Tyco Floodlight Tower Bulb Replacement

[wb2002]

Anyone has information about Tyco Floodlight tower bulb replacement? The bulbs have a unique shape and I would like to replace one that has malfunctioned. I cannot locate the Tyco web site.

Thanks

wb2002

[richg]

Tyco has been gone for many, many years.
A little more info or a photo of the tower might be helpful. Unique shape does not tell us much.
I believe there might have been the two light and four light. Maybe the same bulb.

If no one here knows anything, a Google search might show something.

Rich

[jward]

as was said, tyco has been gone for 20 years. exact parts will be hard to find.

that said, replacing bulbs is a pain. I would strongly suggest that you look into using an led in place of this lamp. led's last forever.

[jbrock27]

Yes, perhaps you could replace it with a blinking red one ....

Mr. Ward is right.  If doable go with the LED, which will likely need to have a resistor soldered to one leg to keep it from getting too much voltage and burning out.  LEDs and resistors of varying amounts can be easily found at Radio Shack.  Just don't count on the good folks at "The Shack" to be overly helpful in helping you to figure out what OHM or Watt resistor to get with the LED you choose.  But, that is easy enough for you to have figured beforehand, with some help if need be.

[jward]

assuming a 12v dc power supply to run the led's, start with a 1000 ohm resistor. the value should be similar with up to a 16v ac supply. those are typical train set power supply voltages. if you have a hobby shop nearby which specializes in trains, look for miniatronics led;s. the sunny white ones do a better job of simulating an incandescent bulb than anything radio shack sells.

[jbrock27]

wb, what "look/brightness" you are trying to achieve, will determine what OHM resister you want to use.  I have had luck with using 680 OHM resistors (sshhhhhh, from Radio Shack).  And they are inexpensive (cheap) for a package.  I also use their 5mm LEDs.  I do not find they have very many, if any, 3mm LEDs in stock, which I realize are very popular with people.

[Len]

There's a fairly straight forward formula for figuring out LED resistor values:

LED current limiting resistor formula for a DC power supply and a single LED:

       V t – V led
R = -----------
           I led

Where:

V t = total voltage (power supply voltage)
V led = operating voltage of LED
I led = operating current of LED (in amperes)

For example, with a 12-volt power supply and
a 2-volt, 20mA LED, you'd get

R = (12 - 2) / 0.02 = 500 ohms.

And to dispel a bit of misinformation, Tyco the company still exists. They made a corporate decision some time back to get out of the hobby market and focus on other things.

Len

[jbrock27]

There is the help I was referring to earlier.  Excellent work Len!

wb2002 if you go over the current running discussion on "Running lights" you will see GG1 posted a few links on bulbs and such electric work and included is a Light Tower modified to have a LED replace the incandescent.  It is a different gauge and I believe AC powered versus DC, but the concept is similar.  Viewing it might give you some further, good ideas.

[Len]

Your welcome.

One thing I forgot to mention. If the formula comes out with some weird value, e.g., 463.879 ohms, just use the closest standard value resistor, 470 ohms in this case.

Len

[Doneldon]

If the formula comes out with some weird value, e.g., 463.879 ohms, just use the closest standard value resistor, 470 ohms in this case.

Len-

Not quite. I think the idea is to use the next larger resistor, not necessarily
the closest to the calculated value. In the example, 470 ohms is both the closest
and the closest size above.
                                              -- D

[jward]

most resistors have 5 or 10% tolerances, so the measured value will not be the stated value. that 470 ohm resistor could be as much as 47 ohms off in either direction and still be within tolerance.

using the closest standard value regardless of whether it has a higher or lower ohm value is usually good enough. if it bothers you, look online for precision 1% tolerance resistors.

[Len]

What jward said. The closest standard value to the calculated one will work fine.

Len (Semi-retired telecommunications electronics engineer)

[Jerrys HO]

Although I have not done much with this subject, from what I have read and learned on this forum I agree with Jeff and Len.
Here's a link I stored awhile back that is pretty useful to me.

http://electronicsclub.info/leds.htm

Jerry ( I have stayed in a Holiday Express  )

[jbrock27]

I am going to bookmark this Jerry, thank you.  Even though I previously learned quite a lot with help from the forum, there was a time when I did directly contact an LED to a power supply-yikes!!