Any reason why you couldn't just stick some of these metal plates on sides of the pin and glue some rare earth magnets to the channels?

https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Nekteck-Replacement-Adhesive-Rectangulars/dp/B074QG6ZV1/

Seems like this would be a much better solution than the magnetic tape, as these plates are ultra thin (0.025" or 0.6mm)

51wwffRWemL._SL1200_ (resized).jpg

So I also hooked up some 5v strips directly to GI, and didn't have any strobing issues (at least not to my eye).

I was worried about pulling too much current, but here are my calculations (correct me if I'm wrong)

In my data east LAH, there are Probably about 50 lights in the GI and backbox. I assume they are all on the same circuit but maybe I'm wrong?

standard bulbs pull about 1.5 watts but high intensity LED's are about 0.95watts. So by replacing 50 bulbs, I'm reducing the load by 27.5 watts.

I believe the strips I'm using are between 3-5 watts each, so 2 strips would only be up to 10 watts.

Out of curiosity though... am I wrong to assume that the worst thing that could happen by overloading the circuit is a blown fuse?

You do not need that relay in this set up.

I set it up this way hooking up my 5V LED strips directly to the GI... though I did not get the strobe other people are seeing so did not add the voltage stabilizer. I'm not sure if the reason I'm not getting the lack of strobe is because of the brand of LED's I'm using or maybe there's something in my pinball machine?

here's what I'm using.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071YF2PNH/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage

I actually tried with the board first (with some different RGB LED's), and it was pulling too much current so the lights were switching on and off, so needed to get a second board (one for each row)... But before I tried that, I took the soft white LED's which were lower current, and ran them instead without the board, and it looked great.

I don't know if it makes a difference but my machine is a re-import so maybe there is something slightly different with the power supply? I'm planning on trying this on my newly acquired SST so will see if I have the strobing there.

I think you're right... this is from the LED OCD web page

"First, due to lamp matrix, each lamp has a series of timeslots in which it is capable of being turned on. Neither Stern or WPC games do any kind of PWM within these timeslots. If a lamp is on during its timeslot, it is on for the entire timeslot. Stern games, however, DO use a duty cycle method of dimming where every other timeslot is on (or every third, etc). I am not aware of any WPC games that do this."

So specifically on Stern games, and possibly others, it seems like they will dim the lighting by quickly turning on and off the lamps... since LED's are instant on-off this will show as a strobe, while incandescent take time to turn on and off, so this is smoothed.

In that case, you do need the relay to turn on and off the LED's. I think the wifi module and RGB strips take alot more power than just the white LED's so you'll want them to be constantly powered, but then turn on and off when the GI turn on and off. You connect the relay to one of the GI's and then to the led strips. When the GI is on, the relay will send power to the LED's, and when they turn off, the relay will shut off power to the LED's. Honestly though, if you're going the route you're talking about, you might as well get some 12V led's which will allow a bit more brightness

What some of us are doing is fully powering the LED strips directly from the 5v GI, which is a slightly easier and cheaper solution, but you're more limited on the LED's you can use

I think you'll be fine with either 3A or 5A power supply (can't imagine you getting anywhere near that with 6' of led strips).

And ya... I forgot to mention you don't need that filter then... though how would that effect the relay? if the control line on the relay is seeing a constant on/off high frequency signal, will that strobe be passed through to the LED's?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think your LED strips might pull a bit too much current. I quickly looked up the specs for a 12v, rgb strip with the larger 5050 SMDs and a wifi controller, and it showed a max output of 15watt/m so 30 watt for 2 strips @ 12V = 2.5 amps. Seems like a bit too much and might blow your fuse.... if you're using smaller SMD's like 3528's it drops down to about 0.8 amps which might be ok, and I assume considerably less if you go with a single color as opposed to a wifi controlled multi color.

Note: I'm sure those wattages in the spec sheet are based on all colors of LED's on the strip on and at full brightness, so total draw will probably be less. You should also check with the vendor that sold them to you to find out what the wattage is of the set you purchased

So I followed the post in #279 exactly, and just couldn't get the lighting to be integrated with the GI. What happened is when I touch the +ve and -ve leads for the GI trigger together, the lights go on. So when I hook them up to +ve and -ve from the GI, it just turns the led strips on regardless of whether there is power to the GI or not.

Only real difference is that I was using a 5V led strip, and was powering the relay with 5V instead of 12v (using a relay designed for 5V operation)

In the end, I went for an always on situation... which still is pretty good.

And FYI.... the easiest way to set this up with absolutely no wiring required at all is to plug in the LED's into the service outlet inside the cabinet (which is always on), but then power your pinball machine using a smart outlet that cuts power to the machine completely.

Something like this... where you can stick the on/off button next to the pinball on/off switch.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002NPCDDM

It has the bonus of having an 11 hour timer, so if you forget to turn off your games, it'll shut them down after 11 hours.

or you can use something like this...
https://www.amazon.com/TrickleStar-Outlet-Advanced-PowerStrip-Joules/dp/B00JPDYYSM. Where you have all your pins turn on when a single pin is turned.