What type of LEDs and resistors, etc. would I need to add lights to HO buildings? What else do I need to get, and how hard is it to install lighting inside structures? Is there anything else I need to consider or purchase? I thoguht to put in one or two lights in certain buildings to give the layout a more realistic appearance.
TIA!
TIA,
Some info...for you to read and look at about lighting your buildings and street lights:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Add-lights-to-your-model-railway-railroad/
Take Care!
Another site for any kind of LED lighting you would like, also with diagrams..how to:
http://www.moreleds.com/structure.htm
Frank
Any white LED will work. Here are a few tips:
You want a 'warm white' LED for incandescent lighting or a 'bright white' LED for florescent lighting.
The size of the LED really doesn't matter if it can't be viewed directly. Cheap LEDs are available in 3mm or 5mm dia. sizes. For things like exterior lights over doorways an '0603' LED works great. '0603' refers to the size - .060" x .030". They are tiny but not difficult to work with once you have done a few (expect to fry some at first). If you want a tutorial on how to wire them there are a couple on the forum, or ask and I can do one on this thread.
The most common resistor is 1000 ohms 1/8 or 1/4 watt, but you can use values as low as 470 ohms or as high as 4,400 ohms (or higher) depending on how bright or dim you want the light.
I usually buy my LEDs on eBay. They are dirt cheap and so far anyhow they seem to be reliable. I recently bought 500 warm white 3mm LEDs for about $10.00 IIRC. However, if I am working with a circuit like a flasher unit from Ngineering I tend to buy the LEDs from the same manufacturer so I can be certain that they will work reliably.
I buy my resistors from Digikey. Their prices are really good and their quality is a given.
You may find that installing only one or two LEDs doesn't give you the effect you want. If you want much brighter lighting i.e. in a modern engine service shop then you can buy strip LEDs. These come on a long roll and are pre-wired to operate on 12 volts. You can cut the strip into sections of 3, 6, 9, or 12....etc LEDs depending on how much light you want and how long you want the lights to be.
You can also buy individual LEDs pre-wired with or without resistors.
Leds are polarity sensitive. If you wire them backwards they won't light but usually no harm is done.
I have discovered the hard way that if you don't wire a resistor to the LEDs when installing them you will forget that there is no resistor and you will fry the LEDs the next time you apply power. I have done that more than once so now the first thing I do after soldering on the leads is install the resistor. It doesn't matter which lead the resistor gets soldered to but if you get into the habit of always installing the resistor on the same (+ or -) lead then you can identify the polarity easily.
Once you have done some LEDs in your buildings you might want to consider making things like street lights or perhaps putting headlights in a vehicle or two. There are lots of possibilities.
Hope this helps a bit.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
A couple years ago, I purchased several strings of warm white LED Christmas lights from Walmart for about $6 each. Each string has 50 3mm wide angle LED's which works out to about 12 cents per LED. You do have to disassemble the light strings to get the individual LED's out but that only takes a few minutes. The wide angle design works well for lighting building interiors and street lights. If you file down the inverted cone in the top of the LED, it will function more like a regular focussed LED suitable for headlight use.
Hornblower
Don't forget to paint the inside walls of your buildings black, otherwise your building will glow.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
modelmaker51 Don't forget to paint the inside walls of your buildings black, otherwise your building will glow.
That's debatable....all my buildings are lighted, with LED's and incandesents, half have interiors and none are painted Black, no glow. Inside is either painted the same color as outside or silver inside, lighter color reflects light better. They are at least a inch away from any wall.
My Experience.
Frank:
I think Jay is making a good point, although as you say, painting the interiors black isn't the only way to do it. The point is to make sure your interior light doesn't bleed through the walls or the joints. When I see those early Bachmann buildings glowing in the dark it makes me think of an infrared picture of a grow op!
Most all pic's I have seen of people's radio active buildings....didn't know any better.
Here's what I know: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx?page=1
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I'm old-school, or maybe just old, but I prefer incandescents. I use 16-volt Miniatronics bulbs, but I run them at 12 volts. This gives a softer, warmer glow, and greatly extends bulb life. Running bulbs at lower voltage also reduces the glowing building effect.
Real buildings aren't hollow, and one bulb won't light the whole building or shine through every window. So, I construct a crude interior structure for most buildings with foamboard. Then I light some rooms and leave others dark, particularly in a building like this M.T. Arms Hotel from DPM:
Once you start lighting up your structures, you'll notice that you can see into the buildings through the windows. To me, that cries out for interior detailing. It doens't have to cost a lot or be a lot of time or work. I just print floors and walls on my computer and glue them inside. If you print them on cardstock, they also form an effective light block on the exterior walls to keep your building from glowing. Sometimes I'll put a figure or two near the windows.
This is one room. Here, I added Venetian blinds from City Classics. These and window shades are a nice detail, and they also limit visibility into the room, so you can be a bit more casual about the interior.
With a Miller Engineering sign on top and a couple of Walthers streetlights in front, the completed building comes to life as the Shamrock Hotel.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
yup, there you go. The bigest and most important thing what lighting buildings is to not light the whole thing. I have built "rooms" but that is tedius. I just blank out windows that do not need to be lit, and many of those that are lit have a little snip of cloth (pajamas work real good for the designs on them) to emulate drawn curtains.
Look at the buildings in your neighborhood. You usually do not see inside of them, so there is no point in making an interior unless that is what you want to feature such as a store or a garage. Take some photos of shop windows in your neighborhood, and paste them inside of your commercial buildings. Instant interior, especially if they are too far from the normal viewing positon.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Before you settle on a standard resistor value, experiment to see which ones provide the amount of light you want.
I saw a photo of six like LEDs with resistors of 560, 820, 1000, 1500, 2700 and 10,000 ohms. There wasn't any visible change in the light level until 2700 ohms, and that was very little change from 1500 ohms. At 10,000 ohms there was a little glow that might be just right for some interior lights.
While the interiors of homes, hotels and office buildings are generally not visible, ground-level shops, restaurants and other businesses benefit from even rudimentary interiors.
hon30critterI have discovered the hard way that if you don't wire a resistor to the LEDs when installing them you will forget that there is no resistor and you will fry the LEDs the next time you apply power. I have done that more than once so now the first thing I do after soldering on the leads is install the resistor.
For surface-mount resistors I solder one resistor lead directly to the LED, and the other lead to the wire.