Help Need HO Scale Steam Locomotive that steams and whistles

[Martha]

What a day it's been! My front tooth that is capped the cap fell off. Not knowing what to do. I got my super glue out to glue it in place. pricked a hole in the new tube of super glue, it rushed out. gluing my two left fingers together and my two right fingers together. After what seemed like an eternity and a half bottle of acetone my fingers were unstuck. Gluing the cap on has been successful so far, it hopefully with stay on until I get into the dentist.

Then after researching little wheat grain LEDs on line, I took a chance and went to radio shack to see if they had somethings I was wanting. 2 out of 3 items purchased are not what I wanted, can't use and not sure if they will take them back. I thought I knew what I wanted but as it turns out I guess I don't have a clue. I went there to get the wheat grain bulbs. I should have stayed with the ones I found at RS but then I found ambient light senor bulbs, they were clear a tad bigger I thought I could use them the same as the wheat grain ones but guess not. Sigh! I also bought what I thought was a terminal block. Its a plastic strip with 6 sets of screws. I thought (once again my mistake thinking) that this would work for me to join many sets of small wire lighting items and power it with one main line. That didn't work. I guess my problem is I am being cheap and trying to use one Lemax adapter to power all the lighting I have. One Lemax adapter will basically run 4 items. I have 10 or more to supply power to. So it was not a rewarding trip to RS for me. Most of the day was a crappy one! oh the soldering iron! !%#^& is what I think of it. I put on the new tip, watch how to videos on tinning it. It looked like it tinned nicely. I put it away and then when I got back from RS and attempted to use the piece of crap, the tip is dull, what I think is oxidized and if I put flux on it and wipe it with water it gets shiny but it really doesn't hold the solder on it and frankly I think I just have to give it up and go buy a better one than this! I found this review on the piece of junk I have when trying to find a replacement tip today.

"I have been soldering circuits for a while, and use a nice Weller Soldering station. Unfortunately when I moved away from home for college, I didn't bring it."(he went and bought the one I have 10 bucks at walmart) he continues on to say "I wouldn't even recommend it for a one time use. Especially do not buy if you are new to soldering. Borrow someone's soldering station so you can get a feel for how it should work. That way, you won't think soldering is as horrible as it was with this." my sediments exactly! horrible experiences!

Tomorrow I will be heading out to look for a Weller, guys who have used them over and over for years and years swear by them so Don and Jbrock I do listen and take in your advice.

So I am at a stand still so to speak. If I bought books on the wiring and stuff I still wouldn't have a clue what it says. Today, after reading some post about using the DC side Bachmann power supply I hooked up two tiny street lights to it. Ah they no longer work. That putrid smell of burned wires isn't pleasant. So I learned a lesson there.

This is the wheat grain bulbs I was hoping to find, wanted some in clear and RS didn't have clear so I bought the other thing that is a clear light or so I thought, it doesn't work. If any one could use them PM me and I will send them to you free of charge. I used one so I can't return them. I do need to know about these lights, when they are on and you touch the connection they are burning hot. Is that normal? Is that a fire hazard? Is too much power going to them? I have others and they all seem to do the same thing, hot.



My cap just feel off my tooth, great!

Well don't need it to go check out Micro-Marks, thanks for the heads up on that site!

[Irbricksceo]

From the looks of things, you have those wired in parallel. Bear in mind that those tiny bulbs have very low voltage limits and that in parallel, that limit doesn't increase. They will burn out without a resistor of correct size. To Find the Ohmage of the resistor you will need you will need to know the voltage limit of those LEDs and anything else being powerd on that circuit, their Current Draw, the Volts proved by your power source, and the Amperage there for safe measure. Then, it is a matter of calculations with Ohms Law. I could get into more detail regarding the Electrical Properties but that will suffice.

If you are trying to power too much from one, yes, it will not work right, though I do not know the strength of you source nor how much you are trying to draw from it.

[jbrock27]

M, for the soldering pencil or station, check out AMAZON.  They have some very good prices + shipping.  Sorry about the cap.  The clear bulb ("lamp" as Roger would call it) in your last post looks like an LED.  Are the colored ones LEDs as well or some other kind of bulb/lamp?

[jward]

i bought my weller at lowes for about $25. much better than the ones sold in radio shack.

a few years ago they used to sell "cold heat" soldering tools on tv. they may be in stores as well. avoid these like the plague. they do not put out enough heat to solder a feeder wire to a rail, and you'll probably destroy the tool if you try.

a soldering station setup is not essential. as long as you have some place to set the tip of the iron when not in use you will be ok. one word of advice, remove anything plastic including cars locomotives and buildings from the area you will be working. accidents can happen, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

[Doneldon]

Martha-

The barrier blocks are a series of pairs of screws. You can connect a power wire to one screw and its mate to the one opposite it. Since we need two wires to complete our circuits, you need either two barrier blocks or one which is large enough that you can use a few screws on one end for your positive line and others for the negatives. The way you distribute the power is to connect a power feeder wire to a screw and then run a second piece of wire (or a piece of flat brass which you have shaped to match the pacing of your terminal's screws) along one side so all of the connected screws are powered by the single input wire. Don't try to put + on one side and - on the other because opposite screws are connected and you will wind up with a short.

This way, you will only need to undo and redo two pairs of screws at the beginning and end of your layout's season, one for track power and one for accessories. You can even simplify that by using quick disconnects on each pair of leads from your power sources. Use different colors or styles so you have no uncertainty about what goes where after having the layout stored all year.

Jim's comment about sanding/filing soldering tips is right on the mony. I may not have been clear enough in saying that this is something which should only be done as a last resort.

I'm sorry I didn't get back to you about your question. We were out of town and I just conked out last night without even turning the computer on.

                                                                                                                                             -- D

[Martha]

Hey guys, been busy working on Jamestown. Last night I soldered some wires that went to one of my lighted trees. they are the tiny I guess LEDS that do run in parallel on very small wire. Yikes what a test of my patience. I need to figure out a better way of doing this. trying to hold tiny objects and use a scalding hot iron, well it does lend it's self some excitement in my life! Today I think I solved one problem doing that small stuff, I do have a very tiny vise. that does come in handy. the other is I have some nice tweezers and I think if I glue some of the non skid stuff you use to keep things from moving around, this might help hold those tiny bulbs. It sure won't hurt to try that. I know they sell those "creatures" that have many arms sticking out with little vises or clips to hold things in place but honestly, it isn't in my budget or need to have one of those. Now the soldering station. wouldn't you know I JUST ordered a wire spiral holder to hold this darn cheap iron! So I will just keep looking for a reasonable Weller. There are two I am eye balling, one is red/black, has 3 LED lights to help see your work? I could use extra light but would they interfere with using it? The other is a blue/black one. A little more money so not sure if I need to invest in that one or not. Are all Weller tips interchangeable? Right now Amazon does seem to have the best price but I haven't gone to local stores here to price any. It is not on my absolute must have list at the moment. But it is not far from that list.

I also read/heard filing/sanding was not a good thing for the tip, but I did see some video the guy used a wire brush to clean the tip and side of the iron (where it gets hot), it was to remove any slag build up. That seemed to do something to this crappy tip. Once I did that, fluxed, sponged it, that bright shinny solder showed up. But it is still not working like I believe it should. So moving along......

Back to those darn lights they are running parallel are connected to a ac/dc adapter for 3 volts. I honestly don't know what volts they are, I wanted to make more strings of them as they are tiny little lights but not sure if it is worth trying. Lemax lights and similar strands of lights are 5 to 8 dollars a strand. I was hoping to make my own cheaper.

These are store bought lights that came on the tree.





D - You totally lost me on your last comment about the barrier blocks! I appreciate you explaining it but it's like some foreign language your are speaking! The track power is a done deal. It is wired to the original Bachmann power pack I have and it works just fine for what I intend to use it for. NO other wire will be connected to it. Unscrewing the two leads when I put this away is simple enough for me.

I guess I just have to stop while I am ahead on the wiring stuff. Trying to learn from descriptions isn't going to work. It's okay, what I have now is workable. Soldering connections, adding more quick disconnects will improve what I have now and will look better than twisted wire and electrical gobs of tape! (none of the wiring is exposed, I just hate wires showing and untidy wiring.)

I keep thinking I want to expanded the back part of the layout with a longer tunnel, incorporating it into either ice mountain or Tower mountain or both. The back length is more or less wasted space. The tunnel now is 16-18 inches long, I can expand that to 36 inches, giving it a nice long tunnel for the train, a place to set more houses, people, pets or landscape. It's just a thought, I get many of those (thoughts) some turn out good some not so good!

Here is how the layout is now, the back will be flat against the wall once in place so......  not sure what I will do. Any suggestions?




I would love to make street lights like Jonathan has done on his layout. OMG they are terrific. That is sorta where I was going with those wheat grain lights(bulbs/lamps). After reading his post on he did it, I understood up until he mentioned resistors! how do you tie in all the street lights to a power source? Guess that's one of those things I don't get or understand how to. Any good how to videos out there that might make sense to me? He used 30 gauge magnet wire and Radio Shack actually carries it, 4 different color/gauges but for 9 dollars I didn't buy any since I have no idea how to make us it or how to make the street lights. No one at RS had any idea how to use it. 

Later gators.

[jward]

you would be much better off using leds instead of bulbs. bulbs can generate heat, and burn out over time. leds do neither if properly installed. also, if you have an application requiring th use of coloured bulbs, over time the colour will diminish and you'll have touch up the bulbs. my grandfather used to have to do this with signals a lot, and he used nail polish, of all things. with leds, the colour does not fade over time.

[jbrock27]

M, while I would not disagree that a soldering station is not "essential", I would offer that for a little bit more in cost, a soldering station provides a greater range in temperature and therefore greater flexibility.
No, all soldering tips are NOT interchangeble.  Tips are available and made to fit with their certain makes and models.  Weller tips are availabe in many places, making life a little easier when looking to replace one or buy different designs for different jobs.  I am all for when things make life a little easier.  Speaking of which, I bought one of those "creatures" you mentioned (AMAZON-read the reviews first).  It was inexpesnvie and I am glad I did, it's very handy.  Has the magnifier and arms.  Just have to keep in mind, it has limitations to the weight it will hold. 
I would not look to buy a soldering device that has lights-you can get better light using a lamp that it is seperate.  I posted recommendations many posts ago about how to clean a tip for a soldering device.  I am going to be frank-the soldering pencil you are using is a no name, inexpensive, piece of you know what.  I am sure you know the proverb "you get what you pay for"?
I tried to explain how to wire to barrier blocks prior to Doc's explanation.  Maybe this will help-it is the screws that are vertical to each other that will transfer electricity-the ones that are horizontal to each other are isloated from each other, unless you conect them with wire or some other pice of metal.  If words are not enough to give you an undestanding, supplement the words by going to YouTube, and between the sources, it should be made clear

[Martha]

I watched a how to video on wiring LED's and resistors.  A bit confusing however I did go to RS bought some 5 mm and 3 mm LED's to experiment with. Knowing the right size resistor is important from what I gathered. RS employee had no idea what size I needed. I used a 150 resister with the 5 mm LED, soldered it up, put it to a 4.5 volt adapter wall wart (I think that is what this adapter would be called) and bingo! it works and doesn't get hot at wire connections. It also works on a 3 volt wall wart. Here is the end result.



I want to make a "string of lights" to go on little trees at Jamestown, I will probably use 3 mm LED's, 5mm are a bit too big in parallel. I know the Ohms Law comes into play with this and I have found online sites to input the info to tell me the size resistor I need per LED. It didn't tell me how many resistors or size for several LED's in a row. I also would like to add street lights like Jonathan has made just a little larger. I think you will tell me it all depends on how many volts or ohms or what ya call them totals divide by something and this is what you need. Right? So here are my questions.

1. Do I need a resistor for each led I run in parallel? If so how many?

2. Jonathan used 30 gauge magnet wire for the street lamps, is that something I should use or will normal stranded 22-24 gauge wire work? The street lights I hope to make will be larger. Jamestown is not to scale to anything so making them to HO scale is not necessary.

3. What wattage soldering iron would do for the light weight soldering I do?

4. I bought (thought they were cool looking) 3 mm Ambient Light Sensor LED's at RS. I wired it up the same as the 5 mm however it doesn't work. Is this Ambient light sensor a special LED?  Looks like the 3 and 5 mm except they are round and this is a square shaped. this is the info on the bag. 3 mm ambient light sensor, Dark Current 0 1uA, supply voltage 3 OVDC to 24 VDC.

I should point out that I used that piece of crap soldering iron to make one led light connection. Won't tell you how long that took with such a worthless iron but it did work at the end. I am still "shopping" for that Weller. I just not sure what wattage I need for this light weight work or if I should invest in a station, or just make do with what I have. You see I have decided (over this past week) I am moving back to NY. Was born and raised there and plan on croaking there, hopefully not for a long time (croaking), but now I need to save save save to do this. Here I am improving my Jamestown when I will be moving but trust me, Jamestown will be one of the very high on the list that is going. What ever I can stuff in my F150 (has cap on it) is going. That I will ship and me and my cat will fly home. It won't happen for 6 or more months but it will happen and Jamestown will be in that truck! So spending money right now on a solder station which would be nice is maybe not the best time to purchase.

I think that is about it for questions today. Thanks for any advice/help you guys rock (as usual).

[Martha]

Ops meant to ask, resistor, 1/8 or 1/4 or what size, carbon film? or is there other kinds? The ones I bought at RS were 150-ohm 1/8-watt carbon-film resistors.

[hawaiiho]

To the best of my "limited" knowledge, Bachmann has never produced a unit that has both sound and smoke.

It might be possible(though I would not do it) to install a smoke unit  in a Bachmann sound loco.  How much it would save you to go that route versis

installing a sound decoder in the only smoke equiped loco that Bachmann makes, I am not sure. Like I said, I, personally would not do it.

Will

[jbrock27]

You're a little late to the party Will

Good luck on the move to NY M.  Would rather live there than NV IMHO.
You are right, resistance level/amount is important.  I usually get the 1/4 ones in the pack, carbon film ones at RS.  The bulbs you bought should say how many milliamps they are rated for.  You use that number to help calculate the minimum rated resistor you need.  I don't know the answer to your question about wiring them in parallel but you are on the right track about knowing some division and multiplication is needed.

Soldering device:40W, 40W, 40W; station, station, station.

[Martha]

so Jbrock27 I was thinking of a 40 watt station! what do you think? 

I love Reno, but my family is in NY. Every time my grandchildren experience something new their Grammy isn't there to share it. I think it's time Grammy gets to share more than once a year. But moving sure does suck.

http://youtu.be/ZcIcLUnlXwo

this video is what I watched regarding LED wiring. They were very informative to me and explained things in a language I could understand. Some of that Ohms Law language is gibberish to me!  I wasn't interested in the last part of it but then one never knows. The shrink tubing over the bulb sent me into a frenzy Sunday. Ice mountain has needed some extra sparkle to it but didn't know how to do that, well fiber optic is the answer and I am working on it, I bought a fiber optic light at the dollar store not sure why I bought it but now I am happy I did, I will be using those fiber optics and possibly the LEDs that came with it to produce that sparkle. It will be tedious to add each strand of that fiber optic but it will be worth it in the end.

Thanks for the input on the resistor info. I will continue to do research on what I want to produce.

[jbrock27]

I agree w/all points in your 2nd sentence.

You found another good video.  Their tip about how to tell which side is negative is a good one.  I use CAT24 wire or wire from the cable from a busted Play Station controller to hook up to my LEDs and motor contacts.  I buy 5mm LEDs at RS bc that is what I usually find there.  Also, one correction; I buy the 1/2 Watt resistors not 1/4.

Good idea on the fiber optics.  On You Tube, Big Al Mayo has a vid that involves using fiber optics.

Jward could probably explain OHM'S Law best.  He cites it all the time.

[Martha]

Thanks jbrock now giving a shout out to jward for advice/help, just sent Jonathan a shout out too. ANYONE that wants to give advice/their 2 cents have at it.

Here is what I want to accomplish.

I have ten telephone poles that circle my oval track layout. total around is 12 ft. I want to use 5 mm clear LED lamps per pole. I want to run them in parallel (not sure if parallel is the correct term, I want to run them like a strand of Christmas lights. From pole to pole.) I will be using either a 3.0 volt wall wart or 4.5 volt one, so here is my questions

1. What size wire should I use?
2. What size resistor?
3. How many resistors? 1 for each 5 mm?
4. Can all ten lamps be run on one wire to one wall wart?  I don't mean one wire, obviously there will be two wires, pos & neg what I mean is one length of wire?

And last question, should I start a new topic called Jamestown or keep this one going? I've come a longgggggggggggggg way since my first posting on the topic, didn't know if I should start anew.

jbrock, I think fiber optics is out for now but will go watch the video you suggested. Once I realize how tedious the job would be I just came up with a new better plan gosh it is really cool.