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Homepin LED kit - Review


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About a month ago I purchased one of the early prototype LED kits from Mike (Homepin) & here is a review. Please note that he is now selling a new improved version of the kits but I feel most of the observations below will still be relevant

 

My observations are:-

 

Kit includes 36 LEDS, resitors and pcbs - mine were 6 red, blue, green, white & 12 multicolours. Took a bit over an hour to build them

 

I had to clean the PCB to expose the copper otherwise impossible to solder. This should be done before you snap the individual pieces apart and only took 30 seconds with 400 grit sandpaper

 

They fit in the socket quite well with no bad contact problems

 

the leds do not have a lens to disperse the light making it short angle and only suitable for small inserts - sanding the tips might help a bit

 

All the colours were very good & bright, the white has only a slight blue tone

 

big benefit over the pre made LEDS (besides price) is that they are suitable for inserts where the bulb holder is horizontal to the playfield as you can bend the LED legs 90 degrees - this will be good for my STTNG shields for example

 

Mike included some multcoulour LEDS as well. I had to solder a 10 micro farad electrolitic capacitor across the positive & negative inputs to get them to flash but the results are GREAT

 

Here are the multicour LEDS on my CV. They look better in real life and are sort of hypnotising

 

[video=youtube;o4L-kv9BWqg]

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They look great (even if I do say so myself:D). Sanding the tops will certainly spread the light more and fill the insert at the slight expense of slightly reduced brightness. With the new PCBs there is no preperation required - just solder the parts straight on to the factory tinned boards and snap apart.
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I got my new style kit today, and these are great - easy to solder and snap apart.

 

What i found was best was to solder a line of resistors and bulbs and then snap them off - also spending $14 at Jaycar for a PCB holder is very well worth it.

 

http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/Pot/LED/led006.jpg

 

You can see in the pic of Indy that i have done most of the left side in green, red, yellow and white - the greens make a huge difference (see best comparison with the A and D compared to V on the left standup targets), as well as reds look great under the mode lights - the white is also pretty intense. Yellows don't make a huge difference, but is still quite noticeable. The super bright white is under the Shorty insert - prob a bit too much, but they look great in the backbox to highlight features.

 

http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/zz299/rjmilla/Pot/LED/led009.jpg

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They look great (even if I do say so myself:D). Sanding the tops will certainly spread the light more and fill the insert at the slight expense of slightly reduced brightness. With the new PCBs there is no preperation required - just solder the parts straight on to the factory tinned boards and snap apart.

 

Saw the original test you posted with BSD. How much would it cost to do the lot (including GI) with this lot....

 

Would love to see a full playfield video (x'sing fingers you have replaced all of your bulbs).

 

Have you considered selling just the board in 50/100/150 snap apart lots? I have led's coming out the proverbial but have bugger all ability @ the moment to be making pcb's.

 

Cheers,

 

Dyson

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Saw the original test you posted with BSD. How much would it cost to do the lot (including GI) with this lot....

 

Would love to see a full playfield video (x'sing fingers you have replaced all of your bulbs).

 

Have you considered selling just the board in 50/100/150 snap apart lots? I have led's coming out the proverbial but have bugger all ability @ the moment to be making pcb's.

 

Cheers,

 

Dyson

 

I haven't looked at what numbers would be needed to do a whole machine - that is up to the individual experimenter really. Remember these are suitable for plug-in 555 style lamps only not 44/47 types.

 

For GI I don't believe they would be much good as LEDs are too directional in my view?

 

The LEDs supplied in these kits are VERY high brightness types not easily found in Australia. They are specified at 25,000 to 35,000 MCD most types sold here (even sold as high brightness) are lucky to be 10,000, maybe 15K - in pinball insert applications a 10K LED is just not bright enough.

 

This is one reason I don't supply other colours in these kits - because the factory that I buy these ones from only makes these colours - I have other avenues but their pricing is not as attractive.

 

If you break down the cost on my kit there is simply no way you could get these types of LEDs even close to the price I am selling them for. Even the Chinese eBay sellers products don't match up - I have checked!

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i got my kits today and have made up a few different colours,

WOW you can get some funky colours when you mix and match.

i got a nice green on the 1,2,3 inserts and a lavender lilac colour on the dino frenzy insert.

 

thanks Mike:cool:

 

Ian

HPIM5832.thumb.jpg.87f07f769006fb88890137ce9c9d47b2.jpg

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i got my kits today and have made up a few different colours,

WOW you can get some funky colours when you mix and match.

i got a nice green on the 1,2,3 inserts and a lavender lilac colour on the dino frenzy insert.

 

thanks Mike:cool:

 

Ian

 

 

 

If you sand the tops of the LEDs a little bit the light will fill the insert better as well.....

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just a tip on sanding leds and plastic that leds shine in to cos im speaking from experience here as i have mounted yellow leds on a few motorcycles over the year for extra left/right indicators

 

only use very fine wet n dry sand paper and take your time

 

dont go stupid with the sanding

 

but take it easy and the difference is amazing:cool:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Check this link for my musings

http://www.aussiearcade.com/showpost.php?p=405159

 

From my observations the let down is the lack of yellow (orange) LEDs therefore requiring white, and secondly 10mm LEDs in the larger 'arrow' shapes, and the green LEDs having far too tight focus. I'll give the sanding trick a try if someone would like to tell me what I'm sanding (top towards a more flattened shape??)

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Check this link for my musings

http://www.aussiearcade.com/showpost.php?p=405159

 

From my observations the let down is the lack of yellow (orange) LEDs therefore requiring white, and secondly 10mm LEDs in the larger 'arrow' shapes, and the green LEDs having far too tight focus. I'll give the sanding trick a try if someone would like to tell me what I'm sanding (top towards a more flattened shape??)

 

Awesome post mate , congratulation on your moving making skills( what program did you use) .

The LED's look the treat ,massive different .

Well done .

Cheers Tony

 

Don't know about sanding sorry I'm like you .:unsure

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Awesome post mate , congratulation on your moving making skills( what program did you use) .

The LED's look the treat ,massive different .

Well done .

Cheers Tony

 

Don't know about sanding sorry I'm like you .:unsure

 

sanding the led disperses the light better (the lens part), but you loose some pop

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Awesome post mate , congratulation on your moving making skills( what program did you use) .

 

iMovie - Comes with every Mac

 

Don't know about sanding sorry I'm like you .:unsure

 

Apparently the sanding just dulls the clear plastic, throwing more light. Job or later...

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