I have fitted a combine with a couple of strips of 12v AMBER flexileds (3 leds per strip) (the 3030 types as I find the 5050 types too bright.
I connected them to a Lith 400 MAH PP3 via switch. Works ok on 9v and I am not bothered about reharging times spacing…
Battery charged via its own self contained socket from a Lappy via min/usb cable available for these batteries.
Does for me.
don’t know what happened to the description on this but again: placed 2 AAA battery holder along with small slide switch purchased at RC hobby shop in clearstory of roof, 10mm x soft white LED’s were installed on styrene rectangle tube and were powered by copper foil used to make stained glass windows with to limit wiring hanging down. Left one on by mistake and found it a week later still lit. If 1 wanted a more yellow light I have covered it with yellow from a highlighter. 
Nice pics and welcome Bill
I did get magnets and batteries and the tests have proven successful. However, when a mechanical engineer messes with electronics, generally some big chunk of metal ends up in the circuit. I really like the ‘wave a magnetic wand’ method of switching the passenger car lights on and off, and since latching reed switches are mostly unavailable, I came up with this genius solution. This is part of the battery box inside the roof so I can use a magnet outside the roof to move the ball bearing between the wired and unwired boxes. Mechanically it works a treat but electrically, when shaken around as if travelling on my branch line level of track maintenance, it reintroduces the dreaded blinkys. I even applied dielectric grease to damp the oscillations - no luck.
Back to square one. I want the battery box, wiring and lights all self contained for easy removal for battery charging so an external magnetic off-on capability would be a plus. Has anyone been able to find a source for reasonably priced and readily available latching reed switches lately?
I did find THESE but no retail source. Anyone?
Dave Bodner demonstrated such a set up at out club once. I would see if he knows.
David Palmeter said:
Back to square one. I want the battery box, wiring and lights all self contained for easy removal for battery charging so an external magnetic off-on capability would be a plus. Has anyone been able to find a source for reasonably priced and readily available latching reed switches lately?
I did find THESE but no retail source. Anyone?
David - I once sold such latching reed switches on eBay - I had a good source but it has since dried up - I still have 50 or 60 left- how many do you need?
There are some notes and a short video here
http://www.trainelectronics.com/LED_Articles_2007/LED_103/index.htm
Drop me an email [email protected]
dave
Lit my cars with 2 AAA batteries and hid them along with the switch in the clearstory, using 2 10mm led’s attached in the stock bulb location, my observation car also 2 marker lights and 1 yellow light (for bugs) in the observation area, don’t run much at night but the batteries have yet to be changed
long ago in HO I made my own latching reed switches using a very small bar magnet attached to the reed switch with a small balsa wood spacer. Always had to experiment with getting the magnet just far enough away from the switch to hold it closed or open. Theses were super cheap “play” magnets that were about the same size as the reed switch. To turn them on you pass the north end of a bar magnet over them, to turn them off pass the south end (unless I messed up the location of the magnet on the reed switch - then it was just a matter of flipping the bar magnet to the other end.
Thanks to all for your comments and help! I am very pleased with the final results of my ‘light the Kalamazoo passenger cars’ project. Here is the detailed Kalamazoo 4-4-0 with the modified, repainted and lighted Kalamazoo passenger cars at my September, 2018 club Open House:
The roof is held on by the two magnets at the far ends of the car. The light module slides into a bracket at the right end and is held by a magnet and galvanized steel tab at the left end:
The latching reed switch (thanks, Dave Bodnar) in the right end bracket activates the lights with a magnet passed over the top of the car when the roof is in place:
It looks bright here but the two warm white LEDs look good outside at night:
The Frankfort Terminal Railroad generates a lot of revenue with its excursion service!
David Palmeter said:
I did get magnets and batteries and the tests have proven successful. However, when a mechanical engineer messes with electronics, generally some big chunk of metal ends up in the circuit. I really like the ‘wave a magnetic wand’ method of switching the passenger car lights on and off, and since latching reed switches are mostly unavailable, I came up with this genius solution. This is part of the battery box inside the roof so I can use a magnet outside the roof to move the ball bearing between the wired and unwired boxes. Mechanically it works a treat but electrically, when shaken around as if travelling on my branch line level of track maintenance, it reintroduces the dreaded blinkys. I even applied dielectric grease to damp the oscillations - no luck.
Back to square one. I want the battery box, wiring and lights all self contained for easy removal for battery charging so an external magnetic off-on capability would be a plus. Has anyone been able to find a source for reasonably priced and readily available latching reed switches lately?
I did find THESE but no retail source. Anyone?
Could you put a small magnet on the powered side to hold the ball bearing down and keep it from making the blinkys? my .02Cents worth
“Could you put a small magnet on the powered side to hold the ball bearing down and keep it from making the blinkys? my .02Cents worth”
Possibly, but then it might be difficult to move the bearing to turn the lights off. The reed switch solution has worked very well!
Thanks for the thought.
The other direction would use the weight of the ball to make the connection. Spring assisted to over ride vibrations(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif) . Fine spring steel wire…
PS; the ball is making 2 connections, you double the problems.
Soldering one wire to the ball could ease the connection problem, but adds a potential weak connection … on a moving part…
If you put a bridge rectifier in the circuit, you can add a capacitor to get rid of the “blinkies”. When I added a blinking diode to my streamliner as a FRED, I had to do this or the LED would not blink. I’m betting that USA does this for their cabeese that have a flashing rear light. Use at least a 25 (or 35) volt capacitor and I used 470 mfd with good success
Concerning ‘blinkies’ I found the J&S Bachmann cars with the spring on the axle did give blinks to the lights. I sold them as I had too many (nine) for my pike. The ones I have now are the other types with a PP9 battery in a box beneath the floor powering the lights.
Many years ago I read that having ‘blinkies’ was not necessarily a bad thing as those old time cars often had oil lamps for their lighting. Oil lamps often flicker’and as the Western type movies showed they did swing a little with the trains movement. . I guess the secret to all this might be to arrange a random blink for the various leds or bulbs. Beyond my capabilities, but not for many posters here I know.
