Meteor
Stern Electronics, 1979Restoring my Meteor, I decided to address a grievance I've had with it for a while; the player has a direct line of sight to the lights behind the "METEOR" drop target bank. It is unpleasant to look at if bulbs are used, and absolutely blinding if LEDs are used. So I decided to try out some post lights from comet.
20201130_200433 (resized).jpgA quick test revealed that even these post lights were blindingly bright from the MFG, so the first step was a little rework to dim them down. I reverse engineered the (very simple) circuit. Just a basic full wave rectifier. It's actually a little odd. There are 2 resistors used, when only 1 is really necessary in this topology. It's also generally not advisable to run LEDs in parallel without series resistance per LED, because a difference in I/V curves can cause one LED to activate and "steal" the current from parallel LEDs, preventing them from lighting. I think they get away with it here because all LEDs are nearly identical, so they have similar I/V characteristics.
20201130_200829 (resized).jpgSo the tweak is pretty simple; I just replaced one of those resistors (originally just 24 ohms, marked "240") with a 2k ohm resistor (did some empirical testing to arrive at that value). Unfortunately the resistors on the board are a 1206 package, and all I had on hand were 0603 packages (1/2 the size), but I made it work. In the pics you can see one original resistor (the larger one) and the smaller replacement installed on the opposite edge. The zoomed shots show the replacement 2k ohm resistor (marked 202)
20201130_200840 (resized).jpg20201130_200913 (resized).jpg20201130_200940 (resized).jpgThere's not much space in the area I want to put these lights, so I got the bright idea of butting them against each other. However they are still a bit too large, so I actually sanded the boards down and soldered the contacts together in pairs. Luckily, since they operate on AC, the orientation they are connected doesnt matter.
20201130_201023 (resized).jpg20201130_201232 (resized).jpg20201130_201802 (resized).jpg20201130_201827 (resized).jpgNow I have 6 lights to power, and 2 sockets, so I just chained them all up and used one of those bayonet adapter dinguses that comet includes with them. Make sure the wires are long enough to run behind the posts. Assembled, plugged it all in, and it looks gorgeous! (My lamp driver board is not currently installed, hence no PF lights are on, only GI)
20201130_211256 (resized).jpg20201130_211604 (resized).jpg20201130_212507 (resized).jpg20201130_213657 (resized).jpg20201130_212524 (resized).jpg20201130_213720 (resized).jpgThat is a cool effect. The flex led from Cointaker could be another option, especially to put some light on the top of the pf. Or add a led strip behind those 6 posts.
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Manchester, NH