Recommendations for warm lighting for interior of warehouse

[hon30critter]

crossthedog

A thing that I have constant trouble with is keeping my soldering iron clean and getting solder to go where I want it to go.

Hi Matt,

I have a couple of questions:

What brand is your soldering iron?

How old is the tip?

The reason I ask the first question is that I discovered a couple of years ago that not all soldering irons are equal. In fact, IMHO, most of them are crap! I even spent a decent amount of money on a Weller pencil tip iron and I still had difficulties getting good, clean, quick joints. Then I bought an XY Tronic pencil iron and the difference was incredible!!

http://www.xytronic-usa.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=253

I keep the tip clean using a brass sponge just like you are. I wipe the tip in the sponge before every joint and then I add a small amout of flux core solder to the tip before making the joint. I don't dip the tip in flux, and I haven't used tip cleaner/tinning compound in months.

Before spending the money on a new iron, I would suggest you consider the second question. I suspect that your tip is burned out. In other words, the coating that holds the solder and keeps the tip clean has burned off or been worn off by aggressive cleaning. If you have a spare tip, maybe give that a try first.

Here is a quick rundown on how I solder:

1. I set the iron to 700 degrees F (yours may not be adjustable),

2. I apply a tiny amount of flux to the surfaces to be connected,

3. I clean the tip in the brass sponge and apply a tiny amount of solder,

4. I tin both surfaces to be connected,

5. I add another very tiny amount of flux to the tinned surfaces, 

6. Then I clean the tip in the brass sponge again and add another small amount of solder to the tip,

7. Then I make the joint. For small joints like decoder wires there is usually enough solder present to complete the joint. For larger joints I usually add a bit more solder.

I know that seems like a lot of steps but it actually goes pretty quickly. I find that if I skip a step, that's when things don't go smoothly.

Cheers!!

Dave

[crossthedog]

Maybe this should be a new thread, I dunno.

A thing that I have constant trouble with is keeping my soldering iron clean and getting solder to go where I want it to go. I know how flux works and I use it frequently, especially in track joints, but often, even with flux, when I am trying to join wires to metal posts or to each other, things get immediately crusty and dark.

I use two methods to clean my iron -- a wet sponge and a wad of brass like steel-wool in a little holder that I can dip the iron into and scruff it around to scrape off the oxidized whatever. It comes away clean from both in the wooly thing and the sponge, but it almost immediately starts to get dark again.

The iron came with a tin of tinning compound and instructions to tin the iron before putting it away, but I often tin it (or clean it, or both) every few minutes. I also understand that a good solder joint is one that happens quickly and stays bright. But I am constantly dealing with crust forming on the iron or on the wire ends. It makes it difficult to make that quick, clean union.

Short of taking a master electrician's class, what is the process or trade secret I am ignorant of that makes me have so much trouble with my soldering?

Oh yeah, it's a nice hot iron, too. I think 80 watts, IIRC.

Any thoughts appreciated.

-Matt

[crossthedog]

hon30critter

Hi Matt,

I use a pair of small smooth jawed pliers to snap them off. I grab the connector strip so that the tips of the jaws are right at the groove between the pins with the connector strip pointing straight out of the pliers...

This worked. Thanks Dave.

 

[hon30critter]

Hi Matt,

I use a pair of small smooth jawed pliers to snap them off. I grab the connector strip so that the tips of the jaws are right at the groove between the pins with the connector strip pointing straight out of the pliers, like this:

Then I grab the strip very firmly with my fingers so that my fingers slightly overlap the tips of the plier jaws, and then I bend it sharply. I usually get a pretty clean break. I think the position of the pliers and your fingers are critical:

 

Double click on the image to expand it. The break is not completely smooth but the plastic will still be plenty strong enough. It really isn't doing much anyhow:

 

Occassionally the break will not be as clean as is desired, but that is pretty rare. A little practise will help.

You can also use a razor saw. It just takes longer.

Cheers!!

Dave

[crossthedog]

Next question: I got my very practical pin connectors from China, a row of male/male and a row of male/female, so that I can more easily solder wires to the "back" of each connection. But they are very tiny and trying to separate them from the row often breaks the plastic casing around each pin.

I've tried cutting them with an exacto knife and with my fancy sprue cutters. Sometimes the knife cuts them clean, but every third one is breaking.

I know that you can use a row of these without cutting them apart, but for various reasons that's not what I need to do. I need them as singletons.

What is your experience cutting these apart? What tool do you use to keep the casings from cracking? And, I guess another question, if they do crack, does it matter? Are they still usable?

Thanks,

-Matt

 

[hon30critter]

crossthedog

will Krazy glue eat through the insulation of the wire and wreck it?

Hi Matt,

Krazy Glue will not harm your wires, that is unless you have to remove them or reposition them. If the wires need to be redone, it is nearly impossible to separate them from whatever they are glued to,  but you probably won't have to worry about that.

Cheers!!

Dave

[crossthedog]

Well, I found an old PC board but it's from some computer or something, has all kinds of things soldered to it and connections etched into it. Every square millimeter is occupied, so it would be difficult to find a free corner to use for mounting my wires.

But I did a test using Krazy glue to attach a 22-gauge wire to a styrene strip, of which I have gobs. Like this.

It seemed to hold really well, so this could be a solution for me. Line up my six heavier wires and glue them to the styrene strip, then use epoxy to attach the strip to the underside of the lowest wood floor, feeding those wires down through the hole in the layout. Then I could solder my thin wires from the three LEDs to these "posts" and they would not experience any tugging, scraping, nor any movement at all.

My only question is: will Krazy glue eat through the insulation of the wire and wreck it? I didn't use my liquid styrene cement because my understanding is that it works by actually dissolving the plastic. And I knew Elmer's white glue probably would not hold it. This Krazy glue holds it really well, but I'm not sure if it's a smart move to affix wires with it.

I also have barge cement I could use, and epoxy.

Thoughts?

-Matt

 

 

[crossthedog]

hon30critter

I bought a commercial grade small wire stripper which works beautifully, but it set you back a bunch. https://jonard.com/adjustable-wire-strippers-adjustable-wire-stripper?v=511 I don't know if that helps you or not.

Dave, no question that's a painful outlay to get a structure lit, but I have learned many times over the value of having the "right tool tae hand". Seems like anyone who's going to do LED lighting would be well served by having this little peacemaker in his holster. Thanks for the link.

@Mark P, thank you so much for the visuals. That is extremely helpful, and what a great idea. I went to sleep last night trying to envision how to mount incoming thicker wires in a row to the low inside of the building in such a way that they would stick up like the Tortoise posts-- or like spears sticking up in an armory rack -- easy to solder the smaller wires to, but I kept wondering what I could glue them to -- not a metal bar, and isn't wood slightly conductive too? But these PC board scraps I guess would insulate each of these sets of wires. I guess that's the point of PC board, duh. Thanks again.

Mark R.

I've soldered heavier flexible wire with alligator clips soldered to the ends. I mounted a small block of wood on the bench with two brass posts sticking up. The brass posts have wires soldered to them and are connected to the lighting bus under the layout. To install the building, just clip the alligator clips to the posts and set the building down.

Mark, fabulous idea. That was sort of my goal by wanting to have pluggable pins at Point 2. And this would work, I assume, with the PC-board scraps method that Mark P described that you both use. 

Oh, but one last question. Mark R, doesn't your block of wood conduct between the two brass posts and cause shorting?

I'm starting to see the beginnings of a complete picture. Thanks again all.

-Matt

 

 

 

-Matt

 

[Mark R.]

Thanks Mark P..  That's exactly how I do it, I was just unable to provide any pictures.

I also have a number of structures that need to be moved occasionally for maintenance. On those structures, I've soldered heavier flexible wire with alligator clips soldered to the ends.  I mounted a small block of wood on the bench with two brass posts sticking up. The brass posts have wires soldered to them and are connected to the lighting bus under the layout.  To install the building, just clip the alligator clips to the posts and set the building down.

A quick source is the premade test leads with the alligator clips on both ends. I just cut them in half and use as is. I use two different colors so I don't confuse the polarity.

Mark.

[Pruitt]

I'll echo what Mark said. I use scrap PC board pieces to collect the very fine (magnet wire) LED wires and solder power leads to that. The PC Boards are attached to the underside of the building floor, so moving the building doesn't disturb the wires in the least.

Here's how it goes.

Bottom of structure with all sorts of LED wires hanging out:

PC Board scraps pre-tinned. Each one is split into two solder pads (I want to be able to control two sets of LEDs independently):

PC Boards glued to floor with contact cement and all wires attached. Building is not yet attached to the floor.

And the whole thing set in place on the layout and powered.

 

[hon30critter]

Hi Matt,

I think that there is plenty of the broken red wire left to work with. All you need to do is strip a half inch or so of insulation off of it and then attach another wire to extend it.

I'm a bit concerned that the red wire has teflon insulation. If it does, it will be difficult to strip. Teflon is tough stuff! A hot soldering iron may remove enough of it to expose the length of wire that you need, or you can try gently scraping the insulation with a #11 X-acto blade. Maybe others will have better solutions. I bought a commercial grade small wire stripper which works beautifully, but it will set you back a bunch.

https://jonard.com/adjustable-wire-strippers-adjustable-wire-stripper?v=511

I don't know if that helps you or not.

Cheers!!

Dave

[crossthedog]

Mark R.

I always do all my light guage wiring inside the structure and solder them all to a scrap piece of circuit board material glued to either the inside wall or floor. I then attach the heavier wire to that and run the heavier wires down through the benchwork.

Mark, this sounds smart. I wish I could see an example of this. (hint). I'm not sure what the importance of circuit board is, but I'm all ears. Your comment made me imagine a bunch of the heavy wires mounted on some bar against the wall, with their exposed ends pointing upward, or soldered to something with pins sticking up resembling the pins sticking out of a Tortoise switch machine. That way nothing would be yanking on the light wires.

Good idea, thank you Mark. Show me a picture, seriously.

-Matt

 

[Mark R.]

I always do all my light guage wiring inside the structure and solder them all to a scrap piece of circuit board material glued to either the inside wall or floor. I then attach the heavier wire to that and run the heavier wires down through the benchwork.

Either that or use hot glue, epoxy, etc. to glue the heavier wires to the interior and attach the fine wires directly to the heavier wires. Not advisable to ever run fine wires like that through the benchwork and be exposed underneath. Almost a risk of snagging one and breaking it.

Mark.

[crossthedog]

hon30critter

I'm having trouble making suggestions about how to repair the broken wire because I don't have a clear picture in my mind of the situation inside the building. Would it be possible for you to post a couple of pictures showing where the end of the broken wire is situated?

Here's a series of photos following the wires starting up in the top floors (the wood/green portion of the structure). Here the almost invisible black wire from the exterior lamp is coming out of the top floor and going down into the square hole in the cardboard partition. The other wire (red) is visible curling away outside toward the track. That's the wire that broke.



I have four more green lamps and I could use another new one with the full length red wire, and it seems the right course. I could try soldering another not-heavy wire to this short broken one to get down out of the building -- I think I'd have one shot at it.

The wire that seems to be coming up out of the square hole and then diving back down through a small slit is doing exactly that. I didn't realize it has a resistor already in it, so it doesn't light up at all with the distro board. That's the light in the basement (Lamp C in my diagram earlier) that I want to be seen warming up the open lower freight door with a soft yellow glow, but I hooked up one just like it without the distro board and it is extremely white. I will be replacing it.

There will eventually be one other set of wires coming up through that square hole, to feed Lamp B. The reason there's a cardboard separator here is because I only want certain windows to be lit in the structure's upper floors. The veritcal flap of carboard sticking up is because light was seeping through to the front of the house, whose windows are very light-leaky.  

All those wires going through the square hole in the cardboard separator then go down through another square hole, this one in the model's kit floor. I imagine this hole's rough edges are what cut the wee red wire.



Lifting up the stone foundation, we see all those wires going down through a hole in the structure's supporting "earth" platform.

Emerging under the layout, the remaining thin black wire meets up with the heavy 22-gauge wire. This is where I would want easy-plug pin connectors, and I intend to not plug them in until the heavier wire, which will not be as heavy as 22-gauge -- more like 26 or 28 -- can be tied up tight under the building. You can see how the weight of the 22-gauge wire hanging loose is pulling the tiny LED wire straight down.



Finally, here's a shot of the forlorn broken red wire outside the building.

-Matt

[crossthedog]

And here's Dave's reply:

Hi Matt,

 

Last things first. I was assuming that the roof was still removable. If it is already glued in place then my suggestion to make the final solder joints inside the building isn't practical. I wouldn't attempt to remove the roof. There is too much risk of damage.

 

To clear up any misunderstanding of what decoder wire is vs magnet wire, magnet wire is very thin single stranded (slightly larger than a human hair), and it comes with a painted on varnish that acts as insulation. The varnish can be clear or it can be red (+) and green (-). The varnish can be scraped off or burned off with hot solder. To make a blob of hot solder, just add a bit of extra solder to the tip of your soldering iron and draw the wire through it. Then clean the tip of your soldering iron.

 

Decoder wire is multi stranded and has a plastic or teflon insulation which can be stripped off using wire strippers or even just your fingernails sometimes. You will need wire strippers that are designed for fine gauge wires. You can use an X-acto #11 blade but you have to be very careful to not cut into the wires themselves.

 

As you have discovered, 'warm white' isn't always warm in tone. You can adjust the colour of the LEDs by applying a coat of Tamiya's Clear Yellow. I use it regularly to tint LEDs to make them look like kerosene or oil lamps. A little goes a long way. I would apply the clear yellow one coat at a time and see if the light tone suits you. One coat of clear yellow barely shows on the unlit LED but makes a big difference in colour.

 

Here is an example from the Wehonest company which does use decoder wire as opposed to magnet wire. Their products are usually pretty reliable:

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/401035301881?hash=item5d5f9113f9:g:JksAAOSwUdlWcr2e&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8M7vQFan1Lnz1ylkaIN%2F9H1vwG7B6Tz0cMiPTjQtC1QfRtCstNy1Et%2F50kcKcsaqyVERtmHOdefon14u0z9skqJER8vKZQx5taWwOznbl9dEpPaNK4O59OfiHdDAl%2FSRET2Exuu%2FViyHaJH4Ckil8iOr2pYe8jyMHeQlaUv4KLyE7YIk3d2OPM1mKWgMVIOVg%2By85ODYLb9xyYPfHjymcsT2HuiJeIazkBK0Qs53acvjUr19WtUlSccUjHgY0%2BNXEoOQJ0l7Rk%2F1xdyIMNm6z5rdmShnMuMWP6W%2F8BwbbA0%2F%2BtcVuX4MW86PM3aDoyWj5A%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4SL9pvbYQ

 

Finally, at least for now, try not to feel so unsure of yourself. You are learning something that you have never done before, and unfortunately you are having to do it on your own as opposed to having a teacher standing beside you guiding you through the process. In that regard, I am quite happy to teach you as much as I can. I enjoy doing this stuff! "There is no stupid question except for the one you don't ask!"

...In that regard, you might want to continue our conversation on the Model Railroader forum simply so that others can benefit from the information or add useful information to the topic. Nobody gives a hoot about how long the thread gets. My thread about scratchbuilding an oddball rotary snow plow now has more than 53,000 views and is on its 29th page.

 

If you have more questions, please ask!

 

Cheers!!

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

[crossthedog]

@Dave, will soon post photos. First, though, I'm posting our offline conversation, as you suggested. As I said, I was becoming embarrassed for such a long and convoluted thread, and for my own inability to understand what seems so intuitive for most of you all here, but you pointed out that the whole conversation may be of value to someone following behind someday, so I'm swallowing my pride. Here's my email to you:

 

Hi Dave,

 

My ruminations on the LED thread are getting very long and convoluted, so I thought I would hit you backstage, as it were. I really appreciate your help. Reading through your last response again, I see there were some things I didn't address that you specifically mentioned as ideas that would help.

 

First, yes, I was thinking that 22 awg may be overkill on this, and certain contributed to the breakage. I was looking at LEDs with presoldered wires last night -- looking to buy because, as I mentioned, the warm white ones I bought yesterday are not warm, and anyway I didn't realize that they had resistors built right in under the bulb, so I cannot use them with the distro board unless I decide to use that board ONLY for 12 v LEDs with resistors -- and I saw that you can buy them with various thickness of wire. I wondered about which to choose, and I'm glad to hear you suggest 26 to 28.

 

I also read your suggestion that I thread these wires through the bottom of the building first before attaching them. I'm not sure how to picture this. The roof is glued, so I have to tip the building on its side, practically upside down, and I have several floating (loose) cardboard pieces between floors to act as floor separators so different lamps illuminate different spaces. This all makes soldering inside the building problematic.  But maybe you just mean solder those joints and then push them up into the building so that those joints and all the delicate wires are inside. I could tape the 28 gauge wire to an inside wall. Then, there would be a plug of some kind of easy pins below the building. 

 

This would all be a lot easier if the bare wire section of the LED wires was a little longer. They're about 1/16" long, if that. Trent suggested dipping the end in a bead of solder to tin and remove the insulation. I did try to pretreat them that way but didn't have much luck. 

 

I don't know. Still feeling overwhelmed by this and maybe need to step back and run some trains. But I wanted you to know I'm not ignoring your helpful input. Thanks again,

-Matt

[hon30critter]

crossthedog

On the issue of whether my wire is decoder or magnet wire, I'm not sure...

Hi Matt,

Your wire is not magnet wire, and if it is single stranded, it's not decoder wire either. Decoder wire is multi-stranded. Your wire is just very thin wire with either a poly insulation or a teflon insulation. If it is teflon, it could be a major PITA to deal with.

I'm having trouble making suggestions about how to repair the broken wire because I don't have a clear picture in my mind of the situation inside the building. Would it be possible for you to post a couple of pictures showing where the end of the broken wire is situated?

Cheers!!

Dave

 

[mvlandsw]

Does anyone know of a place to buy LED's with a certain color temperature? The warm white description seems to cover a wide range of actual colors. I bought some from Ngineering that are more suitable for a yellow traffic light than for general lighting.

Mark

[crossthedog]

Also, I think having everything from the distro board all the way to Point 2 -- i.e. all the heavier 22 gauge wire -- mounted up securely under the layout benchwork BEFORE connecting the thinner LED wires to them would be smart. I think the fact that I was making a trial run with heavy wires all hanging willi-nilli contributed to my problems. I'd like to be able to drop the thin wires down through the hole under the structure and plug them in at a solidly affixed Point 2.

[crossthedog]

Dave, thanks for the encouragement.

On the issue of whether my wire is decoder or magnet wire, I'm not sure... you said the magnet wire has just a thin coating of varnish, but it looks like regular insulation to me, even though very thin. It's in the picure I posted above of the exterior lamp I bought... wait, I'll post it again here:

There's nothing in the photo that can absolutely show how thin this wire is, but you can sort of tell. In any case...

hon30critter

You can get pre-soldered LEDs with thicker wire, but instead of spending more money on LEDs, let's work with what you have.

...I may end up buying new fixtures for the interior lights anyway, because the interior LED that I was trying to install when I broke the wire for the exterior lamp shown above turned out to be very harsh white, even though it is a "warm white" LED. So I want to buy yellow LEDs, and solder their wires to some wires with pin connectors before I even put them in the building. I would love to find LEDs that already came wired to a pin connector. Here's what I think I need to do:

Very thin wires come out the bottom of the structure from lamp locations A, B and C. These wires don't reach very far. I've only drawn the wires from Lamp A. Point 1 shows the first connection, where those thin wires have to be soldered to something else, which ideally would have a male/male pin connector on the other end of it. This would enable me to disconnect the structure for removal at Point 2. There, the male/male end would meet a female/male pin on 22 gauge wire (this setup suggested by someone above and I now understand why).

At Point 3, the 22 gauge wire is soldered to a short wire that came with the distro board and has one of several easy-plug pins on the end of it. That end is not so difficult. The structure end is challenging, especially now that one of the wires from Lamp A has broken short and I will have to be soldering practically inside the building to reattach it, since I cannot push the lamp through the hole from the inside. 

This reminds me of a story an old friend told me about his days working on a dynamite crew in rocky desert country. One day he and his partner went out for a day's work without remembering to load an extra coil of fuse into the truck. When they discovered their mistake they were miles out in the desert from HQ and didn't want to spend time going back. So all day long they had to use shorter fuses than they normally would, to conserve the supply, until they had nearly run completely out. Finally, at days end, one of them would be sitting in the truck a few yards away with the engine revving and the passenger door open, and the other would light a dangerously short fuse and run like all get out to hop into a truck that was already speeding away from the blast zone.   

[hon30critter]

crossthedog

I'm frustrated. I managed to wire up an LED to the upper loading dock. I soldered the wires of this lamp to 22-gauge wire and used heat shrink to cover the joints, and soldered the other ends of the 22-gauge wire to pin connectors that plug into the WeHonest distro board. It worked nicely at first.

crossthedog

But the wires for this lamp are so thin -- I think someone called them decoder wire -- that they couldn't hold the weight of the 22-guage wire hanging down from them under the layout. One of them broke, and it wasn't at the solder joint, it just broke in the middle of the wire. 

Hi Matt!

Welcome to the world of LED lighting, or should I say "welcome to the often frustrating world of LED lighting!". 

I suspect that your LEDs have 'magnet wire' leads as opposed to decoder wire. Decoder wire is usually somewhere between 28 ga. and 36 ga. and it has a comparatively thick coating of insulation on it. It is certainly strong enough to support a heavier gauge wire being soldered to it. Magnet wire is extremely thin, i.e. just a bit bigger than a human hair, and it is coated with some form of varnish for insulation purposes which is extremely thin. Magnet wire is prone to breaking. Often the cause is that the wire has formed a loop which, when the wire is pulled straight, creates a weak point which will break easily.

You can get pre-soldered LEDs with thicker wire, but instead of spending more money on LEDs, let's work with what you have.

The first issue is that the 22 ga. wire that you have used is relatively very heavy and stiff when compared to the magnet wire. Any stresses that you put on the wires will affect the magnet wire and not the heavier wire. I would suggest that you get some wire in the 26 - 28 ga. If you have any old computer cables or phone cables, the wires in those would work perfectly.

Second, you might want to consider feeding the heavier gauge wires through the structure before attaching the LEDs, By doing that, you will be able to avoid pulling on the thin LED leads, and those leads can then be tucked up into the ceiling/roof where they won't be seen. You can hold them in place with some tape.

If you are reading this in the morning then I hope you had a good night's sleep. What you have experienced is a typical part of learning to install LEDs. You will get better at it!

Cheers!!

Dave

 

 

[crossthedog]

I'm frustrated. I managed to wire up an LED to the upper loading dock.

I soldered the wires of this lamp to 22-gauge wire and used heat shrink to cover the joints, and soldered the other ends of the 22-gauge wire to pin connectors that plug into the WeHonest distro board. It worked nicely at first.

But the wires for this lamp are so thin -- I think someone called them decoder wire -- that they couldn't hold the weight of the 22-guage wire hanging down from them under the layout. One of them broke, and it wasn't at the solder joint, it just broke in the middle of the wire. 

Another problem I'm facing is that the tiny wires are only about 6 inches long, which makes soldering them to other wires very challenging, with the building tipped over on its chimney. Feeding all the wire down through the hole under the building is where I think I broke the one thin wire. Now it's a lot shorter, which will make connecting it to anything evenb more challenging.

I'm going to bed. Things will look more hopeful after a good night's sleep. 

-Matt

[hon30critter]

crossthedog

where did you get the pins you show in the post I've copied here

Hi Matt,

The pin headers are available on eBay:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/404137406355?hash=item5e18776f93:g:~xwAAOxyhS9TfWBY&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoBvE6cCzjoMuJSmcCbYIE96tCd%2BtYdlujfZyepCWoJIE2gsktdgvY2qJn6mr2k3jOkJONO253UbZDo8J5lCDuuNiR1eJJOthMB%2F9UQRiFStDCa6HOcN29J%2F8mZZW1P91%2FCXWwH11vm%2BEC5K25PBJMzJ%2FLCn36jcduVxYbpzEluwQGbSuN7TnrPf%2FtyszXD5sGF%2BUhvjZuCeIchdBsm5JOzM%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_jZoajQYQ

The listing is for the Canadian market so your price may be lower.

If you want to make the soldering a little easier, then you can combine one of the header strips like those in the listing above with a strip with male pins on both sides. Soldering wires into the female sockets on the above strips is a bit fussy. If your second strip is like these, the soldering will be much easier:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/182223757376?hash=item2a6d61e040:g:vB4AAOSwvfZaG-pl&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoBWu7KmW%2FrHnEh6KROeD%2BfEGvjKau0XAM6jGABONUW%2FJF%2BZkmrPZs7gcL%2FRpc9S9j6IohbzBYRrhI5UwLZ3lxd0feiHh8Hg3meKuSWU59f0HxN05oS6j5ij1IjvrSGZCQCqq0QoiIY7%2Bx2Y4jkAbwM2sQYNkrpUa0lVxDUtYKw5Kjnxi4HKFraty7%2BiUp5a3PGCKc34Tf5VUAL14wfokq3M%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_bZoajQYQ

Please don't hesitate to ask more questions. I really enjoy helping folks with these projects!

Cheers!!

Dave

[crossthedog]

hon30critter

...

The pin headers that are shown in the eBay listing are actually both male and female. The pin(s) on one header section will fit tightly into the hole(s) in the next header section, like this (double click on the pictures to get a close up view):

Unconnected:

Connected:

The female sockets:

 

Solder the wires from one part of the circuit onto the exposed pins on one half of the connecter, and then solder the wires from the other part of the circuit into the holes on the other half of the connector. You will need a pencil tip soldering iron to solder the wires into the female sockets, and you have to be quick or the plastic will melt. I always tin my wires beforehand and I put a tiny drop of flux on the tinned wire and into the socket hole. You may want to practise soldering the wires into the female sockets a bit before adding the connectors to your project.

...

Cheers!!

Dave

Dave, where did you get the pins you show in the post I've copied here? You said that they were the same ones Henry linked to, but Henry's link seems to  show pins with male parts at both ends, while your photos seem to show androgynous pins that would actually nest one to another. I'd like to find some of these.

Thanks,

-Matt

[hon30critter]

Llenroc fan

I tried a 1K resistor and got no light.  With a 100 Ohm resistor the light was about correct but after a couple of seconds the resistor was too hot to touch.

Hi Llenroc fan,

If you are using 12 volts and a 1K resistor, the LED should be quite bright. Are you sure that it was 1K (1000 ohms)?

Just to clarify, can you remind us of what voltage you are using? Also, what wattage are the resistors?

Most resistors that you will use in the hobby have four colour bands. The first two bands represent digits 1 - 9. The third band is a multiplier. It tells you how many 0s (zeros) to add to the first two digits. A 1K resistor will have the following colour bands: brown (first digit = 1), black (second digit = 0), red (multiplier = add two 0s) and gold. The gold is not part of the resistance calculation. It shows the tolerance or range of resistance the resistor may have, i.e. gold = +- 5%.

This resistance calculator may help you verify resistance values:

https://www.calculator.net/resistor-calculator.html

Wattage (W) shows how much current can flow through the resistor. For our applications, a 1/4W resistor is usually fine. There is rarely a need to use 1/2W resistors. You can get away with 1/8W resistors but I have found personally that they can get very hot.

If space is at a premium or you don't want the resistors to be visible, then you can use Surface Mount Device (SMD) resistors which are tiny and can easily be disguised. SMD resistors should have the resistance stamped onto them. The size is shown in thousanths of an inch. For example, a 1206 SMD resistor is 0.12" x 0.06". 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/373990514276?hash=item5713925e64:g:ugIAAOSwlmhjpWlP&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8PdBB0tM29x2XvbGOiMfdHfpeK9mtvN4VLWUPRDylr1Y2QQaQbLDVWuLT4xNI2JV0ZDE%2FA2Iiy4CerucAwo1aQEt3kkrBB3g7XZEzGFLdz%2F0MjZ6cFKmbDZgttYE6K%2BvWxPfalrmEN7S3fPVOvSSLSB5qc6qSe%2FEWhkMctX8ryN4dBGmzFnk9F20O3rh3P94CjPawFf70qLfsFjXAqGVvBXbAel%2BMmJehoP6y2896NCcFjENc%2FWyS0ocu%2BFSYpUd7zpu0UEfNnoX0WgSw58VaL3XFE%2F%2BBK8%2Fm1n2udzCwwFxvzLbYTf22g1HFk98MCyHJQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMgoCRmdBh

There are smaller SMD resistors available. I usually use 0603s.

Hope that's not too much information.

Cheers!!

Dave

[Llenroc fan]

Thanks for the advice.  I'll see what happens.

[CSX Robert]

Llenroc fan

I tried a 1K resistor and got no light.  With a 100 Ohm resistor the light was about correct but after a couple of seconds the resistor was too hot to touch.  Obviously not a viable situation.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

 

You just need to try something in between, maybe a 470 or 680.  A 100 ohm resistor will allow for ten times the current of the 1000 ohm resistor, os I'm not surprised it went fron no light to too hot.

[Llenroc fan]

I tried a 1K resistor and got no light.  With a 100 Ohm resistor the light was about correct but after a couple of seconds the resistor was too hot to touch.  Obviously not a viable situation.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[crossthedog]

hon30critter

I spent a few minutes studying the board that you have chosen as well as their other distribution circuits. It all looks very usable so I don't think that you are wasting your money by investing in them. I would add one caveat for future reference. If you get into coloured LEDs, i.e. for signals, using a standard 3 volts might not give you the best results. What can happen is that some coloured LEDs like red will be extremely bright and hard to look at whereas the yellow LEDs may be very dim. Your circuit board can still be used for those situations but I would set the output at 12 volts and use different valued resistors for each of the colours.

Dave, you get a gold star for all that extra credit study and analysis. Seriously, though, I bought the WH board because it really does look versatile, which is of high value since I haven't decided exactly what wiring method I will want to use at this point. This board seems designed to handle any of several scenarios.

Thanks for the note about controling the various colors.

I remember RRMel. I think he was one of those who helped me figure out how to wire my blocks.

-matt