New Life Games LLC
**Video Poker, Keno, Slots, 21** Gaming machines => BALLY Game Maker => Topic started by: kcirrick on November 03, 2020, 03:36:21 PM
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I've been lurking this board for a while as I've been upgrading my GameMakers looking for ideas and solutions. I thought it was time I contribute a bit.
I have a slant top and an upright GameMakers. I've been wanting to change the old incandescent bulbs, half of which were burned out, to LED. I used extra red, blue and green #555 LED bulbs bought for my pinball machine in the slant top, but I was dismayed to open up the buttons on the upright to find different tiny bulbs.
I had a hard time finding tin LED bulbs for this 7217. All I could find was white - cool and warm - and the cost seemed to average near $5. No thank you. then I went to one of my pinball resources and bought #86 sized LED bulbs in white, green and purple for only $0.79 each. These bulbs worked in the buttons of my upright GameMaker. My only issue was that these were the only colors they carry. These bulbs are actually meant for use in The Creature From the Black Lagoon pinball machine.
In the slant top picture you will also see the back glass I'm working on since such a thing doesn't exist for this machine. I yanked all of the useless electronics, made decals that I stuck on the back side of a piece of glass I cut and sprayed over the decals with a frost paint. Not professional, but much better than the ugly electronics.
Being new here, I'm unsure if I am allowed to post a link to where I bought these bulbs. If anyone is interested, let me know if I am allowed and I will gladly share the link.
Sorry for the bad pictures. They look much better in person.
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They look great! The button color really enhances the look; much better than white.
Yes you can list the parts source. Add the name with the link, as links have a tendency to vanish over time.
Thanks for sharing this information.
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Thanks. Sorry it took so long for me to get back.
Here is the link to Comet Pinball where I bought the tiny LED bulbs for the upright Game Maker. The bulbs I used in the slant top came from there too.
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/86-smd-bulbs (https://www.cometpinball.com/products/86-smd-bulbs)
There is a couple of things I should share. I used the 555 wedge base bulbs for the slant top buttons, but there is a collar around the top of the bulb that makes it too wide to fit into the buttons. I found I could easily peel that collar off so the bulbs would fit and it didn't affect the function of the bulbs at all.
On both machines the bulbs were kind of loose. The old incandescent bulbs had been in the sockets so long that the contacts inside sockets were permanently stretched out. The base of the LED bulbs is not as thick as the incandescent bulbs. It was a simple matter to just reach into each socket with a tiny screwdriver, (with the power off), and push the contacts closer together again. I used that same solution when changing the landscape lights in my backyard from incandescent to LED.
It's a cool inexpensive little modification. I hope this is helpful and enjoyable for people.
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Oh, and Comet Pinball was excited to see how I used their bulbs. I had lamented that the tiny bulbs didn't come in more colors. They don't have a big market for these bulbs because they are only used in a couple of pinball machines, but they did ask what colors I would like to have available so, if there is interest, there is the slight chance that they could offer more colors.
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I actually bought some from Comet Pinball many years ago. They were kind enough to throw in a few free sample bulbs as well. The problem is, I need to get them out of the drawer and try them out on a few of my recent machines with boring bulbs!
Thanks for following up.
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That's what I did. I had the 555 bulbs laying around and just decided to give them a try. I was pleased when I stumbled upon their tiny bulbs.