Adding Flashing Aircraft Warning lights to Lionel's Control Tower.....

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Junior posted:

Hello All;

I came up with a new project for my layout and started doing research on how to accomplish it...but I hit a brick wall.

My project is to add flashing red aircraft warning led lights to each corner of the roof of Lionel's Control Tower. My idea was to have leds alternately flash on and off on opposite corners of the roof.

I've read several excellent "how to" articles about building flashing light circuits that are used for rail crossings on the OGRR forums and on the Net (and these would definitely work for my project).

But where I'm running into trouble is finding an alternately flashing light circuit that allows the leds do a slow "fade" when they come on and turn off. I'm afraid that if I use the flashing railroad crossing circuits "as is", it wouldn't look authentic and would act too much like a railroad crossing on the tower's roof.

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on how the railroad crossing light circuit(s) can be modified to do a fade-on and fade-off?

MTH arch bridges have a pretty nice fade on and off lamp on top. I'm not sure if they are naturally incandescent or LED with a ramp up voltage. But I'm thinking incandescent.

Could the circuitry in a typical household light dimmer switch be modified to work with your LED's  so that they would fade in and out ??

Bruk has the answer, https://www.ngineering.com/sim_application.htm

Junior posted:

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My project is to add flashing red aircraft warning led lights to each corner of the roof of Lionel's Control Tower. My idea was to have leds alternately flash on and off on opposite corners of the roof.

To be clear, when you say each corner do you have 4 corners and hence 4 LEDs?  And if you call them LED 1,2,3,4 you want 1&3 to flash, 2@4 to flash, 1&3, 2&4, etc. ?  All with fade-in/fade-out of course.

If I understand the module proposed, it has 3 circuits that flash in sequence.  So if the 3 circuits are called A, B, C then A flashes, B flashes, C flashes, A, B, C, etc.  Since you only want 2 circuits you would use A and B circuits and there would be a gap when no LEDs are on when C is active.  As their documentation says, each circuit (A, B, C) can drive 2 LEDs.  If this works for you then you're good to go.  Note that you need that you need to decide what kind of power supply you're using to choose the correct version of this flasher.

I'd think that "someone" would have come up with an off-the-shelf module that has fade-in/fade-out for alternating 2-circuits so you don't have the empty/gap in timing.  Obviously this would be for a crossing LED flasher application.

There are other modules at the same site Stan.

If he really needs a truly specific flash sequence, time to learn about the Arduino.

Hi All!

So sorry for responding so late....had "honey do's"!

Wow! Great responses from you all....I love the different approaches.

The look I'm after is the example CJACK provided (should've thought to provide that). 

Hadn't thought about using incandescent bulbs instead of leds. 

To answer Stan's question; I was thinking 1&3 to flash, then 2&4 to flash, 1&3, 2&4 and so on; hence the thought of using a modified crossing flasher module. But I'm beginning to wonder; if they all flashed/faded at the same time might that be more prototypical (and simpler?).

And to answer GRJ's question.....I hadn't really thought about a specific flash/fade speed. Something like that on MTH's bridge would be perfect. 

Hmmmm.....maybe contact MTH and ask the cost of the bridge's circuit board and hack that a bit to handle 4 bulbs? 

In the mean time I will definitely check out the nginerring web.

I am sure that somewhere on the FAA website you can find out the proper requirements for obstruction warning lighting.

Junior posted:

 

Hmmmm.....maybe contact MTH and ask the cost of the bridge's circuit board and hack that a bit to handle 4 bulbs? 

Their circuit may not handle more than 1 LED.  If you can hack that, you should be able to handle an arduino.

Brendan

Junior's flashing scheme only requires a sq wave and couple monostables. Of course if you used a micro, you would have the luxury of changing your mind and experimentation.

Took a peek at the Early Era Flashing module and it looks like it's just what the doctor ordered! And it can handle multiple leds...even 4 leds if wired 2 in series per channel; using 2 of the channels.

Thank you All for your help. I'll post pictures once I get this little project done.