Which Led toggle switch?

Even better for AC. I like the Calterm brand with the LED in it. Mounts in a round hole. I use a diode 1N4003 from earth to common to protect the LED. Even though they say 12 vdc, the half wave rectified 18 vac has an RMS value of about 12.7 v RMS. So they work fine. If you have a bank of them, you can connect all the Earth terminals together and use one diode to common ac.

Thanks cjack!  I remembered reading a post in the fall about this, but could not locate the info. Where did you order the switches from and what amperage do you recommend? I checked amazon but they listed only one 30 amp in stock. I will need at least 20 switches. I just ordered the diodes from digikey. 

Bob

I get them at the Farm and Fleet store automotive section. Probably any where like that. 

Thanks!

Hi Chuck

A quick question using the #40393.  Is there any purpose or reason for me to use a full wave rectifier and cap between my ac and switch?

Learning more every day

Tks

Tommy

No. The LED rectifies the AC and the 1N4003 with its cathode connected to common does too...we only include the 1N4003 because on the reverse half of the AC, the peak voltage is too high for the LED to withstand.

Thanks

I picked up 2 (red and green) Calterm switches listed above at Farm and Fleet for turning power off/on to 2 sidings in my layout.  I have a separate 40W Power Max Plus transformer that will be powering these 2 sidings.

To keep things as intuitive for my son to operate, I would prefer to have the LED light on the switches operate when the switch is flipped to the ON position even when the siding transformer power is off.  That way he could visually see which sidings are turned on before giving 'juice" to the siding transformer.  Thus hooking the transformer power to the input side of the switch would not work.

Is there an easy enough way to do so.  I suspect that a relay would do it, but I have never used a relay in a circuit before and don't know enough about them to plan and wire one with any confidence.  Note I do have a KW transformer operating my 2 mainlines but it also has a 14V separate output.  That could be used to power the lights on the switches and energize the relay when the switch is thrown.

Am I on the right path here?  Is there a better way?  Or is this not easily done?  If I am on the right path, would look for advice on what type of relays to get and how specifically to wire everything together.

Tim