Comet Pinball: Additional Game LED Lighting

[mwong168]

So after browsing through Comet Pinball's website I noticed they had a few products which caught my interest:

http://www.cometpinball.com/6-3-V-Plug-Play-Strips-Comet-Pinball-p/6.3vsmdstrips.htm

When I got my Creech last November it had a 3SMD LED strip installed by the ball drain area. I thought it lit the area around the flippers nicely which are otherwise pretty dark. It's a bonus if you have Super Bands installed on your games because it makes them give off a nice glow too

http://www.cometpinball.com/2-SMD-FLEX-Non-Ghosting-p/2smdflexng.htm

Now another area I always find very dark on most of my games is right in between the slingshots. I find with an incandescent bulb it doesn't give off much light out the sides and depending on what type of "super bright" LED you use it usually ends up washing out the entire area surrounding it. What I want is to be able to focus and aim the light where I need it. I thought about using a single flex head LED in the past but depending on the game some games had two bulb sockets and some only had one under the slingshot plastics.

For games with only one socket I would have to give up my slingshot plastic being lit up in favor of having a single flex pointing towards the middle. For games with two sockets I could have have on regular bulb to light the slingshot plastic and one flex pointing towards the middle. But the potential problem could be unevenly lit slingshot plastics. I know first world problems here but luckily Comet has dual head flex LEDs so I could have one aiming up towards the slingshot plastic and the other towards the middle.

http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/opmax-nr.htm

Comet's spotlight bulb caught my attention because it claims to be "The Best Spotlight Bulb!" So we'll see how true it lives up to this saying but from the production description:

"This unique bulb casts light over 300 degrees! A bulb so special, it's covered by two Patents Exclusive to Comet Pinball, and no where else!"

With this type of coverage means you could improved lighting if your game already has spotlights installed like modern Sterns or you could get away with adding fewer spotlights like this on your playfield.

These spotlights are easy to add to any game usually without requiring any permanent modification. They can be bought from Pinball Life here:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1542

You can usually use an existing screw or nut to wedge the spotlight in between but keep in mind you have to conceal two wires and run through the bottom of the playfield to tap into the existing GI for power.

So here are some before and after pics of these being installed in my Shadow which is about 95% incandescent.

The two spot lights here have standard #555 incandescent bulbs.

Comet spotlight bulb (left) and incandescent (right) for comparison.

Comet spotlight bulbs installed on both which really brighten up the top half of the playfield. From this picture you can also see what I mean by the area between the slingshots being dark as well. It is even more obvious now compared to the first picture with incandescents because the spotlights are much brighter.

The left slingshot has two #44 incandescent bulbs and the right has two Comet double head flex LEDs installed with two pointing up and two point out towards the middle.

Both sides have Comet double head flex LEDs installed and as you can see it's a pretty significant improvement in my opinion. I can't wait to do this on my Judge Dredd because the lighting on that game is very poor and this area is pretty much pitch black!

The last item on the list is the 3SMD LED strip by the ball drain area. Not a big deal and doesn't really affect game play because by the time you see the ball there it is too late anyways

The installation was very easy and no permanent modification is required since Comet provides three different types of connectors for this strip.

1) Gator clip it to an existing bulb socket under the playfield
2) If you are installing this above the playfield you can one of the #44 or #555 harnesses

Here is an overall final shot of all the new lighting installed and now that the rest of the playfield is so bright it makes my battlefield look dark again. There is already two #555 sockets added there to light it up so maybe I can just use some double head flex LEDs to brighten it up.

One of my final concerns was how all this extra LED lighting would interfere with game play since I prefer to play in a dark low light environment. Especially with the dual flex head LEDs because now have light aiming right at the ball as it rolls by. The additional lighting could cause reflections, glare or make it hard to track the ball during game play.

I had my friend James (aka Grauwolf) over last night who was in town for work and said the extra lighting didn't him at all. Coincidentally this Shadow use to be his many, many years ago when be bought it for ~$1300 from a Starburst auction. Anyways, I'll be posting more before and after pics as I get around to doing the same additions to my other games.

Thanks again to Art from Comet Pinball for always being there to answer questions, providing us with great products at an affordable price and reasonable shipping to Canada too!

 

[meegis]

Props to Art! Awesome seller and great to deal with.

Ordered bulbs for my Xmen (still waiting to install) and soon to order more for another game.

Nice work wong!

 

[FastEd]

Thanks Mike, gonna have to look closer at the pictures later. Was gonna place an order last night, but, still doing an inventory of all the bulbs that I will need!

 

[mwong168]

I got around to adding extra lighting to my Addams Family and Judge Dredd last night while Elliot was over trying to setup 4x and collect a nice big Super Jackpot on my Creech which he came close to a few times but failed in the end

The Addams Family has only a single socket under the sling in the lower half and had some low profile single SMD warm white LEDs I put under the inlane plastics. I am going to ask Art what he suggests to use there instead because I don't like the circular hot spotting it creates.

I might install some additional spot lights above the slings like I did on Shadow but right now I have just one to light up the book case area using Comet's spotlight bulb. I might install some additional lighting using a warm white LED strip in the top left corner which is otherwise pitch black as there is no GI there.

Now onto the next game Judge Dredd which in my opinion is a very poorly overall. Spot lights over the slings is a must for this game and here is why:

The game has some artwork artwork and thank god it is based off the popular UK comic instead of Stallone's movie version. Now the flipper area here is really dark because the only lighting is coming from the slings. The inlane guides are tall metal wall so there is no GI lighting.

My Judge Dredd came partially LED'ed so here is two standard frosted bulbs on the left and Comet's dual flex head LEDs on the right.

Sorry for the crappy pics and I assure you it doesn't look quite as washed out in person. The camera on my Android One+ has been the biggest let down and this is probably the only props you will ever hear me give Apple is their iPhone camera takes nice pictures but being shackled to iTunes blows!

Not sure if I should have gone with a 7SMD LED strip by ball drain area here or maybe I will install two 3SMD on each side because the outlane areas are pretty dark.

On my original Judge Dredd I added four spotlights with two of them being over the slings for the lower playfield. I also added one by the left orbit because the ball comes screaming back when you hit the upper right orbit with the upper left flipper and you can't see it coming.

I also had one more spotlight hidden behind the right pursuit flasher on the right ramp to light up the upper right half of the playfield.

Before

After

I know all this is moot if I just play with the lights on in the room but if I can get my games playing comfortably in a darker light environment then why not. In the end if it really bothers my guests then I will just simply turn the lights on.

If you have any questions feel free to ask or would like to come over and see for yourself my door is always open.

 

[Razor]

Art's stuff is great.

 

[mwong168]

Just finished up TOM

Before:

After:

Damn... I need to get my replacement trunk I loaned back from Brock

 

[REVOLUTION]

Wow, awesome write-up Mike!

 

[FastEd]

Wow, literally night and day. Did you add some spotlights? Is that the natural sunlight from comet?

 

[mwong168]

Wow, literally night and day. Did you add some spotlights? Is that the natural sunlight from comet?

Yes, I added two spot lights over the sling shots and that is the sunlight white spot light bulb from Comet. I have some natural whites I can throw in one spotlight and take a pic for side by side comparison if you'd like. Actually I have to confirm, it could be the other way around now and I might have natural white in the spotlights in the pic above.

TOM is one game I am going to keep mostly incandescent and only a few inserts have LEDs in them such as the white inserts and lock to make them stand out a bit more. I usually have LEDs under the white inserts on all my games because I like them to light up white instead of yellow from the incandescent bulbs.

 

[mwong168]

I just asked Art for some clarification for white color temp for his products:

Warm White is 3000K-4000K
Sunlight is 4000K-5000K
Natural white 5000K to 6000K (other sellers may refer to this as "cool" white)

So what you see above in my TOM and Shadow spot lights are warm white since the rest of the game's GI is running off incandescent bulbs. My JD is using sunlight white in the spot lights since it has what look to be cool white LEDs.

The double head flex LEDs and 3SMD strip used in TOM are warm white and JD is natural white.

I will be honest and I knew this was going to be a problem when adding LEDs to the GI on TOM. All of Jpop's games (TOM, TOTAN, CV) look amazing with LEDs but unfortunately they are also the worse when it comes to introducing flicker or strobe effect. Comet Pinball carries a product called the LED-OCD board. You will probably have to email Art to see if he will be getting a Bally/Williams version his site only has for Stern.

http://www.cometpinball.com/Stern-LED-OCD-Board-p/ledocdstern.htm

You can read and see more about this product here: http://ledocd.com

For myself I usually experiment with LED usage in my games and see if they are distracting during game play. If they actually affect game play I will remove them otherwise my friend SuperJackpot (Barry) will not come over to my place and play

 

[FastEd]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the white temp chart, very useful. Have you ever tried Comet's less strobe/no flicker version of their LED lights?

http://www.cometpinball.com/mobile/Category.aspx?id=1837

 

[mwong168]

Hey Ed,

I have not tried any of Comet's no flicker version of his LEDs. From my my past conversations with Art his regular Non Ghosting have a BR to prevent lighting below 3.5V and Optix uses a different method and has a cap to smooth flickering. Both of these are meant to be used for inserts but some games have code to fade and swipe. As a result some of this code will cause flickering or could so there is no bulb to override this. The only solution for this is Hergs LED OCD board because it changes the cycle rate from 60 hz to 200 hz allowing the LED to react to these commands and fade. Comet's Op-Max is the only bulb that takes AC current in the GI and converts to DC before lighting the bulb. This is supposed to help eliminate true strobing but not fade or swipes. Sometimes a board issue such as a weakcap that can cause a flicker from power drain.

Mike

 

[FastEd]

Thanks Mike,

I think I'll invest in Herg's LED OCD board. I'm thinking that for some of these machines with finicky playfields, I want to make sure they have all LED in them. I think, aesthetics aside, LED's make sense from the lower power draw and much less heat dissipation. I don't want inserts being raised or other side effects due to incandescent bulbs. I want to prolong the quality of the playfield as much as possible.

 

[mwong168]

I don't want inserts being raised or other side effects due to incandescent bulbs. I want to prolong the quality of the playfield as much as possible.

Good call on Herg's board and LEDs really do make the inserts pop on all games. Keep in mind that in a home environment your pin will not take the abuse it does on route where it can be potentially on from 12-14 hours or more.

 

[mwong168]

Just finished adding new Comet lighting on my MM. The game originally came with CoinTaker super brights in purple under the inlane plastics and some frosted white LEDs under the slings.

Before:

After:

After with extra spotlights above the slings:

 

[mwong168]

Finally almost 3 years later I get around to do these lighting additions to my Congo. I also recently took advantage of Comet's Black Friday sale and replaced all the incandescent GI with 2smd frosted warm white leds too.

Before


After


Of all my games I did this to I think Congo had the most improvement. It is almost pinstadium like

 

[mwong168]

Oh crap, scrolled up just now and better go remove those purple bulbs put in by previous owner in my MM in lanes and replace with some optimax natural white ones before I end up in that rainbow puke thread on pinside

 

[mwong168]

I just fixed the purple and removed the green in the castle, red GI up by inlanes and did rest of the GI to match the same natural white temperature by my flipper area. Now I can go to bed and hopefully mitch will redeem me