Hello everyone,
This topic has been discussed multiple times before. I am raising it again specifically to answer questions asked by Lee (kasskaboose) that he sent me in a PM. I decided to answer here rather than in a PM so that others can share their knowledge, and others can learn.
Here is his question:
Hello,
Thanks for your help earlier with my LED Qs. Can you pls help me with adding interior lights to some HO-scale buildings? I have some Yeloglo white LEDs but I wasn't sure how to use them on a DCC layout? What do I need to purchase to control the lighting? I understand that my old DC controller might not work.
Another route is using a strip of LEDs, but again, how to control the lighting?
There are a ton of vides but none tell you what to purchase without making the process too cumbersome and expensive.
Thanks.
Lee
- Before the wiring starts, the first thing that should be done is to seal the building from light leaks. Plastic buildings may glow in the dark like they are radioactive, and other buildings may have light leaks at the corners. The easiest way to prevent light leakage on plastic buildings is to paint the interior black or silver. Any cheap kraft paint will do. You may also have to seal cracks at corner joints or where the roof meets the walls. Pieces of plastic sprues are easy to glue in place.
- For buildings like houses, apartments and office structures you may want to consider dividing some interiors up by adding floors and wall partitions. This will allow you to have some windows lit and others not, and the floors will eliminate the 'bottomless pit' effect caused when you look into a building with no floors. The partitions also give you the opportunity to add wall decorations, furniture (2D) and carpets for rooms that will be close enough to the viewer to clearly see inside. Images can be copied from the internet, sized and printed, and then glued in place.
Now to answer Lee's actual questions:
- It is not ideal to use DCC power to power any accessories including lighting (except for on board train lighting). Using DCC power for those things simply reduces the amount of power available to run engines. You can use a DCC stationary decoder to control the lights, but the power for the lights should come from a separate source. I'm not sure why your DC power pack wouldn't work, but you have to make sure that the voltage can't be turned up above what the lights will tolerate. (I will discuss lighting control options in Part 2).
You can buy separate 'wall wart' power supplies with either a fixed or adjustable voltage output. You can use anything from about 5 volts up to 18 volts, but for purposes of this conversation lets use 12 volts as an example.
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/114917463786?hash=item1ac19d56ea:g:qjQAAOSwcThhB5Be
(The eBay listings are Canadian. I'm just showing them as examples)
With a 12 volt supply, you will have to use a resistor with each LED. (Light strips are different. I will discuss them below). The most common value restistor is 1K (1000 ohms) rated at 1/4 watt. That will give you a very bright LED. I have used resistors as high as 30,000 ohms in order to make the LEDs glow like an old electric light bulb. Resistors are cheap on eBay.
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/201414888250?hash=item2ee5434b3a:g:RfwAAOSwuMFUi5tb
You will have to do some calculating to determine how many amps you will need. For each LED you will need about 20 milliamps (1/1000 of an amp) capacity in the power supply. For example, if you anticipate having 100 LEDs on your layout you will need 100 x .020 amps = 2 amps*. You can use more than one power supply to split things up.
Note that the actual draw from each LED may be quite a bit less than 20 milliamps. Most LEDs operating at 20 milliamps are blindingly bright and not particularly representative of an electric light so you may want to experiment with higher resistor values. However, you should still use the 20 milliamp measure to calculate the amperage needed. ALSO, you should never exceed about 75% of the power supply's maximum capacity. *In the example used above for 100 LEDs drawing 20 milliamps each = 2 amps, a safe power supply would be 2.75 amps.
I'm going to continue this in a second post just in case it disappears into the ether.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
kasskabooseWhat do I need to purchase to control the lighting? I understand that my old DC controller might not work.
There are a variety of ways to control the lighting, ranging from a simple off/on switch to DCC stationary decoders to Arduino modules. It depends how fancy you want to get with special effects.
Since this is your first attempt I'm going to suggest that you use plain old off/on toggle switches. They are available for peanuts on eBay. You can use one switch to control the whole thing (be aware of the amperage rating of the switch. Use the same 75% rule as you did for the power supply). You can make things more interesting by using several switches (and more wire) to control individual lights or sets of lights. For example, you could wire a residential house on two circuits with each controlling lights in different rooms so that you can mimic activity in the house. You might want to wire your street lights separately from the building lights so that the building interiors can be seen during the day when the street lights would normally be off.
Another option is to use DCC stationary decoders. I think that is self explanatory. However, personally I want my DCC throttle to just control trains. I don't want to be distracted by trying to remember umpteen stationary decoder numbers while I am trying to run trains.
Arduino control is something worth exploring if you have any electronics capability. There are ton's of opportunities. One of the neatest is to set up random lighting sequences in your buildings so lights are going off and on all the time.
I said I would talk about LED strip lighting. It is actually very little different from using single LEDs except you don't need to worry about resistors. LED strip lights already have the resistors built into the system. You have to observe the same rules about maximum amperage. You may find that LED strip lights are very bright, and you usually have to use them in groups of three. Personally I think they would be okay in a large industrial building but they throw too much light for smaller structures. Adding resistors to dim them requires a bit of electronic knowledge.
I should mention the Woodland Scenics 'Just Plug' lighting system. It is incredibly expensive and very limited! There, I said it! Don't waste your money!
To summarize:
What do you need to purchase?
- LEDs (the yellowglo LEDs that you already have will work fine),
- Wire - 20 gauge to 26 gauge solid wire in at least two colours, more if you are doing multiple circuits, something like this:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/392444897288?epid=1200948035&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item5b5f89e808:g:VBwAAOSws7hdiyQV&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACoPYe5NmHp%252B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSU8qUIAeVPdz29zRlje3Lg%252BN%252BRTddrOR0YpcIT5QlbYRJ2hS9dnYBmGIfL5TOtN14dvHrfNpYkgYnfImtF3%252BqjNMOJ5B6Hm8TIRa2lQ5EAilI54EZFW1b97BdCfb34y%252FV%252FWToqwoKsWGVgtuVY1hjsFKoYEfN16A5qL3ZkvLejpKb6Jqg0LGthZxK%252BIkHD13IJTiF%252BtTYzqBPQrinrScJ12QRrTNnbn5HxQ1OIxu9W94mum02kB1ZAdxIgQug%252FxHiAjmIpmFvg7jMzZL6d9DpuurMAwDVnw8zr2NhlEZM7L1LiWVne7w6Lp8irGos0zirHqXaJIB%252FkkNE87FuL%252BRKW3%252FJ0G8DuMaDUazzsakV1Bmhn4Jx8%252F6mX38VbYMnKorKBrRLgk%252BmGaFh24QE1XZByIQh0Eb%252BGQxeZZIQ1GqE9g1jP5W8C8MK2%252FhpUa8Lo4rf0cOEFeQ5pkYwKWI%252Fq0K7v5d%252BTo0XtsvLCN55QKJ9PU7OC3OP4Jvaj0j6U%252BI%252B28qVaLnWzHCTEEYcm5dfH%252BJ13Xzc%252BYXtVfWyMQp7SERHKlU3%252BdZUSg9vogpCFkLWwlHnmd5LrwWhR7Y2tyDGml42KCijKLwB7HlVAG3Xxd0WrTsgic8N1oAXyvMA2y8CWH51whxUo4ljVtwSLleLw0Dxj0mg4ZCi1yA399uZZwyWQKjoAh4cl8nqVGPv2NLyV2ckSYNOXnv%252F3TyWTr9ED7%252FU1xc9QgRyVnHlxSTyeb8p5vl%252FOBeSFEjz7WivjzKUqqAdCip3duEZgvYh21cF3QAKEAj3xKkGflwSNmncbDmpyuQTJGkYf9Pl7GWI8yXMxsA0Z0%252BTuoThkfnZsol%252FtBszxA%253D%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2334524
- Toggle switches
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/162208529500?hash=item25c461bc5c:g:zj8AAOSwPzhZ7aSW
Also recommended:
- Terminal strips. The terminal strips allow you to isolate wires if you have problems. (Note that if you are using finer gauges of wire, you are advised to bend the stripped wire back on itself before inserting it into the terminal strip. Otherwise, the screw may not grip the wire).
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/401343220090?hash=item5d71eb897a:g:XNEAAOSw8z1hRZVZ
- Mini plugs so you can easily disconnect the wiring if you want to remove a building from the layout. I make mine out of these. You snap off as many pins as you need:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/201616806271?hash=item2ef14c517f:g:SxEAAOSwZ1BXeifY
I think that is lengthy enough for now. Don't be afraid to ask more questions Lee, but let's do it here where everyone can benefit.
hon30critter - Mini plugs so you can easily disconnect the wiring if you want to remove a building from the layout. I make mine out of these. You snap off as many pins as you need: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/201616806271?hash=item2ef14c517f:g:SxEAAOSwZ1BXeifY
I need an explanation of how mini plugs like this work. I can see how to break off the pins to make a two pin plug. But what is the arrangement for attaching wires to the pins? How do you separate the strip into a male plug and a female plug?
Pretty certain once I see it I'll say, "Man, I could have figured that out." But better safe than sorry.
Robert
ROBERT BRABANDI need an explanation of how mini plugs like this work. I can see how to break off the pins to make a two pin plug. But what is the arrangement for attaching wires to the pins? How do you separate the strip into a male plug and a female plug?
In this day and age there is a lot of confusion about male and female. Header sockets and pins are not yet woke.
The strip pictured in the link is cisgender, in this case female. The protruding metal bit is what you solder to. You will also need cisgender male header sockets, both genders are pictured here
One end of the male end is what you solder to, the other end is the business end.
I suggest scoring both sides of the strip when you break them into smaller pieces, otherwise the plastic has a tendency to fracture.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Mel
My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Just turned 84, aging is definitely not for wimps.
Hi Robert,
The strip contains both the male parts and the female parts. Let's say you want to make a two pin connector. You would cut two pins off of the strip to form the male half of the connector with the pins being the part that go into the female plug. Then you would cut two more pins off to make the female connector. The pins on the male connector plug go into the holes on the female connector to make up the plug. They hold quite tightly and make good connections.
Since my answers are always too long anyhow, I will add in some suggestions on how to make up the plugs:
- Soldering is a bit finicky. You will need a pencil tip soldering iron. Wires are attached to the pins on the female plug, and soldered into the holes on the male plug.
- Hold each plug in a vise (or a pair of pliers with an elastic around the handles).
- Apply a tiny amount of solder flux (non acid) to the wires and the plugs where the solder will go.
- Tin the wires. If you don't bother to tin the wires I can guarrantee that you will be frustrated!
- Hold the wires tight to the pins on the female plug and touch the tip of the iron to the wire and pin at the same time. The joint should be smooth and fairly shiny. If it looks crusty or dull, apply the heat again and make sure you don't move the wire until the solder is hard. It helps to have a bit of extra solder on the tip.
- For the male plug, insert the tinned wires into the holes on the plug, get a tiny bit of extra solder on the tip of your iron, and then touch the tip to the wire and the lip of the socket at the same time. The extra solder on the tip should flow into the hole almost immediately.
- If you prepare everything as suggested, and if your soldering tip is clean, the solder should flow very quickly. As soon as it flows, remove the iron. If you hold the iron in place for too long you will melt the plugs.
- Don't forget to apply heat shrink to the individual wires. I also apply a larger piece of heat shrink that covers the base of the plug and a bit of the wires so it can act as stress relief for the wires. You can also use epoxy for stress relief, especially where the wires need to be bent right next to the plug:
- You can make the plugs with as many connectors as you want, but keep in mind that larger numbers of pins may make the plugs hard to separate. If you are going to make six pin plugs, I recommend getting double row connector strips like Mel showed.
There is another option which makes soldering a bit easier. You can get connector strips with pins on both sides. You would use those for the male plugs and the connectors with a pin on one side and a hole on the other as the female plugs. That eliminates having to solder the wire into the holes which is the fussiest part of the whole process. Mel's picture shows those types of connector pins as well.
I warned you that I give long answers!
Cheers!!
Dave (and others),
What a fantastic set of answers. The questions I and others ask require a level of knowledge and an ability to explain technical issues in a clear way. This is far from easy, but I am convinced that with enough interest, we'd get a great set of answers.
I use the “header” strip connectors for everything.For the low cost per pin they make very good test tools also. Great compatibility for testing all my goodies. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Just turned 84, aging is definitely not for wimps.
RR_MelI use the “header” strip connectors for everything.
Hi Mel,
Thanks for reminding me of the proper name for the 'header' strips. I can never seem to remember what they are called.
Micro Connectors from Header Strips.When you want to avoid the possibility of plugging a connector in backwards you can easily polarize the Header Strip connectors.Press out a pin be it male or female and swap it with the opposite gender.
Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Just turned 84, aging is definitely not for wimps.
If you're just looking for a simple way to provide lighting in buildings, then check out the Dwarvin system.
Dwarvin also sells lamps, signals, detector units and other accessories for different scales. It's a little pricey at first, but I've been happy with its performance the two years I've had it.