Tech Tip Support

Tips for BriteButtons Flipper Button Lights

Issue:

lights are not as bright on yellow and orange as expected

First, check to make sure the LED rings have the small white LEDs facing toward the wood side of the cabinet. The Pal-nut side of the ring have small black resistors on it. Inherently, LEDs in colors such as blue, green, white, and red are brighter, while colors in orange and yellow tend to be least bright. If brightness of your color is not as desired, consider asking your supplier to exchange your color choice for a brighter color. Some users have opted to use white LEDs with yellow or orange colored transparent buttons, but results may vary, depending on the color strength of the buttons and their transparency.

Issue:

all the lights on a light ring do not work or blink intermittently

Possible Solution: First, ensure that the included plastic Pal nuts were used for installation - not metal ones. Metal Pal nuts will short circuit the LEDs and resistors. If plastic Pal nuts were used, ensure they were not applied excessively tight. Only firm "finger tight" torque is required for flipper buttons. The power plug that connects the lights to the pinball machine or the wire to the LED ring itself may have a broken connection or broken solder point. Examine the wire connections for frayed or loose wire. Your kit may need to be replaced by your supplier. However, if you are experienced with soldering, a quick re-solder of the broken wire or solder point may resolve the problem very easily.

Issue:

some of the lights on the light ring do not work or blink intermittently

Tips for BriteCaps EVO

Issue:

center lights are not bright enough
perimeter lights are too bright
perimeter lights are not on or are not stable

Possible Solution: while the BriteCap is plugged in and powered on, use a small phillips head screwdriver to adjust the brightness resistor on the top side of the circuit board. Turn the adjustment slowly to suit preference. Note that as the perimeter lights get dimmer, the center lights will be brighter by contrast. This adjustment may address the concern of wanting the center lights to appear brighter and / or having the perimeter lights appear less bright. Also, if the adjustable resistor is on the edge of minimum / maximum setting, the light brightness may not be stable. Turn the adjustment slightly more or less to achieve a stable setting. The recommended setting for best appearance is approximately half brightness.

Tips for BriteSound Speaker Lights (Original RGB Multicolor Kits)

Issue:

lights do not respond to remote control

The remote controls are digitally keyed to each light set and are not interchangeable. If you have more than one set of speaker lights, make sure you are using the correct remote control. Check that the remote is working by observing the LED at the front of the remote. It should blink blue while any button is pressed. If the remote is not showing a blue light on the LED, remove and re-seat the button cell battery per the diagram on the back side of the remote, being sure to re-insert it with correct polarity. If the battery is dead (unlikely) then replace. Note that the remote control is a Radio Frequency device - not Infra Red. This means the remote does not need to be pointed directly at the speaker lights to work. But the RF signal can be interfered with by other radio signals or shielding in the area. Move closer to the pinball machine if the remote is not controlling the lights. Normal range is up to about 20 feet.

Issue:

some of the lights on the light ring do not work or are the wrong color

Possible Solution 1: If your speaker lights have a model number (per the box label and instruction sheet) ending in a 1 or a 2, these are the earlier production speaker lights that did not have an insulation coating on the back of the printed circuit boards. Light kits with model numbers ending in a 3 or higher have the black insulation coating on the back. It was determined that on certain pinball machines, depending on the actual speakers used, that the metal parts of the speaker may touch and short circuit the RGB light rings. To correct this problem if it occurs, a small amount of "Liquid Tape" (black rubberized electrical tap coating) found at hardware stores can be used. Simply apply a coating of Liquid Tape to the back side (non-LED side) of the light rings with a small brush or Q-Tip and allow to fully dry.

Possible Solution 2: It is possible for one or more of the white "Y" wire harness connection points to be loose. A loose connection can cause malfunction of one or more LEDs on one or both light rings. There are (3) connection points on the "Y" wire that are covered with a black shrink tubing. You can first try just pressing the ends of the wire inward toward each other without removing the black shrink tubing. This may solve a loose connection. Alternately, you can carefully cut away the black insulation tubing from the Y wire with a small blade and inspect / re-seat the connector plugs. Be sure to keep the polarity of the Y wire connectors correct. If reversed, one or both of the light rings will not function properly. If the shrink tubing is removed, it is recommended to replace the tubing later with either more shrink tubing or a small strip of black electrical tape.

Issue:

the right side (small tweeter speaker) light ring will not fit my Flipper Fidelity, Pinball Pro, or other aftermarket speaker upgrades

In most cases, speaker upgrade kits include a small wooden block, used as a spacer to fit upgraded tweeter speakers on the right side of the pinball speaker panel. Due to the upgraded tweeter speaker having larger center cones, the LED ring may not fit flush to the tweeter speaker. The solution is to remove the wood block speaker and insert the LED light ring under the wood block....between the wood block and the original speaker panel. Then replace the wood block and tweeter speaker. Note: while every effort has been made to design BriteSound speaker lights for fitting all types of Bally-Williams WPC / WPC95 machines, there are hundreds of different parts combinations - both original and aftermarket. It is not guaranteed that BriteSound kits will fit every combination of speaker panel and speaker being used.

Issue:

the speaker light LEDs appear too bright

Possible Solution: If you would like to reduce the brightness of your speaker lights, first try using the brightness control on the included remote control. There are several brightness settings available. If you still would like to have a more subdued lighting effect, you can purchase a set of 2 BriteSound light diffusion caps from Pinball Life company; Product ID : wslk_02. These are simple glue-on diffusion filters that are very effective.

Tips for BriteCaps (Original)

Issue:

lights are not bright enough or are too bright
perimeter lights are not on or are not stable

Possible Solution: while the BriteCap is plugged in and powered on, use a small phillips head screwdriver to adjust the brightness resistor on the bottom side of the circuit board. Turn the adjustment slowly to suit preference. If the adjustable resistor is on the edge of minimum / maximum setting, the light brightness may not be stable. Turn the adjustment slightly more or less to achieve a stable setting. The recommended setting for best appearance is approximately half brightness.

Issue:

lights do not work at all or blink intermittently

Possible Solution: First try adjusting the brightness resistor per the instructions listed above. If this is not the solution, continue with the following....The wire from the center light to the perimeter lights must be fitted into the "U Groove" of the plastic white pop bumper body. If not, the wire may become pinched or even severed when the pop bumper cap is screwed down. This is more the case with standard pop bumper caps, less the case for "jeweled" caps. If the lights are malfunctioning, check to make sure the wires from the center lamp were not pinched and damaged when the cap was put on the pop bumper. Also check that the solder points on the two wires from the center LED to the perimeter light ring have not been broken. Lastly, check that the center LED wedge prongs still have both of the silver wire conductors un-damaged and in the correct position. As with most wedge type (555) LEDs, the two silver wires on the connector can become displaced and fail to contact the clips inside the wedge socket. You may also want to check the pop bumper wedge socket itself to make sure it is working correctly. This can be done by simply trying it with a different LED or light bulb known to be working properly.

Tips for BriteEyes T2 Skull LEDs

Issue:

my T2 pinball machine uses bayonet (44) type sockets instead of wedge (555) sockets
one or both of the LED eyes fall out from vibrations during game play

Possible Solution: The vast majority of T2 pinball machines use wedge (555) sockets for the chrome skull toy. A few machines have been noted to use bayonet (44) sockets instead. They bayonet sockets were probably implemented to hold the light bulbs in more securely, as wedge sockets can lose the bulb during game play from vibrations. We currently do not offer a bayonet style LED eye kit for T2. The solution would be to replace the old bayonet sockets with inexpensive wedge sockets - but note that soldering skills are required for this.

If you already have 555 wedge sockets, as most T2 machines do, you may notice that the LED lights do not seat snugly into the light sockets. As these sockets are over 25 years old, the spring tension in them is no longer strong. Also, plastic housings on almost all 555 wedge LEDs have very different dimensions as compared to the original glass light bulbs. We've found that using a small amount of Super Glue Gel on the center post (not the wire terminals!) of the LED eyes helps a lot. Carefully inspect the LED wedge plug and then apply a few drops of Gel Super Glue to the center area only - not the wire terminals. Do this on both sides of the LED. Then press into the T2 eye socket firmly and allow the glue to dry for a full 24 hours. The alternative to gluing in the LED eyes is to replace the wedge socket itself with new sockets. But note that soldering skills would be required for socket replacement.

Tips for Skull Topper for Scared Stiff

Issue:

the LED eyes light up but are not synchronized with the 3 white skulls at the back of the play field
difficulty getting the 3 wedge connectors of the topper wires to plug in or stay plugged in to the underside of the play field

Possible Solution: If all the eyes are working but are not synchronized with the white skulls at the back of the play field (the Dead Heads) you may have the wedge connectors plugged in to the play field in the incorrect order. The wires are marked L for left, C for center, and R for right. Check that the correct wedge plug is connected to the correct play field light socket.

If you find it difficult to insert the wedge connectors or keep them inserted into the underside of the play field, this is probably because the brand new wedge connectors have much more spring tension in them than the old, original wedge connectors. Make sure the wedge connectors of the topper kit are properly inserted and are flush with the printed circuit board, then "twist" clockwise (or sometimes counter clockwise, depending on orientation of the notches) using a small set of pliers. Caution: DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN OR FORCE THE CONNECTORS. We find that new twist in wedge connectors can be very tight and sometimes the firm grip of pliers can overcome the difficulty of installing them for the first time. Just be sure not to apply too much force, as that could then damage the socket of the printed circuit board. Also be very careful not to break the solder points of the two wires from the topper kit that are connected to the wedge socket plug.