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LED Light Strips

Alex asks:

“I am putting in carriage lights in my DC layout and have purchased LED light strips but what size capacitors is required to stop flickering while the car runs?”

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Frank B
Frank B
3 years ago

As you don’t mention your scale, I assume you are working HO or OO. 
 
 Unless it is built into the LED module already, you will need to take the track power through a rectifier bridge first (because track polarity is changed when reversing). These are very tiny and very cheap, for example: aliexpress.com/item/32914475454.html (50 for about £2). 
 
 Then fit a capacitor across the rectifier’s output terminals to the LED strip, I use 100 microFarad tantalum capacitors, which are very small for their capacity. 
 
 (If you are buying an LED module from a model manufacturer, possibly the rectifier and capacitor may be already built in.)

ho scale house

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