Why make this harder then it needs to be, just relocate the black wire on the service outlet to the switch instead of the fuse. Then plug in the 12 volt power supply and lights into the service outlet and your done. You can move the lights to any pin that you change the service outlet on.

I knew that was an option but not really what I want to do, just not reversible easily.

If you talk about poor men's stadium lighting take 8 old lamp holders.
Then paint them black, put some very bright leds in them and place them around the playfield.
They flash on and off with the GI (The apron has also leds under the graphics).
Below picture is made in the dark.
Welll.... cheaper than this is imposible.

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Nice work, but sometimes you need to buy a spot housing to keep the throw of light out of the player's eyes (e.g., https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=295). That is $2, plus another $1 if you need the socket (https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=294). Together with a super bright LED, each spotlight will run about $4 (plus shipping). If you are adding 8 of them, you also have a lot of time into soldering wires, adding plugs if you want to make them easily removable, etc., and the total cost can quickly reach $40-$50.

Why would you reverse this as most pinheads want to have this done but aren't sure how to do it. It maybe a selling feature.

You can easily connect an external power supply to the AC plug used to power bill acceptors on many pinball machines. The power to that plug is controlled by the power switch of the game. If you want a DIY writeup, just let me know. I'll get one photographed and written up.

I use the service outlet for my DIY strips on Baywatch and since my Big Hurt does not have an outlet, the cord is run out the back of the cabinet and plugged into a power strip. I power my games on/off with two strips so the lighting also turns on/off with the games. Easy solution.

With the relay board I'm working on, you can just plug in a cheap 12v power supply into the service outlet and it will switch the lighting on and off anytime the GI triggers it. I'm hoping to have some time to play around with it this weekend and try my prototypes as well as get the final layout complete for my solid state boards.

Are all pinball machines 6.3V ac GI?

Yes*^

* except JJP which uses 12V AC for GI
^ except Stern Spike which uses 5V DC (wired with opposite polarity from all past DC wiring`), though 6.3v bulbs work fine on 5v

` as far as I can tell, or rather, at least opposite as compared to WPC DC wiring (for inserts)

Yes please!

One thing to keep in mind when tying to the GI is that some games actually time the zero-cross of the AC line for the GI in order to fade the lamps. That could potentially cause some relay chatter. One game I know you can test on is Demolition Man specifically during the ACMAG mode.

Is the chatter still be there if you turn off GI dimming effects in the menu?

This is great I might have to try this out on some of my pins.

Here it is: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/diy-adding-an-external-power-supply-to-a-stern-samwhitestar

8 old free sokets, 8 ultra bright quad leds (cold white) €10 euro, black paint 3 euro, shrink tube 2 euro.
Total cost € 15 euro.
Lamps are placed so that they don't shine in your eyes.
Lighting the whole playfield looks like playing out side on the street.
You see everything but the mistique is gone.

Good point. So I put together a circuit that rectifies the gi voltage, smoothes it and uses it to trigger an N-channel mosfet. I would expect with that circuit it should act similiar to a PWM signal.

Just added a setup to No Good Gofers. Rather than using angle brackets to hold the LEDs, I attached them to the ramps and pointed them towards the middle of the playfield. Very easy to do and works great! Of course, these are controlled by a pinduino for interactive lighting effects during gameplay.

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Thanks! The kits I normally do have LED strips in the trough (or along the apron) and one across the backpanel of the playfield. Those will get added at some point.

Indeed. Like AC/DC. One comet strip, one piece of 3/8 Plastruct ABS angle.

Comet strip extends below the bottom of the angle. Use the protruding part of the comet strip to adhere to the ramp. The whole assembly sits at a slight angle so the LEDs face down towards the playfield and the top edge of the angle acts as a cowling. Pretty close to invisible at player angle.

Comet strip plugs straight into the adjacent spotlight.

The left side in the last pic still has the 1/2" angle that I tried first. I think it's a bit big. I prefer the 3/8".

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Installed a Pinduino and a set of addressable LEDs in my Walking Dead over the weekend. One string of LEDs is installed on the left ramp and another string is installed on the right side of the apron. Each string is controlled separately by a single Pinduino.

Most of the lighting effects happen on the apron while the ramp LEDs light the playfield. The coolest effect happens at 6 min 20 sec in the video during the crossbow shot where Eric helped write a "bullet" sequence into the effects. Really neat!!

Here are some examples of the effects in the current sketch:

Apron flashes blue when the prison is hit.
Apron flashes green when the well walker is hit.
All LEDs flash red when the pops are hit.
Apron flashes green when the Woodbury spinner is lit.

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Excellent work, @tres! For anyone interested, here is a link to the code: https://github.com/elyons/professor_pinball_pinduino_sketches/tree/master/Walking_Dead

Very good job using both LED channels of the Pinduino to create integrated lighting effects. I really like the combination of lighting from one ramp for side lighting and from the apron for lighting up the playfield. It lets you make lighting effects that are still visible, but doesn't cut down the lighting to the point where it makes tracking the ball difficult. Very good job using both LED channels of the Pinduino to create integrated lighting effects.

Heads up warm white led strip plus power supply is on sale 50% off on Amazon. Don't think you can get much cheaper than $9.99 for 16' plus power supply. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01FHLPT52

Thanks for the heads up, just bought two. Can't beat $10 and it includes a power supply. These are the exact LEDs I used for my kits and I paid $20 each which was still a good deal.

Bought two as well. I'm sure I can put some tweak some lighting aspects on my Rollergames with these.

Where is everyone finding pre-finished corner trim. HD only has raw aluminum angle.

I buy pvc angle strips from Amazon.

In black?

My searching skills are poor today and not turning up anything. Can you provide a link?

I just use the aluminum angle and spray paint it black. Takes 5 minutes.

New England. No heated garage. Was hoping for an off the shelf no painting required.

I used gray PVC angle strips. The gray looks fine to me, but easy enough to spray the top side black if you prefer.

https://www.amazon.com/Polyvinyl-Chloride-Squared-Corners-Thickness/dp/B00CPRF3WG/ref=sr_1_16

I used corner guard from home depot, it comes in clear and I just put a strip of electricaL tape neatly across the top. Friends couldn't tell it didn't come in black. Corner guard costs like 3 bucks for 8 ft section and is light. I bought magnetic tape from Amazon and I'm using the 6.3v strip from australia.

I only did one and it's bright as all heck, going to switch to a controllable rgb that's dimmable, put it on both sides and dim it down to my liking.

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Thinking of getting RGBW strip - Powering white off of 12V all the time and then hooking the RGB up to different strobe bulbs. Would that work?
How are people using the RGB(W) controllers? Or doing "GI effects"?

I use some RGBWW strips for home cabinet lighting and found that when the white channel is on, it heavily mutes the colors. It might work well enough in a pinball machine, but I'm not sure it will have as much as an effect as you may hope.

Just made a quick set. Total cost was $9 for light and ps, have enough lights for 1 more machine too. $16 for aluminum rail. $2 Velcro. $28 total. If I can find a diffused costing strip I think I will go with that next. I also want to get dimmer because it's too bright but even on a wide body, I get nice even warm white light across. The game is not on either.

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Was this the 60 led per meter or the 30 per meter strips.

For example when the flasher turns on it could trigger the red set and a PNP TIP to turn off the white set at the time.

Says 300 led and it was a 5m strip so 60 I guess. Like in my last post the $9.99 5m strip plus power supply is not on sale anymore so link goes to another one of their products. Seems like they run deals at $9.99 that change. Now it's two 5m strips for 9.99.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01FHLPT52

I might try the 30 per so that a dimmer wont be needed.

Nice work! Looks great.

So I see recent post are buying 12 volt led strips so how is everyone powering it? From the service outlet or where else?

Yeah I plan to use service outlet. I have my games (only 3) on power strips or hopefully get one of those wifi outlets so I can say "hey Alexa, turn on the arcade

Nicely done. If you want a cheap diffuser use white styrene, i.e. the same material "for sale" or "garage sale" signs are made out of. Just stick it directly over top of the LEDs and it will diffuse them nicely.

Had to do it.

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You could get a 60 for more even light and run them with a 9v wall wart.