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Solving Lighting Problems On Model Railway
N scale enthusiast Mervin sent in this question for reader:
“I have just recently started having trouble with my lighting. For some reason my lights burn out. I am using the small lights for housing and such, but all of a sudden my lights burn. I am not sure if it is the electric transformer or if the lights are getting too much power. I also have some street lights, to be exact 20 of them, with 2 wires coming out but no way to attach them around the neighborhood. I need suggestions on how to place these lights and how to keep them light.”
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There are three reasons that lights can burn out.
1. The most likely reason is that the voltage from your transformer is to high. I recommend that you verify the voltage requirements for your lights and then check the output voltage of the transformer. If you have access to a voltmeter, that would help.
2. The second reason is heat. If the lights are enclosed in a fixture, they may be over heating. Verify this in not the case.
3. Current surges. If you have something hooked up to the lighting circuit that draws a lot of current on start up, that could damage your bulbs.
I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me when you have more information.
Regards,
Gary
Hi Mervin
First thing we need t know what voltage are the lights and what voltage is the transformer I use 12 volt bulbs and a 9 volt transformer that way they never burn out.
Have you got resistors on all your lights
You do not specify what type of light you are using. I personally recommend using LEDs as they operate at a lower current and produce much less heat. The nominal voltage drop of an LED is 2 volts with a maximum current of 20 ma, but can operate to less than 5 ma depending upon how bright you want. LEDs work on a DC voltage which can be provided by a wall wart (wall power supply) or you can even use an old PC power supply to bring out various voltages. A 1 amp wall wart can support 100 LEDs when running at 10ma.
Additionally, you did not specify the transformer voltage, so I am making a (wild) guess that it is 12 volts. Assuming that is the case, you need to use a resistor to limit the current and drop the voltage down to 2 volts for the LED. I typically use 10 ma for the LED unless I see it must be brighter or dimmer.
The equation is:
R = V / I = (12 – 2) / 10ma = 10 V / 10ma = ( 10 / 10 ) * 1000 = 1000 ohms
Normally one resistor is required for each LED, which is the proper way of hooking them up but with additional thought several LEDs can be run off of a single resistor (but is not recommended).
If you have multiple LED in a building, each can be wired to a resistor and the resistors can be wired together, thus only two wires are brought out of the building. Because one is only drawing 10 ma (my nominal rate) the resistor can be a 1/4 watt, which is really very small.
LEDs are polarity sensitive. Do a little additional research on the Internet to learn more about them or find a railroad friend that can give you a little more guidance.
With a little thought they are easy to use and come in different colors including slightly different shades of white. You can purchase a large number from China for a very cheap price, just takes a little longer to be mailed.
Probably a voltage surge,
Woodland Scenics has a plug in lighting system that is foolproof. Check it out.
Oh, yes! Aren’t they wonderful? I have nothing but Woodland Scenics Just Plug system, and if it’s at all possible, just DO IT! It’s not cheap, but well worth whatever it takes. With this system, I only had to have my husband drill some holes, and I could easily do the rest. Actually, I can do that, as well, but we like doing things together. It’s awesome, and looks fantastic. I like the blinking red lights on my water tower, fire station, and have used the system in buildings, on porches, streetlights, everything….Hubby mounted some angled wooden pieces on the sides of the layout bench for me to screw down the hubs. They are all labeled and neatly organized. Love it!
One problem first is your transformer my be putting out 12 volt ac not dc lights will work on both but transformers put out unfiltered ac you should put a bridge retifier on the tran former out put and use a ristors on one leg of your light feeds 780 ohm or 1kohm will work
I use 3v led’s and run them off CR2032 coin batteries, you can attach 10 or more lights to each battery, they should last a year or two. I don’t know where you live but you can buy the battery holders with an on/off switch.
Alan
Perth WA
If those are incandescent bulbs, You may be able to wire them so that you have pairs of bulbs in series. This means that if one pops, both go out, but each bulb will be getting half of the supply voltage, and they should last much longer. Try it and see if you get the desired brillance you want. The only other practical solutions seem to be using a variable power supply for the lights. A simple solution I’ve used is an Light Dimmer control available at almost any hardware store into the primary of a transformer to convert the 120 vac into lower values. If interested, send me an email and I’ll work up a diagram of this setup and send it.
A 12 volt train transformer will put out 14-15 volts when at 100% I use 6 LED’s in series rather than individual LED’s and resistors. I turn the voltage down to about 8 or 9. A train transformer can power a lot of LED’s. Since many have gone to DCC Ebay has them very cheap.
Mervin, about your street light questions: placement – are you asking how and where to mount them to the layout?; wiring – I would drill a hole just large enough to feed the two wires through the layout and connect each wire to opposite sides of a 2 wire buss running under your layout beneath the streets. Connect the buss to the accessory out put on you transformer or any other low voltage source as described in the replies above.