Good morning all!

Compy and Max here from 86Pixels. We started the company back in 2013 primarily writing operating system software and game code for companies like Multimorphic, Valley Dynamo, Spooky, American Pinball, Dutch Pinball, Haggis and tons more.

We started making mods in 2020 with the introduction of our Pinvision Interactive Backboard display. Quickly Twilight Zone sales went through the roof and we couldn’t build them fast enough. We continued making mods for games we love, following up with the Pinvision backboard for TRON, and the Magic Mirror for Theatre of Magic, all in all contributing thousands of dollars to our friends at Pinside through shop sales commissions.

Fast forward to current day and we’re looking to expand our offerings on the interactive mod market. So, today we’re here to introduce Pinlights.

Pinlights are gorgeous, diffused after-market playfield lights. They integrate right with your game’s GI and Flashers.

Adheres to the cabinet one of two ways:
- Our somewhat special, yet super strong magnet mount strips measuring at just 1/32” thick (included in all sets)
- Low profile metal mounts, which are GREAT for art blades so you never have to worry about pulling them down. At just 0.018” thick, they’re practically invisible. Available for an extra $29.

While the cool white, warm white and UV/purple flasher light rails might *seem* simple, the Pinlights app offers you a ton of adjustments and “pinball specific” features.

Pinside_forum_7998476_2 (resized).png

A. Power, well, this is self explanatory
B. "Duck GI During Flashers" - For an added flasher effect, you can turn the GI of the light bar off when a flasher hit occurs
C. Tournament Mode - Disable all effects and just leave the system "ON" as to not be distracting
D. GI Cool White/Warm White mix - Mix in GI color temperature. Some games look better with a warmer white option, newer sterns often look better with cooler white, or mix both for a daytime white color.
E. GI Flasher Mix - Some games look better with a bit of the purple flasher circuit mixed in, so you can dial that in here.
F. GI Minimum Brightness - On some games the GI flickers... a LOT, and with lights like these, it can create a nearly blinding strobing effect. Set this setting so you can still see the ball during these features.
G. Turn off GI after (seconds) - If you're using the minimum brightness setting, turn off your GI "eventually" so your game doesn't stay on the minimum brightness when you actually power off your game.

The app can also do firmware updates so as we add features or fix bugs, you can take advantage. There's also no forced cloud BS with this app. If you don't want to sync your junk to the cloud, you don't need to register or anything and you can just keep it on your phone.

1. No forced marketing. We won't game the system by attaching our product listings to every game imaginable (unless said product is designed for one game specifically, looking at you expression lighting...)
2. Honest marketing - No manipulated images. In fact, all of our promos will have a light meter at the center of the playfield (see below) so you can see the numbers behind the difference.

Product brief (with demos on games!):

Pricing: $179
If you’re in the US, we’re running a special launch offer. All sets of Pinlights ordered and shipped to the US will have FREE shipping.

Pinside shop: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1586-pinlights
Website: https://pinlights.net

We know these aren’t for everybody, and that’s definitely ok! However for those who want an integrated “bang for your buck” way of throwing some extra light on the playfield, we’ve got you covered!

PXL_20231116_015653664(1) (resized).jpg

PXL_20231119_060511817 (resized).jpg

PXL_20231122_065323557(1) (resized).jpg

PXL_20240308_022405732 (resized).jpg

PXL_20240308_022524420 (resized).jpg

PXL_20240315_012258590 (resized).jpg

Pinside_forum_7998476_1 (resized).png

Couldn't agree more

Sure thing!

1. Price is certainly a factor, and you can buy any products you want. Ours offers a bit more functionality out of the box, like with tournament mode, you can quickly disable flasher or GI syncing integration so you just get a well-lit playing environment without any distraction.
2. We've made it easier to disconnect the light bars. One quick disconnect at the back of each light bar, you can remove them quickly from the game for any work or service needed.
3. All diffused lighting, so no spots on the playfield, and a nice even lighting experience.
4. For games that flicker GI a lot, these types of products can be blinding, so we also designed in a "minimum brightness" setting so that you can control how far the lights "dip" during certain points in the game.
5. The competition can react however they want. This is the start of a platform just like we did with Pinvision. We've rolled out features that we think are useful (we use them ourselves), and we're going to expand functionality. We're working with some top-tier pinball artists to come out with a series of art blades to sell alongside an expression lighting-style product that we've got coming out later this year.

We've paid legal counsel to do patent research prior to launch and have, so far, verified that we're not infringing on anyone's IP (and no such patents exist). We're just trying to go about this the absolute "rightest" way possible.

To Pinsound's credit, they reached out to me just before TPF (I was driving up to Dallas) and let me know about the name clash. They'd asked me several times if I had a problem with what they were doing (both via email and in person). I don't own a trademark on it, so they're free to use it as much as they want.

They have a fantastic product, and I definitely look forward to grabbing one!

That's actually why Pinlights is being billed as a separate product. When people were buying our interactive displays, they were associating it with "86Pixels" and the product placement/branding was a bit fuzzy. So now we've got dedicated domains and product branding for our products.

Regarding your DIY ambitions, feel free! There can definitely be some cost savings if you're willing to do multiple sets. Certain folks have utilized FETs on the GI circuitry to get things syncing, and if you wire each of your strips separately, you can technically do the same for "flasher" integration.

Problems you might face:
- Adhesion issues - The standard magnetic tape that everyone sells is either too thick and/or doesn't have the right adhesive on it. Same with those LED spools you buy, the adhesive sucks and will curl. If you're DIYing, replace that adhesive both on the back of the magnet mount AND on the LED strip.
- Side glare - If you stuff them on a right angle bracket, the side-throw will blind players on adjacent games. Order an additional right angle piece and cut it down, glue it to the top to eliminate the bleed onto adjacent games. That's what the competition does. We solve that problem with custom extrusions.
- Electrical isolation - Be careful if you're trying to make things interactive. You don't want to short something out. Our boards keep everything optically isolated. Also, NEVER run these off of the game's 12V supply. Use your own and plug into the service outlet.
- Diffusion - Diffusion on standard SMD5050 LED strips (like WS2812) requires a diffuser channel (either a heavy/bulky aluminum piece, or a glue-on diffuser plastic). We use custom COB strips, so each light bar is about 1000 LEDs (500 for the flasher, 500 for the warm white/cool white rails), so diffusion is already taken care of.

Great question! Pinlights Classics don't do that, however a new "Pinlights Pro" model is due out later this year that can do the effects you're wanting, including "layering". So if you want, feel free to either hold off or experiment with the DIY solution in the interim so you can compare/contrast!

No need to be wary of talking shop! Always happy to!

-- Jimmy

You raise good points! If you want a better look at the people "behind the mods", check out this awkward off-camera segment I did (that kinda gives me the 90s Williams promo video vibes, but without the awesome Demolition Man dirty-puns).

I can attest to you breaking the website - We caught a lot of errors that way! We definitely agree, and the show with Stumblor and Rob from The Electric Playground was so much fun! Even met some new friends at TPF as a result.

We definitely appreciate all of the orders, me and Alana are testing lights as we speak!

-- Jimmy

Bill of Material cost is still pending final hardware design. Our target (which should be easy to hit) is sub-$300 for a fully integrated experience.

Great question!

Those will be the pro model. The Pinlights Classic editions are for warm white, cool white and UV flasher integration. We pulse width modulate the flasher light rail to allow you to get a blue/purple color tint in line with your GI.

Bog standard stuff, wire taps and alligator clips ship with each set. However I'm designing some cable harnesses for the major Spike and WPC connection points to make things a bit easier. All of our sensors have a JST female receptacle on the end, so if you ever need to interface with something custom, you definitely can. For reference, that is JST part number SMP-02V-BC, and any "custom" connectors would need to have SMR-02V-B, which mates with our longer sensor cables.

Though for permanent installations, I like to clip the alligator clips off, strip the wire and just solder onto the lugs directly, then run the cable back up through the wire harness to the back of the game.

I couldn't agree more. I've got Spike I/II and WPC games that I'm measuring out connectors for. There will also be installation content put out by us directly and linked in every game's installation kit. We've done that for every mod produced at 86Pixels, so definitely look forward to getting those done tonight/tomorrow!

Who told you about the NAMPNN? It is scheduled to be produced behind the Super Ultra Matrix Phantom Whirly Dirly v2 product.

It would be news to us as well.

Extrusions are 15.75mm wide (0.6in). - With the magnet mount, that's about 0.65in from the cabinet wall.

I was thinking the same thing. So one option would be to order a set and also order a pair of the low profile metal mounts. While there is a strip of double sided adhesive on the underside of the metal mount, you don't have to remove the paper liner, or just remove the adhesive altogether and you've got something that can slide in and out of the glass channel and easily be removable from a game.

I can investigate angled mounts for the cabinet side rails if you'd like.

Shit! I've said too much already!

Got it! Your stuff goes out this week. They should definitely look great on BSD, though probably at a slightly lower setting than "the power of a thousand suns!"

Awesome, appreciate the order! Same to you, your stuff leaves this week.

Totally understand the sentiment. I appreciate the candor and kind words. These most definitely aren't right for every game and they most definitely have to be seen to get a realistic idea of the difference.

At any rate, we're here if you have questions!

No plans to be at Allentown sadly. However if you've got a friend nearby, I'd be happy to ship sets to them for distribution/collection at the show.

Regarding White Water, they'd work and they'd absolutely make the playfield pop. I can imagine they'd look fantastic with the snow covered mountain rock formations too. The tight spots you have to watch out for: 1) Bigfoots cave, it's really tall and really close to the edge, so it might take some finagling to get the side shade to fit without touching the bigfoot's cave sculpt. Though I've put notches into the side shade before just to make sure clearances were met. 2) You might have to put the light bars about 1" forward from where you normally would just to make sure that the rear rock formations clear. I'll see if I can test out a set and snap some pics on a white water.

Congo - The game should absolutely work well. Pinlights work in all WPC games, though to get the mood right in congo, you'll probably want to do a warmer/daytime white setting so that the greens/yellows come out properly on the playfield artwork.

That DIY solution looks great! How was the build process?

They look fantastic, and TFTC is a great (and really underrated) game. I've got you at the top of the list for a set of pros when we get them ready. I'll make it worth your while.

Yes actually, this IS something on our radar! I've got some test light bars here that just have the CW/WW dials without the flasher. If there's enough demand, we'll run them. No ETA though.

I actually have a Creech with mirror blades. Let me toss a set on and I'll take a pic!