DCC powered light

[Texas Zepher]

The question was what  are the power requirments? 12v, 6v or what kind of bulbs would normally come in a model car.

Ah, normally that sort of thing has 12-18V bulbs. 

Are the DC lights differant from DCC?

No a filament light bulb is the same regardless of how it is powered.   The main difference is that DCC has constant power to the track while DC varies from zero to max (usually about 15V).  On DC the bulb will shine brighter as the train goes faster.  With DCC it will shine a maximum brightness all the time.  That is why it will burn out much quicker.

Personally I think replacing it with one of the ultra bright LEDs would be way cool. 

[yankee flyer]

Thanks

Simon

The question was what  are the power requirments? 12v, 6v or what kind of bulbs would normally come in a model car. Are the DC lights differant from DCC? I'm just trying to learn.

appreeeeeeciate it.

Lee 

[MisterBeasley]

If you put it on your DCC rails, it will get full voltage, all of the time.  That's likely to burn out the light bulb pretty quickly.  You could add a decoder, as suggested, but that seems like a lot of expense for an accessory car like this.

I would try out the light with a couple of different resistors, to cut the voltage to the bulb down a bit.  Once you've got the right one, you can solder the resistor into the circuit, maybe under the car frame where it won't be seen, or paint it to look like an "auxiliary brake cylinder."  I've found some very small slide switches (I think Minitronics make them) to use in situations like this, too.  They can be mounted under the car and used to manually turn the light on and off.  Yet another option is a latching magnetic reed switch that you can activate with a "magic wand."

[simon1966]

If it works with the Power Cab and you have "no trouble with it" what is the question?

If if draws power from the track then it should just run continuously on a DCC powered track.  All it will do is suck some amperage and potentially reduce the number of locos you can run. It all depends on the current draw.  If you want you can probably install a cheap decoder and control the on/off of the device.

[yankee flyer]

Hello Guys

Bear with me on this please.

I had a cheap MOW car that had a search light type, work light on it. It drew power from the track. I had bought a Digitrax Zephyr to run my system but could never  get it to work properly. I had other issues with the Zephyr but I don,t want to get into that whole issue.

My question is, what kind of power would the light need  and would it effect the dcc system? My NCE power cab had no trouble with it. And please NO brand fighting.                   

Lee