Passenger car LEDs that best match Lionel and MTH?

I couldn't locate any wedge base ready made LED's in warm white. I went with the project approach of using strip LED's with a driver.

Dan's Drumheads only has 16v wedge base in cool white.

If you change the sockets to a screw-in type, there are ready mades. But, that effort is close to the strip lights, so I passed on that one.

So, you are out of luck for the plug'n'play approach. That was my conclusion any way.

Bite the bullet and use the LED strip lighting, it's not that difficult to install, and the results are well worth it!

I recommend a single strip per car.  I used 2 strips and it is too bright.  I also recommend warm white rather than cool white.

GAD!  I not only use just one strip, but I run the whole strip on 20ma total with one CL2 constant current regulator!  Two strips would look like sunrise on the other side of the car!

Yep, I use warm white as well.  Price has gone up a bit since I ordered, here's the cheap ones on eBay now.  C:US:3160" target="_blank">5 meter warm white LED reel

Thanks John - hadn't seen that CL2 regulator before. That simplifies some things.  Just ordered a bag of them.

Cheers,

Jim

Gunrunnerjohn,

Was looking at the link you posted and I see that the lights take 12 VDC. What do you use to power the light strip? If running on DCS at more than 12 VDC, wont they burn out?

RAY

for us electrical challenged when you cut the rope to the length you need, how do you attach wire.  what we need is a video or some pictures for us to follow.

thanks for putting up with the questions.

I just bought the CL2's here:

http://www.onlinecomponents.co...2n3g.html?p=12648596

I won't vouch for that vendor either way. I've heard of them but this is the first order I have placed with them. Figured this is a good small order to test the waters.

They are also available from Mouser.

Cheers,

Jim

Unlike Gunrunnerjohn, I wire up the controller to be constant voltage rather than constant current.  Reason is that I assemble them assembly line, and they get used in cars (warm white) and stations (one has about 5 feet of lamps, cool white to mimic the mercury vapor lights that might be found in stations) where there are varying numbers of bulbs.  In the thread a few months ago, there are links to manuals which show how to set them for different output voltages or output currents.  The former is accomplished by varying the sizes of the 2 resistors.  I make mine for about 10.2 volts, and they can be used with any number of lamps up to the ampacity of the controller.

I buy my stuff from Digikey or Mouser as a rule.

I went with royztrains LED passenger car boards.  They are the lowest cost of ready made LED strips I could find and they allow the end user to adjust the brightness from off to way too bright.  They come pre-set at about mid-level that looks great!  Try www.royztrains.com.  In addition he provides detailed instructions and supports options for special applications!

I just can't stomach spending $22 a car and still having to do most of the work of the installation.  Color me a cheapskate.  I also like having even lighting down the whole car.  Nothing like having 18 or 21 LED's in the car.

John, if you have the knowledge and resources to do it yourself that's great...many on this forum do not and look for alternatives to meet their needs.  The Royz Trains boards take less time to install than it takes to disassemble or reassemble the car.  And there are those who will spend $55 for the Dallee board with the same basic capability.  With the diverse levels of skills and interest, there are solutions for all of us!

K4s is correct.  $22 is not unreasonable, if one considers that is does take time to make up the voltage/current regulators, and there is a small cost (anout $1) for the materials.  John & I have been toying with electronics and electricity for years, so it's easy to overlook the to bother that many people are not so experienced, nor do they want to bother to learn.

GRJ:  It does take some experience or at least study to assemble the voltage/current regulators, which involves such measures as layout, observing polarity, etc.

I'm sure that you or I in a short period of time could teach a forumite to do this work, but not every one wants to spend the effort or, I hate to say it, has convinced themselves that they could never do it.  Years ago I taught advanced vessel piloting and the toughest task was to convince adult students that they could learn it.

I suspect that you and I share the same philosophy, that if someone else can do a job, we can too, and will learn in the process.  (I must confess that as I age, some large jobs I used to do I'll pay to have done.  No longer would I strip the cylinder head and manifolds from a marine engine)  But many others do not share this.  I'm glad of this, for I made a living by doing certain tasks that others needed done.

There was a thread a few months ago which went into detail on this subject.

I don't know why the circuitry would differ for command and control, unless one wanted to be able to turn lights on & off.  I set up voltage regulators to max the voltage at 10.2 volts, and that is applied to LEDs regardless of higher track voltage.

Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.

The only difference for command is I tried to end up with a slightly lower DC voltage out of the rectification since there was a fixed voltage on the track.  For conventional with the 12V LED strips, I sometimes recommend a voltage doubler circuit to allow full lighting at low track voltages.

All of this was detailed in several threads in the past.

I think both Dale and I arrive at the destination, that being LED lighting in the cars.  We just travel different routes.

Here another link to the LED strips on Ebay $5.99

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5M-500...;hash=item337e2ad255

I just got a couple of rolls from the same guy at $5.27, I guess inflation has hit.

Here's the new price low: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5M-500...;hash=item4d179e17c5

Wow...$4.90

If you snooze you gain

I found some plug in connectors for these strips...forget where, but might work well when I get to try them.

I'll look around... 

Great idea! This would be a way to add light, couplers, Mini Commander EX to dummy locomotives as well without the hassle of adding pickup rollers when the trucks aren't molded for them. I thought about a driven to dummy tether, but maybe if you do it to passenger cars on both ends, then each car could be anywhere and the head one electrically drive the dummy engine. Might be easier than putting more into a driven engine with all that it has in it to start with.

Ha...trains are gross overkill

Anyway, here are the connectors for the strips for anywhere you cut them off in threes.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10X-PCB-2-Pin-Line-Connector-Adapter-for-3528-Single-Color-8mm-LED-Strip-US-ship/310658394928?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D261%26meid%3D4883542676565823462%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D251150462208%26

Not sure about the previous link...the leds are on 8 mm strips, so these are right.

Whatever floats your boat, I can't see the utility.  For 60 cents a car, that's about a third of my total parts budget to upgrade an 18" car!   The connectors are somewhat bulky, and really, what did they buy you?

Sanitary for compulsive insanity...

You want your insanity to be sanitary?  OK, now I've heard it all.

Bought by a connector?  Oh the ignominy!!

How many "three led" sections from these strips do you put into an 18" detailed interior car?

And is that the same for an 18" silhouette car?

I put them end to end as far as they'll go.  As I recall, it's either eight or nine 3-LED segments.  I believe the last MTH cars got nine segments as they'd all fit.

Ok. I erased my dumb idea of using the CL2 for the strips. I guess a small reg supply in each car is easiest.

Well, the CL2 is what I use, but you do need a diode, cap, and if you ever want to run DCS, the choke.

Oh. So only 20ma for 8 or 9 three led segments in parallel. I was thinking I needed one CL2 for each or two segment(s). Too bright?

I tried a car with 12V on the strip, just out of curiosity, it looked like the sun was shining inside the car!  It was WAY too bright for me!  For my purposes, I've found that a single CL2 lights them just about right for prototypical lighting.  If you want a bit more brightness, you can simply parallel another CL2 and get twice the current, they're designed to be used that way.

I recommend putting a strip in one car and then experimenting with the amount of power to the LED's until you hit on what you like.  Of course, you can also go with variable voltage with an LM317T and get completely adjustable brightness, I personally thought that was more trouble than it was worth.  Once I settled on how bright I wanted the cars, I just built them that way.  I see no reason to add the complexity of adjusting the lighting, because I'm never going to want to do it.

I just finished installing LEDs to an MTH Vista Dome car using John's technique with the CL2, diode, cap and choke. Previously the car did look like it had a sun source for lighting, but the LED strips look great and natural. I used one strip on each floor driven by the same set of components. I was able to accomplish this after a few emailed questions to John. He is so responsive and helpful. Thanks again John. No flicker...ever. It takes awhile to do the first car, but now I'm ready to take on my other passenger cars and cabeese. This forum is awesome. 

George (G3)

I think I'll go back to my original idea then and remove the parts off of one three LED section. Then put a diode, CL2, a short wire, and a cap in their place.

Maybe.