First attempt at lighting cars with the "clump" and it was sucessful, however i noticed the LED's were not as bright as i hoped they would be (barely noticeable with the room lights on) so i changed out the 300ohm resistor to a 100ohm and perfect! pictured below is the 300ohm with the lights off.

What's the "clump"?

Originally Posted by RailRide:

Here is my "clump", designed with the help of our electronics gurus:

 

 

GRJ, the "clump" is the official technical definition of above.

So to recap, what Chris K. did by changing the resistor from 300 to 100 ohm is to triple the "clump" current driving the LED strip from ~4 mA to ~12 mA.  The formula being: Current (Amps) = 1.25 Volts / Resistor (ohms).   From 1.25 / 300 to 1.25 / 100.

I didn't go back thru all the posts to see what was said but one could also install a variable resistor (aka trimpot) to allow adjustability.  The pre-built Hennings LED lighting regulator module shown earlier has such capability.

I didn't realize we had an official name.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

What's the "clump"?

My thoughts too...I see now. 

I tried the bayonet and screw LED bulbs and they were some what lame. The light didn't come out the sides of them so the IC passenger cars I did first were not good at all...too dim...almost dark looking. I have a box of them I need to put on sale I guess.

I think the Henning's modules are the best of all I've seen and thought about. I escentially built that circuit onto the end of one of the 12 v LED strips, but when GRJ did these modules with the little trim pot on them...there wasn't much room for improvement. And believe me, the first thought an engineer has it to redesign something someone else did. I turned the pot down all the way on mine and am pleased with the results on the IC cars. They stay on for about a second or so after the power is removed so plenty of time for non flickering running.

I just received a couple of the kits in the mail the other day.  Now it will probably be fall before I try them.

Bob Severin posted:

I had to STOP reading.  I felt my head beginning to fracture from within.

Me, too!

Being a Maintenance of Way (MoW) type, incapable of understanding anything beyond "plug 'n' play" electronics, I just want to replace the incandescent lighting in Lionel 18" (UP & MILW) aluminum passenger cars with LEDs and thought I had hit upon a solution that I could understand: Order "replacement" car-type-specific lighting packages from Lionel!  Simple concept, yes.  Simple execution, no.

My experience with ordering replacement parts from Lionel has been great!  As long as I can fool their system showing the relevant parts diagram and ordering page, I can have the parts in about a week.  Therein lies the rub.  I can find diagrams for cars with incandescent lighting but, try as I may, I cannot find diagrams for the identical car types equipped with LEDs.  When I enter the SKU for any of the LED equipped cars in my "fleet" the most I will get is a listing for the manual at $10.00.

Do any of you know 1) if such parts are available and 2) how to fool the system into letting me order them?

gunrunnerjohn posted:

What's the "clump"?

"Clumping" is a feature of several brands of cat litter.  Not being a cat fancier, I do not have any direct experience.  However, if the ads are correct, the litter absorbs kitty effluent which then forms the "clumps" which can then be removed from the litter pan without wasting the "un-clumped" litter.

Rapid Transit Holmes posted:

Bob Severin posted:

I had to STOP reading.  I felt my head beginning to fracture from within.

Me, too!

Being a Maintenance of Way (MoW) type, incapable of understanding anything beyond "plug 'n' play" electronics, I just want to replace the incandescent lighting in Lionel 18" (UP & MILW) aluminum passenger cars with LEDs and thought I had hit upon a solution that I could understand: Order "replacement" car-type-specific lighting packages from Lionel!  Simple concept, yes.  Simple execution, no.

My experience with ordering replacement parts from Lionel has been great!  As long as I can fool their system showing the relevant parts diagram and ordering page, I can have the parts in about a week.  Therein lies the rub.  I can find diagrams for cars with incandescent lighting but, try as I may, I cannot find diagrams for the identical car types equipped with LEDs.  When I enter the SKU for any of the LED equipped cars in my "fleet" the most I will get is a listing for the manual at $10.00.

Do any of you know 1) if such parts are available and 2) how to fool the system into letting me order them?

You can actually order led bulbs that will fit your particular application.  Try these folks:

http://stores.towncountryhobbies.com   If you don't find what you need there, search the 'Bay and you may find what you need.  I have bought LED's from both sources and replaced many incandescents in passenger cars with them.

I highly recommend Gunrunnerjohn's constant voltage power supplies. They are easy to hook-up, take very little space and work extremely well. I just finished installing 25 of these in my passenger car fleets this past month.

Attached is a picture of my Flyonel Blue Comet heavyweight cars with these power supplies installed. The brightness is at the "as received" setting. I could go dimmer or brighter from here...

D&H 65 posted: I highly recommend Gunrunnerjohn's constant voltage power supplies. They are easy to hook-up, take very little space and work extremely well.

 

GRJ is such an active Forum member and is such a fixture, I forget that he's also a vendor!  I visited his website and took all the kits that he had on the shelf (6) which will get me through most of the cars that I'd like to convert.  With two day priority mail, I should have them by Thursday - it takes an extra day to get out here...  I love simple answers, they're always the best!

Thank you for the advice and thanks to GRJ for producing a "plug 'n' play" device for folks like me!

I was wondering what was taking you .

He toot's horns louder for others, than for himself ; no hard sell, just help

Question for Gunrunnerjohn or anyone else that might know the answer to this question. About a year ago I installed LED lighting in five of my passenger cars using Gunrunnerjohn's wiring example from page 1 of this thread. Cars turned out great! I recently purchased a sixth passenger car and set out to wire it the same way. The only difference is that I used a 1N4003 diode instead of a 1N4001 diode and I also used a larger capacitor (1000uf 35v verses a 220uf 35v). Otherwise I used the same CL2N3-6 driver and LED strips in both setups. The problem is that the lighting in this latest car is much brighter than the previous 5 cars I did. Would the different diode or capacitor account for the brightness difference?

What transformer and track voltage are you running at?

Should be similar, I'd suspect the CL2N3-6 may be dead or wired backwards (and now dead).  If that's shorted, you'd get much brighter lighting.

The capacitor and diode are making no difference here IMO.

Thanks for your replies! I'm running a PH180 at 18v. Gunrunnerjohn, on the CL2N3-6 with the three leads, I'm using the two outer leads for input and output. Is there a specific input and output sides to this module?

YES!  VA is the input and VB is the output.  If you connect it backwards, it'll die a quick death.

Thanks for helping to solve my issue! That was it.

I'm guessing the internal diode protected the CL2 and you were able to use it?

I haven't got that far yet but after seeing your schematics above, I know I wired it incorrectly. Thankfully I do have a few extra CL2s. I learn new things all the time here so thanks again for the help! 

BTW, the Super Chuffer is working great on my Legacy Lionmaster Challenger! Love the idle smoke and cab light!

Great, I love success stories.  Two in one message are even better.