Starting to light up the layout and I want to order LED's and maybe resisters and toggle switches from China. The number of companies that come up as selling this stuff is incredible. Can you guys recommend some that you have had good dealings with.
As always thanks.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Brent,
I used to buy a lot of LED's and such from a couple of places that advertise on E-bay, that come from China. But I got lazy, about soldering leads and resisters to them, even though they came with them....now, I buy them with the lead's and resister's already pre-wired, in most sizes I use and they are right here in the US, which is free shipping, in US. I have bought numerous times from them already and have no regrets. If interested, here is link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-3mm-Warm-White-Round-Clear-Pre-Wired-LEDs-Light-12v-USA-/111252607429
For other idea's and some links...take a look at the thread in Electronic's & DCC, with title of....''1/4 inch LED''.
Take Care!
Frank
My orders (EBay) were some time ago. I just made sure it was an outfit that had lots of orders and a very high % satisfied rating. Plus that the description was clear enough that I knew the item was exactly what I wanted (e.g., LED color). Only one took more than 2 weeks as I recall.
I did buy the small 0603 SMD LEDs prewired from this fellow in the U.S.
http://www.ebay.com/usr/gps_97?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754
Some other examples:
DPDT swiches from this fellow:
http://www.ebay.com/usr/dmmwem?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754
LED strip lighting from here:
http://www.ebay.com/usr/nubeestore?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Apparently I am a slow learner. Last year I bought 8 - 8x8 LED drop in light fixtures to test for lighting for my layout. They were not as bright as advertised, and I wound up using one for the bathroom.
Next I ordered 20 similar lights that were rated as much brighter than the prior ones. I installed one, and it didn't work. I decided to test the rest and found that 8 worked fine, 10 didn't do anything, and 2 flashed like disco lights.
Then I saw an ad for pocket lights, and thought they would make great Christmas stocking stuffers, so I ordered 10 of them. Never got them. I ordered all these through Amazon. You pays your money and you takes your chances, never again though.
Joe
I have made three purchases from these folks:
http://stores.ebay.com/WEHONEST?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
Everything was satisfactory.
My last order arrived from Guangzhou in FIVE days!
Enjoy, Ed
Hi Brent:
I can't recommend any specific sellers, but I have ordered tons of LEDs from China and I haven't had any problems recently. The problems in the past were my own fault for not making sure the LEDs were the right colour temperature so I ended up with some blue white LEDs that were described as "white" only.
Today, the reputable sellers will usually list the colour temperature in the details. To mimic incandescent lights something in the 3000 - 3500 K range is good. If you want to model florescents, then 6000 K is good. I have also had success by simply paying attention to the colour of the LEDs in the picture.
If you are illuminating a room where you don't want a focused light you can get 'straw hat' LEDs that have a concave top to disburse the light. Or, you can just sand the regular LEDs. Mike Lehman builds styrene enclosures for his lights which give a nice soft glow.
I have purchased all my resistors through Digi-Key. Their prices (for resistors) are cheap and I don't think that there is any question of quality. Mind you, I have never had a bad LED from China so that may be unfair. Don't forget about SMD resistors. They take up less space.
The resistor value can influence the appearance of the LEDs significantly. If you use the common 1000 ohm resistors you will have a bright light that draws a bit less amperage than lower valued resistors, but if you want to imitate a single 60 watt light bulb then you can use a 10,000 ohm resistor. I have used resistors as high as 30.1 K to mimic very early incandescent bulbs.
I solder my own 0603 LEDs but I have caved in and I now buy my 0402s pre-wired. I don't use that many of them so the cost is not a big deal. I believe the trick to soldering the 0603s is being able to hold them properly. I use a pair of bent tipped spring loaded tweezers like these:
There is an LED in the tweezers in the picture. It is a bit hard to see because of the yellow paint on the tips. I put the LED in the tweezers so one solder pad is sticking up, solder the wire, and then flip the LED over so the other pad is exposed. I always use a bit of flux and I tin the wire and the solder pad first. Makes for quick connections. After you do a few it's pretty easy.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Have ordered from this company also(WE HONEST)--resistors, led, and different types of flashlights, and have had good luck with all of my transactions.
herrinchoker
Would these be suitable for roundhouse lighting? I am going for early 1900s first electric light in the roundhouse look. Gooseneck style shades.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-pcs-Water-Clear-1-8mm-LEDs-Warm-White-Light-Emitting-Diode-Free-Resistors-/151325806135?hash=item233bb88e37
Anyone have photo's of their lights and what size and colour they used. That would be great. I think 1.8mm would be about right. What say you?
Thanks.
Ordered from WEHONEST, 15 street lamps for $9, got them in about 8-10 days, no shipping charges, I'll go back.
Hi again Brent:
If you want to recreate light fixtures that will be seen when you take the roof off of the roundhouse I would suggest using 0603s. Although the LEDs you linked to have a small lens, they also have a rather large body that will be hard to disguise. The leads will be hard to hide too, and those LEDs will give a focused light (like a spot light) instead of the light being disbursed like a standard light bulb would do.
0603s with magnet wire leads will fit nicely under shades like these:
(If the page is messed up, try using Firefox)
http://ngineering.com/stamped.htm
For the roundhouse you might consider the smallest size of O scale shades.
If you use magnet wire it will look just like normal conduit in HO scale.
You could even use SMD 1/8 watt resistors and disguise them as junction boxes close to the lights (1K):
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/RC0805FR-071KL/311-1.00KCRCT-ND/730391
For early 1900s you might try these (10.7K):
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/ERJ-6ENF1072V/P10.7KCCT-ND/119270
Brent:
Here are some pre-wired 0603 warm white LEDs that have had the heads dipped in epoxy. They will look more like light bulbs.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/50pcs-3V-0603-Warm-White-SMD-20cm-pre-wired-resin-waterproof-LED-lights-DIY-toy-/121387273397?hash=item1c433eccb5:g:0g8AAOSwAQFTxjO9
You can also dip your own. As a matter of fact, its a good idea to dip them because the epoxy will insulate the connections.
Yeah, WeHonest (wehonest_us or wehonest_cn - same company) is the way to go for LEDs!
I've never bought from WeHonest, but I do buy pre-wired LEDS for ditch lights, the "pico surface mounts". I can connect them to the right and left track power, and have ditch lights ( there good for 20V) that go on when power is applied to the loco. No, I can't "program" them, because of the way I install them, even though I use DCC, as I'm not comfortable yet, with soldering on PC boards or decoders.
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/
Mike.
My You Tube
I have always been happy with what I bought from wehonest.
As for Joe and his problems with lights from Amazon, What did Amazon say when you complained? I had a problem with an item I bought through them only once. They sent me a UPS label to use for the return and issued me a credit on my VISA account before they even got the item back. If there are issues with Amazon, I would like to know more since I depend on them quite a bit.
Charlile
I have ordered pre wired 0603 LEDs from China, via Ebay, with no problems. I will do it again.
I quit using Amazon because I have had three packages stolen off of the front porch; all were reported as delivered by UPS. One Amazon seller refunded my money; the other two wouldn't because UPS said the packages were delivered.
I have my train purchases delivered to my work address; we have a receiving department and I know I will get what I order.
Well this has been a learning experience. Thanks for all the info and links. Found a lot of great examples online of what can be done with some of the products you guys suggested.
Dave thanks for the links and suggestions, especially magnet wire. Never heard of it before. I am going to rethink what I want to do as more options have now opened up.
I'm glad I asked the question.
Magnet wire is suprisingly tough considering its size. I bought mine from Ngineering:
http://ngineering.com/accessories.htm
It helps to have the wires coloured so you can keep track of the polarity. You can paint them after things are hooked up and tested.
Normally you have to burn off the varnish insulation with the tip of a soldering iron first but the new stuff Ngineering offers now says it will strip as you solder. I haven't tried it but if it works it will save a lot of hassle stripping the wire. I would still recommend tinning the wire before attempting to solder it to the LEDs.
Dave, can you get 0602s or 0402s prewired with magnet wire? Late in the day soldering those things are looking a little more daunting.
Yes, you can get either size pre-wired with magnet wire. The only minor problem is that the manufacturers don't use colour coded wire. You can tell the polarity by looking at the leads. The longer lead is the '+'.
I use a red paint pen to colour the + wires so there is no confusion when I shorten the leads.
Here is one listing:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/C0402WM-20pcs-Pre-soldered-micro-0-1mm-Copper-Wired-WARM-WHITE-SMD-Led-0402-NEW-/351249772568?hash=item51c81e3018:g:ZCoAAOSwofxUhkv5
Note how the leads are attached to the LED. The LED points away from the leads which is what you want for making the lamps. Lots of the pre-wired LEDs have the wires coming off the side of the LED which makes them more difficult to center it in the lamp shade.
The example is for 0402s. You can use 0603s and they are usually less money.
Gotta love a place called "We Honest". I've ordered plenty of things with Chinese shipping, like all the servos I use for my turnouts and a bunch of my Arduino stuff. Never had a problem. Maybe not the option if you are in a hurry, they give honest shipping times though I don't think I've ever had an order take near the maximum listed for US delivery. Usually in a couple of weeks. If you are in a hurry, sort the search as "closest to me" and see of there are any options that ship from a US address (or wherever you happen to be). The price will be a little higher, but you can get it in a couple of days - the last batch of electronic items I ordered, while all obviously Chinese in origin, shipped from Georgia and I had it 2 days after I paid. It was like $3.90 with free shipping, vs the same item shipped from China which was like $2.50 but would have taken 2-3 weeks to get here. $5 for 16 tactile buttons on a pc board matrix with a connector and cable is still pretty cheap.
As for those 1.8mm LEDs - they don't say what value the resistors are! That's great they are giving you the resistors, but will they be 1K or so for 12V, or 560 or 470 ohms for more like 5V? What the heck, they are free.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks for the link Dave. I notice the wire is (.1mm) The magnet wire from Ngineering for the gooseneck lamps in (.0043) diameter, so I think I am back to making my own. I'll try anything once.
I think I will go with the 0603s as I think 0402s would be too small.
Thanks again.
Correction; Ngineering specs are in inches. I should be good with prewired.