NEW Passenger Car LED Lighting Kit & LED Regulator

Looks like another good endeavor by GRJ. I don't know who is busier, GRJ or Lee W. (LOL)

any word on when the boards will be released for separate sale?

Great to see these! Just ordered two sets.

I might do this just to get rid of the flicker.  Any photos of how the lights look on a car after installation.

Nice.

Thats great, but what brand and model passenger cars will that work with?

Are there instructions for each?

These are really nice and a great price.  I know I asked John this at York, but I forgot the answer  Are the LEDs that come in the kit warm white (simulating heavyweight cars with incandescent lights) or cool white (simulating streamliners with fluorescent lights)?  Either way, I will be buying a bunch of these.

Opening the link provided it shows the LED kits are MTH DCS compatible. 

They work with any brand passenger cars.  I've installed LED's in MTH, Lionel, K-Line, and Williams cars.  All you need is track power and a clear place on the ceiling of the car to stick the lights.  The strip of lights that comes in the kit is about 19" long, sufficient for 21" cars.  You can cut them down at 2" lengths to fit any size car.  The MTH DCS compatibility indicates that they won't affect the DCS signal, but that doesn't exclude their use in other environments.

The first kits have warm white strips, in the future I plan on having the option for the bright white. 

 I don't have any photos yet, but I'll do that soon.  It's a pretty simple installation as you can see from the instructions.

I've attached the instructions to this post so you can see the installation procedure.

Thanks for posting the instructions GRJ - looks easy even for the technically challenged like me.

Easy was the plan.

Sounds like just what I want for the Atlas passenger cars I have on order.  But I have a question: the website explicitly states that this kit is "designed with command operation in mind."  Fine, but I run conventional-only.  And my passenger cars will be pulled by a Lionel 283, which reaches its maximum scale speed at 20 volts.

What value resistor should I use to keep the lighting modules from exceeding their rated 19 volts?

20 volts won't be an issue, the only issue you'll have is below about 10-11 volts on the track the lights will dim or be out in the passenger car.

I am also wondering what would need to be changed or added to make them conventional.  But unlike Balshis, I'm pulling with a MTH PS-1 equipped locomotive, so the train is traveling at speed under 10 volts.

The problem with conventional is that the LED strips take around 10 volts to light.  Making the constant current power supply boost voltage involves quite a few more components and runs up the cost of the module.  That being the case, I made the decision to start with the simpler option for command operation.

I only run MTH DCS and keep the transformer around 19 to 21volts.  However, sometimes a mistake occurs and the transformer throttle might be moved to higher than 21 volts.  Is that going to burn out the LED strip?  I have incandenscents in my cars now.  And there is no issue when there is an occasional burst in voltage. 

So as I understand it:

1) At 10 volts the LED is not damaged but the LEDs dim in light output but no damage will occur to the LEDs.

2) No problem from 12 to 19 volts.  This is the design point.

3) What happens above 20volts, say 25 volts 

Please advise. 

I would like to buy these only once.  I have about 40 cars to convert.  I don't want to find out these LEDs are voltage sensitive and creates problems I do not have now.

Okay, thank you.  I'll wait for the conventional version.

John  Like I said in one of your early posts when you wear discussing I said I would buy at least 2 set ups.  Well I just put my order in at HENNING'S TRAINS .

 Thanks John

We have a whole bunch to do. John, we will talk.

my question also.

They have then now, I'll ask Bill again when he's posting the announcement.

It's not the LED strip that's at risk, but rather the capacitor on the regulator board, it's rated at 35 volts.  If you take 1.4 times the input AC voltage of 25 volts, you're right at 35 volts across the capacitor.  That's OK, but any more will be a problem I expect.

Also now available

Item #20110, LED Constant Current Lighting Regulator

Available Now Exclusively through Henning's Trains

LED Constant Current Lighting Regulator, 2 Pcs.

More info above at top in first posting

I ordered some...I needed a few and like to support good work

The separate-sale version does not require a 12V LED strip.  You can modify a 12V LED strip to become a lower-than-12V strip with a soldered jumper wire.  Not plug-and-play like the kit version, but would allow conventional operation. This was discussed in the Electrical Forum.

When I tried to order, a message says "go back"  "out of stock"  ?

The Lighting regulator is a constant current regulator with adjustable output from 5ma to around 45ma.  At the low setting, the LED strips are pretty dim.  A single LED on this module would probably be fairly bright, but you can parallel a 330 ohm resistor across the single LED and then adjust it for the brightness you need.

I just tried the site, it added it to my cart with no problems.

Thanks, looking at minimum of 3 in a section and full strips for heavyweights.

Three in a section?

I've never opened up any of my passenger cars...been lucky and had no burned out lights.  So, my question is from the perspective of a total newbie for doing something like installing LED lighting. 

I read the instructions (thanks very much for posting GRJ) and they seem quite clear for a standard passenger car.  How do you install the LED lights in a passenger car with a vista dome (either standard or full-length dome)?

A dome car, two-level car, or one with running lights is a more custom installation.  For folks that don't want to get involved in soldering and customizing the wiring, I recommend having someone do those upgrades for you.  There are many different wrinkles, depending on the brand and exact configuration of the car, I didn't feel I could do justice to all the situations with a canned solution.

I use the same regulator board in such installations, but there is more customization of how they're wired.

grunj,  The box on my screen shows the product, but the order box says this item is out of stock.  Then when I try to  order two and hit the cart box, I still get the message.  Go back, 0 items available.  What does your screen look like?  Maybe I can just call Hennings tomorrow.  Thanks

ok, I went to Henning's web site directly rather than click on the link in his post, now it says that they are in stock and I was able to order. 

wb47, you were correct, you are not losing it. Our on-line store did say out of stock. I fixed it when I saw your comment. Sorry about that.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill, I sent you another email about issues on the site as well.

Bill thanks for fixing the page and for the OGR discount.  I just order 3 sets.  John thanks for making this kit.  I look forward to improving the lighting on my scale polar express cars!