Stern light strip installation

The light strip is one of the best modifications you can add to your machine. Our light strips come pre-wired for 12vdc. You will need to attach the light strip then run the wires front of the cabinet and use the coindoor plugs available on all sterns and many Sega (whitestar) machines.

 

  1. First, remove the glass and pull the playfield onto its supports.

     

  2. The light strip will be mounted pointing down in the very back of the machine. It should point down right in front of the backboard of the playfield. The base of the top of the cabinet has a smooth ledge. This is a good spot to mount the light strip. Another option is to mount it to the bottom of the plastic glass channel. This option sometimes causes some reflection of the lights from the playfield, however.

    This shows where to mount the strip using a metallica as an example:

    In either case, clean the ledge of the cabinet with alcohol and dry it with a towel. Make sure it's dry in order to stick.

     

  3. Attach the light strip with the wires on the RIGHT side. The wires need to be on the right because the coin door harness is also on the right. Run the wires back and down into the cabinet.

     

  4. Now we will run the power for the light strip to the front of the cabinet and plug into the coin door 12v harness.

    If you have a spike game, you will have to plug into a spike to stern power adapter. The spike power adapter provides a stern plug on the left side of the game. The spike power adapter plugs into the board on the left as shown below:

     

  5. At this point, you are ready to push the playfield back into position. Make sure the light strip wire doesn't hang onto the playfield. If you want, you can tape the wire back to the back of the cabinet to prevent it from wondering onto the top of the playfield using some black gorilla tape or such.

     

  6. The light strip will power on as soon as the game has power and remain lit the entire time.

     

If the light strip starts to work its way loose, use some black gorilla tape in thin strips to secure it back on. Even if a couple of the leds are covered by the tape, it will not be that noticeable.