I want to light my buildings and passenger cars with LEDs all the buildings are MTH and the passenger cars are a mix of Lionel and MTH cars. Would these LED strip lights work? I run my buildings at 14v AC and run command control with Legacy and DCS.
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I use Royztrains.com he has great led strips for mth passenger cars and mth buildings, and might be able to help you with Lionel passenger led lights.
Mike
Michael Pellegrino posted:I use Royztrains.com he has great led strips for mth passenger cars and mth buildings, and might be able to help you with Lionel passenger led lights.
Mike
His stuff is nice but a little pricey. I was actually going to use GRJs LED kit for the cars but I figured I'd ask about these in case his kit wasn't in stock for some reason when I go and do this.
I would definitely use GRJ kits for passenger cars, removes the flicker and allows for adjustment of the lighting to get just what you want. Also, I think he sells the lighting modules separately for those that want to use their own spools of LEDs. Links to these are in GRJ's signature line in his posts.
rtr12 posted:I would definitely use GRJ kits for passenger cars, removes the flicker and allows for adjustment of the lighting to get just what you want. Also, I think he sells the lighting modules separately for those that want to use their own spools of LEDs. Links to these are in GRJ's signature line in his posts.
That's what I will do. What about using the lights (in my title post) for buildings?
Not positive about this but I think GRJ uses the 3528 size, 300 lights per reel. I forget what color temp he uses though? Maybe it says on the Hennings site or maybe he will be along to comment here. Would be best to get it straight from GRJ, he's the expert.
rtr12 posted:Not positive about this but I think GRJ uses the 3528 size, 300 lights per reel. I forget what color temp he uses though? Maybe it says on the Hennings site or maybe he will be along to comment here. Would be best to get it straight from GRJ, he's the expert.
I'll ask him. @gunrunnerjohn.
Correct, I use the 3528 size LED reels 300 LED's for 5 meters. I generally use Warm White, around 3000K, but for heavyweights or woodside passenger cars, I use amber or yellow. I have also used some of the bright white on request for modern passenger cars.
I have converted all my buildings to the strips. You can use any multiple of three for however much light you need. I use a PC power supply for all accessories that will work on DC, and use a DC to DC buck converter to adjust brightness if needed. One example here. I just did the interior lights in an MTH passenger station here.
Nice work, John!
gunrunnerjohn posted:Correct, I use the 3528 size LED reels 300 LED's for 5 meters. I generally use Warm White, around 3000K, but for heavyweights or woodside passenger cars, I use amber or yellow. I have also used some of the bright white on request for modern passenger cars.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...koWZL&ref=plSrch @gunrunnerjohn would these work?
Any of the common 12V LED strips should work, they all require from around 9V to 12V to operate, depending on the intensity you require.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Any of the common 12V LED strips should work, they all require from around 9V to 12V to operate, depending on the intensity you require.
Cool. Do I need any converters or anything to use them or can I just solder power and ground wires and wire them to the 14v Terminal of my MRC Dual Power Transformer?
Do not connect these directly to your transformer! You need a regulated voltage at no more than 12 VDC for maximum brightness.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Do not connect these directly to your transformer! You need a regulated voltage at no more than 12 VDC for maximum brightness.
Should I just get a small DC transformer to power these?
Hi MATT,
If using your transformer you will have to hook up one of these AC to Dc converters LM2596, found on e bay. Here is what they look like...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182709353952
Hope this helps.
laz1957 posted:Hi MATT,
If using your transformer you will have to hook up one of these AC to Dc converters LM2596, found on e bay. Here is what they look like...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/182709353952
Hope this helps.
Cool stuff! Thank you! Would this be about the same thing? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d...HDIML&ref=plSrch
Yes that is what I bought on the bay, they work great. Here is a whole thread on these buck converters.
laz1957 posted:Yes that is what I bought on the bay, they work great. Here is a whole thread on these buck converters.
Cool. Thanks!
Do I need to solder wires onto these for connections to the transformer and LED strips?
Yes, positive to positive and negative to negative. It is marked on the boards, small but marked.
laz1957 posted:Yes, positive to positive and negative to negative. It is marked on the boards, small but marked.
Alright. Forgive my writing skills but is this how it would go?
TedW posted:
Thank You!
You got it MATT.
While I'll probably just use the converter mentioned above. If I want to just use a power supply and connect the LEDs to a terminal block would this do alright? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004...gid=pla-384041315683
I'm using a 12vdc power supply, similar to the one in your Amazon link above, to power my buildings (which use the LED strip lighting) and it works just fine. I have one also powering a strip of LED lights that light up the storage area beneath my layout. It is one complete 5 meter string of the LEDs (with 600 LEDs). Was originally going to use two strips of these under there, but one was plenty! No problems with either in about 3 or 4 years.
rtr12 posted:I'm using a 12vdc power supply, similar to the one in your Amazon link above, to power my buildings (which use the LED strip lighting) and it works just fine. I have one also powering a strip of LED lights that light up the storage area beneath my layout. It is one complete 5 meter string of the LEDs (with 600 LEDs). Was originally going to use two strips of these under there, but one was plenty! No problems with either in about 3 or 4 years.
Cool. I might just use that.
In using the power supply and strip lighting do you just cut enough for the particular building then addextension wire to the next set of lights in the next building?
Yep, that works fine.
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