Converting you pinball from filament bulbs to LEDs has many benefits
- brighter
- more responsive
- draw less current (less stress on the fuse)
- less heat
But on Bally’s it has a major downside, they flicker
Flickering
The switched lamps are supplied with an unfiltered rectified voltage of 5.4V.
Filament bulbs have a certain inertia, so the luminous flux is constant.
With the LED bulbs that turn on and off directly, there are 2 concerns :
- The first is that the thyristor is not receiving enough current and turns off. This is solved with the addition of a resistor in parallel.
- The second problem is LED flickering due to the unfiltered rectified voltage. That depends on the type of LED you have installed. I advise you to buy several samples and do some testing.
With the PinStar B-23 board, you will avoid flickering.
It also has test LEDs on each thyristor that help detect any faults.
Here is an example on a Bally Hot Doggin