let's face it, flourescent tubes in Sterns (and their earlier incarnations) look terrible. they're usually glarey, they can have loud buzzing ballasts, and sometimes they're wired in to the powerbox bypassing the switch, so they're on even if the game is switched off.
my original solution many years ago was a sheet of brown coloured heatproof plastic gel off ebay, wrapped around the tube a couple of times it makes it much less glarey and may be all that's needed. but i wanted to go further this time and replace the tube with an LED strip powered from the boards.
someone told me to get 12V strips - may have been @Wayne J i think - so i found this seller with a choice of lengths, colours and light intensities http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161230174915?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=460280855085&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT and bought a 3m coil of warm white in 'SMD5050', the top one of the three brightnesses.
also some connectors from this lot - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371324038174?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=640554155959&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
i cut the LED strip into three of 1m each so i could do three games with it, to reduce the load. and i soldered the wires in that connector thing, and just cut the other end off.
then i identified a 12V and ground source on the board - thanks @aaronhicksuk - and plugged it in. first thing that happened after about 10sec is that it blew fuse F8 which is a 5A fuse.
apparently it's 14.4Watts per metre so that's 14.4W/12V = 1.2A so i'm gonna put this inline 2A fuse in the power line, not sure why that >5A happened. these are from here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111572656278?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
so this is it now - ok it's not perfect but it's no worse than the original fluorescent tube, and it's not on unless the game is switched on, and it's a good starting point.i tried the strip in a couple of positions but haven't found the ideal one yet.
it looks from these pictures like a really nasty strip of glaring light, but that's mostly a digital camera thing, in real life to the human eye it's not as bad as that ....
i tried to focus on his bonce to show you what i mean - depending on where the (phone) camera samples the light intensity, it adjusts the overall contrast ...... you get the idea.
this was my second position, about a third of the way down. you can see i'd already moved the tube to the top, as it's original position stopped me accessing the boards.
and this was the first attempt, with the strip right at the top of the glass.
i think i expected i was gonna be able to just use the sticky back on the LED strip to attach it to the translite/backglass, but of course it turned out that that would make the light point the wrong way entirely, so i had to attach it to a length of plastic instead. ideally it should be further from the glass so it needs tweaking.
this is where i am getting my 12V and ground from, with some simple wire connecting splicer thingies. i guess the inline 2A fuse will need to go just below the lower of the two blue splice-connectors, on the red power line?
so this is where i pick the hive mind to get some ideas and input:
- what length, and what location works best for this task?
- is 12V the best power source?
- what can go wrong and how can i prevent against this? obviously the fuse needs to be on the power line to the LED strip to keep the board safe, but what else should i look out for?
- what colour and what intensity are recommended? i'm not an LED fan at all so i know nothing about warm vs cool light and all that stuff, but i was starting from a fluorescent tube, so it was never gonna be perfect.
- what other sources can people suggest for alternative LED strips, and what should be my general rule for these - minimal power and intensity over the widest area is what i'm thinking.
i think i'm considering using some of the SMD3528 stuff next as it's only a third of the power, maybe use two long strips instead, and connect them together with the connector jobbies.
my original solution many years ago was a sheet of brown coloured heatproof plastic gel off ebay, wrapped around the tube a couple of times it makes it much less glarey and may be all that's needed. but i wanted to go further this time and replace the tube with an LED strip powered from the boards.
someone told me to get 12V strips - may have been @Wayne J i think - so i found this seller with a choice of lengths, colours and light intensities http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161230174915?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=460280855085&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT and bought a 3m coil of warm white in 'SMD5050', the top one of the three brightnesses.
also some connectors from this lot - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371324038174?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=640554155959&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
i cut the LED strip into three of 1m each so i could do three games with it, to reduce the load. and i soldered the wires in that connector thing, and just cut the other end off.
then i identified a 12V and ground source on the board - thanks @aaronhicksuk - and plugged it in. first thing that happened after about 10sec is that it blew fuse F8 which is a 5A fuse.
apparently it's 14.4Watts per metre so that's 14.4W/12V = 1.2A so i'm gonna put this inline 2A fuse in the power line, not sure why that >5A happened. these are from here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111572656278?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
so this is it now - ok it's not perfect but it's no worse than the original fluorescent tube, and it's not on unless the game is switched on, and it's a good starting point.i tried the strip in a couple of positions but haven't found the ideal one yet.
it looks from these pictures like a really nasty strip of glaring light, but that's mostly a digital camera thing, in real life to the human eye it's not as bad as that ....
i tried to focus on his bonce to show you what i mean - depending on where the (phone) camera samples the light intensity, it adjusts the overall contrast ...... you get the idea.
this was my second position, about a third of the way down. you can see i'd already moved the tube to the top, as it's original position stopped me accessing the boards.
and this was the first attempt, with the strip right at the top of the glass.
i think i expected i was gonna be able to just use the sticky back on the LED strip to attach it to the translite/backglass, but of course it turned out that that would make the light point the wrong way entirely, so i had to attach it to a length of plastic instead. ideally it should be further from the glass so it needs tweaking.
this is where i am getting my 12V and ground from, with some simple wire connecting splicer thingies. i guess the inline 2A fuse will need to go just below the lower of the two blue splice-connectors, on the red power line?
so this is where i pick the hive mind to get some ideas and input:
- what length, and what location works best for this task?
- is 12V the best power source?
- what can go wrong and how can i prevent against this? obviously the fuse needs to be on the power line to the LED strip to keep the board safe, but what else should i look out for?
- what colour and what intensity are recommended? i'm not an LED fan at all so i know nothing about warm vs cool light and all that stuff, but i was starting from a fluorescent tube, so it was never gonna be perfect.
- what other sources can people suggest for alternative LED strips, and what should be my general rule for these - minimal power and intensity over the widest area is what i'm thinking.
i think i'm considering using some of the SMD3528 stuff next as it's only a third of the power, maybe use two long strips instead, and connect them together with the connector jobbies.
Last edited:
