Powering Miller Animated Billboards from the 1033 transformer

Miller power supplies are actually 4.5v. He says you can use 5v as long as its regulated, ie does not exceed 5v. 5 VAC will produce 7 VDC after full wave rectification and smoothing. Probably not a good idea. 

Pete

If you have time and can solder four wires, this buck converter is pretty inexpensive.  I have one feeding two miller signs.

Are the other lights on your layout operating on only 5V AC?  Can you access a higher voltage on your 1033? 

Converting 5V AC to regulated 4.5V DC is not as straight-forward as it may seem given conversion losses in diodes and voltage regulation circuitry. 

After much thought the idea of a variable input 12V- ???, regulated fixed 5V output  AC/DC converter seems like the best idea.  The buck converter referenced here should work fine.  Most of the other lighting on the layout are small 12V automotive instrument panel LED's and operate on full wave rectified DC.

I used the Menards power supply for building.  I plug it into a Power Distribution Board 

Then wire it to the signs, Menards buildings, and other 4.5 led lights.  

Dennis LaGrua posted:

...Most of the other lighting on the layout are small 12V automotive instrument panel LED's and operate on full wave rectified DC.

If you already have a ~12V full-wave rectified DC (e.g., from a bridge rectifier) you might consider a DC-to-DC converter module which are less expensive than AC-to-DC converters. Depending on your wiring, this might even save running an extra transformer wire to your buildings if 12V DC is already there.

This recycled photo shows an eBay $2 (free shipping from Asia) module that has an on-board digital voltmeter to set the output voltage to 4.5V, 5.0V or whatever you want.  Note the screw-terminals on input and output so no soldering.

Or if you have a digital meter to make the one-time voltage adjustment, DC-to-DC converter modules without the meter go for less than $1.