I like to salvage old computer parts as well as the next person. Looking around I found a simple molax connector connected to an old case fan. Since it already prewired to the correct voltage it is even easier. If you have just the connector splice into that with 22 gauge stranded wire or similar. Make sure you splice into the yellow (12-volt) and one of the two Black (ground) wires.
Next take your bulb holders and wire them in parallel. This means that all sockets will share a ground and 12-volt power wire. If one of the bulbs go out the others will remain lit. To wire in parallel each socket should have 2 wires on each connector (2 on the ground, 2 on the 12-volt) except for the last one on the "chain" which terminates the electrical flow. Take the extra ground and 12-volt wire and "bounce" it to the next, then the next...etc. Do the same with the power. I don't want to confuse anyone but it's really easy because you don't have to determine the polarity since the bulbs are reversible. You really can't mess it up one way works the other doesn't. No need to use a multimeter here. Finish up by plugging the molax into an extra connector in your computer.
When lighting a coin door you could go the route of leaving in the 12-volt bulbs but over time they have a short bulb life. The illumination wasn't quite what I was looking for. Reading the reviews of some LED's on Retroblast.com I decided to take it one step further and purchase 6 head LED's at SuperBrightLED.com. I quickly rounded up one of each blue (#T13-B6), red (#T13-R6), amber (#T13-A6), green (#T13-G6), and 4 super white LED's (#WLED-W6). The LED's lamp life is simply amazing you will possibly never have to replace them.
12-volt and amber reject buttons (default)
Colored LED with colored reject buttons. The Yellow reject button looked orange with the amber LED
The Amber LED did illuminate the button very well but it didn't produce the yellow light I wanted so I instead used a 6 HED white LED.(See above pic)
If you want to place LED's around your cabinet look into LED/Bulb holders at Happ Control (#42-0351-00) they will work with the LED's at SuperBrightLED.com. *Please note if you do order you must enter that number at the checkout section since it is a coin door part.*
Yet another simple 9-volt battery trick that comes in handy. If you are interested in the output of your LED's before you wire them you can simply take the 9 volt and position the LED on top of it. I was blinded by the light from the 6 Head LED's from just 9 volts. Remember you will see about 2/3 the output from the LED on the 9 volt battery. The extra 3 volts from the from the computer power supply will run them at their fullest brightness.
