Lighting for HO Scale layouts

[bigjoe11a]

Ok, Guys, would any of these lamp post work.

http://stores.ebay.com/everydaygoodz/Model-Lampposts-12V-LED-/_i.html?_fsub=2697163017&_sid=603595097&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

They are all 12 volt and LED. Would I be able to run these longer then the other ones.

[Jerrys HO]

bj,

Gee Wiz (sorry), I see what you mean D...

Yes they will work. So you will know LED's last  almost forever compared to regular bulb's. If you are using them on a adjustable controller you can turn down the controller and they will last longer and create a mood lighting on your layout.

Jerry

[bigjoe11a]

bj,

Gee Wiz (sorry), I see what you mean D...

Yes they will work. So you will know LED's last  almost forever compared to regular bulb's. If you are using them on a adjustable controller you can turn down the controller and they will last longer and create a mood lighting on your layout.

Jerry

Well my question was can I run these longer than 30 minutes at a time. As long as they will work. and Thanks Guys.

[Jerrys HO]

bj,

I have left mine on for almost a day while I was working on my layout.

Jerry

[bigjoe11a]

bj,

I have left mine on for almost a day while I was working on my layout.

Jerry

Thanks Jerry for your help. That's what I wanted to know.

Joe

[Doneldon]

bj-

Nothing limits how long you can run these. LEDs produce virtually no heat so they won't damage anything except maybe ice. They are rated for 10,000 hour life so, at say four hours  day, they'll last seven years. Or ... two hours at a time two or three times a week, 40 years. Since the latter is much more like how often we run our trains, your LEDs are, effectively, a once in a lifetime purchase. Just think of the times you won't have to change bulbs!
                                                        -- D

[bigjoe11a]

bj-

Nothing limits how long you can run these. LEDs produce virtually no heat so they won't damage anything except maybe ice. They are rated for 10,000 hour life so, at say four hours  day, they'll last seven years. Or ... two hours at a time two or three times a week, 40 years. Since the latter is much more like how often we run our trains, your LEDs are, effectively, a once in a lifetime purchase. Just think of the times you won't have to change bulbs!
                                                        -- D

Thanks, How ever the problem started when all the street lights I was looking at says right in the description on ebay.com that you can't run them any longer then 30 minutes. As Jerry helped me to fix this problem. Thanks Jerry.

[railsider]

I have LED nightlights that have glowed for years in the hallway of my house.
I have picked up several strings of LED tree lights (after-season half-price sales!) that I plan to use as interior city structure lighting. The orange LED strings, sold at Halloween, are especially good as building lights.

We're probably all waiting for LED-based streetlamps to become standard items. At 2-4 volts DC each, they could come in sets of 4 to 6 to run from a 12VDC wall-wart supply. The drawback for LED lighting is that (A) you have to run them on DC, and (B) they have to be polarized. You can't just hook 'em up to the 16VAC "Accessory" terminals and forget about them. But the advantages outweigh that: power consumption approximately zilch, once you invest in a wall-wart and plug system; replacement bulbs totally unnecessary, ever (that is, lifetime longer than the operator's!).

I would not be surprised to see longer strings of LED streetlamps, with wall-wart power supplies on the order of, say, 32VDC (a common electronic-equipment voltage) and about a dozen or 15 lamps in a string. Also, because of the incredibly low current, a single power supply should be able to run several such strings in parallel. They would need to have polarized plugs-and-jacks. but that should not be hard to do. I toss all this out there hoping that some manufacturer will pick it up, develop it and put it on the market for us all. Yes, of course I would be willing to volunteer to test them out!

Railsider

[jward]

led'ssre light emitting diodes. diodes by definition only pass current in one direction. non led diodes are commonly used to rectify ac to dc. i don't think running led's on ac would be a problem as long as the peak inverse voltage ratin is not exceeded. for most of the smaller led's i've seen spec sheets on, piv rating is usually around 35-50 volts.

some precautions with led's:

always use a dropping resistor with them. the resistor limits the forward current to the led and serves as protection to the led. even if you hook up several leds in series, you still want to use a resistor to limit current to the series.

led's have a minimum forward voltage.

once that threshold is reached the led turns on. if the threshold voltage is not reached, the led remains dark. miniscule increases in voltage to an led in the "on" state result in HUGE increases in the current through the diode. hooking up an led rated at say 1.5 volts to even a 2 volt power supply without a limiting resistor will cause the led to die with a beautiful white flash, no matter what colour the led is. NEVER test an led by placing its leads directly across the terminals of a power supply.

if your power supply is dc, and you have a resistor attatched to the led, it should ONLY light in one polarity. turning the led around should cause it to remain dark. thus if you wire your streetlights and they don't work, try swapping the leads around. on ac, it should light regardless. the led will be doing its job of passing current in one half of the ac cycle, and blocking it during the other. in the usa, this happens 60 times per second so you shouldn't notice a flicker.

in theory, if you run dcc you should be able to power them off the track power since they draw so little current. in practice, you'd only want to do that with a full dcc system. most starter systems have much lower current ratings, as low as one amp with ez command. it would only take maybe a half dozen leds or strings in parallel to use up 10% of that.

[Doneldon]

Jeff-

The LED street lights he's looking at have integral resistors so all he has to do is connect to a suitable power supply.

                                                                                                                                                                -- D

[Jim Banner]

Just one more source of LED lamp posts that won't break the bank:
http://stores.ebay.com/everydaygoodz/Model-Lampposts-12V-LED-/_i.html?_fsub=2697163017&_sid=603595097&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

I have not dealt personally with this fellow but he has an excellent rating on eBay and has excellent prices on Led street lights, both in 12 volt and 6 volt versions.  At less than a dollar each, you would be hard put to build your own for the same price.  He also has some upscale lamp posts near the top of the same page.  Out of my price range, but these feature screw in LED's and the whole lamp post plugs into a socket hidden in the table top.

I don't know what Doneldon's problem is but your initials remind me of one of my favourite actors, Mike Farrell, and the character he played in M*A*S*H - B.J. Hunnicut.  I don't think we ever found out what B.J. stood for, but someone once suggested 'Beau Jest.'

Jim

[bigjoe11a]

Just one more source of LED lamp posts that won't break the bank:
http://stores.ebay.com/everydaygoodz/Model-Lampposts-12V-LED-/_i.html?_fsub=2697163017&_sid=603595097&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

I have not dealt personally with this fellow but he has an excellent rating on eBay and has excellent prices on Led street lights, both in 12 volt and 6 volt versions.  At less than a dollar each, you would be hard put to build your own for the same price.  He also has some upscale lamp posts near the top of the same page.  Out of my price range, but these feature screw in LED's and the whole lamp post plugs into a socket hidden in the table top.

I don't know what Doneldon's problem is but your initials remind me of one of my favourite actors, Mike Farrell, and the character he played in M*A*S*H - B.J. Hunnicut.  I don't think we ever found out what B.J. stood for, but someone once suggested 'Beau Jest.'

Jim

Hi! Jim and thank you. The link you posted is the ebay seller I did buy 12 lamp posts from. So thanks for the info and as for BJ. If you remember BJ didn't stand for any thing other then just BJ.

[bigjoe11a]

I wanted to see if any one mite be able to help on this again. I been trying to come up with an idea on how to mount this lights.

Here's the link of the street lights I got.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/L005-10pcs-12V-LED-Scale-Model-Trains-Lampposts-Posts-HO-/300665265304?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item46010bdc98

The problem is when I drill a hole. The hole will have to be big enough for the wire and resistor to go threw. Well that means that the street light will not fit in this hole. So now what do I do. Remember that I'm using Styrofoam for my layout.

Joe

[Doneldon]

joe-

Glue a tube to the bottom of your lamppost. Run the wires through it, leaving them long enough that the resistor can remain below the bottom of the tube. This will make your tube much smaller in diameter and make it easy to mount the lights to the surface of your layout. You can use a little tacky glue to hold things in place but it will allow you to easily pull the light out should you need to do so.
                                                                                                                     -- D

[bigjoe11a]

Any idea on what kind of a tube to use. What size and so on. I mite have to research this.

Thanks
Joe