Woodland Scenics Street Lamps electrical problems

I’m not familiar with this system but it sounds like you may need to make sure you’ve taken enough insulation off the wires.

I have many on the layout and they look great, they are a pita though. I finally just soldered short 28 ga wire leads to the existing wire and then twisted those together. 

Eric- so you're familiar with what I'm trying to do?  Do I have to shave off any covering to solder the 28ga wire?

BamaRider posted:

Eric- so you're familiar with what I'm trying to do?  Do I have to shave off any covering to solder the 28ga wire?

 

I think I just put some flux on the ends then soldered the leads on and added tube shrink. I have more to do I can try one tomorrow if you would like, My email is in  my profile.

Found some pics n my build book.

I'm still working on this.  I don't understand.  I have 2 lamps I am trying to power up.  Do these tiny wires have insulation?  If so how do they expect you to shave off these tiny wires?  They ship with a tiny strand of wire exposed, from there they want you to twist into one??  What I'm telling y'all there is not enough exposed wire, which is finer then one strand of hair on my head, to twist.  Or am I am doing something wrong?  This has caused me to put my layout on hold for 45 days, I came back to it 2 days ago with a fresh mind.

I've been trying to put 2 wires in in the linker plug, I get one to work, and when I try to add the other nothing works.  Has to be a easier way.  Do these plugs cut into the wire to establish contact?  Or do you need to have the tiny exposed wire touching something?  I'm so frustrated by this I'm seriously thinking about selling out and giving up on his hobby.  I was doing pretty good, and my layout is almost finished, but until I get the lights working none of that matters.

Currently my 2 lamps have no exposed wires, just blunt.  Now how am I suppose to shave that tiny wire?  Nothing I have comes close to doing that, buy maybe somebody makes a tool for that, if so tell me where to find it.

Can anybody suggest something other than woodland scenics?  Something like Menard's plug and play which is much easier to work with, but they don't make street lamps.  Right now all this thing is doing is taking up space in my office.  Any ideas are welcome.

How about the street lamps that Lionel or MTH sell?  They are easy to work with.

BamaRider, I’m presuming these lights are LED’s and you have tried both lights individually, and they both light when hooked up one at a time.  If these lights are DC they are polarity sensitive so you need to have the wires + to + and - to - wound together then placed in the plug.  A couple ways to strip wire is pinch between thumbnail and forefinger.  Or burn off insulation with soldering iron or lighter. I’m sure others will give you more ideas.  Stick with it.  It’ll work.  😉👍  PS:  Pictures might help also

I have tons of these plug and play lights all over my layout.  They are so realistic.  The wires that come off the actual lamps are very fine in order to fit in these scale lights. Get a magnifying glass if you can’t see them.  They are coated wires.  The ends are bare with no coating.  You have to be sure that you don’t push the wires too far into the spring loaded plug,  otherwise it pinches the coated part and not bare part.  Also, you have to have the polarity correct.  Again if you can’t see the different colors get a magnifying glass. One is red/copper color and one is black.  Because they are so thin it can be hard to see.  2 lights get attached to one plug.  That’s why they want you to twist the pair of reds and pair of blacks together and then insert into the spring loaded plug lead.  If they are not lighting you have your colors mixed up or you don’t have the bare ends twisted together.  The wire colors must match the holes you put the wires in the spring loaded lead.  You can’t just use either hole, the colors must match! You can use some sandpaper to scrap off coating if you need more bare end, but make sure you don’t go too far up so the wires don’t short.

Woodland scenic should be ashamed of their small wire street lamps. What a frekin mess. They use angel hair wire that for me is so hard to work with ill never buy another light from them and I have several on my layout. Another China screw up.  Come on guys quit importing this crap and putting it on our USA hobby base. Enough.

I hate to pile on.....but I am also one of those guys who thinks the small diameter angel hair wires in these lights are just too tiny for me. Yes....I am in the 65 and older camp so maybe my skills are not what they used to be with working on tiny parts. I tried a magnifier, splicing a larger diameter wire to them plus a few other tricks I learned over the years. I follow the polarity and eventually I can get them all to light. 

I purchased 25 of these light sets and installed 12 of them using the linker plugs. No more for me. I plan to sell what I have left. I also have (3) of their cars with lights that use the same small wire. Not fun for me to install.

I really like Woodland Scenic products. I think their new line of fences are nice and my under construction midwestern small town is almost completely populated with their pre-lit buildings. Using their wiring components makes installation a snap.

It is tough to please everybody.

Donald

@3rail posted:

I hate to pile on.....but I am also one of those guys who thinks the small diameter angel hair wires in these lights are just too tiny for me. Yes....I am in the 65 and older camp so maybe my skills are not what they used to be with working on tiny parts. I tried a magnifier, splicing a larger diameter wire to them plus a few other tricks I learned over the years. I follow the polarity and eventually I can get them all to light. 

I purchased 25 of these light sets and installed 12 of them using the linker plugs. No more for me. I plan to sell what I have left. I also have (3) of their cars with lights that use the same small wire. Not fun for me to install.

I really like Woodland Scenic products. I think their new line of fences are nice and my under construction midwestern small town is almost completely populated with their pre-lit buildings. Using their wiring components makes installation a snap.

It is tough to please everybody.

Donald

 

Perhaps they are easier to install for the younger generation with good eyes and nimble fingers, but if you purchases a pair of jewelers  glasses I bet it would be no problem (if close up distance is the issue.)

They really can't make the wires any thicker because then they would not be able to run them up the center of the street lamp pole because these are scale.  I guess they could attach a pigtale with connectors on the ends coming out the bottom or something, but then you have to drill a bigger hole than the diameter of the lamp post base in order to get the connector through your layout.  

A little patience is all it takes.  I love their plug and play system.  All LED, each hub has adjustable brightness for each pair  per port.  Tons of lights all powered by 1 power supply.