I found this on the web. This seems totally unique.
Check out Airbrightlighting.com
I’m seriously considering it for my Christmas village.
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Now, that is interesting!
@colorado hirailer posted:Now, that is interesting!
It is! I’m thinking it’s a game-changer.
Went to the stated website...
Found a menu list of related searches.
Opened the first three.
Gave up.
Nothing extraordinary.
Could you be a little more specific about the website location? I went to your provided link and looked around but could not find any model applications.
Chuck
@PRR1950 posted:Could you be a little more specific about the website location? I went to your provided link and looked around but could not find any model applications.
Chuck
Not so sure it's a good thing when the lighting costs more than the building.
It has its limits. You can't cut, bend or shape the 10" x 20" power mats for specific installations.
Rusty
This isn't "new" - it is just electromagnetic induction (wireless transmission of electricity) going back to Faraday's day. Unfortunately, it isn't very efficient in transmitting any power, has limited range. Fortunately, for our hobby, those limiting factors are not idea killers! However, I find that the costs of this particular implementation to be extremely expensive and prohibitive. Other modern examples of this principle in action include wireless cellular phone charging with their charging pads.
To go even further on a tangent: For me, from my childhood through today, this hobby has not only been fun, but educational. I've learned many practical skills from using power tools, basic carpentry, electronics, soldering and so much more. I am amazed the lengths and costs people will go to avoid expanding knowledge and experience or to be willfully ignorant.
Looks pretty cool, but seems to me it has a fairly limited application - namely for lighting up a village that is all in one location. Not clear to me how it could be used for buildings, etc. scattered about on a large layout. These folks are kinda coy about how it all works. As I read the website, there are three 10 x 20 inch mats, one powered and the other two "passive" (these can't be cut). The passive mats have to be within an inch or so of the active mat (this mat is plugged into the power supply). So presumably there is some sort of inductive coupling between the active mat and the passive mats. The lights themselves are on there own little flexible mats (or are on some sort of small buttons) and, again presumably, they couple to either the active mat or to the passive mats. The website sez that the lights can couple through several inches of foam (doesn't say anything about plywood...). Kudos for expensive cleverness...
OTOH, one can buy an awful lot of batteries, LED's and little RC controllers and relays for the same price...
The Airbrite system would be nice for a Christmas tree village. I stopped putting my tree and village up years ago because of the massive tangle of cords. I see few benefits for the Airbrite system in a permanent model railroad layout where you might want to turn individual lamps on and off separately. j
You seem to be restricted to putting them on the inductive mat. Interesting, but not exactly game changing IMO.
Looked interesting. IMHO the $$$ is way out of line.
Wonder how well it would play with command control systems. Seems like having large inductive fields near the track might cause some signal issues. I do like the thought process of the person who thought of it however. A spin on inductive charging of phones and such. j
4 me, 2 much 2 light for 2 many $$. Clever though.
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Hey, I don't know about the rest of you, but operating the layout in the dark for long periods of time is, well, not my thing. There's just something about dimming the room lights, turning on a bazillion structure/street lights, only to hear the familiar trains-not-running lack of sound, or trains-off-the-track rattling sound, or, worse, the all-too-familiar train abruptly meeting an immovable object! The Oooh/Ahhh nighttime moody experience is shattered with "Turn the d___d lights back on, Harriet!" And, I detest rat nests of under-table wiring for the sake of making structures light up for about 5 minutes of operating the layout in the dark just to impress an otherwise disinterested relative or neighbor!! ('That's cute.' 'Where's the bathroom?' 'When do we eat?')
I wish Gunrunner or another of our electronic wizards would enter this competition on a more affordable/practical scale.
Give me a small unit package that is equipped with these features:
1) A small coin-type 3v battery/clip (e.g., 2032 batt.) for power.
2) A simple short range receiver with a DIP-type switch (or latest whiz-bang micro-miniature equivalent thereof) for selecting response to a garage door-type transmitter
3) Ports for up to 3 LED's (It's my understanding from Evans Design that a 2032 will power 3 LED's for periodic operation, reasonable o/a life of the battery before replacement.)
4) Maybe even a battery-saving timer 'chip'(?)...can be preset for some fixed times...5 minutes, 15, 30, ... 60?
If inexpensive transmitters were offered with the DIP switch, you could set up random groups of lights to turn on/off with each transmitter.
Of course, you'd want to have access to the battery for eventual replacement in each structure. But many of us old phartz cut our teeth on structure lighting preserving some reasonably easy access to the hot-as-Hades incandescent bulb therein for replacement! Coin-type battery, incandescent bulb...not a lot of difference in accessibility conundrums, there.
I'm obviously not an electrical engineer. I'm ignoring the impossibilities. I'm oblivious to the costs for such magic. I'm a dreamer.
I have a couple kit-built Ambroid cabeese that I chose to use Evans Design battery/switch harness to power the LED marker lights. Of course, I have to remember to push that underfloor switch...turn off the power!...when the show's (?) over. But, even so, those two 2032 batteries are now 4 years old and still working!
BTW...You might have guessed by now, but as an over-the-hill dreamer, I'm betting on Battery Power for our O scale trains. That's what resulted from spending 20 years behind the counter at our LHS and watching the incredible changes new BP technology has brought to other hobbies, particularly the R/C areas. I'm a believer...as well as a dreamer. And, yes, I equipped an LGB large scale mogul with BP and wireless controller...ran it across the carpet at the store to make a point to a railroad customer.
But for now, it's pretty much daytime when running my layout! 
Still dreamin', though.
KD
Well, for a limited application of controlling a few LED's, battery power is possible. I'd probably recommend going to at least AAA lithium for good battery life and still not a huge package. Pair that with readily available low cost receivers and keyfob transmitters, and you could have a compact solution to providing long lasting remote control battery power for lighting. Using rechargeable batteries would probably be an even better solution than primary batteries.
It's a cool idea. Probably best left to the Dept 56 holiday displays.
I'll stick with the tried and true method of wires, lamps/ LED's, and switches.
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Meh.
