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How To: DIY Under cabinet lighting

mwong168

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Nov 14, 2012
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Toronto
For those who want to add under cabinet lighting but don't want to drop $100+shipping on a kit similar to this on Pinball Life:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2448

You can pick up a 5M roll of RGB LED strips for $15 shipped and cut to length to do multiple machines

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1-pcs-5M-3528-RG ... 19cb745726

All it involves is a bit of soldering to create a wiring harness and there are a few places where you can tap for 12V on the game such as J116 on the power driver board for WPC games which I believe is designated for a bill validator or else the coin door interface board has a 12V pin out you can tap into as well.

7217072536_18bfeeb3c3_z.jpg


Here is a picture I did some testing with via J116 on my Shadow for an RGB strip I picked up from a local LED shop for $2.00. I used this for under cabinet lighting for my pinmame cabinet to light up a different color via LEDWiz for each game such as blue for White Water, green for Shadow, purple for Big Bang Bar, etc...

7286856980_340efa0994_c.jpg


7286856148_e5b88095da_c.jpg


7286855184_ddf8fa365e_c.jpg


Any questions or if you need help feel free to drop me a PM.

-Mike
 

good_buddy83

Active Member
Dec 19, 2012
194
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Beamsville
I had not yet read your post till now, but yesterday I picked some of the yellow LED strp lighting up at a local electronics shop and used a 6" section to light up the battlefield on my Shadow. My mind was racing on the possibilities of this stuff. Very easy to use. I tied mine in with Gator clips to the 12VR and a ground pin right on the board. I like your idea for a tie-in much better and it also keeps things fused just in case. I'll have to tweak min a bit. Thanks for the post.
 

mwong168

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Nov 14, 2012
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I tried using some spot lights to light up my Battlefield but the problem was finding suitable mounting points without doing any permanent modification to the game. The other problem was I could not find a good spot to mount another spotlight on the right and the one place where it could work would not clear the playfield glass as I wanted even light distribution too.

6833067616_ba1e02a01d_c.jpg


I ended up putting a small green LED strip above instead and worked out pretty good.

7026613623_82923a41f4_c.jpg
 

good_buddy83

Active Member
Dec 19, 2012
194
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Beamsville
Mine looks almost the same. Only difference is I used yellow instead of green and I mounted it back back farther beyond the lip. I didn't really like the fact that I had a strong LED reflection off of the play field . But the problem I have now is the light only goes half was back on the play field. I might move it forward again. I'll post some pictures.
 

Monkeybug

Active Member
Nov 14, 2012
571
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Stouffville, ON
mwong168 said:
I tried using some spot lights to light up my Battlefield but the problem was finding suitable mounting points without doing any permanent modification to the game. The other problem was I could not find a good spot to mount another spotlight on the right and the one place where it could work would not clear the playfield glass as I wanted even light distribution too.

6833067616_ba1e02a01d_c.jpg


I ended up putting a small green LED strip above instead and worked out pretty good.

7026613623_82923a41f4_c.jpg


I would be curious to find a way to diffuse the light, to make it blend instead of seeing the reflection of the individual dots on the battlefield.
 

good_buddy83

Active Member
Dec 19, 2012
194
36
28
Beamsville
I'm with you there. I had read somewhere someone doing the same thing using a cold cathode light. I set out originally to do the same thing. Problem is with a cold cathode light you will still see a strong line instead of individual dots. I'm not sure how to better spread the light, maybe masking tape over the entire strip might be enough.

Also if anyone is interested, I used 6" off of a 1m LED strip in yellow so I have extra if anyone wants one made up.
 

mwong168

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Nov 14, 2012
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Toronto
can you tell me how to connect led strips to be interactive with pop bumpers???

I would see if and what flashers go off when the pops are going off. I would just piggy back the led strip to that flasher bulb if you want it to be interactive.
 

SteveShady

Member
Apr 1, 2018
48
12
8
52
Bowmanville
Anybody have any tips on a good tie in point on a Gottlieb System 3 Pin (I wont use the name because you'll all make fun of me... lol) to do some interactive lighting? Great thread you've got going here!