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.