Night Lights

[electrical whiz kid]

Jonathan;
I very much like your last photos.  I have the same effect on my coaling tower (the old Cedar Hill facility at New haven-which, incidentally, is on the national lists of old buildings-neat, huh?).
I used the golden LEDs placed strategically in, under, and around, the structure.  I have also placed speaker under the structure-screen wire between it and the speaker.  two different sound cards-one loading, and one of a "drifting" steam engine.  Sometimes, I feel like I have watched two many episodes of "Mr. Science".
Rich C.

[Bill Baker]

I've been out of town for several days and haven't a chance to check my favorite website.  I love the way this post has grown.  But I would like to see some discussion on wiring and power supply.  You guys are getting me motivated to give this a try.

Thanks, Bill

[jonathan]

I use 9v wall warts, leftover from some unused toy, clock, whatever.  Then just attach an appropriate sized wire (20 gage perhaps?) to create a bus feed.  

For these tiny lamps, I run 30 gage magnet wire through 1/16" aluminum tubing.  The tubing is a mite thick for prototypical lampstands/lampposts, but I don't fret the small stuff.  

For the Surface Mount LEDs (SMDs), each unit gets its own 1k ohm resistor wired on the negative side.

When I use standard 3mm LEDs, I wire three in series with a 330 ohm resistor on the negative side.  That's about it.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I can't remember how long ago.  Here's a few shots of turning aluminum tubing into lampposts:













Regards,

Jonathan

[Doneldon]

Bill B-

I have a ton of old wall warts which I use to power lights and other accessories. I run LEDs on their own low voltage circuits,
"fluorescent" signs on 4.5 volt lines and incandescent lights on 12 volts. I plug all of the wall warts into two power strips
so I can efficiently power everything up and down. How many wall warts and power strips you'll need are a function of the
capacities of the wall warts, the length of the power busses and how many lights and accessories of different voltages you
have. I do sometimes mix voltages to save wiring effort, like adding an LED and a 1K Ohm resistor to a 12 volt circuit. It's
really easy to do but I always find that it helps to sketch things out first. If nothing else, I find ways to economize on materials.

                                                                                                                                                                                 -- D
       

[Bill Baker]

Thanks guys for the clues.  My first and only attempt at night lighting was about 10 years ago and I connected 4 miniature lights to my AC terminals.  Ahhh, the acrid smoke of failure!   I'll print out your notes and add them to my book.

Thanks again, Bill

[Doneldon]

Thanks guys for the clues.  My first and only attempt at night lighting was about 10 years ago and I connected 4 miniature lights to my AC terminals.  Ahhh, the acrid smoke of failure!   I'll print out your notes and add them to my book.

Thanks again, Bill

Bill-

My guess is that you had some 1.5-, 3- or 6-volt bulbs in the circuit connected to the fixed (probably 12-14 volts) AC on your power pack. That would explain why your lights flashed out.

You have to match the supply voltage to the operating voltage of the bulb, motor or whatever it is to power. Most things will do just fine on somewhat lower voltage than they were designed for. (Some folks argue that will damage certain items like motors but I've not seen that.) Electrical appliances do not, however, operate well when fed an overvoltage. Lights, in particular, suffer greatly. Their lives will be shortened considerably, even to the point of an instant burn out if the overvoltage is more than a few percent. This is why your car's dashboard lights will last forever if you turn them down just a little but will need frequent replacement if you run them on max.

I hope this helps.
                              -- D

[jbrock27]

Bill-

My guess is that you had some 1.5-, 3- or 6-volt bulbs in the circuit connected to the fixed (probably 12-14 volts) AC on your power pack.

No guessing required.  Bill stated that he did just that.

[Doneldon]

No guessing required.  Bill stated that he did just that.

Jim-

Where?

     -- D

[jbrock27]

By Bill Baker:

My first and only attempt at night lighting was about 10 years ago and I connected 4 miniature lights to my AC terminals.

[rogertra]

If you are using lamps (Some people incorrectly call them "bulbs"    ),  to increase their life span and to also lower their brightness, you can wire them in series-parallel.


Cheers

Roger T.

[jbrock27]

I have always understood wiring in series and wiring in parallel to be different from each other Roger.  Is what you are saying, is that you can wire them one way or the other and that either way, will prolong the lifespan of the lamp/bulb?

[jward]

series parallel means you wire two or more in series, then another group of two or more in parallel to the first group, etc.

[rogertra]

Best ASCII art explanation of series-parallel: -



____________________ Parallel
            I               I
            O             O
            I               I          Series
            O             O
________I_________I_____ Parallel


Cheers

Roger T.

[jbrock27]

Thank you for helping me learn something Roger and Jeff.

[electrical whiz kid]

a good approach here is that I recommend a good book on basic wiring/electricity to EVERY modeler to have handy by.  There are a ton of them, from little pamphlets to very large and involved books on AC/DC theory.  Tend toward the simpler, smaller ones.  Oh, to all of you "vets":  No one is so far above this subject [that] they cannot learn anything more.  Even-ESPECIALLY -me. 

RIch C.