I have gotten the RailPro install going as far as power and programming. Now I want to do the lights. They are sealed in the plastic lenses so getting to them out will most likely destroy the lenses so I want to test them. My first question is are they bulbs or LED? Since I can’t see thru the lenses, how do I tell? How much voltage do they take. When I put battery power to the board, they do not light up? So I am trying to figure out how to diagnose them to make sure they are working before I start to hook them up to the RailPro board. First step is to make sure the lights are good, then the board.
they are incandescent bulbs. i started replacing with led’s but have not completed on mine. the lights are feed by voltage regulators down to 5V i believe.
1 Like
They are incandescent. Depending on which Goose, there may be a separate control board and dropping circuit. I ended up ripping all that out and just putting in GOW 12v bulbs in my Goose 5
1 Like
I run Rail Pro and use LED’s on all my engines, passenger cars, or any thing I want to light up. I buy 5mm and 3mm bulbs on eBay with the resistors already installed, plus I may add another 25/100-watt resistor if the bulbs are too bright for my liking. I use both the bright white and soft white LED’s, mainly bright white for diesels and soft white on steam or older models and car interiors, as the older stuff did not have bright lights like they do today. I think many who are unfamiliar with LED’s think they are going to blow-up something using them, not going to happen. I just test wire an LED to my Rail Pro module on the port that I want to use for that particular light, this way I can check brightness and LED color for what I want, I may also add another resistor here if the light is too bright. Some modelers get there slide rules out and figure light and power combinations down to the milli amp, what a waste of time, these LED’s are pretty much the easiest things to work with. With Rail Pro I run say, 3 to 5 different light ports for my lights, say headlights, interior lights, running lights, etc., whatever you want to run your lights and I may have several lights on one circuit, Rail Pro can handle it, remember here, the resistors adjust your brightness, but Rail Pro does have a feature on the handheld to adjust brightness, but I seldom use it. Now as far as installing LED’s in the old light mountings may require modeling skills, every light housing is different and keep this in mind, you will have to rotate the LED into position as when glue it in, LED’s can be somewhat directional. Take your headlight, you want the beam going straight forward and not shinning on the celling, so a test install is recommended here. I find the light installs probably one of my most rewarding features of my engine remodels, Good Luck.
Here are some of the LED’S I use and purchased from eBay, do note these are 3mm and soft white, you may also want 5mm for headlights and either soft white, or bright white LED’s. You can also buy resistors in assorted pack to adjust light brightness. I only use the 5mm in headlights normally and 3mm for everything else. These are many combinations of LED’S on eBay you will have to look through them to you find what you want. 20 x Pre wired 9v 3mm Warm Soft White LEDs Prewired 9 volt DC LED Light 8v 7v | eBay Note, buy from U S shippers, not from China, you will only save a dollar, or two and it will take one month to get here, if lucky and not damaged.
So feeding them 5v they should light up, I’m assuming. Will feeding them more that 5v burn them out? The hazy plastic cover (the lense) is glued in, looking pretty solid. What is best approach to trying to get that plastic out without messing up the rest?
Mikey,
you can get watch crystals to replace the clear lenses, my plan on the red and green ones was to replace with same color led.
AL P.
When I was replacing the bulbs with LEDs on my Goose, I cut the wire to the bulb a used the bulb to push out the lense.
I used 12 V 3MM LED’s in my goose. (Having said that, I run battery/RC with 12V batteries),
I get them from here: https://lighthouseleds.com
Already wired with resistors.
LED’s do not burn hot, no way will they mess up your plastic light mountings/housings. This is why you use 9v/12v LED’s. If you wire a 5v LED to a say 12v power source it will probably burn out, but use 9/12 volt LED’s they will light up at 5 volts, you might have the light brightness you want there without using resistors to adjust light brightness. I’ve never been able to explain this very well so those who have a problem with electronics will understand it, I know it must sound like Greek to you, but it’s not, sorry I tried my best.
I’ll give that a try. Why does everyone go to LED? Less battery usage?
Because the government says we have to! Incandescent bulbs seems to becoming a thing of the past?
On my ( admittedly newer diesel locomotives) I removed the factory lenses and slid the LED bulbs in and glued them in place. I think Evan designs had both rounded ends and flat ends for the bulbs , plus they come with the proper resistor already installed and shrink wrapped and long leads you lay be able to add the proper size to fit the opening
LED’s are the best thing since sliced bread. The only thing I use incandescent bulbs for was the keep my well pump from freezing, since these bulbs are hard to find in the 100watt size I have now gone to the heated wire wrapped around the pipes. If you still need to use incandescent bulbs, order them from Amazon, they have them.