My three-light(red-green-yellow) LED burned out and I'm trying to replace it. I got the new LED's from Tomar(no instructions) but I can't figure out how to wire it up. (I have the resister). The LED has three prongs coming out the back. The middle one I figured connects to the negative. When I connect the right outer prong to the positive side of a battery I get a red light. When I connect the left prong to the positive side of the battery I get the yellow light. If I connect the two outer prongs to the positive I get a something close to orange. What do I need to do to get the green light to light up? I'm not electrically inclined so, please, keep it simple for me. I would appreciate any help.
PS. There is only three wire coming out of the base of the stand, white, red & green.
David
David - Welcome to trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
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David,
Tomar Industries will repair those burned out LED's for next to nothing.
If I were you, I would call Duane and get the details on cost and mailing in the faulty signal for repair.
Rich
Alton Junction
Normal bi-color LED does use the middle as the common, but the two colors should be red and green, together making a sort of yellow. Perhaps the middle isn;t the common on those. Or it may be a positive common. As long as you always use a resistor, hooking the LED up backwards won;t hurt anything, it jsut won't light. Just always remember the resistor, or you will blow it out again.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
If you really want to try to do this yourself, I would still recommend that you call Duane at Tomar Industries and ask him if he can email or fax the wiring instructions for the three light signal.
I am sure that he would that.
The difficulty in re-wiring these signals yourself is not so much figuring out the wiring diagram but, rather, the tiny nature of the LED's, the tiny wires,and the small diameter of the shaft through which all of the soldered wires must fit.
In the past, when I have encountered burned out LED's, I have sent them in for repair. The charge is nominal.
Incidentally, to achieve the proper balance of red and green to achieve a true yellow instead of shades of orange, you need to use the proper mix of resistors on the red and green LED's. Again, Duane can tell you the correct size resistors to achieve the appropriate effect.
All,
I called Tomar Ind. and they told me the center post is the common, the shortest of the two outer post is the green and the other is the red. He also told me to use 1500 resistors on the red and green. I will see if I can replace the LEDs without burning myself or destroying the search light. If not I will mail it in to Tomar for repair.
Thanks everyone for the advice.
David in New Orleans
afironhorse All, I called Tomar Ind. and they told me the center post is the common, the shortest of the two outer post is the green and the other is the red. He also told me to use 1500 resistors on the red and green. I will see if I can replace the LEDs without burning myself or destroying the search light. If not I will mail it in to Tomar for repair. Thanks everyone for the advice. David in New Orleans
David, I admire your ambition to take on this project yourself. I have often been tempted to do so myself but chickened out due to the minute size of the wires and the small diameter of the shaft.
Good luck with this project, and let us know how it turns out.
Well Rich, I got my single search light LED replaced. I also have a double search light that has a LED out. I hope to have that one finished by tonight or tomorrow.
afironhorse Well Rich, I got my single search light LED replaced. I also have a double search light that has a LED out. I hope to have that one finished by tonight or tomorrow. David
Any interest in repairing a dwarf signal for me?
Rich, I don't have a lot of money to spend on my hobby so that's why I try to fix things myself. And it's a learning experence....and I like to take things apart and try to put them back together. I got my single search light back together but it's not as clean looking as how Tomar does it. Tomar would fix yours better than I could.