Do you light your buildings & streetlights? I ran 2 color coded bus wires around the layout for building lights. I wasn't sure if I should run a seperate one for lower voltage lights, or put appropiate sized resistors between each bus & the light itself. Any suggestions? The first is from the AC accessories output of an MRC power pack. I like running trains at night & want alot of animation.
Building lights
- Thread starter csxengineer
- Start date
I usually run my lights on a seperate, cheap(Bachmman) throttle using the DC side. This way I can control the voltage to the lights. As I add more lights, I bump the voltage a little more.
Probably not the right way to do it, but it works.
Probably not the right way to do it, but it works.
Like Ed, I also use a DC throttle to run my lights. I've got several used ones that I picked up along the way. As you know, lamps will light on either AC or DC, and dependent on the voltage of the lamps, you may still have to use a current-limiting resistor in series with the bulb. If you are using LEDs, you definately have to use a series resistor and have to observe polarity.
Now LEDs use DC voltage to light, but they will work using AC, the only thing there is they act as a half-wave rectifier and may flicker slightly, but not noticably. It really doesn't matter, cheap (Bachman-type) power packs only run half or full-wave DC anyway. I have an old MRC that runs DC (full-wave) or what they call "pulsed mode" which is really half-wave DC. I can explain the difference if anyone wants to know.
Now LEDs use DC voltage to light, but they will work using AC, the only thing there is they act as a half-wave rectifier and may flicker slightly, but not noticably. It really doesn't matter, cheap (Bachman-type) power packs only run half or full-wave DC anyway. I have an old MRC that runs DC (full-wave) or what they call "pulsed mode" which is really half-wave DC. I can explain the difference if anyone wants to know.