Large Scale Central

Electricity question, missing something....Christmas lights.

General Discussion
#21

So while the points of light look bright, they will do a very poor job of illuminating the inside of a car. The system pictured uses tiny LEDs and “tricks” your eyes into looking bright.

There’s a whole 'nother world about how to direct light. If you want to do it cheap, then buy some small LEDs in a christmas string that have “flat tops”… that will disburse the light best in cars and buildings. That’s the short story.

If you were up to using SMD LEDs (tiny square ones you have to solder wires to) you can get even better and even illumination. To get them with wires already soldered is a bit more cost.

Basically you trade cost for convenience/amount of work.

Greg

#22

drumbhead

John, here is what I did to my LGB western coaches, I used, 10 MM soft white LEDs from eBay, evergreen plastic strip, copper foil stained glass tape 2 AAA batteries with holder and a small R/C switch. I installed the battery holder in the clearstory of the roof, and used the plastic strip to span the space between the factory bulb mounting space, used the copper tape for electrical hook up so no wires would show and placed the switch in the side of the clearstory. Al though the LED’s were soft white I selected to color them a little and used a yellow highlighter. Very simple no flicker and when done just slide hand across the top and switch the light off. Found that they last at least 3 days after missing 1 car turning off and finding them still on after 3 days. roof

switch

#23

So here’s what I got in the mail, and it’s much better than I expected, actually just exactly what I wanted, right amount of warmth, just the right amount of light. Bingo. Better to be lucky than good; or, if you don’t succeed at first, try try again!

(The last picture shows where I just haphazardly taped the lights up into the roof just to see if this were working or not.)

#24

Can you show just what it is you bought? Is it the lights shown on the previous page? I have a caboose I want to light up with something similar. Looks great , yours and Bills both .

#25

Pete Lassen said:

Can you show just what it is you bought? Is it the lights shown on the previous page? I have a caboose I want to light up with something similar. Looks great , yours and Bills both .

Yeah, Bill’s looks great too. Apparently there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I’m on a cliche roll.

Here’s what I got, yes (right off of ebay… https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pack-6-6ft-20-LEDs-Battery-Operated-Mini-LED-Copper-Wire-String-Fairy-Lights/233245960912?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 … I thought they were coming from Texas, but I guess it’s California):

#26

Heck of a bargain , 10 of them for$10.00

#27

My only concern now is to see how long they last. It’s great unless they last only an hour or so. The batteries are very cheap, but I don’t want to be replacing them every time I run a train.

We’ll see.

#28

Well the 2 AAA last at least 3 days because I left them on once by mistake and the were still lit after 3 days, that’s a lot on night time running

#29

#30

Just for reference:

An AAA battery has 3.75 watt/hours each… a CR2032 has 0.66 watt hours. (about 6 times less)

so for the same LEDs, 2 AAA would last 6 times longer than 2 CR2032.

But, these tiny lights are set up for less current. (Of course it takes more of them to illuminate the car, 3 or 4 “regular” LEDs would do the trick too)

Greg

#31

Now that I understand what’s going on, I’m going with Bill’s method and taking into account Greg’s input. The string lights work and they basically get the job done, but I don’t like two things: (1) they burn down almost immediately to about 3/4 of their light (a phenomenon which I don’t even want to know why), which means using two strings per car; and (2) they make an untidy sight in the ceiling of the car. Bill’s approach is much neater and more professional looking.

#32

To be fair, the batteries included are cheap so they probably lose a lot of voltage quickly and will not have the full capacity I quoted, since brand name CR2032 batteries are more than your whole set of lights.

You might want to buy 2 brand name CR2032 and see how they perform, like eveready or duracell… but i think the cost will wind up prohibitive.

Greg

#33

That’s when you replace the battery holder with a AAA battery holder and start using rechargeables.

#34

That would work, but your voltages will be off… how tolerant the LEDs are of the different voltage will be an experiment though.

Alkaline cells are in 1.5v increments, lithium are in 3.6v increments.

Greg

#35

I thought rechargeables were1.2 volts. So 3 would be 3.6, and 6 would be 7.2. The same as 2 of them button batteries.

#36

Ahh you did not say which rechargeables, but you are indeed right, nicad and nickle metal hydride are 1.2, rechargable alkalines from eveready etc. are 1.5, lithiums are usually 3.4 to 3.7 (but float higher at a full charge) and wet cells are 2v per cell.

We don’t know if the lithium coin cells are in series or parallel though. ( I would guess as you surmised, in parallel looking at the illustration )

Take your pick! (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#37

I guessed that they are in series, hence the 7.2 volt conclusion. I guess that, because in the picture, one button battery faces up, one faces down, and in the cover is a metal strip that would contact both of them when closed.

The rechargeables that I am familiar with are NiCads and NiMh. I have no first hand experience with any others. So when I think about rechargeables, those are what I think of.

Oh yea, I used to work with sealed lead acid batteries, but that was a long time ago, and I haven’t used one since…about…1988. So I don’t even think about them when I think about rechargeables.

#38

You know, you are are a smart guy! I again grovel at your feet for missing the obvious cue…

Greg

#39

Greg Elmassian said:

You know, you are are a smart guy! I again grovel at your feet for missing the obvious cue…

Greg

Uh without pictures it didn’t happen (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)

#40