Lighting Buildings

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Prof1000

New Member
Nov 20, 2007
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Hi:

I am wanting to put little led lights inside buildings. I looked at Radio Shack. They had two different voltages available. I am going to power them from an old power pack. Any help appreciated thanks.

Brian
 
Hi....Red lights..?? Is this in some part of town best not mentioned..?? I use regular ol' incandescents (12 v.)powered off a pack like you're wanting to do. I turn the voltage down quite a bit so I don't get the "doctor's office" look, but rather a soft, yellowish glow which is more in keeping with what you see in real life. I also place the lights in a spot where they can't be seen from the outside, and I lightly buff the windows with steel wool to eliminate glare.
 
Jeffrey seems to do a nice job with building lighting. Hopefully he will chime in here.

I have heard of people using white christmas light strands. You can cut the individual bulb/sockets off, then wire them so that they run about 1.5 volts per bulb. This is a real cheap method.

The problem with LEDs is the light is directional. It shines a "spotlight" that will only illuminate in front of the LED, and not the whole building. You can try to build a diffuser to scatter the light.

If I decide to light buildings on my new layout, I am going to use the christmas light route.

Kevin
 
If you going to use LED's and/or Christmas light bulbs you might want to use one of these:
P1010004-36.jpg


It puts out two primary voltages: 12v from the yellow and second black wires and 5v from red and first black wire (the one next to the yellow wire). Just put whatever resistor(s) inline that you need. On the 5v side it will pull literally many dozens of LED's or low voltage bulbs. I had mine pulling over a hundred Christmas light bulbs at one time.
 
jeffrey-wimberl said:
If you going to use LED's and/or Christmas light bulbs you might want to use one of these:
P1010004-36.jpg


It puts out two primary voltages: 12v from the yellow and second black wires and 5v from red and first black wire (the one next to the yellow wire). Just put whatever resistor(s) inline that you need. On the 5v side it will pull literally many dozens of LED's or low voltage bulbs. I had mine pulling over a hundred Christmas light bulbs at one time.
Click to expand...

I'm modeling N scale but I'm very interested in that topic.

Is it an ATX form factor computer power supply ?
I've heard about wheat bulb, rice bulb etc.. what are they exactly ? are LEDs better ?

Jacques
 
It's a 250 watt AT type non-switching power supply. I'm using a 150 watt unit at present. It does NOT need a load in order to operate. It does however need a locking power switch. These can be found at computer supply centers or you can get one from an old AT type (pre-ATX) computer, say something like a 386 or an early 486. Just plug it in and turn it on. It's circuit breaker protected so if you short the wires it instantly cuts off. It has to be unplugged to reset. It will generally reset after 15-25 seconds.
 
If you're using DCC take a look at the May issue of Model Railroader. There is an article where someone had the idea of using track power to light your buildings with LEDs since its a relatively constant voltage. I did a variation of what he did using some rectifier diodes that i had laying around and the normal resister i put in series with the LED. 560 ohms 1/4 watt.
 
I bought a 1.5 power supply from radio shack and used 1.5 volt grain of rice bulbs they are easy to hide and you can get grain of wheat ons under shades for outside lights. But I don't use them very often.
Les
 
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