DCS /Z4000 lights too bright

The only way to dim the lights in the passenger cars or any car/caboose with interior light bulbs is to, as you said, turn the voltage down OR replace the interior bulbs with LED's and/or a board to lower the voltage going from the pickup roller to the light bulbs. I know I have seen kits at york that will do this but I cant remember the manufacturer.

 

I know quite a few who run their systems at the lower voltages to prevent over heating and melting plastic. I've heard of no ill-effects from doing so. Yes, I know the book says, 18v. This is not written in stone. There will be those who will argue this point......Go for it . 

I found a decent replacement bulb that solves the problem if you want to keep your DCS setup running at the native 18v.

 

Eiko 16026 - 2102 Miniature Automotive Light Bulb (This is an 18v bulb: 18V .04A/T1-3/4.)

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/pro...ge?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The bulbs are a hair larger than would make it a perfect fit in the mini light base, but they work great.

I replaced the bulbs in all of my cars, lockons, and turnouts with these bulbs. 

 

Everything now has the proper glow, and nothing is too warm.

For putting in a hobo campfire atop a polar express car, I'm using this to step down the voltage. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261125...e=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

If your cars have interiors, it might be hard to hide it, but it might start you on the path to a smaller device. 

 

If you want to go LED, Gunrunnerjohn has a great product he sells through Hennings Trains, a forum sponsor.

There's always the option of LED lighting in the cars, this Passenger Car Lighting Kit makes that pretty easy.

How did you come to respond to a 3+ month old thread?

Notwithstanding the instructions, you can feed less than 18 volts.  I have found performance starts to go flat at 14.  Many cars have voltage regulator circuits in them; lower-priced ones do not.  If you take the bulbs out of the cars, you could probably find incandescents that will fit but run dimmer.

Google. I searched for solutions to this problem when I first had it, didn't find an answer, wanted to share my solution.

The other solution was either installing a lower voltage regulator lets say 12V and power the bulbs.  Or you could wire some diodes in series with track voltage wire lead to drop the voltage.  G

Automotive bulbs are 12 volts.  Will not hold up too long on 18 unless you use a dropping resistor in series.  Not worth the effort.  The Williams cars used big bright bulbs.  Replacing them with a #1445 or #1447 , both 18-volt, the same but with different bases, might be an improvement.

 

The Eiko bulb I linked is an 18v bulb. http://www.foxtaillights.com/eko-2102.html

I put resisters in mine.   Easy to do.   It also lowers the amp draw of passenger cars which is another problem :-)

 

 

I'd just series string two bulbs, supplying each with 9V.  Resistors just add heat for no purpose, and if you have a typical passenger car drawing 1/3 of an amp, a resistor to drop 18V to 12V will dissipate 2 watts.  In order to handle that at a reasonable temperature, you'll need a fairly sizable 18-20 ohm 5W resistor.  Why add a heat generating resistor?

Specifically which cars are running so bright?

I ask because my incandescent MTHs look good on DCS and my lionel PE also looked OK. I went to LEDs for a different reason, in those cars. You might be avle to find used bayonet holders from someone on the forum that switched to LED and just use that companies bulbs.

Jonathanorr
i like your solution. Looks like something worth a shot.