MisterBeasley If your indicator lights are powered by your DCC system, they go black when you have a short. It's a minor consideration, again, but one more reason to go with independent power for those LEDs.
If your indicator lights are powered by your DCC system, they go black when you have a short. It's a minor consideration, again, but one more reason to go with independent power for those LEDs.
The whole point of the indicator in this situation is to confirm whether there is power to that track section...
Any other type of indicator or light should be independent.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
I use DPST mini toggles on my control panel and a separate power source for the LED's. Easy to wire and the toggles are cheap, under $1 each.
- Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
While I generally agree it is a bad idea to use DCC power to light up structures and stuff, even if this is a TEN track staging yard with 10 LEDs at 10ma each, that's 100ma. .1 amp. Barely enough for one loco. Assuming they're all turned one, which would actually defeat the purpose. Most of the time there may only be 2 or 3 tracks turned on - 30ma. Not even to be noticed.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
.... and then there's always the "mute" function on your controller !
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Do you run your layout at night, when you can't see the controls that well? That's a good reason for panel lights. But, in the daylight, you can see which way the toggle is thrown. So, use the usual convention - up for on, down for off.
If you want lights, I would use a double-pole, single-throw toggle. Use one side to route power to the track, and the other side to power a green LED from a separate source. If you want that red LED to complement the green one, then use a DPDT toggle.
The few milliamps that a single LED draws are insignificant, but add enough of them and you eventually need to start accounting for the power. Since you're starting fresh, practice good "electrical hygiene" and keep your DCC power for your trains alone.
OK!
Can you spell - no brainer.
Many thanx.
Larry
Yes, Radio Shack if you need one NOW to finish a project, for a planned project, anywhere else will be FAR less expensive. That's assuming Radio Shack even has what you need.
i paid $1.79 for one bi-color LED at the shack. i paid $.21 each for 40 at DeMar Electronics in illinois.
Phone 877-655-6433
Thanks Randy-
That seems pretty easy to do.
Looking for LED source.
The simplest way to do this is to use a 2-lead bicolor LED and a 1K resistor, connected AFTER the toggle. A regulat LED woudl work but LEDs are picky about reverse voltage and should eb protected with another diode connected across is in reverse - a bicolor LED that has 2 leads is exactly that, all in one package. Plus by using the bicolor LED you can tell is DC is present or address 00 is selected with a non-zero speed - the LED will shift color like the track power LED on the Zephyr itself.
Connect the resistor to one lead of the LED. Connect the free lead from either the resistor or LED to the wire leading from the toggle to the track. Connect the other free lead to the wire feeding the other rail. Done.
Tom-
Thanks for your prompt reply - you were most helpful.
I guess to put my question simpier - I have some staging tracks and then some other areas in the layout that I want to be able to turn power off so the Sound on the decoders is not running all the time. So my basic SPST on/off switch would have a light indicating at a glance if power is on or off. All total maybe a dozen at most - are these going to rob that much power from the DCC in your opnion?
My layout is a one (old) man operation with a double loop - maybe 300' of main line - running 6 - 8 locos at a time on a rare occasion.
All of the turnouts, building loghting, etc will be on a seperate DC circuit powered by a retired power pack.
Larry,
Personally, I would operate my exterior and interior lighting separate from your Zephyr. Why?
Depending on the amount of lighting you have on your layout, this can rob your DCC system of precious amperage. A 30mA incandescent bulb may not seem like much to a 2.5A Zephyr or 3.5A Zephyr Xtra. However, if you have (30) 30mA bulbs on your layout, you've just reduced your overall power capacity by nearly one full amp. That's 36% and 26%, respectively.
I would also operate your lighting on DC rather than AC. For me, I use a separate MRC Railpower 1370 power pack and wire the lights "in parallel" and to the DC terminals. This allows me to "dial down" the voltage so that I'm only operating them at 55-60% power, which means the lights will burn more realistically and last much longer. This is best utilized with incandescents, as they have a wider range of "adjustability" than LEDs.
Lastly, as far as source for lighting, Miniatronics would be my suggestion. They have lights in a variety of sizes, voltages, quantities and colors. I've been very happy with their line of product. I model HO-scale so find that 1.2mm and 1.7mm bulbs look the most realistic to me for exterior lighting. If the interior lights themselves will not visible from the outside, you can use any size bulb that will accomplish the task.
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.
I am in the process of building my system control panel. I want to install some indicator lights and some illumanated spst switches to indicate power is on.
I am running a Digitrax Zephyer - what voltage should the lights be? I assume AC? Anyone have a good source?
Thanks