Lighting up building kits

Aug 24, 2004 3 Replies
R

I've got a bunch of kits that I would like to add some internal lighting to. Some of them are 40+ year old (cough cough) OO plastic ones, some are slightly newer plastic N gauge ones that were given to me by the in-laws, some of them are OO card kits (Metcalfe mostly).



Anyone got any ideas as to



(a) whether this is safe given the heat output from lamps etc. (b) if it is safe, what one would use to do it?



I'm not at all up on LEDs, grain of wheat bulbs, etc. etc. etc. so I thought I'd rather make a fool of myself here than cause a potentially hazardous situation at home.



Ta muchly,



Rod (long time reader, short time poster)


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A

Grain of wheat bulbs can get hot enough to melt plastic (see below), but I doubt that they could actually ignite either plastic or card buildings (but don't quote me on that!!!).

Also, it's probably fair to say if the bulb is getting hot enough to melt plastic, then it's too bright anyway. LEDs produce neglegable heat, but the resistors which are used to drop the voltage from 12v to whatever the LED requires, can sometimes get warm.

Other things to consider are the colour of the light you want. White LEDs tend to produce a bluish colour which is closer to flurescent lighting. Grain of wheat bulbs produce a "warmer" yelowish light which is more prototypical in most situations.If you prefer to use LEDs however, you could always use a combination of white and yellow/orange LEDs to produce a suitable colour.

Adrian

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M

Take a look at First Class Trains website for LED coach lighting kits including on-board rechargeable batteries. They are £9.95 per coach, but it might give you some ideas for making your own.

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I tried making my own coach lighting using 1.5V g-o-w bulbs powered from a "C" battery mounted in the guard's compartment, but found they drew too much current to light 2 or more coaches. I then got some cheap yellow LEDs and powered them from 2x"AA" batteries with better results. The yellow is fine for representing incandescent lighting.

Basically, LEDs must be connected with correct polarity to a DC supply. If using more than a 3V supply, they need resistors in series to limit the voltage.

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R

Okey dokey people. Ta v much for the info. I'll have a look round and see what looks reasonable. Again, thanks.

Rod

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