Sana'a
If you ever wanted to buy LED lights for your stand up targets, you have noticed that by the time you buy all the ones you need, they come out to about $150 a game.
How about building some for .19 cents each?
(Topic ID: 67695)
Saint Paul, MN
First you need some 1/8" "unbreakable" Lexan.
This sells for $4 a square foot at the hardware store. A square foot could make over 140 targets, so ask if they will give you any Lexan scraps for free.
Those square targets some in different lengths, but they are all the same height. Cut your Lexan into 3/4" strips, and then you can score it with a razor and snap any lengths you need. Some games like AFM need 2 different lengths in the same game.
5mm LEDs fit snugly (without glue) in a #12 drill bit hole.
Drill all your holes while the plastic is still in long strips, as it's dangerous to drill small pieces of anything.
Get some high brightness LEDs from Ebay or Tayda.
8,000 MCD should be plenty bright.
Note there is a flat spot on the LEDs, this shows the Neg side of the diode.
Push the LEDs into the holes in your Lexan.
Connect the two bottom (-) leads together to one side of the power wire.
Connect the (+) side of those same LEDs to the (-) of the LEDs above them.
Connect the (+) side of the above LEDs to two 100 ohm 1/4 watt resistors (I know I used 120 ohm in the picture - close enough for Jazz).
Finally connect the resistors to the other end of the power wire.
Because the GI lighting circuit is AC, you don't have to worry about polarity. If you were connecting these lights to DC, the wire connecting to the resistors would be (+).
WIRING-DIAG.jpgClean the metal strip on the back of the target and the face of the LED array with 99% alcohol.
Using some 3M double sided VHB (Very High Bond) tape, apply the array.
Make sure the edges of the array do not interfere with the switch face. Once the VHB tape is on for 24 hours, it is never coming off.
That's it.
19 cents latter (less if you get the Lexan for free), you have super bright stand up targets on your WH2O, AFM, CC, PZ..........
If there is any desire, I can model these up in CAD and get them posted to Shapeways. For anyone that wouldn't want to make their own acrylic pieces. Or, I could throw together a quick PCB that would be less than a quarter a piece if people would want.
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:If there is any desire, I can model these up in CAD and get them posted to Shapeways. For anyone that wouldn't want to make their own acrylic pieces. Or, I could throw together a quick PCB that would be less than a quarter a piece if people would want.
Absolutely! I would be on board! (Pun intended).
Milton
These are super awesome. How is the durability of these after a bit? They are cheap so it can be whatever, just a matter of time to build.
Also, what do the resistors do in this case? Sorry, Im not super tech on this sort of stuff
Quoted from vid1900:How about building some for .19 cents each?
19 cents, are you kidding me; and then someone wants to sell me a PCB for a quarter!
Hey, I only buy stuff that costs a lot..that way I know it's really good.
OK I'll buy some, but you have to charge me $8.99 minimum for shipping.
Robert
Quoted from jrivelli:Also, what do the resistors do in this case? Sorry, I'm not super tech on this sort of stuff.
They are current limiting resistors to ensure the LED's don't burn up.
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:Or, I could throw together a quick PCB that would be less than a quarter a piece if people would want.
GEEZ STOP GOUGING PEOPLE. 
(Sounds like a great idea. Not that this is hard to build, but not everyone likes doing this kind of handy work or has the right tools/workspace.)
Quoted from KenLayton:This idea seems suited to have small PC boards made to mount the LED's in or on them.
I talked to Vid, and he thinks it would be cool to have the boards as well, so I am going to put something together in the next couple of days. My twins have thier 5th birthday this weekend, so it'll probably be Monday/Tuesday before I have something to show.
Vid came up with the suggestion to have the front of the board screened in white, since I'll get it screened anyway. That way it would diffuse/reflect the light a little more.
I could swear the recent thread about the AFM saucer light mod had a pic of light up stand ups.
Just pinged my board guy to make sure I wasn't way off base. These boards estimate at 27 cents a piece based on the size. There is a ~$40 setup fee regardless of how many I order, That includes both silk screening and solder mask.
If I was a guessing man, the final cost shipped to peoples doors will be about 50 cents a board. That's for unpopulated boards. You'll need to pick your own LEDs and resistor values depending on what you do, but I think we can come up with parts sources for you with known combinations of LEDs/resistors to make it easy.
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:Just pinged my board guy to make sure I wasn't way off base. These boards estimate at 27 cents a piece based on the size. There is a ~$40 setup fee regardless of how many I order, That includes both silk screening and solder mask.
If I was a guessing man, the final cost shipped to peoples doors will be about 50 cents a board. That's for unpopulated boards. You'll need to pick your own LEDs and resistor values depending on what you do, but I think we can come up with parts sources for you with known combinations of LEDs/resistors to make it easy.
I would be in for some of these for WH20 for sure! It would be neat to try and see how it looks.
Thanks for this vid! Also, remember to check Tayda's facebook page as they have a 15% off code about once a month.
Quoted from vid1900:Red, Orange and Green LEDs are usually 2v or so, but Blue might be 3 or 4v or higher.
There are many online LED resistor calculators to find the resistor value for the oddball LEDs.
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
Looks like you are you basically running two sets LEDs, each in a 2 LED series, no? If so, with a 6.3V input, if you had LEDs with a 3-3.2V forward voltage (blue for example), you wouldn't need any resistor in this setup. If you dropped to 5V DC, depending on the color used, you may have to do all 4 in parallel as you wouldn't have enough supply to feed 2 of them in series.
Definitely use the calculator link. Placing the resistor before or after the last LED really doesn't matter, but I like to put them before because in my brain the power gets dissipated before reaching the LED (not really true).
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:Just pinged my board guy to make sure I wasn't way off base. These boards estimate at 27 cents a piece based on the size. There is a ~$40 setup fee regardless of how many I order, That includes both silk screening and solder mask.
If I was a guessing man, the final cost shipped to peoples doors will be about 50 cents a board. That's for unpopulated boards. You'll need to pick your own LEDs and resistor values depending on what you do, but I think we can come up with parts sources for you with known combinations of LEDs/resistors to make it easy.
Do it! I don't even mind making my own stuff from scratch, but I'd buy some just for the convenience and to support making them for the people who won't do the scratch build stuff. 
Quoted from wxforecaster:Looks like you are you basically running two sets LEDs, each in a 2 LED series, no? If so, with a 6.3V input, if you had LEDs with a 3-3.2V forward voltage (blue for example), you wouldn't need any resistor in this setup. If you dropped to 5V DC, depending on the color used, you may have to do all 4 in parallel as you wouldn't have enough supply to feed 2 of them in series.
Definitely use the calculator link. Placing the resistor before or after the last LED really doesn't matter, but I like to put them before because in my brain the power gets dissipated before reaching the LED (not really true).
God, I hear ya man. I'm getting into electronics stuff just now in regards to ohm's law and calculating resistance/voltage all that stuff in-circuit, and some of it just makes me want to tear my scalp off....since I don't have any hair to pull out.
Quoted from jrivelli:Can you show a pic of them attachedto back of targets?
Pic of back of target with LED's all taped on
Quoted from Frax:God, I hear ya man. I'm getting into electronics stuff just now in regards to ohm's law and calculating resistance/voltage all that stuff in-circuit, and some of it just makes me want to tear my scalp off....since I don't have any hair to pull out.
^^^ This. To the pioneers that figured this stuff out without killing themselves in the process, this Bud's for you! And no digital multimeters or chinese sweat shops mass producing the components either! Unbelievable if you think about it.
Not to derail the topic, great stuff Vid.
Really appreciate all your input and tech vid1900!!! Love to read it like I used to read Clays EM guides back in 2000 when I got in the hobby and just strictly EM's till about 2008...so I thank you for your contributions.
Russ
www.Team-EM.com
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:Just pinged my board guy to make sure I wasn't way off base. These boards estimate at 27 cents a piece based on the size. There is a ~$40 setup fee regardless of how many I order, That includes both silk screening and solder mask.
If I was a guessing man, the final cost shipped to peoples doors will be about 50 cents a board. That's for unpopulated boards. You'll need to pick your own LEDs and resistor values depending on what you do, but I think we can come up with parts sources for you with known combinations of LEDs/resistors to make it easy.
i'd like to get in line for this.
Quoted from vid1900:Cell phone does not know how to focus that close, but you get the idea.
IMG_20131024_222823.jpg 394 KB
Thats perfect dude. Thanks!
Man, one day, maybe when I'm retired, I'll have enough time to really learn this stuff and actually go for it.
Vid, you are the man. Thanks for another great idea that I not handy enough to do yet but really hope to some day!
...I even caved recently and bought Cointaker lighted flipper button kits. I'm so ashamed. 
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