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LEDS strips and adding a new light or 2


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Gday guys ... just need a little bit of info regarding LED strip lighting / El wire and even adding a new light bulb to darker areas of the playfield

 

How do you go about sourcing the power for these additions?

Do you splice into an existing lighting power source (2 wires) or run fresh wires back to main board?

Just trying to figure out the most safe way to ensure the pinball and user are protected firstly and not run any risk of creating shorts etc

 

Thanks in advance (a very new member to this world so apologise for the noob status of the question)

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Aussie Arcade mobile app

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Depends on the machine. What machine and where do you want the LED strips or EL wire.

 

I wanted a UV LED strip on my Getaway in the trough behind the flippers. The strip was 12volts and I certainly didn't want cables going to the head to do it.

 

Lucky, the machine had a 12 volt source on the playfield, the supercharger board actually.

 

I tapped into that wire at the board and a suitable ground wire and ran them through the harness down to the trough.

 

At the trough, under the playfield I put a 2 pin connector so if the trough plate needed to be removed, you unplug the wires.

 

I also made the wires the same colours the factory used to the super charger board for ease of repair if it is ever needed.

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Depends on the machine. What machine and where do you want the LED strips or EL wire.

 

I wanted a UV LED strip on my Getaway in the trough behind the flippers. The strip was 12volts and I certainly didn't want cables going to the head to do it.

 

Lucky, the machine had a 12 volt source on the playfield, the supercharger board actually.

 

I tapped into that wire at the board and a suitable ground wire and ran them through the harness down to the trough.

 

At the trough, under the playfield I put a 2 pin connector so if the trough plate needed to be removed, you unplug the wires.

 

I also made the wires the same colours the factory used to the super charger board for ease of repair if it is ever needed.

Will be on STTNG

TFTC

AND STAR WARS TRILOGY

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Aussie Arcade mobile app

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Coloured strip lighting can be power hungry and uses a fair bit of current (>1 Amp per meter), so it would depend on how big a length you want to use and how many Leds used per meter (30 or 60). White Led strip lighting usually uses <0.5 Amps per meter but that also depends on how bright the Leds are. Super bright Led strips can consume more current than the coloured strips.

 

EI wire is less power hungry but you need an inverter to run it as it works off AC voltage not DC. Should be ok to tap into your 12 Volts to run it I would imagine.

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Coloured strip lighting can be power hungry and uses a fair bit of current (>1 Amp per meter), so it would depend on how big a length you want to use and how many Leds used per meter (30 or 60). White Led strip lighting usually uses <0.5 Amps per meter but that also depends on how bright the Leds are. Super bright Led strips can consume more current than the coloured strips.

 

EI wire is less power hungry but you need an inverter to run it as it works off AC voltage not DC. Should be ok to tap into your 12 Volts to run it I would imagine.

 

The LED strips I used could be cut in groups of 3 LEDS. At the bottom of the machine I used 6 UV LEDs or 2 sections of the length of strip I bought.

 

Still runs on 12 volts but uses minimal power. I also ran a strip under the upper track on the super charger, (Getaway), and it was 4 sections or 12 LEDs. The machine knows now difference.

 

EI wire uses higher voltage. Not real sure what voltage but the higher the voltage, the more current it will need off the 12v supply.

 

What voltage does the EI wire need and what current, (mA) does it require?.

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I sell custom made 6V led strips that can be easily hooked up to any 6V GI socket. Much easier to use than 12V strips. They come in white, red, blue, green and purple (high UV giving you the glow in the darck/black light effect).

$8.50/m (60 leds/m).

PM me if interested.

 

I use El Wire in my STTNG and I could not use any of the machines 12V outlets. Ended up driving it via its own power supply of mains power. Used one of those master/slave power boards so when i turn on machine the wires turn on.

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Like I said, it depends on how much you want to use. UV Leds will consume around 500mA per meter (60 Leds per meter) or half that with 30 Leds per meter. Sounds like you have the 60 Led option, so the length that you used will only draw around 125mA, never going to make any difference to the performance of your machine. If you wanted to run it around or under the machine though and use a few meters, you are looking at 1.5A and more than double that for super bright or colour changing Leds.

 

You could run about 5 meters of El wire at around 150mA to 200mA.

 

El wire runs off 100VAC to 120VAC at 500Hz to 1KHz, that's why you need an inverter/driver and you can run these for hours off AA batteries so I don't know why you wouldn't be able to tap into the existing 12V supply.

 

Either way, I am sure that @afeott isn't going to use 5 meters of Lighting so Leds will be fine, just pointing out that El wire will power more for less.

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I sell custom made 6V led strips that can be easily hooked up to any 6V GI socket. Much easier to use than 12V strips. They come in white, red, blue, green and purple (high UV giving you the glow in the darck/black light effect).

$8.50/m (60 leds/m).

PM me if interested.

 

I use El Wire in my STTNG and I could not use any of the machines 12V outlets. Ended up driving it via its own power supply of mains power. Used one of those master/slave power boards so when i turn on machine the wires turn on.

 

That's a nice price for the 6 volt LED strip. Can they be cut into shorter lengths or is that length what is required for it to work?.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Like I said, it depends on how much you want to use. UV Leds will consume around 500mA per meter (60 Leds per meter) or half that with 30 Leds per meter. Sounds like you have the 60 Led option, so the length that you used will only draw around 125mA, never going to make any difference to the performance of your machine. If you wanted to run it around or under the machine though and use a few meters, you are looking at 1.5A and more than double that for super bright or colour changing Leds.

 

You could run about 5 meters of El wire at around 150mA to 200mA.

 

El wire runs off 100VAC to 120VAC at 500Hz to 1KHz, that's why you need an inverter/driver and you can run these for hours off AA batteries so I don't know why you wouldn't be able to tap into the existing 12V supply.

 

Either way, I am sure that @afeott isn't going to use 5 meters of Lighting so Leds will be fine, just pointing out that El wire will power more for less.

 

Working on your figures of 5 meters needing 120vac at 200mA that is going to work out at 12volts 2000mA.

 

If the voltage is stepped up 10 times, the current drawn is 10 times as well.

 

To multiply the voltage, the power has to come form somewhere.

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Working on your figures of 5 meters needing 120vac at 200mA that is going to work out at 12volts 2000mA.

 

If the voltage is stepped up 10 times, the current drawn is 10 times as well.

 

To multiply the voltage, the power has to come form somewhere.

 

The current quoted is DC. The El wire acts like a capacitor and the charging/discharging of the wire is what causes it to emit light, not current as in a Led. The higher the frequency, the brighter it will be and it seems that the 1Khz I mentioned was actually quite conservative.

 

So very little current is needed and that is why they can run off of batteries for hours. Looking online, you can get a 2 x AA battery inverter that will power 2.5 meters of El wire for 8-10 hours.

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The current quoted is DC. The El wire acts like a capacitor and the charging/discharging of the wire is what causes it to emit light, not current as in a Led. The higher the frequency, the brighter it will be and it seems that the 1Khz I mentioned was actually quite conservative.

 

So very little current is needed and that is why they can run off of batteries for hours. Looking online, you can get a 2 x AA battery inverter that will power 2.5 meters of El wire for 8-10 hours.

 

Ow sweet, no power at all then. Just needs a regulator tuned to 3vDC...(2AA battery voltage), and supply that off either the machines 5vDC or the 12 volts and it won't ever need batteries.

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That's a nice price for the 6 volt LED strip. Can they be cut into shorter lengths or is that length what is required for it to work?.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

Working on your figures of 5 meters needing 120vac at 200mA that is going to work out at 12volts 2000mA.

 

If the voltage is stepped up 10 times, the current drawn is 10 times as well.

 

To multiply the voltage, the power has to come form somewhere.

 

They can be cut down to as little as 3 led per section.

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RGB LED chains draw around 22 mA at 5V per LED. For addressable LEDs, it's up to 66 mA if they are on full white. If you budget 25 mA per LED (or 75 mA per addressable LED), you'll be well within spec.

 

Cheers,

 

Michi.

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One thing to watch out for when using EL wire on a pinball is electrical 'noise'.

I worked on an operator's Tron Pro, where they used EL wire to dress up the ramps.

This wreaked havoc on the Tron disc opto circuit & caused phantom switch closures to be registered.

The solution was to replace the fig8 cables connecting the optos with shielded, coaxial cable, so as to keep noise out of the opto amp circuits.

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