Lighting eyes for the skulls.

As explained on site marvin3m.com .... this item was designed for the first production run of the Scared Stiff pinball machine. All machines have a connector to attach these lights. I decided not to make use of this connector. Even though I live in a quite large city, in Belgium, it's almost impossible to find this type of connector. My solution to solder the wires on the light sockets is also very simple, and you don't need 6 extra diodes. Let's see how it works.

This is the pile of skulls. We'll add red leds into the eyes, which will light with the 6 different modes in the game. These modes you can also see in the middle of the playfield. We'll also add flames to both candles.

Originally it looks this way..

..and after the modifications. The leds aren't lit in the picture. You can also use white leds with a red color, I prefer red leds so you can see them also when the machine is not switched on. Both candles are now lit...

 

This round part on the playfield indicates the 6 different modes.

The candles.

This is very easy. Put two pieces of drawing paper over the holes, and paint them with some red and yellow paint. Simple, but it creates a nice effect...

The eyes.

What we need: 12 leds (red, 5mm) and 6 resistors of 120 ohm and some fine wire.

 

The led's will be connected two by two. You'll see every led has one wire which is a bit longer then the other. The long one is the anode, the short is cathode. Connect a short wire with the long of the other led. The led also has a flat side at the short wire, which indicated the cathode.

To the free anode of the led, solder a resistor of 120 ohm. Connect to each set a wire. This can be quite long, 1 meter. Repeat this 6 times. Use a different color of wire for each leg, so we can see the difference between the anode and cathode side of each set of leds !

Assembling:

Every set of leds fits perfect in the eye holes, they've been made for them. When all 6 have been added, it's best to secure them with some glue so they can't slide back. It also won't hurt to secure the wires, and put some shrink tube over the resistor and connections, this isolates everything..

All leds on their place, also the colored papers have been added for the candles. Everything is secured with transparant glue of a glue gun.

 

Now everything is ready to be assembled. Screw the skulls to the backside, and put the wires (bundle them together) through the whole in the playfield just below the skulls. Lead the wires using the existing cable wires to the middle of the playfield where you'll find the six lights which indicate the modes.

Here you can see the bundle of wires.

This is the bottom side of the lights. The wires end here in six pairs of wires which are all connected to one socket.

Always connect the wire which comes from the cathpde from the leds, to the side of the socket where a diode is connected to. Connect the other wire (which goes to the resistor) to the other contact of the light socket..

Which led is connected to which light doesn't matter. Still I suggest a specific order. Why you ask ? During attract mode all lights of the machine will light in specific patterns. If you follow my suggestion, most of the time the eyes will light like random, but you'll also get a pattern in which the eyes light like a waterfall: first the top one, then the 2 in the middle, both at the outside of the bottom row and finally the middle bottom ones.

The order to achieve this effect is: Top head = The stiff in the coffin, two middle heads to Night of the leapers and The monster lab (left or right doesn't matter), both outside of the bottom row to Eyes of the bony beast and Return of the dead heads, and finally the bottom middle to Terror from the crate.

Succes ....

Make these " bony flippers ".............

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