DIY Illuminated buttons

[dopdahl]

I'm fairly certain that in the distant past, I saw a write up in this forum on modifying standand, non-LED buttons to illuminate them.

 

Specifically, I recall that the user was cutting the top off of black buttons and replacing the cut out plastic with plexiglass discs and gluing everything back together.

 

And then, of course, adding LEDs as well.

 

Does anybody know what I'm talking about our have a link to this write up?  I can't find it anywhere.

 

Thanks!

 

[HazzardActual]

not to be a dick or anthing, but you pretty much just laid out the plans right there.  I wouldnt do it, sounds like the buttons would feel like shite afterwords

[Metalzoic]

It also seems like they wouldn't look very great and probably save hardly any money, but cost a fortune in time and aggravation.

LED buttons are fairly cheap even if you get good ones.

[Imagamejunky]

You really can't go wrong with the GGGs or the Ultimarcs. And you are gonna spend a LOT of time for a minimal cost savings.

Junky

[Thooperman]

I think this project might be the one you were referring to.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,101426.0.html

 

I did remember that a guy named Ond did the same thing for his cabinet before he decided to take it in another direction.  Here is the link to what he did to get it going.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,88912.msg971849.html#msg971849

 

This is the method he ended up going with, which I really like.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,88912.msg1068864.html#msg1068864

 

The last option is probably the quickest to get working, but a different look to what you seem to have planned. You can buy a pushbutton with a solid coloured rim and a transparent plunger and place a solid piece of vinyl or something thin but capable of blocking the light in the middle of the button to get a similar effect.  Here is a link to a guy that has done this but made some extra modifications because he didn't have a fully transparent plunger.  You can check it out and see if it suits your needs.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,93936.msg1072708.html#msg1072708

 

 

I hope some of those links helps with what you need.  Please let me know how you get on, I'd love to see what method you go with and the results you get.  I hope it goes well.

[dopdahl]

Finally a helpful reply.

 

Thanks Thooperman, the first link was it.

[HazzardActual]

The end result looks pretty cool, but jesus, thats going to take some SERIOUS time to get them looking right.

[highwaypcguru]

Just buy standard backlight buttons and replace the globs with a\ high bright white LED and a 220  ohm resistor for 12v operation. I also found for the sound, a cheap set of pc speakers do the trick, just remove the amp from the speaker and solder into the cabnet

[EvilNuff]

I experimented with this some several years ago.  I posted over at BYOAC so might be able to dig up the results.  My summary was cutting the buttons evenly was quite a challenge.  Getting the resulting cuts cleaned was more effort and you definitely want a laser cutter for the acrylic disks for the lighting.  Cutting those by hand was a mess and a half.