How To: DIY Under cabinet lighting

[mwong168]

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.

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...

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

-Mike

 

[g-man]

Looks cool. Can't wait to light up the bottom of my Honda CR-V !

Great DIY post, Mike. Keep 'em coming.

 

[good_buddy83]

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]

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.

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

 

[good_buddy83]

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.

 

[good_buddy83]

Pics

 

[Monkeybug]

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.

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

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]

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.

 

[DavidC]

can you tell me how to connect led strips to be interactive with pop bumpers???

 

[mwong168]

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]

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!

 

[spikedbat]

HAs anybody done this on newer Stern pins? If so where are you tapping the 12v from?