Thanks to all who replied. I will check into some of the ideas given after I read up on basic electronics (electricity and I don't go well together as I've found out!)
John
Anybody tried Rapido's "Easy Peasy" battery powered lighting system?? It's supposed to be good but I've never seen it in action.
I've used an N cell with 1.5V bulbs. If you operate at night, two bulbs create a nice glow that to me looks realistic, but it's not bright enough to be that noticeable in daytime operations.
Flicker free lighting. The holy grail of model railroading. I've tried a number of things.
1. Straight 12 volt incandescent lamps wired to the wheels. If you pick up juice on all 8 or 12 wheels they won't flicker as much. Keeping the wheels and track clean also helps. But they will flicker some.
2. Battery power. A Radio Shack Type N battery holder is small enough to fit under an passenger car. A tiny power switch can be installed on the underside. It fixes the flicker problem for good. But, with two 1.5 volt bulbs it just isn't bright enough.
3. Super capacitors. These have capacities rated in Farads (not the usual microfarad). They are disc shaped and small enough to fit inside an HO car. They are polarized and cannot withstand more than 5 volts, so the charging circuit needs a full wave bridge rectifier and a 5 volt regulator. With 1.5 volt bulbs you need a 1.5 volt regulator circuit, with LED's you need a current limiting diode. I put such a circuit in a caboose to run the marker lights. The super cap holds enough juice to keep the lights on for 20 seconds after track power is turned off. Does not flicker.
I have not tried just an plain electrolytic cap and 12 volt bulbs. I suspect the ordinary 1000 microfarad caps aren't big enough to do any good. Especially with incandescent lamps.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
rrinker(yes, they do pop if exposed to full voltage in reverse. Quite loudly. Do NOT try this at home. Repeat - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)
I did that with a 500uF 120V electrolytic cap used in a TV. It burned me a little and sent the cap through the ceiling. Quite literally. Talk about a firework show!
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
That's for DC or DCC. You need the bridge rectifier with DC as well as DCC, otherwise if you were running in reverse or turned the car around you'd have an electrolytic capacitor with reverse polarity. OK for siumulating a terrorist attack but not for the desired function (yes, they do pop if exposed to full voltage in reverse. Quite loudly. Do NOT try this at home. Repeat - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
The larger the capacitor value, the less the flicker. The resistor to the capacitor is to fix large current in-rush conditions associated with capacitors. You can experiment with lower values if you find you still have flicker even with a large value cap.
I recommend a 50uF->200uF 25V cap. You can get them at www.jameco.com. Miniatronics also has some which are very small.
Are you getting power from both sides of both trucks? If not, you've probably got only 2 wheels on each rail, and it will be hard to maintain good contact.
Are the wheels clean? Try wiping them with alcohol.
A capacitor will help, but if you're running DCC, then you'll need a bridge rectifier circuit, too. A capacitor will only store a DC charge, which the bridge rectifier can give you.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
John,
You'll need to install a capacitor so that when you run over a dirty spot in your track the lights won't flicker. Someone more knowledgeable about this should be able to give you a specific type to use.
Hope that helps...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
This may have been posted in another thread and I cannot find it, however I am trying to install lighting into my passenger cars and am having trouble with keeping the cars constantly lit. The problem is that when I run the cars, the lights flicker as if there is a connection problem. Is there a fix to this or another product to look into? Any help would be appreciated.