I have bought many different types of LEDs to use as a source of incandescent light over the years, and none of them were what I had hoped for. The "white" light LEDs emitted a mostly harsh bluish light, and the "warm whites" were somewhat yellow greenish in tone. All of them unpleasant to the eye. The closest ones to regular light bulbs were from Richmond Controls, and those are a bit on the pricey side.
Today I got SMD LEDs I had bought on eBay and they truely emit whit light. Not bluish, yellow or orange - but white. They are spec'd at around 2800 Kelvin and I believe that to be true. I'm just stoked! Finally a good replacement for grain-of-wheat or rice bulbs.
They ship from China, but if you can live with the usual 2 or 3 weeks until they show up, they are a good deal at 12 cents a piece. I ordered these here.
This is a picture of the SMD on the left and a so called "warm white" 3mm LED on the right. If your monitor is somewhat calibrated you can see the yellow green tint of it.
And this is the SMD with a golden-white 3mm from Richmond Controls on the right. I used one of those as a headlight for my 2-4-2 and while it is much more pleasing than the "warm white" above, it is also a bit too orange for my taste. Call me picky.
For me - the search for "white" LEDs is over!
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And did you notice in the pictures how nicely diffused their light is? Not the usual point light source that so many other LEDs have. These will be great for interior lighting and such. And the price is right.
Dr G.
The sunny white (so called) LEDs have been good for me in my steamers when I color them with a yellow highlighter marker. It tones down the greenish hue and I frost the lens with a coat of glue.
Pete
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I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Hi locoi1sa,I have played around with different yellow and orange washes on regular "white" LEDs. I agree that you can get them to look pretty close to regular light bulbs when used as a headlight. The cone of a headlight usually doesn't reflect from a surface all that much and the color is therefore not all that noticeable anyway.
I'm just really excited to finally have a great light source for structures, car interiors, street lamps - you name it. I've bought my first LED some 30 years ago and this is the first time that I have come across one that is emitting real white light. And since they are SMD sized they're perfect for my N scale layout. And not too small to solder some wires to them, mind you..
It really depends on what era you are modeling. I find that the Miniatronics 3mm Yeloglo White LEDs (PN: 12-310-10 for 10-pk) work great and emit an appropriate slightly yellowish beam for steam and early diesel headlights. The "white" light that Dr. G prefers would seem to be appropriate for more modern-ish, indoor "frosted" incandescents.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
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Dr. G,
I sure can see the pluses of SMD LEDs for interior lighting AND for N-scale purposes. And you're right. The beam on the SMD LEDs is much more dissuse than regular LEDs. I do have a question though: How would you disguise the squarish shape for use as exterior lighting/street lamps?
For locomotive headlights, I do find the 3mm LED beam "color" noticeable through the lens. That's why I like the Miniatronic Yeloglo LEDs. They emit a beam that is reminiscent and prototypical of headlights found on steam and early diesel.
Hi tstage,
I don't think that I would use them necessarily for headlights. I had just mentioned that I've used Richmond Control golden-whites as headlights in my engines. I still might go with those for headlights.
But for interior lighting, these SMDs seem just perfect. I'm just getting to a point on my layout were I can start adding some buildings and I am planning on lighting them with these LEDs. I even bought a basic stamp micro controller to add some lighting effects to my buildings. Huffa..
I think these SMDs might be small enough to be concealed or enclosed under or in a lamp shade. I'm going to have to try. I do have even smaller SMDs that would be better for this, but their "white" light is the usual unpleasant cool blue. I hope they can make those real white LEDs still a bit smaller.
Dr.Gonzo62 Hi tstage, I think these SMDs might be small enough to be concealed or enclosed under or in a lamp shade.
I think these SMDs might be small enough to be concealed or enclosed under or in a lamp shade.
That would be my main concern with using the SMD LEDs for exterior lighting. A lack of a "bulb" or enclosed glass housing might be noticeable.
For HO scale, 1.2mm GOW incandescents are the right size but it's hit 'n miss with the glass bulbs surrounding the filament. I've found that some diffuse the light evenly while others concentrate or focus the beam so that it casts a noticeable "crescent -shape" light on surfaces below. I'm guessing this is because it's somewhat difficult to produce an even thicknesses of glass in that small of a scale. Although I've never tried them, I wonder whether 0.7mm suffer the same plight.
Because of those inconsistencies, I've compromised by using 1.7mm GOW incandescents for exterior lighting. The bulb is a bit over-sized but it's still believable. For interior lighting I try and find something that will last a while. I also operate (dim) my lighting @ 50-60% full power (DC) for the following reasons:
I will look into/consider the SMD LEDs though for certain applications. Thanks for posting, Dr. G.
Nothing beats incandescents for purity of tungsten color temps. Unfortunately, they tend to run hot and this can be bad. A Concor Galloping goose that I recently acquired had an ill-chosen, ill placed incandescent and after only a few minutes softened the plastic around the rear light area. I was really hacked off about this. I cut out the offending, melted area and installed a brass, CalScale lamp housing with micro SMD LED. Looks great now.
A pet complaint of mine is the use of those awful clear plastic "light pipes" stuffed into the base of a headlight so that a huge, one dollar per thousand old style LED or incadescent can be used to achieve what, for the manufacturer, is a "light" on his model.
I am somewhat of a loco lighting nut and now use only surface mount LEDs in all my prototypical visored, Pyle National lighting arrangements. I spend a lot of time trying to get things right. I tend to put SMD potentiometers in line with a minimal limiting resistor and tune for the most pleasing light levels.
LEDs will soon be available that are truly equal to tungsten color temps. They are already close, as noted in the original posting. As LEDs become more efficient, (more light for far less current), I am finding resistors of 5-10k ohms not too far off pleasing levels with 3-5ma run currents!
Being an electronics engineer, I get a lot of the latest released stuff as samples and it is getting more amazing on a weekly basis.
Electronic advances, (DCC and Sound), is what got me back into MR and I am not seeing a slowing down in the advancement within the hobby.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
I've done a final comparison with a grain-of-wheat bulb and I was surprised just how orange the light from the GOW was! The SMD in comparison looks downright cool, but it really isn't.I guess I haven't been around real incandescent bulbs in quite some time with all the CCFLs and halogen lighting these days that I've forgotten just how orange warm "light bulb light" is. Or was, for that matter..
narrow gauge nuclear,are you using any kind of lighting control on your layout? I have yet to unwrap the basic stamp I bought and get into that whole thing. 16 channels isn't much, but my layout is not all that large to begin with due to space constrains.