big deal... I really only needed to replace 9 bulbs that were ghosting, plus I ordered some of the pop bumpers 4+1HP's to do the, wait for it... pop bumpers. I had tried the regular LED's and they just weren't bright enough to light up the bumpers well. Now I am complete and I'm sitting on a few extra green retros, which is not a bad thing.

    #21 10 years ago

    Cointaker is a great company. I ordered some non ghosting LEDs last week and received them this week. Two of the blue LEDs they sent were actually green once ON, i sent Melissa an email and she replied within 2 mins saying that she'll send out some replacements.

    Awesome company great service. They'll have all my next LED purchases for sure.

    I'm loving my game with the non ghosting LEDs, all lights were perfectly now. I also prefer the purple from CoinTaker, over the other purple that i had from another company.

    #22 10 years ago

    I agree, CT is great to their customers and the LED's are improving all the time.

    #23 10 years ago

    is it fair to say, slight insert ghosting is acceptable, would be pretty hard to get it 100% right especially on a older machine

    2 weeks later
    #24 10 years ago

    what 470 resistors do you use 1/4 or 1/2 watt?

    #25 10 years ago
    Quoted from crlush:

    what 470 resistors do you use 1/4 or 1/2 watt?

    I would go 1/2 watt just because it won't hurt to have more tolerance.

    #26 10 years ago

    Sounds good thanks for the reply.

    #27 10 years ago

    I am having a similar ghosting issue on my pin. It's a '77 Roy Clark cocktail pin (don't kill me, me and my son love it and I got it for $20!). LEDs in the inserts ghost even with non-ghosting LEDs. Is it safe to assume that I need to go the resistor route as well?

    #28 10 years ago
    Quoted from WED21:

    I am having a similar ghosting issue on my pin. It's a '77 Roy Clark cocktail pin (don't kill me, me and my son love it and I got it for $20!). LEDs in the inserts ghost even with non-ghosting LEDs. Is it safe to assume that I need to go the resistor route as well?

    that's funny I have a Allied Leisure Take Five pinball that I want to led to try and spruce it up some, my kids like it too because they don't have to stand on a chair. I put a color changing led in the free ball insert and it strobes when the game is over or when its not supposed to be lit up (lights only on last ball) and its worse when hitting pop bumpers or slings, I tried adding a 470ohm 1/2watt resistor the other day and it still does the same thing, does anyone have any ideas to help?

    #29 10 years ago
    Quoted from crlush:

    that's funny I have a Allied Leisure Take Five pinball that I want to led to try and spruce it up some, my kids like it too because they don't have to stand on a chair. I put a color changing led in the free ball insert and it strobes when the game is over or when its not supposed to be lit up (lights only on last ball) and its worse when hitting pop bumpers or slings, I tried adding a 470ohm 1/2watt resistor the other day and it still does the same thing, does anyone have any ideas to help?

    I'm not having a strobe issue. It's more of an always lit and then fully bright when activated. In the first pic I have put the NGLED's in the bonus lights. The #2 bonus is currently lit but as you can see they are always lit no matter what. LED's look great in my opinion in the GI spots and I wish I could get them to work right under the playfield as well.

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    #30 10 years ago
    Quoted from WED21:

    I'm not having a strobe issue. It's more of an always lit and then fully bright when activated. In the first pic I have put the NGLED's in the bonus lights. The #2 bonus is currently lit but as you can see they are always lit no matter what. LED's look great in my opinion in the GI spots and I wish I could get them to work right under the playfield as well.

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    This sounds like the issue with early solid state Bally and Stern games. Without using the Alltek driver, some of the controlled lamps will look dimly lit up until activated by the lamp driver and then go to full brightness when the lamp is actually turned on. It has something to do with driver, I'm not sure what though. You can find out on old RGP threads. It wouldn't hurt to try a resistor on one of the lamps that is lighting when it isn't supposed to. Even if you only hook it temporary. Who made the Roy Clark?

    #31 10 years ago

    Ok I just looked at the game on ipdb. Not much info on it but has a decent fun rating. Looking at the pic of the driver board, I don't think i would tinker in there as these parts look like they would be hard to replace. Try the resistor. If you are using CT led's contact them as well, they are always glad to help.

    #32 9 years ago

    Resistors didn't work. Guess no LED's for the inserts! Oh well, thanks for the help anyway!

    #33 9 years ago

    Have you tried a "No-Flix" product?

    It has fixed issues for me, where my others did not.
    They are available from pinballcenter.eu but only the "Super" Version, Pinball Decals,com, and I carry them at www.cometpinball.com.

    They are Ultimate Optix, No Flicker, No Ghosting, Reduced Strobing. A Capacitor, so when you pull the bulb from the socket, there still is a faint glow, that helps the flickering....

    http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/1-flux.htm

    Id be happy to send one to try, if you dont mind picking up the postage....

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