any suggestions for replacing burnt out LEDs in a position signal?
tried acetone. haven't tried CA debonder. considering drill them out
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
. Greg.
Without it in front of me it's hard picture. If they are standard 3mm LEDs they may be soldered to a board. Does the back of the signal come off? Who made it? An Email to the manufacturer could help.
Pete.
Are the signal heads brass or styrene? You mention position signal and this leads me to conclude they are the PRR, B&O or N&W style like those offered in styrene from Oregon Railway supply. If they're Tomar or NJI they could be brass and easier to clean out the old LED and glue residue.
I recently removed three bi-color LEDs from a brass Tomar signal. It was a three-head searchlight type and I put red LEDs in the top and bottom "arm" and a tri-color array in the middle arm.
LED_tri-color by Edmund, on Flickr
It was pretty straightforward to pry out the original LEDs and replace them with 1.2 mm LEDs. For the center LED group I had to first slice off the top of a diffused LED to use as a "lens". This I held in place with a tiny bit of canopy cement (PVA). Once cured I then could position the tiny, three LED array from Evan Designs.
IMG_2684 by Edmund, on Flickr
If your head is styrene I wouldn't try to salvage it unless the original cement was PVA which could be cleaned out without damage. If CA I wouldn't bother and use the signal head in a scrap pile along side the M-of-W shed.
Good Luck, Ed
I keep a supply of magnet wire around for signals. The very thin, laquer-covered wire allows the multitude of wires to fit through the typical thin signal shafts.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hi Greg,
My solution for burned out LEDs was to first slap myself very hard in my forehead several times (in other words, if an LED burned out then it was almost certainly my own fault), and then reach for the drill.
You will be forgiven if you don't slap yourself in the forehead, at least for the first incident, but after that I would suggest some serious training on how to focus on your electronics!!!
Sorry for being rather flippant. I have burned out enough LEDs in my time that Tylenol is now part of my regular hobby supplies!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
wrench567Without it in front of me it's hard picture. If they are standard 3mm LEDs they may be soldered to a board. Does the back of the signal come off? Who made it? An Email to the manufacturer could help.
the question is how to remove the LEDs from the signal which appear to be glued
the LED is exposed both in the front and back where wires are soldered.
the signal where the LEDs are mounted is not metal. appears purple. worried acetone may deform it
don't know who made it. Tomar says it's not one of their's but may have replacement LEDs.
yes. tried identifying the 2 sets of wires before cleaning up the poorly soldered resistors. the shrink wrap was already on the bench
the gods are kind today, the CA debonder worked and the LEDs are removed
Alright, alright, alright.
Rich
Alton Junction
Now that I see a photo I think I can recognize the signal as being one of those made by an eBay seller a few years ago. I bought a few and was sorely disappointed in the build "quality". The ladder made of clipped hardware cloth is what clued me in.
They were poorly wired and some of the LEDs were sub-par. I had a B&O color position signal similar to yours and the colors of the paired LEDs were not matched at all and made for a rather poor "aspect".
not sure what to expect as far as quality. photo is before the voltage was dropped to 3V.
what got me into trouble was the wire lengths weren't the same, the soldered resistor wires weren't trimmed and shorted
detail isn't as important as function. signals at the tunnel let the operator know the block after the tunnel and around the bend, blocked from view is unoccupied
That's a nice scene Greg!
hon30critterThat's a nice scene