I will be having multiple lit buildings on my layout and have not been able to find about the accessory output of the NCE power cab capability. When using that system, how do you power the building/street lights and such on the layout? (I'm strongly researching snagging the smart booster along with it)
Thanks!
Hold my beer... ya'll watch this!
80,
As long as you are considering the Smart Booster (SB3a) and your won't be operating a large number of locomotives at a time, using your Power Cab to control your lights shouldn't be a problem. However, you should first calculate how many buildings you plan on illuminating, how many bulbs you will be using, and what the mA (milliamp) rating of each bulb is. Depending on the rating of the bulb, that could quickly add up on you. I definitely would NOT recommend doing this w/o the SB3a.
For accessing the lights via your Power Cab throttle, you may have to look at the NCE Mini Panel. I've never tried it myself but you'll probably have to create a macro for that. I would assume you could create a single macro for controlling a series of lights or a specific set of separate lights? Looks like the manual for the Mini Panel is also available on that same page so that should answer some questions.
Anyhow, 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.
Thanks so much, Tom!
Perhaps the best alternative method to tapping off my primary power supply would be a secondary power supply for the accessories?
You mean like a separate wall transformer or a power pack? Or still through your Power Cab?
I'm thinking just getting a stock computer power supply which you can get for about 15 dollars and using that to power the accessories (lighting) on the layout- as they would be always on.
That would also be used to control the turnout motor solenoids as there are only about 5 turnouts that needs to be remote thrown. That's not enough to fork out 20 bucks each for a dcc decoder!
Thanks again for your input!
-Denny
That'll work, Denny. You might also want to consider a spare power pack and hooking your lighting up to the DC terminals. That way you can use it to "dial down" the voltage to your lights. I run my 12V incandescents @ ~50-55%. The bulbs are plenty bright enough and will run cooler and last a lot longer that way.
That's a great idea as well. I was thinking LED's might be a lot cooler and last longer.
What sort of access do you use to get into the buildings for the eventual light burnout?
Denny,
I ALWAYS have that in mind when building a kit so I usually make my roofs (or a section of it) detachable. It takes a little more time and effort to do that but I think it's worth it. Besides, I'm wiring it for lighting anyhow.
If a detachable roof is not an option then I make sure that the light wires can be easily disconnected from underneath the layout and the entire structure/building can be removed. I can then have access to any "expired" bulb(s) from the comfort of my workbench. I also like to add interior walls and floors so I make sure that they are easily removable, too.
Adding "light tubes" (i.e. bulbs at the end of plastic tubing and inserted up through a hole in the layout bench then secured) is another option for lighting interiors. One advantage of using this method is that you can adjust the height of the light to suit your structure. If you add flooring to your structures like I do, this then gets a little more complicated.
I know folks who have used LEDs for lighting for the reasons you have given above and like them. However, since LEDs tend to be "directional" when emitting light, you would have to modify the lens in order to diffuse the beam. (I think this is done by filing the curve lens flat.)*
Personally, I prefer incandescents over LEDs for interior/exterior lighting because the light is ) warmer, 2) more diffuse, and 3) can be dimmed. With that said, I really like LEDs for locomotive headlights.
[*EDIT: Denny, I just ran across a blurb about this on another forum this morning. The author suggested "lightly sanding" the LED bulb to diffuse the beam. Although he doesn't mention what he used to sand the LED with, I'm guessing it was either 400- or 600-grit sandpaper. Here's a comparison picture that the author posted:
The first pic is an un-sanded LED; the second one has been lightly sanded. I would agree that sanding does improve the overall effect of the LED. I would still have to try it to see how comparable it is to an incandescent. Anyhow, thought I'd throw that into the mix for you.]
Denny, here's a pic of a freight depot on my layout that I took a few years back, which I've outfitted with 1.7mm - 12V incandescent bulbs and powered with an MRC 1370 Railpower power pack:
The 1370 Railpower is rated at 15 VDC. So, even at 50-55%, you can see that the 12V incandescents powered at 7.5-8 VDC are plenty bright enough. (And I can easily adjust it up or down to suit my taste.) I've made the front side of the roof detachable (notice the gap in the roofing at the peak) when a bulb inevitably does decide to give up the ghost.
Hope that helps...
Ther have been a flurry of messages lately with people seemign to want to run all their structure lights and other accessories fromt he DCC bus. Wonder what is sparking this? Sure it sounds convenient, just run a couple of wires fromt he track to your building and it lights up. But DCC power is EXPENSIVE power and best left to running the trains.
Here's what you need to provide power to structure lights: a power supply
Here's what you to power structure lights from DCC: a power supply, a DCC booster.
It's just not worth it. Even many stationary decoders for DCC use an external power supply rather than draw from track power. But that function is generally directly related to runnign trains. Lighting up the town square isn't. If you desire DCC control over this lighting, there are devices liek the Aux Box which can turn circuits on and off via DCC commands but don't power those circuits fromt he track.
Perhaps it's because there are more and more getting into the hobby going straight to DCC and not previously having a DC powerpack that is now surplus and can be used for powering the lights. What got me back in after being little more than an armchair modeler after a stint in a club after college was a Bachmann Hogwarts set, but then I went right to DCC. Somehwere I do have the power pack that came with the Hogwarts set, but outside of that I only recently purchased my first DC power pack since 1978, because I thought I would need ot be doign a lot of bench testing and tweakign on the brass loco I recently bought. Only once it came I foudn it had already been remotored with a modern low power motor and had a decoder previously installed! Well, it's sitting there on my workbench waiting for a call to use, eventually I suppose it will power my building lights when I get that far, although I already have a 3 amp 15V power supply on my power shelf that I was plannign to tap off with multiple fuses for aux power around the layout - I even have the fuses, fuse holders, and a circuit board to mount it all on. And a couple of voltage regulators to produce reduced voltage for less than 16v lamps.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Excellent input, Tom! Giving me some great ideas and beautiful lighting work on your layout!
Randy- The reason for me asking about this is I am figuring out the differences of the DC/DCC power capabilities. I really like the DCC logic and it seemed to follow that the DCC amperage should only be used for the track, which turned out to be correct. These forums are great as quick answers can be found here when my google-fu or late night perusing of the manuals doesn't quite click. :)