On30 Climax Headlamp Assembly

[ScottyB]

Gentlemen,

Had the front headlamp assembly of the Climax come loose, including the two LED leads.  I tried to simply slide the leads back in the two small holes, and attach the headlamp back with some glue.  But the headlamp still won't light.

I tested the lamp LED and the lamp will not light.  (Failure may be my fault - not sure.)  So I disassembled the headlamp and will replace the LED.

Question 1 - do the LED leads from the headlamp assembly simply sit in those two holes and make contact, or do they physically plug into something?  Hard to tell looking through the holes.

Question 2 - anyone have a good idea for a replacement LED that would fit properly in the lens assembly itself?

Thanks,
Scott

[rich1998]

i would suspect two "clips" of some kind in the smoke box. i had this happen with another brand of loco. The led resistor is on the pc board for your loco. if you have a 1,000 ohm resistor, put it in series with one led lead and connect to a 12 volt dc source. one led lead to the battery, the resistor to the other battery terminal. reverse the battery leads if the led does not light. that is how i test my leds. leds are polarity sensitive. If you connected to a 12 volt source without a resistor, the led is probably blown. been there, done that, have the t shirt. only ruined one led. others will comment.
a ohm meter will not test a led.
i would get some double clip leads from radio shack.
lex

[El Loco]

i would suspect two "clips" of some kind in the smoke box. lex

Yes Sir that would be 100% correct! Two clips.

[rich1998]

hi scott

take a picture of what you see so others can see what this looks like. a picture can be worth a lot of words. post the pictures here. you can use photobucket. could help people keep from pulling the headlight off if they have a loose light.
lex

[Jim Banner]

Failure to light in the locomotive could be that you accidentally reversed the leads.  LEDs are polarity sensitive.

Failure to light after testing with a power supply could be from not using a resistor while testing or it could be from reverse polarity.  If you used a resistor during your testing, your dead LED could be just fine.

Jim

[ScottyB]

Thanks all.  I'm 99% sure I fried the LED while testing - sent out a neat spark.  But I'll try testing it again.

I could post a picture, but like I said, the assembly simply came loose.  I was not originally trying to replace anything.  After re-gluing the headlamp to make it more secure, the LED did not light, so that's where I am now.

I'm going to run to Radio Shack and see if I can find a similar sized LED that would fit inside the lens.

I am mostly wondering about how the LED leads are supposed to sit inside the firebox.  When I put the old LED back in the two small holes on the top of the firebox, the leads didn't seem to really contact anything, but it is hard to tell.  I guess when I get the new LED, I'll figure it out!

Thanks everyone!
Scott

[NarrowMinded]

Hi all,
Here is a handy website if you need help with LED's includes a calulator for determing what resistor to use.

http://www.bcae1.com/led.htm

Fixed this link had a i amongst the w's it works now.


NM.