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Most here are familiar with the DIY constant current boards, for which gunrunnerjohn graciously developed and made available the Gerber files on the forum, about 3 months ago. So far I have been able to convert two sets of Railking 60' ABS cars using these kits, and I am very pleased with the results. These boards are easy to build using all thru-hole components, and all components are readily available online. Being only 0.75" wide, they easily fit into most any small cavity in the car interior, such as bathroom, hallway, or end door vestibule. They are very easy to hide. I will be doing several more sets of cars in the hopefully near future as time permits.

I find that batch building the boards in lots of about 6-12 works quite well, and it seems to take about 15 minutes per board doing it this way, including testing. Here is a pic of some ready to go, tested, and set to a common current output:

IMG_1913

I have also taken to pre-building the LED strips with pigtail soldered on before I start a new car project, like this, since I know that 60' cars will mostly accept 14" long LED strips:

IMG_1911

This system seems to work quite well. I have mostly been using the boards with R1=12 ohms, R2=100 ohms, which gives an adjustment range of about 10 to 105 ma output. (Next I am going to build a batch with grj's original values of R1=27 ohms, and R2=200 ohms; giving an adjustment range of 5-45 ma; for those applications needing lower outputs) One concern was how hot the LM317T IC would get at higher loadings, so I did some "semi-scientific" testing just to find out. Here are the results:

At 105 ma; temp= 54 C

At 60 ma; temp= 48 C

At 40 ma; temp= 40 C

At 20 ma; temp= 31 C

It should be noted that these temps were read using a laser gun, at the hottest spot on the bare tab of the IC, and there was no heat sink attached. Moreover these readings were taken with room ambient of 18 C in free air; so temps in the confines of an enclosed passenger car would of course be higher. Supply power to the board was 18 VAC in all cases.

I ordered a small batch of boards first from OSH Park, just to test the waters so to speak. Then after finding that all was good, I wound up ordering a batch of bulk boards from AllPCB in Asia, and I was pleased to discover when they arrived that they are quite high quality. And unlike OSH Park boards, the pads are all pre-tinned, so soldering is a snap, very easy to assemble. I finish each board with a mini JST 2 pin 1.25 pitch output pigtail, for easy connection to the mating LED strip pigtail during final car re-assembly. I leave the AC input board connections bare during pre-assembly, since this wiring varies from car to car. Mostly I have been able to re-use a pair of existing car lighting wires, after clipping all extra wires and removing all original interior lights. I just solder the wires into the input holes in the board. I usually don't bother converting baggage cars, since it seems odd to me to see a baggage car lit when moving, but that's just personal taste. I usually just disconnect the existing baggage car lighting right at the roller connections.

So to anyone who ordered these boards and who might be a little sweaty about launching into the project, hey I was too. But guess what, it's all good, and I think you will be very pleased with the results!

Rod

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MCK, they are not really for sale, but you can order them yourself using the links in rtr12 sticky post, in the electrical reference materials post, in the Electrical category. Maybe someone can link that thread here for you, or I can do it later this AM.

If you would like more info shoot me an email offline. My email address is in my profile.

Rod

Last edited by Rod Stewart

I recently finished converting an older set of Lionel PRR Baby Madison cars to LED lighting and installed a few passengers in the cars.  I did not put any passengers in the Parlor (diner) car, there isn't space for their legs even with severe amputation. 

I prefer to have lights in the baggage cars since they came lighted and I have become accustomed to it.  I am disappointed that the add-on baggage car for the Santa Fe Super Chief set is not lighted.  I might change that if trucks with pickups are available during the next parts sale.

Here are a few pictures.

Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars [1)Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars [2)Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars [3)Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars [4)Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars [5)Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars [9)

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  • Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars (1)
  • Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars (2)
  • Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars (3)
  • Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars (4)
  • Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars (5)
  • Upgraded PRR Baby Madison Cars (9)
Rod Stewart posted:

rtr12, if you are following this Tom, I was thinking it might be a good idea to add grj's above link to the OSHPark files to your sticky post in the electrical reference section, what do you think?

Rod

Added!   I edited the text to say GRJ posted the PCB build files on OSHPark and linked them in this thread, then copied GRJ's direct link to the project on OSHP to the Projects post. 

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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