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LED Lights Power Control
Felicity has a question for readers about LED lighting:
“I was wondering if you could give me some information about LED lights. Do you know if they are powered by the 00 railway control panel of the layout or are they powered by the house mains supply. Many thanks for your time.”
Comment below.
5 Responses to LED Lights Power Control
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I saw a tip somewhere that suggested using LED Christmas lights. YOu’ll have to add a 30 ohm resistor to one side but overall much cheaper than buying small light bulbs. I also paint the bulbs white to tone down the brightness. Easy and works great.
NEVER run your LEDS of the mains because the voltage is too great and AC (Alternating Current).
LEDS need around 2 volts DC to work and require a resistor to limit the current.
They can be run from the control panel but here it would be sensible to wire several LEDs in series with a resistor.
An altrnative, because of the low current, is to use a three volt battery (two 1.5 volt cells in series).
Further information is on http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/led.htm
But, basic rules are NEVER connect to the mains and do not do anything invloving electricity unless you know what you are doing.
Jeremy Hall
LEDs draw very little direct current at low voltages. They are polarized so you have to be careful to wire them to the proper plus-minus polarity. Depending on the LED, they can draw 1.5 to 3 volts. There are some that run on AC.
I would recommend that you seek professional help if you aren’t really familiar with electricity and electronics. Improper wiring will eat up a lot of material and can get expensive!
Best of success in your project.
Have a look at this site, there are others as well.
You can calculate the the number of LED’s and the required resistor.
http://ledcalc.com/#calc
If you go to Radio Shack and get a veritable voltage regulator and FOLLOW the directions on the back and adjust it to 21/2 to 3V you can run up to about 20 LED’s .Just be careful you don’t exceed more than 20 milliamp s thru each LED The voltage regulator has a max output of 1-amp and if it gets hot you might have to set it on a heat sink Hope this helps Alan C.