Opinions needed for LED Lighting in the Roundhouse/Progress

First off, yes, one supply will light all those LEDs and a lot more.

 

It would probably be easier to use the strips with a 12V supply.  Obviously, they won't be in neat little lampshades.

 

For individual LED's, I'd look for the wide angle ones to spread the light more, many LED's provide a semi-focused beam and would leave hotspots and dark areas inside.  For individual LED's you can wire three in series and then use a 150 ohm resistor in series with each string.  With 12 volts, that will give you pretty bright lighting.  If you have a variable supply, you'll have a pretty narrow range from full on to dark, about 9 volts off to 12 volts full on.  It's similar with the strips, as they have three individual LED's in series with a 150 ohm resistor.

I might suggest a method used by Bob Bartizek, and featured in the instructions for the Korber Models 304 roundhouse.

 

Here is a link

 

http://www.korbermodels.com/up...-_304_roundhouse.pdf

 

 

 

 

Rich, thats what I mentioned in my original post. Thats where I got the idea of using flat top wide angle LEDs and Plastruct lamp shades. I really like that method a lot.

We have 12 volt wall warts and several post war ZWs we can use as a power source. I was going to use a ZW and some of the converts off Ebay that I have seen linked here on the forum. They would convert the ac to dc, and adjustable voltage. I can get or use anything I need to, once I have a set plan.

Sorry, I missed the intent was the installation.

 

You really don't need a ton of power for the led's, depending on the size of the wall wart it may work.  for dimming you can use some additional resistance, or a power divider/pot on the hot leg and dial in some resistance to adjust the actual amount of light.

 

The strips are simpler, but I think you would find that they put out too much light.

 

Good luck.

 

Using the individual bulbs and the lampshades, I would say that driving the lights with one of those converter boards with a dimmer would be the best combo for your needs. Then you could supply power from any source. Also, the lights could be connected anyway that you like without using other components.

 

Nice roundhouse!

Wow! Your layout is something else!

Stan, as usual, you went the extra mile!   I love the idea of independent banks being switched on and off at times, talk about realism!

 

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the input. Stan & GRJ I have read many, many posts throughout the forum from you on LEDs. Stan I like the banks idea, and love the video of the hangar.

 

So this is what I am leaning towards...

 

Power from a Postwar ZW.... just because we have a few and why not use them for access power.

 

AC-DC converter to dim lights as well 

 

flat top wide angle LED

 

Lamp Shades

 

The only thing I'm unsure of at this point is hook up wire and resistors. I'm thinking 24-30ga wire, I assume that is sufficient. The resistors however, I have no clue. Those LEDs from Ebay say they come with free resistors but I don't know if they are what I should/can use, or do I need something different/better.

#30 wire is plenty, anything bigger is just a bonus.  I wire all my LED lighting upgrades in locomotives with #30 wire, easy to hide.

 

The series resistors for a bank of three are 150 ohms 1/4 watt.  These are really load balancing resistors in this case, as every string of three won't have exactly the same characteristics.  The resistors allow all of the LED's to run at the same intensity.

I just saw this thread.  Since my experience is written up in the Korber instructions, I should comment.  I used the 3mm flat-top LED's with Plastruct shades.  The appearance is very good.  I installed 5 LED's along the beams between stalls in the Korber 30" roundhouse.  They really don't put out enough light for my taste. 

 

I plan to keep them but supplement them with some segments of the LED strips that come on a reel.  These will be attached to styrene inverted U-shaped channels that will in turn be attached under the beams of the house.  The sides on the channels will be painted black and will keep the LED strips from being visible when looking through the side roundhouse windows.

 

If I was doing the job again, I'd install twice as many LED's with shades and the light output would then be adequate.

Thanks John, #30 it is.

 

Bob, thanks for chiming in, I was hoping you would. I have 6 roof beams, and the RH is almost 36" deep. So I was thinking 9 LEDs for each stall, giving me a total of 54 inside the RH. I'm hoping that will be enough. With banks of 3, I can put a set of 3 on each roof beam, and then make the separate banks for either each stall, or front, center, and rear portions of the RH. I think prototypically speaking, the banks would probably be per stall, so they could light each stall individually.

 

You can't really get close to the RH, based on it's location on the layout. It's so big, and about 50" off the floor, it's very easy to see, especially in through the stall doors.

 

 

Real nice looking roundhouse & massive.

This is one of those you have to see it for yourself to appreciate the wisdom of this comment.  Whether it be from adding more fixtures or using brighter LED's, this has been my experience when lighting up a wide variety are structures if you want the viewer to see interior detail.  Not all 3mm LEDs are created equal and I sometimes wonder about the claimed intensity (millicandela or mcd) specs on eBay listings.  Bottom line is you need to experiment a bit to insure you have enough brightness. 

 

I think you want to be able to look through the doors and windows and see detail:

 

For whatever reason I've found you need MORE interior brightness than you'd think when shooting photos/videos than when seeing it in person. So take test photos like above so the rest of us can appreciate your handiwork!

 

If you haven't messed with these voltage converter modules, something that's not obvious is the screwdriver adjustment is multi-turn and it can take several turns using a tiny jeweler's type screwdriver to change the voltage by even a few volts.  This can be tedious.  Well, you look like a young guy in your video so it's probably no big deal but for us old folks with tired eyes...   And while you can replace that trimmer potentiometer with one with a bigger knob or whatever, another idea is to have multiple modules.  Using the miracle of "cut and paste" here's how a single bridge rectifer ($1-2) could feed two (or more) DC-DC modules which run $1 each on eBay.  For example, a 2-position switch (SPDT) can select between pre-set high and low voltages from two modules.

 

And to egg you on a bit, what I'd really like to see is at least one of your stalls animated to open/close its doors.  There was this recent thread asking how to animate Korber RH doors and I excitedly cobbled together one suggestion with video on how it might be done but never heard back.  But as GRJ will remind me, Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing!

 

If you haven't already, I'd say sign up for the free The O Scale Resource online magazine.  Most of the stuff is way outside of what I'll ever do, but it's a nice read.  The most recent edition (Mar/Apr 2014) has an article on LED lighting, and the writer gives information how how he did his roundhouse, which sounds very much like how you'd like yours to be.  Click here to read it, and go to page 32 to start the article.  On page 38 he starts showing photos of his roundhouse and talking about what he did.

I am just re-entering the hobby as a 2 rail O scaler. I used to be HO 18 years ago. I am just bowled over by these LEDs. I used to have to use the "grain of wheat" bulbs, which were WAY out of scale, and very particular about wiring requirements. I sure love the structures you guys built!!!

If you go to Ebay or Google " 12 volt led's " you will find dozens of offerings, many being marketed for automotive custom lighting.  Many offerings come from the Orient and are very cheap.  All kinds of lights and most will work on 12 v ac without problems.  You can buy led strips for a buck a foot cut them up and light dozens of projects. The prices and offerings are amazing and although delivery may take a few weeks, all have worked well for me.  Phil

The roundhouse looks great. Dave O'Connor built ours and used LED strips. They're pre-configured for use with a 12-volt DC power source, are inexpensive, and easy to install. We've been switching our buildings over to these in place of incandescent bulbs. They're available in bright and warm white and work well as shown below:

 

You can see the lighting in the roundhouse at the lower right. Even in daylight with the lights on the lighting is good.

 

Here's a "night shot" of the roundhouse.

 

We also used them in the Walthers lumber shed.

We used the bright white versions to light up this Berkshire Valley service station.

No, but I'm sure if you dropped the voltage they'd dim. We haven't tested that. To get more variety, you could series-wire sets of them and drive them from 24 volts. Then you might be able to dim them more effectively.

So I can use the ZW at full voltage and not drop the output of the converter down to12v? I thought the LED voltage had to be 12V.