I just purchased 15 Atlas HO scale street lights, these are LED lights, can I wire these to bus wires and then run those bus wires to a DC power pack ( from a Bachmann train set ) to supply the power. The directions state that the lights are 3 volt LED with resistor and diode for connection to a 16 volt AC/DC power. I Also have 3 Walthers street lamps that I want to install in another part of my layout. I also want to attach extention wires to the wires coming from the street lamps so I can connect to the bus wires that will be run along the edge of my layout since I am physically unable to get under my layout. This is how I have my track wired, the feeders come to the edge of the layout and attach to bus wires. I have very little electrical knowledge so please keep any advice plain and simple for me to under stand as I have been out of the hobby for over 25 years. Thank you for any help you can give me in this matter as it will be greatly appreciated.
woodman, those Atlas HO street lights come with resistors included, and if I recall correctly, they are already attached in-line to the wiring, so you should be good to go. You need the resistors, of course, to protect the LEDs from excess voltage.
The DC power pack that comes with Bachmann train sets is 16 volts, so that will work for you.
The wiring from the street lights should be directly connected to the DC terminals on the power pack.
If you need to make the wiring longer to reach the power pack, that should not present a problem. I use butt splices but you can also use the twist on wire nut connectors.
Is your layout DC or DCC?
Rich
Alton Junction
Best way would be kind of what you're proposing --> secondary bus (say WHITE / BLUE if you're running RED/BLACK as your track bus) for DC power, and then just connect the lights to this bus where it's convenient (personally, I would wire a "city block" to terminals, and then a pair of feeders from there to the power bus).
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
I use the Walthers street lights. If yours are the same as mine, they are incandescent bulbs and are rated at 16 volts. But....I run mine at 12 volts. They give a warmer, more "fifties" glow that way, and they will last a lot longer. The bulbs aren't really replaceable, so this technique will keep them alive longer.
I have two bus lines for lighting on my layout - one for street lights and one for structures. Each runs through a panel toggle, so that I can shut off the buses when it's daytime and I'm just running trains to test trackwork or haul a CMX machine to clean the track.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyI use the Walthers street lights
He said his were Atlas LED lights.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
And he also said he has a few Walthers lights.
Rich, my layout will be DCC, I am just getting to hooking it up, I am using the Digitrax Zephyr extra system. I have one engine programed and it is running good. Like I said in my orginal post, I have been out of the hobby for over 25 years and only know DC, when it comes to lighting I am very concerned about screwing things up, I also want to put lighting in my buildings eventually, I am from the old school where you drilled a hole in the layout and then shoved a christmas light up through the hole then put the building over the light, ( LOL ). I just don't want to blow out the street lights by hooking them up to a wrong power source. I am using 15 Atlas LED lights and 3 Walthers double arm street lights in a park setting, Walthers are not LED so I also wanted to know if I can use the same power source. Thanks for your reply and any help you can give me.
Woodman,
Check your street lights for the MA requirement for running them...also that the other street lights you have will work at 16volts, if they are 12v you'll burn them out, also check what those MA draw is. You don't want to try to light more lights than a trainset power pack can supply.
Whether You have a DC or DCC layout has no bearing on what you want to do, if you only want to power Your lights. 1Amp to 2Amp would be fine, 2Amp being the better choice, for extra.
You said you wanted power wires on your facia, you can use 18 to 22 gauge for that without a problem and use the same size wire to Your lights with the wire from the lights soldered to them. If you stagger your street light wire connections you won't have to tape or insulate them, just so they can't touch one another.
Just so You know...1Amp = 1000MA
Need more help? PM Me.
Take Care!
Frank
zstripe Whether You have a DC or DCC layout has no bearing on what you want to do
Whether You have a DC or DCC layout has no bearing on what you want to do
richhotrain zstripe Whether You have a DC or DCC layout has no bearing on what you want to do It does if it is DCC since he asked about connecting the street lamp wiring to his bus. Rich
It does if it is DCC since he asked about connecting the street lamp wiring to his bus.
I guess it depends on how one would interpret running a bus on His facia for powering His lights, as He stated in His question.
zstripe richhotrain zstripe Whether You have a DC or DCC layout has no bearing on what you want to do It does if it is DCC since he asked about connecting the street lamp wiring to his bus. Rich I guess it depends on how one would interpret running a bus on His facia for powering His lights, as He stated in His question. Take Care! Frank
That is why I previously asked him if he is running his layout in DC or DCC.
All you have to do...is read His first sentence.
woodman, Frank's diversions aside, since you are running your layout in DCC, you have some options available to you. You could operate the lighting off of a 16 volt DC power pack as you are asking about. You could also tap into your DCC power source by wiring the lights to the DCC bus with the proper precautions. Many DCC users recommend against drawing upon DCC power, but with so few lights, you could do it depending upon the DCC system that you are using.
Regarding the Atlas HO street lights, I see that they are already pre-wired including the resistors, so there isn't much left to do to complete the wiring to the power source. But, again, if you rely on DCC power,there are some precautions to keep in mind.
Regarding the Walthers double arm street lights, like all Walthers street lights, they too are pre-wired and pretty much ready to go. If they are 12 volt lamps and you power them to a 16 volt DC power pack, to prolong bulb life you could add a separate wire from the power pack and add one or more diodes in series to reduce the voltage on that string to 12 volts.
Are they being wired in series or parallel?
richhotrain If they are 12 volt lamps and you power them to a 16 volt DC power pack, to prolong bulb life you could add a separate wire from the power pack and add one or more diodes in series to reduce the voltage on that string to 12 volts. Rich
You don't have to run a separate wire from the power source. Just tap into the existing DC bus 16volt wires that you have running along your facia to the other lights and use resistors not diodes to reduce voltage to the 12volt lights.
Anyone know what ma bulbs Walthers uses so the correct resistor can be calculated?
If he connect the lights to the DCC track bus, he's not going to need to drop much - with a Zephyr Xtra the track voltage is going to be around 13V. The Atlas lights will work fine.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy,
He doesn't want to use His DCC track bus for His lights. He wants to run a DC voltage bus from his trainset transformer on His facia, just to power the lights. The ones He wants to use are either 30ma or 50ma. 16v and 12v. The 16v are LED's with resistor and diode built in so they can work on 16AC the 12v's are incandesants. He didn't come back to say what the MA requirement is on either.
zstripe Randy, He doesn't want to use His DCC track bus for His lights. He wants to run a DC voltage bus from his trainset transformer on His facia, just to power the lights.
He doesn't want to use His DCC track bus for His lights. He wants to run a DC voltage bus from his trainset transformer on His facia, just to power the lights.
Says who?
Maybe he will want to use his DCC bus.
That's why I asked in the first place if he is running in DC or DCC.
He acknowledged that he has limited electrical expertise so maybe he hasn't even thought about it.
Let's wait and see what he has to say.
As I mentioned previously, with DCC power, he does have options.
He said he doesn't know much about electrical things, so he's probably not the one to ask about the bulbs in the Walthers lights, unless it's clearly printed on the package. I was hoping someone would know so we can just tell him exactly what to buy so it works.
"I just purchased 15 Atlas HO scale street lights, these are LED lights, can I wire these to bus wires and then run those bus wires to a DC power pack ( from a Bachmann train set ) to supply the power."
Cut and pasted from the original post.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Vet "I just purchased 15 Atlas HO scale street lights, these are LED lights, can I wire these to bus wires and then run those bus wires to a DC power pack ( from a Bachmann train set ) to supply the power." Cut and pasted from the original post.
I think that everyone who replied said that he can do that.
Now we are trying to figure the ma. for the Walthers lamps and discussing the DCC option.
richhotrain zstripe Randy, He doesn't want to use His DCC track bus for His lights. He wants to run a DC voltage bus from his trainset transformer on His facia, just to power the lights. Says who? Maybe he will want to use his DCC bus. That's why I asked in the first place if he is running in DC or DCC. He acknowledged that he has limited electrical expertise so maybe he hasn't even thought about it. Let's wait and see what he has to say. As I mentioned previously, with DCC power, he does have options. Rich
I just thought I could put this argument to rest.
Let me add to my orginal post. I intend to run separate bus wires independent of my bus wires for my track feeders. These bus wires will be for lighting only. I will be installing Atlas and Walthers street lights. (15) Atlas street lights and (3) Walthers street lights. The package for the Atlas lights states: they operate on 16V DC or AC, LED is the light source ,they are 3 Volt LED with resister and diode for connection to 16 Volt AC/DC, red is positive, blue is negative. The Walters light package states that they can be connected to a AC or DC power souce with a maximum output of 12 Volts. Walthers lights are not LED. That is all the information on the packages. Can they all be connected to the same power source, or does the Walthers need to be on a separate power source? Thank You for all your ideas and comments.
woodman, the Atlas street lights will work just fine off of that Bachmann power pack. So, if you want to use a fascia-mounted set of bus wires connected to the power pack for the Atlas lights, you can just tap in along the bus wires. The LEDs are fully protected in those pre-wired Atlas light kits.
The Walthers street lights pose a bit of a problem since they are only rated at 12 volts. To prevent premature burnout, you are going to need to reduce the output voltage if you connect them to a 16 volt power pack. You can use resistors or diodes or something like a step down voltage regulator which you can buy cheap. Or, with only three Walthers street lights, you could tap into your DCC bus. Depending upon your DCC system, the voltage may not be much higher than that required for those 12 volt incandescents, so it wouldn't take much to reduce the voltage to 12 volts to power those three lamps.
He could set the throttle on the DC pack to 12v and hook up the lights to the variable DC output instead of the fixed 16v accessory terminals.
Jim
I think that it depends upon the type of power pack that he has from that train set. The typical Bachmann train set has a 16 wall wart that can be connected to a speed controller (e.g., 44212). I don't know if it has those two sets of terminals. The wiring setup may need to be cannibalized somewhat.
Does it look like this starter system? The op needs to tell us if he has both pieces or what he does have.
Jim, I agree. It would help to know which model the OP has among the various power packs.
I have an older Bachmann train set power pack that I use for testing purposes. It is Model No. 6607, and has four terminals. Two of the terminals are 17 VDC for DC track, and the other two terminals are 20 VAC for AC accessories.
But the newer Bachmann train sets include the Model No. 44212, and that power pack apparently has different voltage output arrangements.
The power pack does not look anything like that, I have three Bachmann power packs from train sets that were at least 25 years old. The power packs are brand new in the box, I have not looked at the specs on the power packs, I only tested them on running trains and they work perfectly. I was told by a neighbor that all I have to do is throttle the power pack down and I can use it for the Walthers lights. I did not realize how complicated just hooking up some street lights to my layout was going to be, I am now thinking of returning all the lights and just forgetting the idea of having lights. I appreciate all the replies to my posts, but with each reply it has become more and more confusing for me. I just think I am way over my head in trying to accomplish this task. Once again thank you all for your advice, you kept me from making an expensive mistake.
woodman I was told by a neighbor that all I have to do is throttle the power pack down and I can use it for the Walthers lights.
Your neighbor is exactly right. Just connect the lights to the track screws and throttle down as you say.
The switches are optional..............