Hey All, I am looking for a recommendation on a solution for LED headlight/tender light for the loco below. I added a Tsunami decoder and blew out the incandescent bulbs (I think). Any help would be very much appreciated. I tried a grain of wheat LED, but too large for the headlight when including the resistor. Thanks in Advance, -Bob T.
on that one a 5mm should work, don't know scale you have ... best choice is a warm white if you can get it, and a reduced current, maybe twice the resistor value hat is recommended ... will gie a more realistic 'yellowish' glow
Thanks. I will give it a try. I may have a warm white in the stash of larger LEDs. Much appreciated. -Bob T.
Are you trying to fit the resistor inside the headlight? I'm confused why you say Why not put the resistor inside the shell, and run wires to the LED inside the headlight housing? It might be more work than simply soldering the resistor directly to the LED, but it saves space inside the headlight. Are you using an LED in an epoxy housing, like a 3mm or 5mm LED? You might want to try some pre-wired surface-mount LEDs instead. I buy them in bulk for wiring diesels, which usually require more lights. You can find packs of 10, 20, 50 or so on eBay and amazon. 603 size SMD LEDs are a lot smaller than 3mm bulb-style LEDs, so you may have more luck fitting them inside a headlight casting.
Agree, I .... solder some SMD LED's and resistors onto flexible PVC strips ( HERE ), as shown above but have also used some 0603 and 0402 like ( HERE ) and ( HERE ). They work great and have the wires already soldered to them. Sumner