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12 volt street light help

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  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2 posts
12 volt street light help
Posted by ho pup on Tuesday, January 6, 2015 9:04 PM
Hi all, I'm new to the forum as well as model trains. I bought 20 ho street lights 12 volt with a 68 Ma draw.

I was using the Atlas trainman beginner power system. The output is 12 volt dc or 16 volt ac with 1 amp.
I hooked up 5 lights in series and all was good.

I then hooked up the other 15 the same way and got nothing.

Doing the math 15 lights x 68 mA = 1020 mA Ok so I need more amperage. So I went out and bought a 12 volt by 3 amp adapter and direct wired it too the lights in parallel nothing!! I hooked it to the first five and it worked.

I'm stuck... any ideas no matter how obvious would help, I could have missed something stupid so please feel free to shoot any ideas.

Btw these are the lights.

http://m.ebay.ca/itm/400180195755?_mwBanner=1


Oh and I did unhook some random light and direct power them and they worked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  • Member since
    January 2010
  • From: Chi-Town
  • 7,712 posts
Posted by zstripe on Thursday, January 8, 2015 4:54 PM

Ho_pup,

I answered Your PM and tried to get back to You again, but could not. Your still be moderated. Something is going on with that charger/adapter You bought. I checked that site, but got minimal info and I also ordered ten double street lights to test myself.

Will be awaiting Your PM.

Welcome To The Forums.

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

EDIT: In case You don't get My PM....those lights must be wired in Parallel not series. 

 

 

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Thursday, January 8, 2015 5:15 PM

Since they are light bulbs, they should be run at lower voltage for longer life.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

  • Member since
    January 2010
  • From: Chi-Town
  • 7,712 posts
Posted by zstripe on Thursday, January 8, 2015 5:28 PM

 

Since they are light bulbs, they should be run at lower voltage for longer life.

Rich

 

[/quote]

richg1998

Since they are light bulbs, they should be run at lower voltage for longer life.

Rich

 

Rich,

He already bought a 12v supply. But He is wiring them wrong.

Trying to straighten that out, but It's His first post.

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2 posts
Posted by ho pup on Monday, January 12, 2015 12:01 PM

Sorry all I took the lights off one by one, two of them had internal wiring problems. I replaced them and the rest came on.

I had to crawl around under the table to hook these up so I hooked them all up at once then crawled out and tried to fire them up originally. So I did not realize it was a problem with the individual lights.

 

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

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