BroadwayLion The box was labeled "White" because the cord was white instead of green.
The box was labeled "White" because the cord was white instead of green.
Nope, green cord.
The red, green, yellows, and maybe blues will be useful somewhere. Not sure what I'll ever use a purple LED for. Unless I crack it open and some other color falls out.
That's exactly it. Color LEDs like red, green, and blue are easy, it just depends on the chemistry. White LEDs are almost all actually a UV emitting LED with phosphors to produce the white glow, more complicated and expensive to make.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Um, yes, I knew that. I think I mentioned it. Colored plastic thingies have colored LEDs under them.
I was surprised, the same as you when I first found them (although I do have a use for blue LEDs).
But you must stop and think about this for a second and it will become obvious.
All Electronics sells colored LEDs, for as little as 10c each, where as the white ones are 90c each. If it is the chemistry that goes into making white LEDs that much more costly, then it only stands to reason that the makers of these sets will use the least expensive LEDs they can in them.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Just a heads up so no one else gets surprised like I did:
I picked up a box at Target that was labeled as "white" (as opposed to warm white) with color lenses. After pulling off a few of the lenses, I discovered that the bulbs are colored! Disappointing because I wanted the white bulbs. I'd assumed that the lenses were the only thing colored, but apparently not. Kinda makes me curious why the box was labeled white though...
Hope I can find a box somewhere. Target was cleaned out tonight!
Thanks Lion
I pushed,pulled,proded and everything else. I finally had to get the Dremel out and slit green holder to remove the clear lense. I just thought that it might not be as harsh a light with the lense left on.
I have yet to put any in buildings. I am still building the structures.
Thanks
Ken
I always remove them.
The lamps come out by pulling straight out from the socket. Once you have the familiar looking Christmas bulb in your hand, remove the plastic do dad (if there is one) by twisting it. Bend the two contact wires back away from the lamp. The LED should pull straight out without difficulty.
LION keeps a jeweler's screwdriver at hand for bending the wires straingt, it saves wear and tear on the finger nails.
Do you folks leave the led's in the plastic holders and lenses that they come in or do you remove them?
If you remove them, is there an easy way? I have had to use a Dremel tool to cut the holder on the few I have played with.
dragenrider Does any model supplier sell the LED's with the resister already in place and rated for correct current? That would speed me up and cut down on many beginner mistakes.
Does any model supplier sell the LED's with the resister already in place and rated for correct current? That would speed me up and cut down on many beginner mistakes.
Yeah, try Evan Designs http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ledlights1.html
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
The Cedar Branch & Western--The Hillbilly Line!
Looks GOOD.
just if you were wondering, "daylight" view
fun with LEDs
UV LED and pen
I think we will pass on the incandescents, sounds like a real pain
I think I still have a few of the old plasticville buildings :)
If you want to work at what I call the component level, read and store the below links in Favorites.
http://www.trainelectronics.com/Meter_Workshop/index.htm
http://www.trainelectronics.com/Meter_HF/index.htm
I have three of the Harbor Freight meters.
All the LED's I have ever bought are 20 ma max so I assume any from sets are the same. I use a 1 k potentiometer and 12 vdc to check them out. Start at 1k on the pot. Big if, if one blows out with the pot at 1k, not a big deal as there are more in the set but that has never happened.
I also have 2.5 k and 5 k pots but have never needed them.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Bis Thanks everyone, after I get done with the "honey do's" I am going to go solder some resistors the some leds. I am almost affraid to ask but what do you do to use the incandescent Christmas lights?
Thanks everyone, after I get done with the "honey do's" I am going to go solder some resistors the some leds.
I am almost affraid to ask but what do you do to use the incandescent Christmas lights?
I DO NOT USE THEM. The are very very hard to solder to the leads, and besides they have a built in shunt to short them out in the event of filament failure so that the rest of the lights would stay on. As soon as anything troubles it you will have a dead short in your circuit, and I would defy toy to find it!
Now once upon a time, when I was just a young cub, I did do just that, but there were the old 12 volt conical shaped lamps (The kind that disappeared once the C7s came out.) They were wired in series of eight lamps and so could be plugged into 120 volts. If one went out, they all went out, but you only had eight to test and not 300! In any event the LIONLING use them sockets and all with 12 volts and they were just fine for lighting up the old plasticville houses that one used in those days. Such lamps are almost certainly no longer available.
Do not even dream of using those things, for they run on anything from 2 volts to 6 volts and you do not know which by looking at them.
this looks like a good place for this info. i use this to figure my circuits out.
works nicly when working on r/c lighting for my rigs and on the layout.
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
later
g
FB page of my layout *new*
https://www.facebook.com/ghglines
.
thread to my layout
http://www.warcrc.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10505
pics
http://s237.photobucket.com/user/rockcrawling/library/#/user/rockcrawling/library/ho%20scale%20trains?sort=3&page=1&_suid=1388183416990004180295067414064
rrinker Plenty of light in those stars, for sure. How warm does it get under there with those on? Depending on layout location, the extra heat of incandescent vs LED or flourescent may or may not be an issue. --Randy
Plenty of light in those stars, for sure. How warm does it get under there with those on? Depending on layout location, the extra heat of incandescent vs LED or flourescent may or may not be an issue.
I think the iPhone makes them look brighter than they actually are. They don't get hot/warm at all. Some nights they're on for hours and you can still touch/rest your hand on them with very little to no heat. I don't know if you can tell, but I didn't use plywood on the benchwork, just caulked the 2" foam board on the 1" x 3"'s. The backs of the lights are taped directly to the foam board and it's not melting (or even smell like it's melting).
southeastroads Ken The + side should be the same as the + probe side, but the resistor goes on the negative or anode led lead. The negative side of the led has a flat spot on the outside and a "flag" end the inside of the led. Ray
The + side should be the same as the + probe side, but the resistor goes on the negative or anode led lead. The negative side of the led has a flat spot on the outside and a "flag" end the inside of the led.
Ray
Polarity does matter, but which leg the resistor goes on doesn't.
For future reference, the negative side is the cathode, the positive side is the anode.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
I dunno if it's a shortage, or just that the warm whites always go first - since they look more like incandescent ones. I've noticed that in the after season sales when they are selling them for super low prices, it's always the bluish white ones they have, never the warm white.
It's written on the box Bis. There seems to be a shortage of the warm white ones this year though.
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
VERY IMPRESSIVE. How do you determine cool white from warm white when dealing with Christmas lights?
street lights are bulbs, but rest are LEDs, cool white in drugstore and furniture store, warm whites everywhere else.
On River Eagle's town, are those all white lights or are some of them colored? It sure looks good.
Love the contrast between different businesses in river_eagle's picture. Some who've implemented flourescent lighting, some still with incandescent.
Plenty of light in those stars, for sure. How warm does it get under there with those on? Depending on layout location, the extra heat of incandescent vs LED or flourescent may or may not be an issue. I knew there was something I meant to grab at Walmart last night, a string of LED lights, the side of my room with the sloping ceiling is somewhat in the shadows and there's not a lot of room to install say undercabinet type fixtures there, not to mention I really shouldn;t be fastenign anything that requires holes in the wall or ceiling panels.
The price of the high power LED strips keeps coming down, I have this wild idea that by the time I have space for my 'dream' layout I'll be able to run strips of RGB LEDs with a controller so I can do everything from a blue moonlight night through sunrise, midday sun, and back to sunset, for the whole over layout area, with little heat. I may do some experimentation along these lines. One thing I did on my previous layout is use one of each type of flourescent bulb in each fixture, a warm white and a coolw hite, in an attempt to get a good color balance. As long as you didn't actually look up at the fixture, it seemed to give a nice effect. I'd like to try the same with LEDs, a string of each in parallel and see what it looks like.
mobilman44 Hi, I was just thinking of buying a string but to use them as a unit rather than individually. I thought about stringing them over my lower level staging & storage area, and having them on only when needed. Anyone else use them like this?
Hi,
I was just thinking of buying a string but to use them as a unit rather than individually. I thought about stringing them over my lower level staging & storage area, and having them on only when needed.
Anyone else use them like this?
Since I am in the process of rebuilding the layout and I have seen others use the new LED rope lights, I had given thought to putting them in the helix. The new layout is 2 level with staging on the bottom. Well, once the upper level was installed, the lower staging quickly turned into night, so I needed some lighting (just as you have indicated). Here is staging without any lighting.....
While getting out the xmas decorations, I came across 2 boxes of these (thery're not LED, but they'll work).......
Since the wife didn't want them anymore (upgrading to LED), they quickly became lighting for staging....
I took the "stars" and used double sided foam tape.....
LION would use light rope instead. Easier to handle, comes with brackets. If you cannot screw the bracket, you can tape them with double sided foam tape.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
cool vs warm white LEDs