Using Led’s

[Scudie]

Having restored a few Seeburg Sc1 wallbox’s now,  I am only to aware of how costly & difficult to buy (here in the UK) the #19 lamps that are used. Have normally had to order them from the Netherlands.

After having a chat with an acquaintance I decided to look into the possibility of substituting the # 19 lamps With LED’s.

http://www.pinball-led.co.uk   specialise in LED’s    There #555 range of led’s are both Bi polarity and also designed to work on 6.3 volts & according to them will work on any voltage between 3.5  – 8 volts. They come in a range of colours two types of white, warm & cool, and even colour changing and cost from about 30 pence  each.

So I have ordered a few of these to give them a try, when I get chance I will see how they look and if they work well I will post a photo.

Cheers Scudie

• This topic was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Klaatu.

[Sooner]

But… Don’t the #19 bulbs run on 12 volts AC?

[Scudie]

I put a my voltmeter a cross one of mine and got 6.8v on all three of the instruction window lamps.

Cheers Scudie

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Scudie.

[Sooner]

Oh… I haven’t tested voltages across those. Look forward to hearing how they work out for you. I haven’t heard of bi-polar LEDs before.  Are they supposed to work on AC current too?

I believe the two that light up the program pages are in series each getting about 12 volts.

[Scudie]

When I saw the led’s I wondered how the anode & cathode were identified, as they don’t have the unequal pair of legs like normal led’s

In fact they look very similar to a #501 automotive lamp, so I emailed the company and asked, they assured me that they were bi polarity. As to weather they can be used for AC voltages or not I did not ask. I suppose I should have.

I will fire off an email to them, hopefully they will have been delivered  by the time I get home.

[Sooner]

I suppose it would be simple enough to add a diode and capacitor in front of each LED to convert the AC to DC.

[Scudie]

Just had an email from the LED people they tell me that they are OK for A/C power supply’s .

Cheers Scudie

[Scudie]

Ok so I have eventually got around to getting a Seeburg SC back on my desk, fitted 3 of the cool white led’s into the sockets all three lit up, however after an hour or so one started to flash over a period of time all three did the same then failed to iluminate at all. After checking the voltages I found that the supply voltage to the three lamps was indeed in excess of the limits specified by the supplier.

Am not exactly sure how  I got this wrong, any how I have now fitted an extra resistor to each of the lamp sockets wiring tried 1000 ohms but this dimmed the led’s so tried 550 ohms this does not dim them and they have been on for a total of 24 hours now.

[Sooner]

Do you know what voltage they are getting now with the resistors in place? Let us know how they hold up. I tried some leds in my 3w1.  Didn’t like the greenish color for most of them but left one in the “selection” location. It lasted about a week…

[Scudie]

7.6v with lamps illuminated.

[Scudie]

Have had the box with the led’s powered up for 3 to 4 hours every evening this week and for at least 7hours today, so far there is no flashing or failure of the lamps.

Scudie

[Author]

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