Bad bulb or bad wiring?

At what voltage is the bulb supposed to light? Maybe it's a 110 volt bulb?
Is it a true bulb or an LED?

Ahhhh Well, that may be the issue....

The package says...

SPST W/120V Light, Red

15A 125V, 10A 250V

So does this bulb need 120V to light?  Seems a bit excessive for such a small thing.

Ron

Yes, I think your bulb needs 120v.

You need something like this Lighted Toggle Switches. I am using these on all my 'on/off' tracks with no problems. The lights work good too. I believe this supplier has them in different colors as well.

Forum member cjack uses a Calxxxx (Calterm or something?) switch with the same or very similar rating as the above and are available at auto parts stores if you don't want to wait for these. These usually take 2-4 weeks to get.

Pardon me for saying, but your solder joints look cold. Did they move before the solder cooled completely? Cold joints can act up in time and become intermittent.

quote:

So does this bulb need 120V to light?  Seems a bit excessive for such a small thing.

No question in my mind, it needs 120 volts. It might illuminate at a little less, I would not expect it to light at 10-20 volts. The bulb is engineered for that voltage, small physical size and all.

Thanks for the tips and help.  Got this at Lowe's today... I guess I made some bad assumptions.

RoyBoy... You might be correct as I am not the neatest and best at soldering.  The wire is threaded through a hole on the switch and only soldered on one side.

We have been running trains for about 2 hours and parking trains in our yard which this switch controls.  All is working well except that light.  But now that you have brought the voltage to my attention, it makes sense.

vr

Ron

sometimes the bulb is across the contacts that you use for the load so the light might only be lit when the switch is open and when you run the switch closed the light goes out. just a added thought

Alan

There are several important things to remember about soldered connections.  The result is an amalgam of the contact metal, the wire metal, and the one or two metals in the solder.

First, the connection between the terminal and the wire must be mechanically sound. It is not enough just to push the wire through the hole, because then the wire can still move around during the cooling phase.

The connection must be heated so that solder will melt and flow in and around the entire connection. The joint must be held firmly so that no movement takes place while the connection is cooling.

The final connection must appear shiny, not cloudy or crystalline.

And yes, if a device is labelled "w/120 V light" then the rating of the light is 120 V.

Maybe others can chime in on a good source for a lighted switch you can use here.  I agree that the "w/120v light" won't light on track power.  I'm unsure if an automotive type switch will work out either, as they will have 12V bulbs.  Not sure how that will work out on up to 20 volts AC.  You could place a resistor on the 'ground" side of the light to drop the voltage on a 12 VDC light.

Well I stopped by Radio Shack today and got the proper switch where the light comes on at 12V.  It was a bargain at 60% off since this one is going out of business too.

And how does my Wife put it?  Oh Yeah, They had deals I just could not pass up honey.  With their 60%-70% off clearance sales I walked out with $100 worth of stuff.   Could easily have been a whole lot more, but my conscience kicked in.  Darn!

Thanks to all who provided valuable feedback.  My on is painting the panel this will attach to so it is in a temporary spot for testing.  

I even tried to do a better job soldering tonight RoyBoy.

Ron

https://ogrforum.com/c...-spst-lighted-switch