Added a couple of pictures just to show what the bare kit board looks like, and how it should look after assembly.

Rod

A couple of folks have requested a little guidance for the actual pcb building. I have referred them to Ted Wilson's fine document in the first post above. And FWIW I dusted off some general construction guidelines and they are attached below, both in Word and pdf format.

Hope that helps,

Rod

Rod, have you sent my royalty check yet?

John, check is in the mail! Heh heh heh

Rod

A brief update on lessons learned from my last 7 cars:

1) follow Rod's component assembly instructions and fabricate the boards in batches.  I did five at a time- improves quality control too.  Get something to magnify your solder joints so you can be sure you have a good joint.  With the JST connectors, you can test your module when assembly is finished.

2) The first two pictures are of a railking heavyweight car.  I have been suspending the module from the roof using double sided tape when the roof is the usual curve.  Due to the roof design on these heavyweights, the LEDs run down the middle and there is no room for the module on the roof. Not to worry, these cars had a nice spot for locating it and I was able to keep the heat sink off of the plastic. It is held with the standard double sided tape. Just to be sure about the heat sink and plastic, I left these running at 18 volts for 30 minutes before I sealed it back up.  The heat sink was barely warm to the touch.   OBTW, buy the thick double sided tape.

3) The third through fifth pictures down shows the observation car marker lightboard in a premier car.  Depending on the color match of the led you use in it compared to the strip in the car, you may need to tone the marker light board.  My standard is the Tamaya transparent and one coat matched the light from the marker board leds to the strip in the roof of the car. A nice feature of this board is that you have the flexibility to bend and position the leds for maximum brightness of the marker lights and minimal over lighting of the visible passenger section. Picture 8 shows a railking car with the observation marker board. It sure helps the markers to stand out beautifully.

4) Pictures 7 and 8 just show the power connection to one of the existing light bulb sockets. The controller in picture 7 is one of GRJs from Hennings so I wanted to show I had paid my commission before I got into rolling my own....

Overall a lot of fun and looking forward to finishing the fleet. Thanks to Rod, GRJ, and all who have contributed to these threads.

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Thank you, Hokie 71!  The photographs are great!  I wanted to do one from start to finish just for fun.  I’ll do the rest in a batch.  Besides the RailKing streamline set, I have a RailKing Heavyweight set to do as well, and a Lionel set that are pricier cars.  I have a bunch of GRJ modules as well.  I will need to get a couple more observation car boards with another order from Rod.

Really nice work Hokie 71; looking really good. I wasn't quite catching the problem with fitting the modules into the heavyweights, but I get it now. I like the way you slipped the pcb into that handy compartment shown below.

Because that is a pretty tight space you might want to bend the 317 over at an angle as shown so as to move it's tab  away from nearby plastic, in case it gets hot. Just saying. (You can actually bend the 317 over at 90 degrees flat onto the DB107 if needed.) Looking good, glad its going well.

Rod

Hokie 71; BTW I really like your railroad name abbreviation! That sounds pretty well normal around our place too!

Rod

@Rod Stewart posted:

Really nice work Hokie 71; looking really good. I wasn't quite catching the problem with fitting the modules into the heavyweights, but I get it now. I like the way you slipped the pcb into that handy compartment shown below.

Because that is a pretty tight space you might want to bend the 317 over at an angle as shown so as to move it's tab  away from nearby plastic, in case it gets hot. Just saying. (You can actually bend the 317 over at 90 degrees flat onto the DB107 if needed.) Looking good, glad its going well.

Rod

Good idea and something I should have thought of. The 317 is apparently really loafing with one car of Leds. after 30 minutes at full load I barely felt any heat. To be sure, I left a gap on the back side.  I will give your idea a try.

So reports back from a few of builders of the kits indicates they are going together well and working great so far! And a couple of them admit to being "real beginners" when it comes to electronics assembly. All good!

I have enough stock on hand to put up about another 30 kits in this batch. After that there will be a delay receiving more parts that are on order, due to the recent Chinese New Year. Oh well.

Rod

I have built and tested a bunch of these.  I installed one previously, and 17 more are ready to go.  I only have about 3 inches of small diameter solder left.  I’ll need to get another roll or two (depending on length) of LEDs.  More on installation later.

Nice work Mark, they look great! See now that wasn’t so bad was it?

Rod

Ha ha

I can go back to working on my layout while I wait to get the solder and LEDs to install in some more cars!  Thank you!

Here are a few shots of the inside of a MTH Premier powhatan arrow observation car. I found out why the observation car board has multiple spots for connecting the LEDs.  Good planning Rod!

This is what was inside to start.  I wanted to use the metal frame for the marker lights and the drum head but it turned out to be more of a pain than it was worth IMHO.

The observation car board to the rescue. I had been using the back led connection points  at the corners but the ones in the middle were perfect for these marker lights.  The led set up on the left is for the drum head.

Installed and ready to go

These premier cars have spring loaded connections for the AC to the pick up rollers and you can re use the JST connector from the original  incandescent bulb rack.

Hokie, I knew those alternate led locations would come in handy! Nice work.
One thing, using that front led spot for the drumhead may tend to make the marker led on that side a bit dim, because they are wired in parrallel. They were intended as either-or locations.

But if it looks good as is, don’t rock the boat! Again, nice work, and I don’t mean to sound critical!

Rod

I am all re-stocked now and able to put up more DIY lighting kits for anyone interested. The kits are $4.00 each in lots of 6, 12, or 20. Shipping is extra at $6.00 for 6 or 12 kit packs, and $10.00 priority small box for the 20 kit pack. Everything you need is included other than the strip led reels, which are readily available.

The kits now come with COMPLETE observation car led marker kits, with leds and resistors, at no extra cost. Everything you need. One obs car kit included with a 6 pack, two with a 12 pack, and 3 with a 20 pack of lighting kits.

Each lighting kit includes installation and assembly instructions, including Ted Wilson's excellent instructions for board assembly.

Please note these kits are tailored for the DIY enthusiast. They are intended to fill the niche for the electrically capable hobbyist who enjoys electronics assembly, but does not want the complication and expense of ordering boards and small lots of the various components required to do the job. They are NOT intended to compete with any other commercially available ready-made products.

They are easy to build but you do need basic tools and soldering skills. As one kit-builder put it, as long as you know which end of the iron to hold you should be good! You will also need to order some strip led reels; 12V 3528, 5m x 300 leds per reel, in either warm white or white, your choice. These are readily available on ebay, AliExpress, or Amazon for a few dollars each. One 5m reel will usually do two 5 or 6 car passenger sets. I can provide ordering details if needed. Using these lighting kits and ordinary strip leds, your total cost of conversion should be under $6.00 per car all in! You can't beat that!

If interested please shoot me an email, address is in my profile.

Here is a sample picture of a finished lighting module:

Rod

A couple of folks have recently asked what advantage these lighting modules offer, and why they are better than ordinary incandescent lighting. Fair questions for sure. So I whipped up the following little summary, presented here just in case others might be wondering the same thing:

How The DIY Car Lighting Board Works          Feb 2023

Conventional incandescent passenger car lighting is inexpensive, but has a number of significant drawbacks, such as:

1. Inconsistent brightness over the length of the car, depending on the number of bulbs.
2. Brightness is a direct function of track power, not great for conventional operation.
3. Lots of flickering caused by switches and other center rail open spots.
4. In command operation bulbs tend to burn out frequently because of high track voltage, and the intense heat can melt the roof of a plastic car.
5. Much higher power consumption than led lighting; a 6 car set can draw 2 to 3 amps.

This simple inexpensive lighting module provides an easy way to convert passenger cars to strip led overhead lighting, and in the process solves all the above problems.

Wiring connections are simple: It has a non-polar AC input for connection to track power as shown. And it has DC +/- output for feeding the 12VDC strip leds to light the car. The output is adjustable in the range of about 5 ma to 50 ma; a 10:1 turndown ratio.

In order to mitigate any chance of DCS interference, the AC side has a 22uH inductor to prevent RF feedback to the track in the critical DCS frequency range. That’s the aqua colored device above with the two red stripes.

Next to it the flat rectangular black object designated DB107 is a full wave bridge rectifier used to create rough DC from the sine wave AC supply. Next the large vertical cylindrical device is a filter capacitor which smooths the choppy DC from the rectified AC. It also stores energy which will feed the leds during short power outages, thus minimizing annoying flicker.

The vertical black boxy device with the metal tab designated LM317T is the fully adjustable voltage regulator, to control the final DC output to the leds. In this circuit it is configured to control output current, according to the bias set by fixed tan colored resistor R1 and the variable square blue pot R2. With the values supplied the output can be adjusted anywhere in the 5 – 50 ma range per above. This allows setting and holding the led intensity precisely at the level that looks the best for the passenger cars in question, regardless of the track voltage.

Note that 12VDC led strip works well for command operation because the leds will be fully lit with track voltages of about 11VAC and up. For conventional operation 5VDC leds are a better choice (though more expensive) because they will be fully lit at much lower track voltages. This lighting module can be used with either type of strip leds with no modifications. The 317 will adjust its output voltage accordingly, so as to control the current feed to the leds.

Board versions R1.0 & R2.2 use the blue Bourns style 3362P pot shown above. This pot is small, resistant to internal dust contamination, and easily adjustable from above using a small Phillips or flat blade screwdriver. It is usually a set-it-and-forget-it device. The later R2.2 board can accommodate style 3362S and style 3306K side adjust pots, in addition to the 3362P top adjust. So you can have side adjustment pots if preferred. Both pots will face outwards from the module. All current kits are shipped with the R2.2 board and the 3362P pots.                                                                                                                        RDS

Mark Boyce,

What are you using for small diameter solder and where do you purchase it?

Thanks.

Been watching this post for a while now and have a question. It was mentioned that you can fold the regulator if needed to save a little space. With that in mind could a surface mount capacitor be use to condense it a bit more?

@ctr posted:

Mark Boyce,

What are you using for small diameter solder and where do you purchase it?

Thanks.

I bought this on Amazon:

TOWOT Tin Lead Rosin Core Solder Wire for Electrical Soldering, Content 1.8% Solder flux Sn60-Pd40 (0.8mm, 50g)

I’m not saying it is the best choice, but it does the job in this case.

Rod, that is a very thorough description of the justification for doing this and of how the circuit works!

I thought I would add one more example. this is a premier 20-3365B RPO streamlined car and it had three incandescent bulbs in it to start.  You can see the foil patch where one of the lights was located. One thing Rod did not mention is that one event that motivated me on this is that I had a vista dome that was missing these reflective tape patches. do we ever complain about poor production processes?

Anyway, the result of a permanently on incandescent bulb at 18 volts was a lot of heat and a visible warp in the roof.  I was able to cover / repair the issue with pieces that look like roof vents. But this approach prevents any possibility of that kind of issue (and replacing bulbs). Plus, this looks a ton better, distributed lighting, adjusted brightness, and I added people to the PO section.

Can't get any easier than premier cars.  You can see the spring connectors on the lower left. This allows a connection with two simple splice / solder joints. That block of plastic slides off the pole for your soldering.

Remove the existing lights and cut the existing connector wires in half (you have the other half with a JST plug for your hardware store) and splice the wires to the circuit board AC in terminals.  You can see this is an easy car to place the board on the roof, out of sight. I think Rod mentions it but in using the double-sided tape, be sure to clean the flux off the board using alcohol or similar.  I am coming down the home stretch and have used 10 of GRJs assembled units and 12 of Rods kits.  Fun projects, do it whether you buy assembled or DIY.

@milwrd posted:

Been watching this post for a while now and have a question. It was mentioned that you can fold the regulator if needed to save a little space. With that in mind could a surface mount capacitor be use to condense it a bit more?

milwrd, you could surely go smt on the cap and save some space, but that would require a new board design. Plus smt parts are more difficult to solder and I am trying to keep these kits as easy to build as possible. There are also some options for the cap that are shorter, some only 15mm high. The one in the pic I posted is 20mm high, so it looks pretty big in the picture.

Another option is to mount the cap at 90 degrees horizontally off the end of the board. That saves vertical space. To be honest I have never had to do that over more than a hundred installations, but it is an option.

Rod

Got to  try this myself!  I just discovered this thread.  One question I have is why 12 volt leds when we run 18 volts to the track if you are using DCS?  I have 3 MTH Premier woodside pass cars I want to change to warm white LEDs.  Thanks for all this great info.  I will be emailing for the kits.

Dave I sent you a private email with the kit details. To your question about 12v leds: The two common strip led variants is 5v and 12v, for ease of hookup to commonly available power sources.

For our use lighting the leds at full 12 volts would be way too bright. The lighting modules regulate current, and are adjustable in a range of 5-50 ma each. In the range of about 25 ma the car lighting is subdued and looks reasonably close to typical incandescent pass car lighting for the mid 20th century, using warm white leds. If you are doing newer Amtrack style, subways, or metroliners, you may want to use bright white leds at a slightly higher current setting.

hope that helps, Rod

Two other questions recently came up and I thought I would address them here:

1. If the boards are panelized (like below, upper left), how do you get them apart??  Panelized boards are V-scored during assembly along the board boundaries, though this is not entirely obvious. But if you bend them along the boundaries over a square edge, like a table or counter edge, they break apart easily. I find the boards are easier to handle during assembly and soldering in strips of 4 or 5; thus I usually order them panelized.

2. Why aren't led reels included with the kits?? I considered doing this, but the reality is I don't add any value to a reel of leds. They are abundant and inexpensive on ebay, AliExpress and Amazon. Also adding a reel or two of leds would make packaging the kits more cumbersome and likely increase shipping costs, particularly for the 20 kit packages. So it just didn't make much sense.

Other than these questions overall builder reports are very positive, with most folks finding the kits go together pretty quickly and easily, and work really well. Still some kits left in the current run if anyone else is interested. The kits are still only $4.00 each in lots of 6, 12, or 20. Shipping is extra at $6.00 for 6 or 12 kit packs, and $10.00 priority small box for the 20 kit pack. Everything you need is included other than the strip led reels, which are readily available. And I am still including complete obs marker led kits with the lighting kits, including leds and the load resistors normally used. My email is in my profile.

Rod

Well I just finished the first four!  Went okay with instructions and did not install anything backwards.  My soldering on the bottom side is not great but I think I did ok.  No leds for a week yets so I cant test the board.  Still need to cut off the regulator leads.

Congratulations, nice work Dave, looks like you have it mastered! Soldering does not have to be beautiful, as long as you make good electrical contact and nothing is shorted, it's all good.

Just a suggestion; when you get your leds, maybe cut off a typical length section (7, 8, 9 segments) that will fit your average cars, solder a mating pigtail on one end, and use that section to test and set all your modules before you start installation. That way you will know they all work and all should go well.

Rod

Rod, thanks for the tip, makes sense to test using the same led strip for all the modules!

As Hokie71 and others have noted mounting the lighting module in the roof of a heavyweight is a bit of a challenge. Member Gary Glozer came up with a rather nifty idea to solve this as pictured below. He designed  a 3D cad file and printed several of the gray colored boards you see. He glues the pcb into the rectangular hole in the support, then suspends it from a set of the original light mounting screws, as you see. Easy peasy.

I will approach Gary and see if he would be willing to print and offer these for sale. Or alternatively I can print them and sell them inexpensively, once I get back home up north in April. (Don't have my 3D printer here in AZ!) So if anyone is interested in pursuing this please let me know, or alternatively contact Gary directly. I believe his email is in his profile.

Rod

Hi Rod,

I am installing the kit into an MTH observation car that has a drum light, so I plan to use 4 of LEDs you include in the kit. In a reply to hokie71, you mentioned using a 100-150 ohm resistor for 4 LEDs. Would the 220 ohm resister in the kit be too dim?

I am in a hotel this week & unable to test & compare.

Thanks!

@ScottM posted:

Hi Rod,

I am installing the kit into an MTH observation car that has a drum light, so I plan to use 4 of LEDs you include in the kit. In a reply to hokie71, you mentioned using a 100-150 ohm resistor for 4 LEDs. Would the 220 ohm resister in the kit be too dim?

I am in a hotel this week & unable to test & compare.

Thanks!

Hi Scott, you can certainly test fit the 220 ohm first and I suspect that should be ok. If it looks a bit dim try parrallelling the 330 ohm across it which will effectively give you about 130 ohms. That's likely going to be close enough. The markers are bright white anyway, so they won’t look exactly like the overhead lighting strips. You may also find the 3mmled is a bit on the bright side for the drumhead.

Rod

I am happy to say there have now been several lighting module repeat customers! Some have typically started out with a 6 kit starter pack, then come back for a 12 or 20 kit package, once finding out how easily these things go together and how well they work. It's very gratifying to me to see some folks who were maybe a little unsure, and may not have otherwise tackled car conversions, jumping in and gittin' r done.

I still have some kits left in the current run, so if you are thinking to give it a try shoot me an email and let's get started. The kits are still only $4.00 each in lots of 6, 12, or 20. Shipping is extra at $6.00 for 6 or 12 kit packs via bubble mailer, and $10.00 priority small box for the 20 kit pack. Everything you need is included other than the strip led reels, which are readily available and I can provide a link to a good source. I am still including complete observation car marker led kits with the lighting kits, which include 3 leds and the load resistors normally used. My email is in my profile!

Rod

@Rod Stewart posted:

I am happy to say there have now been several lighting module repeat customers! Some have typically started out with a 6 kit starter pack, then come back for a 12 or 20 kit package, once finding out how easily these things go together and how well they work.

Who was the genius that designed that circuit.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Who was the genius that designed that circuit.

John, I think I recall it might have been a pretty influential guy around here!

Rod

One user has brought to my attention a snaffu with the obs marker led board. When using the D1 pads to power a drumhead led, the typical strip led voltage of 9 to 9.5 volts is not enough to drive 4 series leds and get any brightness.

I have a fairly simple workaround which puts the 4 leds in two parallel sets of 2 in series. Its fairly straightforward and does not involve trace cutting or any mods to the pcb. So if anyone else has encountered this issue, or is planning to light a drumhead, let me know and I can send the mods!! Easy peasy.

Rod

Hi Rod

Can your pcb kit be used for caboose lighting with Markers?

I operate with TMCC primarily.

Rod, I haven’t worked on any observation cars yet.  Your work around makes sense.