I want to covert the lights in my loco's but the only LED's I can find around here shine a blue/white light. They don't look right in an F3 or GP7. Does anyone know where I can order some LED's that give off a light that looks like an incandescent head light?
Your LHS should have Miniatronics stuff, or be able to order it - Their YeloGlo LEDs are clear but give off a yellowish white light that looks like an incandescent bulb. Golden White style LEDs are also avilable from Bruce at Litchfield Station, or direct from Richmond Controls. The Minaitronics ones come with resistors - two different values actually, I just picked up a couple packs today - but neither one is correct for use with DCC - if you use DCC you'll want 1K resistors. With DC, the ones that Miniatronics provides should be good.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I got some from e-bay from a supplier in China! Thought it was a bit risky but got what I paid for. Companies like Litchfield Station carry golden and sunny white LED's http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/home.php?cat=126 I have purchased many things from LS, they are a reputable store.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Until you can get the sunny white or golden white LED's mentioned in the other posts, you may be able to salvage the ones you have. Just go to a craft store and get some yellow glass paint. You may have to tone it down some by mixing it with clear, but it generally works fairly well.
Steve
Thanks for the info. Yelo Glo LED's are ordered and myself and my loco's thank you.
I'm not sure about you other guys' experiences, but Litchfield Station has far better prices for LEDs than either the nearest hobby store or electronics outlet here in my city (60% cheaper)......but then, I am out of town a ways and have to order almost everything online and through the mail. But I would compare their prices if you are going to order a dozen or more and can wait for a mail order to come in.
Actually, I get 20% off at my LHS and the price of a 10 pack of Miniatronics comes out to the same price as Litchfield. Nice thing about the miniatronics ones is the LED package is clear with just a small orangish dot on top of the internal junction, vs most of the others which have an all orange casing. If the LED is visible in your installation, it might matter since the only lights I've ever seen on a local that were orange were flashing beacons on top. Where the LED is not directly visible, say with locos that use plastic light guides, it doesn't make much difference.
Two comments ....
First, I second the option of searching for warm white LEDs on ebay. I've ordered from the numerous suppliers in China and have always gotten extremely fast shipping WITH tracking on every order. A bulk pack of 100 LEDs usually works out to be about $18 including shipping .... match THAT any where over here !!!
Second, I found a great way to "warm up" those blue / white LEDs. Place a small piece of 35mm film negative between the LED and the headlight lense. The orange / brown tint of the film negative does a perfect job of eliminating the blue overtones.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
According to Mike Polsgrove of MR Magazine, he mentiones in an article a while back about some suppliers being Evan Designs, Minatronics,for LED's and Lightbulbs from Circuitron. Cir-Kit Concepts, Minatronics and Model Power. Some other souces are Bakatronics, DeMar Electronics and Mouser to name a few. (U.S. and Area.)
For Canada and on-line a good suppplier is NTE Electronics.
http://www.nteinc.com/
rrinker Your LHS should have Miniatronics stuff, or be able to order it - Their YeloGlo LEDs are clear but give off a yellowish white light that looks like an incandescent bulb. Golden White style LEDs are also avilable from Bruce at Litchfield Station, or direct from Richmond Controls. The Minaitronics ones come with resistors - two different values actually, I just picked up a couple packs today - but neither one is correct for use with DCC - if you use DCC you'll want 1K resistors. With DC, the ones that Miniatronics provides should be good. --Randy
Depends upon the decoder but mostly correct. The Digitrax 165's have built in current regulators, so no resistors needed.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Since white LEDs tend to be eye-burning bright, I'd have to see just what current level they regulate to. If it's near 20ma, I'd bypass the regulator and use a 1K resistor anyway. Call me crazy, but the 9-10ma you get with a 1K resistor still lights the track up light daylight.
Actually, I use very few Digitrax decoders anyway. TCS has better BEMF, for low cost without BEMF I use NCE D13SRJ's.