MTH Building needs more light

With 25 degree angle and 12000mcd, they would be individual spotlights in your buildings. I think ww tape lights would give more even light inside. They would also require the 12v DC.

John is correct, the 5 meter rolls of LED's will provide tons of light for a number of buildings, and it'll be much more evenly distributed.  They're also very easy to use.  You can cut the strips on 3-LED boundaries, each 3-LED slice uses 12VDC.  You'll get 300 LED's for less than $10.  eBay: 221497114292, $4.59 with free shipping.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

John is correct, the 5 meter rolls of LED's will provide tons of light for a number of buildings, and it'll be much more evenly distributed.  They're also very easy to use.  You can cut the strips on 3-LED boundaries, each 3-LED slice uses 12VDC.  You'll get 300 LED's for less than $10.  eBay: 221497114292, $4.59 with free shipping.

Thanks John, Ill order now. It has a few options so I want to make sure its the correct version

type - 3528 SMD ?

warm white

non waterproof ?

Those are the ones that I use.  Obviously, if you like the bright white, you could use those.  There's no need for waterproof, if it gets wet it's a whole different issue!

Thanks John, I ll get those and send back the rain simulator :-)

I know nothing about using LED lighting so please excuse if my question is dumb.  How many 3 light strings can be powered by one 12v DC power supply?

Ed, how long is a road?

You have to specify what the current capacity of the 12V supply is.  Each 3-LED segment uses a maximum of 20ma, though in practice they usually use less, more like 14-15.  If you go by the rated specifications, and you have a 1 amp 12VDC supply, you can run fifty of the 3-LED segments from that supply.  That's 150 LEDs, probably enough to light a few buildings!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Ed, how long is a road?

You have to specify what the current capacity of the 12V supply is.  Each 3-LED segment uses a maximum of 20ma, though in practice they usually use less, more like 14-15.  If you go by the rated specifications, and you have a 1 amp 12VDC supply, you can run fifty of the 3-LED segments from that supply.  That's 150 LEDs, probably enough to light a few buildings!

John, As long as it is.

The power supply I have a 12V supply and 150 lights would be more than enough for what I need, for now.

Thanks  again. You are always so very helpful...and you keep a sense of humor, even when dealing with folks like me.

Oh, I assume I don't need any diodes, capacitors or extra doodads, to make these lights light. I just attach leads, and plug in the power supply, yes?  

ed

If you have a DC supply, just wire it to the light strips.

Ok so im still new and trying to figure out the whole AC DC thing.. I gather that I need to buy something other than my Z4000 like a HO transformer that has DC output ?   What is the best transformer to buy for this ? added strip lights inside building wired to a DC transformer and the building lights itself to the Z4000 accessory output ?? Im more confused typing this

gunrunnerjohn posted:

If you have a DC supply, just wire it to the light strips.

Thanks. 

You can find tons of wall warts with plenty of capacity.  Here's a 2A 12V model for less than $5 shipped, eBay: 181829748511, this will run a whole five meter reel of those LED's.  It's also a regulated supply.

Here are pics of my two different layouts.  

The first is a Woodlands Scenics building that was unlighted.  The second is with a Radio Shack miniature lamp base with solder tabs and a 16V lamp.  The one lamp is perfect for lighting up a whole building.  Very inexpensive, too.  You can see the one bought building, but I built the Greyhound station and the facsimile of the old Lionel factory in New Jersey which shows you a lamp base at the front door.  (sorry for the overexposure) There is more than enough light in all three.

The next two are of my overhead layout, 7 1/2 inches from the ceiling.  I used simple rope LED lights, which you can get at any Home Depot or Lowes.  The lights cause striations, unintended, that happily look like city lighting when near city landscapes.  They are cheap and much more perfect than I imagined.   They light most of my 100 ft., double-tracked layout and cannot be seen from below.

I am not against the led strips, but when researching, I found that my solutions were a lot less expensive and produced more light both ways.

Jerry G.

Whatever blows your hair back.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

You can find tons of wall warts with plenty of capacity.  Here's a 2A 12V model for less than $5 shipped, eBay: 181829748511, this will run a whole five meter reel of those LED's.  It's also a regulated supply.

Thanks John !

Be sure what actually arrives is a 12V DC adapter.  Not sure why the listing photo says 5V!

Good point Stan, the actual picture of the adapter label does say 12V.  I didn't realize the box had 5V on it, never looked too close.

I got a bunch of 1.5 amp 12v walwarts.  used.  they were from Cisco routers!  they work great.  I take the pigtail connector for the MTH Z transformer to the TIU connection.  cut the ends off and wire that to 2 bus bars.  plug the walwart to the connector.  easy and you can still sell it in tact later on.  bus bars are so easy and organized way to split your lights up. and then you keep track of how many buildings you hook up.      I usually gut the buildings light system which is a task, MTH has all those connectors from floor to floor and middle bars to hold lights.   gut all that out and  I used 6 in my 3 story buildings 3 to roof and the lower level I used 3.  use a opaque sheet spreads the light. 

Chris, I normally get my wallwarts from the two boxes of them in my closet, probably at least 100 of them of all sizes and capacities.  When I need one, I just dig through and find one that matches the requirements.

At the time, thinking I would never, ever need them for anything I could possibly think of, I discarded fairly LARGE box of walwarts a couple of years before getting back into the hobby.   

You can get a PC power supply for $15 to $20. That's 300 watts at 3v, 5v, and 12v. That's close to what John has in his bushel basket in the closet. Just add terminal strips.

I have read about using the PC power supplies. Unfortunately, I discarded a few old PC power supplies along with the wallwarts as well.  

I now have a number of the adjustable AC/DC to DC converters (fairly cheap on ebay) so I am back in business. However, I no longer discard walwarts or other devices that can be used for powering things.

While a PC power supply is a monster power supply, you don't always have a situation where that's the best choice.

I realize that it may not cover all the bases, but it can certainly eliminate the need for many places to plug in to 120v outlets.

While you guys duke it out over 12V power supplies ... another enhancement to 12V lighting are these insanely (low) priced remote controllers for 12V LED strips.  Connect the tiny controller shown on the right between your 12V DC adapter output and your 12V building lights.  Then use the RF remote on the left to turn the lights on/off, adjust brightness, even make the lights blink if you so desire! 

Less than $2 on eBay for the pair and free shipping from Asia (many sellers but for example: eBay # 111822119156).  As I recall you do need to provide the battery for the remote which is a CR2025 coin type.  If there is any interest I can provide further details.  I'll double-check if there's interest but IIRC you set-it-and-forget-it.  In other words the LED controller remembers the brightness setting between power cycles.  So once you set a suitable brightness you don't need to use the remote - when power is subsequently applied to the LED controller, it remembers the brightness setting.

That's a very nice find Stan, I'm going to get a couple of those.   Very cool idea.

I need a link to automatically open an ebay tab when I log on the forum...

Porsche1662 posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

John is correct, the 5 meter rolls of LED's will provide tons of light for a number of buildings, and it'll be much more evenly distributed.  They're also very easy to use.  You can cut the strips on 3-LED boundaries, each 3-LED slice uses 12VDC.  You'll get 300 LED's for less than $10.  eBay: 221497114292, $4.59 with free shipping.

Thanks John, Ill order now. It has a few options so I want to make sure its the correct version

type - 3528 SMD ?

warm white

non waterproof ?

Hi John lights came in today. Im a little confused on how to cut and power up. Any pictures you have to share on your setup ?

It has two leeds and a string of lights ? Not sure how to cut in strips and add power.

Thanks !

If you see the two oblong copper pads spaced every 2 inches, you simply cut directly through the middle of those.  You solder the wires onto those pads and supply from around 9VDC to 12VDC, depending on how bright you want them.  Each 3 LED segment uses a maximum of 20ma.