DIY - Light Up LED Flipper Buttons

[mwong168]

They have premade light up flipper button kits from various online vendors such as Coin Taker but they are pretty damn pricey at over $30. I am going to show you what I did to light up my own flipper buttons and what parts I used:

Transparent Cabinet Flipper Button - 1-1/8" Shaft - Clear [ $1.75/each x2 ]
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3332

Ablaze Premium Ghost Buster 1-SMD-LED #555 Wedge Base Lamp With Flexible 90° Angle - Purple [ $0.99/each x2 ]
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3107

Miniature Wedge Base 2-Lead Socket With Rear Mounting Bracket [ $0.95/each x 2 ]
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=294

I went to Sayal and bought a pack of crimp quick disconnects with a piggy back tabs [ $3.00 for pack of 10 ] and I had a bunch of female quick disconnects from previous MAME projects which otherwise can be had for pretty cheap as well.

Some other items I used was red and black wire, heat shrink tubing and two small wood screws. You will need basic tools such as side cutters, wire stripper, crimper, lighter and soldering iron.

Now first step is to remove your old flipper buttons and install the new clear ones. The nut that is holding the flipper button can be a bit tight to remove by hand so you can use a pair of big pliers or if you have a socket big enough in your set that will work too. You will want to remove the flipper opto board or leaf switch stack as well as shooter rod to make this easier. Remember when you are tightening the nut don't over do it because the button can start digging into the cab!

We will be tapping into the Start button to power our flipper buttons so carefully snip the wire from the quick disconnect for the bulb and you will be recrimping it using the quick disconnect with the piggy back tab shown above.

Before:

After:

Be very careful and I normally don't recommend working on your game on with the playfield up because you can easily short or mess something up pretty badly. You can test out using some gator clips on both tabs from the Start button to see if the LED lights up.

Now we need to create a wiring harness for each bulb socket from each flipper button. I ran one of the wires inside the cab from the right flipper button to get the proper length to the Start button. Then I soldered both wires to the bulb socket and tidied it up with some heat shrink tubing.

I used a small wood screw to mount the bulb socket directly below and off to the side of the flipper button. I made sure it didn't interfere when the button is pressed in to engage the leaf switch stack. I ran the wire neatly using the existing cable holders inside the cabinet from the right flipper button to the Start button. I did the same thing to the other side as shown below.

I joined up the positive and negative pairs and crimped on the female quick disconnects

Now all that is left to do is hook up on the piggy back tabs and you should be all good to go!

Do one last double check before you turn your game on you see if your flipper buttons light up

The nice thing about tying into the Start button bulb is that during attract mode the flipper buttons will flash but once you start the game it stays on solid.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUeONvLF7yqkCiEM_76-Kg4Q&feature=player_detailpage&v=A_ZqUNW0tHU[/youtube]

I have to think about how to address the bleeding on both sides under the apron as seen here. I will post an update later as it is getting late now (2am :FP

Enjoy and if you need any help or have any questions feel free to ask me here or via PM.

-Mike

 

[brad808]

That looks awesome. Nice writeup too, thanks.

 

[spiroagnew]

Had a set on Funhouse, but took them off. I did rig up a shield using some felt with adhesive backing, available from Michaels or any craft store. Worked well but just became too much of a pain in the ass and I just didn't like the overall look of a lit flipper button so I ended up removing them. The bleed kills this mod...and you'll run into the problem with professional kits as well.

 

[Fifty]

Yeah I didn't like the bleeding either which is why I reversed this. I do like your idea of tying it into the START button. There is a similar thread over on Pinside where I asked how people controlled the bleeding. Most responses were "what bleeding?" or "I just left it" which were less than Ideal solutions for me. One person suggest using the top off a black spray can and cutting it out, which I'm sure would work well but look like hack.

 

[mwong168]

I forgot to circle back and update on how I addressed the light bleeding issues on the sides of the apron on my games. For my WPC games I used some velcro strips and cut some black foam board strips which I stuck under the sides of the apron like this.

I initially tried using double sided foam tape but it didn't hold very well and after a few days it fell off. I ended up using velcro strips because the adhesive seemed to stick much better to the apron and/or foam board. It also gives you a bit flexibility to adjust and pull the foam board out a few millimeters on each side towards the cabinet to block any excess light bleed.

For WPC95 games like MM and TOTAN I had to do something a little bit different because I couldn't use the foam board since the left side of the apron is not open. It's not pretty but it works and most importantly doesn't require permanent modification.

I trimmed the excess yellow paper part of the velcro so it is not as visible from the top when the apron is down. It works pretty well and if there is any light bleed I can pull one half of the velcro away from the apron.

I did run into an issue with the shooter lane side because the foam board was getting caught up in the flipper opto interrupter. So again I improvised using only one half of the velcro and stuck it under the apron and then used some black electrical tape to cover the exposed adhesive.

I made it protrude a bit more since there is no way of adjusting it like the foam board so when the playfield is down it brushes up against the cabinet. It actually works for blocking any light from the flipper buttons and it has enough flex but will maintain its shape too.

Anyways, I'm done lighting up all the flipper buttons on all my games and quite happy with the results given how cheap it was to do. In total I probably spent about $80 in parts such as clear flipper buttons, leds, sockets and crimp connectors to do 11 games where as if I bought a kit from say coin taker it would have cost me easily 3-4x as much.

Here are some pics when I had some friends over last Friday night till 3am!

Here is a picture of SuperJackpot (aka Barry) cashing in the Super Jackpot on my Creech

It looks like my friend Elliot has some work to do and a new score to shoot for next time he comes over to play.

 

[Fifty]

Creetch... I should have known better that to look in this thread.

Simple solution and it looks great. I've been thinking of designing something in a 3D editor and printing it out on Shapeways. Currently I'm designing it for my F-14, but if it works I'll try to adapt it for other pins. It looks like this. Sorry for the cruddy drawing;



There is one on Shapeways already, but I'm not sure if it will work;
http://www.shapeways.com/product/3ASMJM974/flipperlightblocker?li=search-results-1&optionId=42514408

 

[Terry Farrell]

Where did you get the Caddy topper on your CFTBL?

 

[mwong168]

Where did you get the Caddy topper on your CFTBL?

I got it from Amazon here: