I am going to try and get a hub either today or Friday and do just that. When i do, I'll see if I can get a shot of how they look lit.
Oh so no hub yet? Have fun, looking forward to what you think! And pictures of them working! Actually you can connect a lot of stuff to one hub. I have like 12 street lights and they all go into one hub. I have no problem dimming them all at one time! And super easy to use, why I like the system! And I have a very small layout too!
I was at my LHS last week and the owner had just opened up his shipment of Woodland Scenics traffic lights. The wires were hard for me to see with only my eyeglasses, but he confirmed what you wrote. I can't wait until I get to the stage on my layout where I can mess with this stuff.
Yeah I have to use my magnifying glasses to put these tiny wires in those connector. No way most people can do it with just regular glasses Or most people. Also a tip, if you try to strip the wires with normal tools they usually will break the wire, so burn then with a lighter. It works great. DO NOT burn yourself. This message brought to you buy the safety council, NOT But it works great and gets the wires HOT for a second so be ready! But it works great! Should be getting mine today, I hope, and will immediately hook them up for a test! Just a mock up, but I have been wanting these for ages! I like the simplicity of this system. Is it expensive, can be, just go slow! Great for small layouts!
I'm guessing that the idea is to quickly burn off the lacquer that's used as an insulator on the wire. In the past I've used a X-acto knife to scrape it off equally thin wire without much effort.
That is how I've been doing it as shown ( HERE ). Put a drop of solder on the end of the iron. Put the end of the magnet wire, what it looks like Woodland Scenics is using, into the solder drop. It will melt the insulation and tin it at the same time. Don't need it tinned for this application but I don't see that hurting and probably helps the connection in the fitting. Looking for the above link I did find two other interesting things: 1. Here is a video showing other options but I'll probably stay with what I'm doing or start using option #2 below... 2. I found that there is magnet wire that if you are soldering it, as I do on decoder installs using small LEDs, you can twist the wire and solder it without removing the insulation. The insulation actually acts as a flux. I ordered a spool of 38 AWG for $12 and will give it a try. The spool has over 2900' in it so if anyone wants to try some PM me. Sumner
Yep I have tried eXacto knife, those wire cutters, etc... nothing works as well as a lighter But be very careful It takes a milisecond, but will burn you, slightly Don't own a soldering iron! Or a new one I would want to use @Sumner has a great idea IF you own a soldering iron? I don't, well a safe one anyway! Gonna attempt to hook mine up tonight! Well a mock up anyway!
I have a digital soldering iron, I find the that laquer burns off at 400+ degrees, then reduce temp for soldering the wires.
I've got three of ( THESE ). Work fine, love them and they don't cost much. More about them ( HERE ). Sumner
Made it down to the workbench over the weekend and unpacked the new W/S Light Hub and Power Supply. Tested the W/S traffic lights. The red was brighter than the green but not as big a difference as it looks in the picture Then I broke out the Rapido new Look Bus that I got back in late June. It works with the W/S Light Hub but not if the wires are hooked into the same plug as the traffic lights. This thing is really cool And that is pretty much it for today. Now I have to plan for running some additional wiring. Woohoo!
Those lights are really neat! When I wired my block indicators with red and green LEDs, I also found that the red seemed brighter at the same voltage. Using 5mm diameter LEDS, it was pretty noticeable. I ended up using 1000 Ω resistors on the green LEDs and 4700 Ω resistors on the red LEDs to equalize their brilliance. I'm not suggesting that this should be done with the Woodland Scenics lights, but I thought it was all pretty interesting.
The Red is brighter, why I plugged them in separate slots on the Hub! Works great, they are really neat too. Red & Green pairs together controlled by different knob, the poten..potneiam...poteniomete...the Round Knob for dimming and such! As everyone knows, I love mine! When I have them all hooked up, street light, metal and wood, flat led's, I kind of use them as a night light in the background. I'm a fan, but bought it all over time!
New stuff and new projects for the JPT Sub One of the items in my Christmas stocking was a pair of these Cats These new ones are pretty nice. Definitely different from the older high cab ones. Here's a couple of side by side shots A friend of my in Chattanooga that does HO texted me and said he found an N scale Chooch ballast load in one of his parts boxes and asked if I wanted it. Of course I said yes. Thinking it was just one load or one package based on his message, I was rather surprised when this is what showed up in the mail last week. Next up was a cool set of M/T weathered ATSF gons that my son got me for Christmas. I tell ya, these weathered cars that M/T does really are nice. I posted a separate thread about adding M/T wood decks to a bulkhead flat. Here is a shot of it on my workbench More to come.
A few weeks ago, I updated a CMW 50's era Septic truck to a more modern era truck. Well, I found another Atlas Ford Tractor and was able to get the other Septic truck from the set updated. It was easy and this time I took a few extra shots so thought I would post them here and hopefully noy bore you all too much. This is how the two trucks started out The first step was to pop the septic truck body off the frame. it just clips on so it was easy take off Since it's a single rear axle model, I had to remove the forward most rear axle from the Atlas truck. Again, it just snapped off. I could have shaved off the clips that hold that forward rear axle but didn't in case I ever want to switch it out again. With that done, the septic truck body will just snap right onto the Atlas frame And here is the finished product.
Thanks for sharing-I model the modern era and on my “to do” list was to get some honey wagons-had seen the CMWs and was jealous. I hadn’t found any 3D prints for anything more modern so wasn’t sure where to start so it moved to my “some day” list. This looks great and is well within my limited kitbashing skill. Thank you! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I just can't see how someone would drive a shiny, brand new truck for this kind of work... That said, there's a lot more selection available in newer trucks than just "shiny, brand new."
For that kind of truck, not sure I'd care for the smell that would come with the NOT "shiny, brand new" model
