1.8 mm LED's

[hotrainlover]

Has anyone used these LED's?  If so, would not they be perfect for ditch lights?

[Jim Banner]

I assume we are talking SMT (Surface Mount Technology) LEDs.  Then the answer is YES.  The base is just about the right size and the addition of a piece of 1/16" i.d. brass tubing, cut at an angle, makes a good sun shade.  The brass tubing can be installed with ACC without harming the LED and if a little gets on the front of the LED, so much the better.  A bit of ACC on the front helps make the ditch lights more visible from the sides.

Some things I found with these LED's.
(1) use a much larger series resistance than you normally would.  Somewhere around 10k.  These need be only 1/10 watt at that resistance.
(2) the light from these is so bright that it is hard to impossible to see the lack of detail on the housing and sun shade.
(3) handling the sun shade is difficult but a good pair of hemostats really helps.
(4) it is much easier to route fine wire (I use Kynar wire) than it is to route fibre optical cable.

Jim

[hotrainlover]

Thanks, Jim.  No I think these are just regular type LED's, from the picture anyway...

I will order some and experiment....   That is always fun!!

[rich1998]

Has anyone used these LED's?  If so, would not they be perfect for ditch lights?

do you have a link to the led photos? i have used 1.8mm led's with a 1k resistor.
lex

[jward]

i have used led's of this size in signals. they seemed to work like any other led.

[hotrainlover]

Yes I do...  Here it goes.

www.modeltrainsoftware.com

Hope this helps

They seem expensive, but I will get some.  Thanks for the replies!

[rich1998]

i guess this is the one you are taliking about.
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/bl-216.html
quite expensive for an led. i guees you want to use this on dcc rails.
a 1.8mm led with a 1,000 ohm resistor is a lot cheaper.
lex

[hotrainlover]

They are available in 3 packs on EBAY.  They run 1.79 a pack....  Even with shipping, it is still cheaper on Ebay....