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Cheap fluorescent tubes for candy cabs (Egret II, Sega cabs etc)

Pinball

Pinball

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Hopefully this is useful info for the community. I needed some new tubes for an Egret II and Net City, and the original FL20S Japanese 100V tubes are expensive and hard to find, like $50+ each. After some research, I found a cheap alternative for new tubes in UK/Europe. Importantly, fluorescent tubes are not voltage-dependent so a 240V tube will work in 100V and vice versa. The European tubes are a little longer (by a couple of cm), but still fit fine, and are only about £2.00 each, not £50-80 each. Example:


Sylvania Fluorescent Tube T8 Triphosphor 18w 600mm
Amazon.co.uk link- 10 for £21.95



I bought a box of 20, as fluorescent tubes are rapidly being replaced by LED 'equivalents', but for us they aren't equivalent as they are voltage-dependent, so 240V ones won't work in a candy cab, for example.

I can confirm the fluorescent tubes work fine, and these are nice, branded, brand new made in Germany ones. Hopefully this info is helpful for anyone currently searching for tubes, or who wants a backup supply before they too start getting sold for £50 each on ebay...! :-)
 
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You're not ripping them out (unless you want to). You just need to desolder the wires going in to the ballast and solder them together, effectively bypassing it. Then pop in a dummy starter. You can revert back in like minutes.
 
I like to have an authentic 'original' experience, similar to back in the day. In pinball, some folks replace all their incandescent 'general illumination' bulbs with bright white LEDs. A totally different aesthetic IMO, which looks odd in an older machine. But each to their own. It is functional art, after all :-)
 
The comparison to pinball isn't the same. You could never tell from my cabs that they have LED tubes in them. The next time I have cabs come in with regular fluorescent tubes I'll have to take some side by side pics.
 
I hear you. I just like to keep the cabs as close to their original spec as possible. In my NeoGeo 6-cart cab, I even found 2 new 3-panel EL displays to swap out the previous dead ones with (still working but luminosity down to near zero). LED equivalents exist, but I wanted electroluminescent panels, baby, yeah (despite being VERY hard to find). Now it's just like new :-)
 
a few points here...

1. some people want everything stock (even if it's "worse" for playing on that way). as a preservationist I am kind of this way. I want it the same as it rolled off the factory floor whenever possible. true survivors.
2. I can tell the difference between an LED replacement and an original fluorescent tube. Now that said, I just did an LED mod to my f&f super bikes cab... because I am operating it. I never want to have to drive 2 hours to go replace a bulb again.
3. let's not forget about color temperature and the other properties of light. Sometimes the temperature matters more than the light source (i.e. fluorescent vs. led vs incandescent). I went way up in lumens on my LED mod and it looks great on super bikes, but next to it is an old cruis'n exotica machine with a standard fluorescent tube in it, and it seems so dim in comparison.
 
I have an EGRET II with original tube.

Are there any detailed guides on which tube to buy and how to bypass the ballast. I'd like to know what is meant by a "dummy" starter as well ?

Schematics would be nice :)

Or is there a drop in LED replacement ?
 
The ballast is basically just an inline resistor and dummy starters are nothing else than fuses.

Nowadays I just bypass both the starter socket and the ballast (as in the second Arcade Otaku link in post #2), I don't use dummy starters anymore. Both the socket and the ballast will likely have the wires soldered to them. I desolder the connections, solder the wires together and put some heatshrink tubing over it. Nothing is irreversibly modified. If someone wants to return it back to stock, just solder everything back.
 
Thanks for the reply but I still don't understand what has to be done for my EGRET II...

What kind of tube should I use ? (length/kelvin)

The ballast has 2 wires going into it. Do I desolder these and connect them together ?

Why do you need to remove the wires to the starter if it's just a fuse ?

Is there a LED tube equivalent to the fluorescent one ? If so what are the instructions ?

edit:
Won't the tube burn out faster if it does not have a proper ballast since the ballast controls the current flow ?

Wouldn't the best solution be to replace the ballast/starter with an electronic one which combines them ?
 
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rtw said:
What kind of tube should I use ? (length/kelvin)
Click to expand...

I don't know. I don't own an Egret. Astro, Blast and Net City cabs use 590mm tubes. You can fit 600mm tubes in them as well, it's just slightly tight. 600mm is what I use, because they're more common here. New Astro Citys have 438mm tubes. I found exact length LED replacements for them.

Color temperature is down to preference. Cool looks better IMO.

rtw said:
The ballast has 2 wires going into it. Do I desolder these and connect them together ?
Click to expand...

To bypass the ballast, yes.

rtw said:
Why do you need to remove the wires to the starter if it's just a fuse ?
Click to expand...

Because the dummy starters that you get with LED tubes are the ones that have the two tabs. Almost all Japanese cabs come with screw-in starters (Lindbergh Uni is an exception). You can make your own screw-in dummy starter (see the first AO link, page 1), however, the fuse is redundant. These cabs are already equipped with fuses.

rtw said:
Won't the tube burn out faster if it does not have a proper ballast since the ballast controls the current flow ?
Click to expand...

You will burn out a regular fluorescent tube in seconds without a ballast. However, LED tubes can be powered straight off mains voltage. The ones I buy are 100-240 VAC (even though some are marked 220-240V on the packaging). A LED tube lighting unit consumes more power with a wired in ballast.
 
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nem said:
You will burn out a regular fluorescent tube in seconds without a ballast. However, LED tubes can be powered straight off mains voltage. The ones I buy are 100-240 VAC (even though some are marked 220-240V on the packaging). A LED tube lighting unit consumes power with a wired in ballast.
Click to expand...
So the reason for the bypass of the ballast and the starter is to get 110V directly in so that you can use a LED tube replacement ?
 
No, you can use the LED tube replacement with the ballast. I was supposed to write 'consumes more power'. I'll edit it in.

Anyway, you don't need to bypass the ballast, but you can. With a LED tube the ballast has no function.
 
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