Thanks Greg...
I'm wondering what LED strips people are using and what color / temperature LEDs. Where is a good place to buy LED strips. I also may want to use board connectors in some projects. Does anybody have the part numbers for the 2 pin board connector and the male end for it. I have looked but there are so many out there, I don't want to guess at which ones work.
Thanks in advance.
What myself and others tend to use for passenger car lighting is strip leds size 3528 with 3 leds per 2" length. Warm white seems to produce the most realistic lighting. They are commonly available in 5m or 10m reels in 12vdc voltage range. AliExpress or ebay are good sources. Domestically Amazon has them also.
For connectors I have found JST-PH 1.25 work quite well. They are available on ebay in lots of 20 each male and female, for under $2. I buy about 4 or 5 lots at a time, usually with all shipped for the same cost as 1 lot would be. The header pin pitch is 0.1" on the board so you can also use any header you like including JST XH or JST EH, or Dupont pin headers, as well as others. What I do is solder the wires of the small 1.25 headers above directly to the board, then the mating end gets soldered to end of the led strip. This way the strip can be easily disconnected for car maintenance anytime. For the ac power supply side I just cut off the wires that supply the original lighting and solder them directly to the board.
16" cars can usually accomodate a strip 14" long, so 7 sections, 21 leds total. 18" cars use a 16" strip 24 leds, and 21" cars use an 18" strip 27 leds.
hope that helps,
Rod
Here’s a pic of the type/size connectors Rod is discussing. Note: in the pic of the installation, that ugly blob of hot glue can be replaced with some double sided tape. Even tho it will never show when the car is reassembled.
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Figured I would ask in an older created topic about passenger cars.
Please correct me if I should not be doing this as I have several times because I would hate to create a new topic for a simple question, but I do not want to hijack a current topic thats fairly active at the moment (which this does not seem to be). My question is...
I am looking to purchase a o31 capable passenger car set with led lights.
How many years can I go back to know it would have LED lighted interiors? I have my eyes on an MTH Railking set from 2013 but cannot find if they are LED lights.
Brad
2013 will almost certainly still be incandescent bulbs. Truthfully, starting a new topic for something like this would probably be a good idea, and you might also give us the actual product number of any candidates. Truthfully, I don't see any of the Railking line with LED lighting mentioned, so they may not have gotten there at all. The Premier cars started getting LED's around 2017 I believe, and they're mentioned in the product listings.
Thank you Gunrunnerjohn. I have several Railking locomotives that have LED lights but not before 2017 so that may be the year it started.
I'll do some more research as far as passenger cars go and post a new topic if needed.
The item I'm looking at is MTH 30-67707 but it does not say LED, just lighted.
Thank you for the help you provide here on this forum.
Brad
What he said.
Out of curiosity what is it about LED lighting makes this a deciding feature? I only speak for myself of course but it seems you'd choose passenger cars because it's the right model/style/era, or right road name, etc. rather than if it had LED vs. incandescent bulbs.
I assume you are specifically referring to the interior lights. There have been cars using bulbs for interior lighting but LEDs for, say, the marker lights. Also, if you're operating conventional mode the issue of what is often called constant-voltage lighting (same brightness irrespective of track voltage) is not a given just because it's LED technology. Likewise, flicker tolerance is not necessarily a given just because it uses LED technology.
Just want to be sure you're getting what you want!
@stan2004 posted:What he said.
Out of curiosity what is it about LED lighting makes this a deciding feature?
LED's require less power for the same amount of light.
Rusty
I had to "upgrade" the LED lighting in my rather expensive Premier Strasburg Woodside passenger cars due to the lack of either DCS protection or capacitors to prevent flicker. I'm with Stan, you may want to select the cars based on other attributes, the LED issue can be fixed. 
Understood, thank you. Just figured with LED lighting I would not have to change out blown bulbs. I'm running dcs at 18+ volts. Just figured LEDs lasted forever and were brighter so I figured I would just stick with the most recent technology. That's all.
I'm only 4 years into the hobby so I have a habit of looking for the more recent items.
Brad
Nothing wrong with looking for modern items, just sometimes other factors are more important than a feature that's pretty easily fixed.
As far as color temperature, what is best for passenger car lighting? I see there is cool white, warm white, bright white, etc. Any product link to Ebay or other suppliers would be appreciated.
It's all what your taste are when it comes to LED color. I went with warm light for my conversion. EBAY is a four letter word on OGR. Not sure links are allowed. Search for LED light strips brings up hundreds. I also purchase LM117 buck converters on the bay also. Just add a full wave bridge rectifier on the input, maybe a filtering cap and set the output voltage to the desired brightness. Did 11 MTH madison cars for less than 40 bucks.
The color temperature of the LED's will depend on the era of the passenger cars. For instance, the old Woodside passenger cars look best with yellow or amber, also heavyweights I like to go that way with as well. Slightly more modern cars I go with the warm white, 2700-3000K wavelength. For truly modern cars that you want to emulate florescent lighting, consider the bright white strips.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Consider this eBay module, auction #: 122186424028, $1.39. Add a bridge rectifier in front of the input to convert the AC to DC, and you have constant intensity adjustable lighting with any input voltage.
Boost Buck DC adjustable step up down Converter XL6009 Module Voltage
Hi John,
Need your help!!! Please check the photo I've attached. I have an MTH passenger car that I put this boost buck board in (per your good advice) and tested it with my trusty 1035 transformer. I measured 12.5vac from the transformer before I connected the alligator clips to the power leads. (the black leads connect to the truck) the power from the truck goes to the bulb which I routed to my bridge rectifier.... then the output of course, goes to about a food of LED lighting strip. All was good until....the circuit and LED's began to get red hot. I shut the transformer immediately. Do I need a properly placed dropping resistor??? As usual, your help is greatly appreciated.... 
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Dumb question but did you adjust the dc output from the converter? I think it is the little screw on the blue box.
I did not! I’ll have to try it! Thank you 🙏!!!
My thought too. Put a meter on it and adjust the output to the recommended voltage for the led strip
@cjack posted:My thought too. Put a meter on it and adjust the output to the recommended voltage for the led strip
Will do, thanks!
