Updates on some recent discussions. Some upgrades can be implemented immediately, some upgrades require other changes and have to be implemented over time:
1. Power supply. Our original power supply was a 2 amp wall wart. 2 amps were very closely matched to the board. We found that when we received 2 amp power supplies from suppers, some were 2 amp, some were a little less. This was never an issue on our universal board (works in 18 games), but our T2 board uses 10% more lights. When you matched up a board that uses more lights with a weaker power supply, we had a couple issues, very rare, but upgraded those power supplies for those customers. Because of this we upgraded the 2 amp power supply to a 3 amp laptop computer style power supply. Also a wall wart can be tight in fitting in some service outlets, a laptop computer supply has more flexibility because of the cord. Their were also a few other advantages. This power supply upgrade has been implemented.
2. LED controllers. Our original LED controls were also matched at 2 amps. These were never an issue, because the T2 board that uses the most power, part of the 2 amp went to the speaker lights, part went to the board. But because we are upgrading the power supply to 3 amps, we needed to upgrade our LED controllers, these new controllers are rated at 6 amps. This upgrade has been implemented.
3. Plastic speaker panels were made by many different suppliers and the thickness of the plexiglass can vary. It was a possibility that if you had the thickest of plexiglass speaker panels, it could be a real challenge to fit in your existing U channel. When you add the thickness of a color LED strip, plus the thickness of the plexiglass speaker cover and adding a couple hundred inches for the panel, it only left about 1/100th of an inch of variance, very tight. The solution to this is we now include a plastic U channel that is 3/100's of an inch thicker then the original. As an added benefit, this panel matches the game better then the original. The original U channel in your game is a gloss black. The H channel between the speaker panel and the translight is a matte finish black. The U channel and the H channel in your game do not match. This U channel is a perfect match to your H channel. This upgrade has been implemented.
4. Bracket. As was mentioned above, the bracket was hand bent, hand made aluminum. This was an area that we wanted to upgrade. In upgrading the bracket, we found other items that were involved with upgrading the bracket. Because of this it will take month to implement the new bracket into the design. We do have the new stainless steel brackets in out shop, and we are moving the direction to upgrade those.
5. The relay we felt was always a week link to the mod, it work fine, it just had more wires then we would have like. We have designed a new relay that is much cleaner and much easier to install. It is a universal relay that is triggered by light and does not hook up to the game. We have used this relay with great success with our lighted magnetic hinge covers. This video is an example of the function of the new relay:
This relay did not work quite as well with the lighted speaker panels as I would have liked, and we are making another revision to the relay. Hope to have that upgrade with in 3 months.
Other upgrades that we are slowly implementing will be a bubble free mold which will help with the paining and will provide a few other upgrades. Our speaker light inserts are not as bright as a Stern after market lighted speaker insert, we are experimenting on a different way of doing these which will also have some added benefits.
you will not make everyone happy with a listing of a product. If it is a short description, people complain that not enough information is given. If you do a long description, people won't read the entire description and will complain that it is misleading. If you have not enough pictures, people complain about that, to many pictures, people complain about that. Per flynnibus suggestion we will include what we call a naked picture which is just the panel. I agree we should have done that to start with, but people do make mistakes. The below picture is a picture of a Dr. Who panel that is turned on set to white, and above it is an original panel to a Dr. Who.
Here is a quote from the listing, and you will see it does mention you use your existing speaker plastic. The last sentence in the paragraph states "The most time-consuming part of the installation is taking the film off of your original plastic speaker panel, however, we give you the tools and instructions to do that" I think this was even referenced in one of the above comments. Also the manual that is linked from our website goes into the description of how to remove the black masking and that tools are included to do that.
"The lighted speaker panel is designed to replace the wood panel in your game that the DMD and speakers mount to. Installation is easy, just transfer your current DMD, speakers and speaker plastic to the new panel and drop in place. There are 2 wires that connect to your game to tell the panel to turn on and off when you turn on and off your game. We have designed the panels so these will not power from you game, so no power worries. The power comes from your service outlet in the game, but as we stated, still turns on and off with your game. This comes with everything needed to install in your game. The most time-consuming part of the installation is taking the film off of your original plastic speaker panel, however, we give you the tools and instructions to do that."
The above is in all listing and has always been in all listings.
If you have an existing speaker plastic that you want to improve on, for our private collection we have used a page from HEP's play book and use a cheap polisher from Walmart, with Novus 2 and Novus 1. These pictures are just an example, and this has mot been polished as good as it could.
Concerns about the website. If you go to our website, you will see many upgraded. We have removed some product categories we won't be doing at this time. We have improved the listing areas that we are working on. We are adding more before and after pictures and adding more videos. the biggest improvements have been in the Lighted Magnetic Speaker Panels. They are display much better the customer has the option to order in their own choice of EL Panel colors for an additional $10 more. Many, many, many more upgrades and changes coming to the the website in the next months, and I expect upgraded to be done every day.
I hope I have addressed all of the concerns that were addressed in the last 40 posts, if I have not, bring it up again, and I will address.
We have worked very hard to not copy other peoples work. When you look at our items you CANNOT say other companies do that. We have worked very hard to make original mods. Because we are the first at doing products in many areas that have never been done before, I am sorry they may not be quite as polished as products that have been around for many years, but we are making many upgrades and improvements to our lines. You know the saying, pioneers get shot, and we have pioneered many new ideas.
We still don't have plasma's listed on out site, because we can not keep up with demand. When we get them on the website, their will be a few week delay on shipping which will be put on the listing, and they may go to zero inventory from time to time.
One product that we have hit a home run on is the Lighted Magnetic Speaker Panels. We did an excellent job on this product before release, all factory connections, hooks up to EVERY game with a service outlet, 5 minute install, nothing has ever been done like these before, addressing an area of the game that has never been addressed and do have a in depth video online about the electronics. We are working on import installations at this time, also different color vinyls.
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