Tuesday March 19, 2024

PS-12232-P16 Williams 11B/11C Pinscore LED Display Review

Post-Installation
Below is the new LED display installed -- the top display now works!  Installation took all but 20 minutes, if the mounting hardware was included it would have been even quicker.  Very very painless to install the new LED display, no extra wires to run for 5v or anything, it uses the existing cables.  You don't have to leave any harnesses disconnected or remove high voltage fuses or anything, everything from the original display board connects to the new display.  Pretty nice!

Pinscore - Post Installation

In a lit room, even at its brightest setting, the alphanumeric segments sortof detract from the readability of the display (see above pic).  The gas/plasma displays had much darker segments so even in a fully lit room they didn't stand out much.  I don't like playing pinball with really bright lights on anyway though since there's too much glare off the playfield glass and displays, so it's not a huge deal.  Being able to adjust display brightness is nice but I really can't see turning brightness down when the segments stand out as much as they do.


Rating & Other Thoughts
Overall I give the Pinscore PS-12232-P16 display a 4.5 out of 5.0.  I'm slightly annoyed it didn't come with the mounting hardware I needed, but I'm sure Pinscore or Marco Specialties will resolve that and aren't including that as part of the review score.  I do wish the lighter colored segments of the alphanumeric digits could be darker, but there are other manufacturers of pinball LED displays that don't even use a black background on the LED characters.  Maybe a darker filter plastic screen that could be applied over the display window could help here?

The price isn't bad, but I'd have a much easier time spending $150 on a set of displays than $200, so here's hoping as more people buy their displays they will get cheaper to manufacture and pass the savings onto the consumer.  I was considering other manufacturer's LED replacement displays that are in the $150 range, but according to other pinball enthusiasts, the Pinscore displays don't work the 5v supply as hard.. so Pinscore it was!

In any case, these are just small nit-picks on a very nice replacement display from Pinscore!  This display should outlast the other electronics in the machine!


Ease of Install: 4.5/5.0
Build Quality: 5.0/5.0
Overall Appeal: 4.5/5.0
Final Rating (rounded to nearest .5): 4.5/5.0

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