I tried to make my own with my 3D printer and some Richmond LEDs, but while they're functional, they don't really look like streetlights. I searched around and the best options seem to be on eBay. Most are 1:200, but that should be fine. I like these from cute.panda. https://www.ebay.com/itm/10x-1-200-...ad-60mm-2-3-/401431001363?hash=item5d7726f913 Has anybody have experience buying Chinese, eBay streetlights? Edit: Richmond, not Richland.
I've not used them, but there are a couple of red flags to be aware of. The claim is that they are LED-based. Well LEDs want DC, not AC as stated. LEDs also require a current setting resistor (for the 20mA) which is not provided nor is there a suggested value. If you've got an electronics background you should be able to make them work. There was an extensive discussion of these types of units on the AZL forum. Ultimately the buyer decided they weren't worth the effort. Mark
I've used a few on Republic Steel and found them O.K but I use them off a 3V DC power supply with them wired in parallel. they seem quite robust in service, the only issue I have is that chilly blue light you would never have seen in those days my plan is to tint them with a hint of yellow to warm the colour of the light up and tone down the silver paint on the masts Kev
@markm: I'm not an electrical engineer, but I found a formula on Richmond Controls' website for figuring out which resistor to use. Just take the difference in voltage between your supply and what the LED uses. Then divide that number by how many amps the LED draws. Since I'll probably run them off 5V, I'll need a 2V/0.02A = 100 Ohm resistor. Easy Peasy. Or, I'll just run them off 3V and make everything even simpler. @kevsmith: Those look awesome. I'm not that picky about how warm or cool the lights are, just so long as they're all the same color and intensity. Also, since most modern streetlights use LEDs, a cool blue would be prototypical. I'm far more worried about reliability, so it's nice to hear they don't break down much. Did they all work out of the box? Thanks for the advice, I'll probably get them (or similar) and see how they do. At ~$0.75ea, they're definitely much less than the Marklin ones I currently have on my layout, although not nearly as fancy. I was pretty surprised by how much cheap Z stuff I can get on eBay or Ali Baba, especially the figures. I just wish somebody made Z-Scale signals that cheap.
Hi I use some China lights in Z or N, the Power under my layouts is 12V DC, so I solder under every light an resistor with 1K Ohm or more. For the couleur I paint the led mit an yellow marker. For my opinion are the China Light perfekt for an Industrial area
I have purchased over 80 of these LED street lights, and installed them on my layout and they work fine, Just add a 1.5k ohm resister to them on the plus side of the LED this is current limiting as the LED is a 3vdc device and I am using a 9 vdc source to power them If you are using a different dc supply you will need to use a different resistor for current limiting. 40 of these light are on a 1 amp supply and they draw 800 ma. 20 ma per lamp with this resistor. They are very bright at 20 ma. YO can direct connect these lamp to a 3 vdc supply without a resistor. I use 2 of the Rokuhan lighting attachments the C004 it puts out 10vdc and the unit can be powered by any Rokuhan controller just snap on the side terminals or it can be powered by it own wall transformer. I also use the Rokuhan LED for lighting their buildings.
@Garth-H That's a lot of lights. I don't think I'll have that many, but we'll see. My current plan is to run them off microprocessors so I can animate them if need be, so I'm probably best off using one of the 3V ones. I'll have to see how bright they are.
Connecting all the LED's directly to 3V power source, can create lots of variables. First, they are 'negative resistance' semiconductors meaning that as the temperature goes up (internal and external), the junction voltage goes down. It is about 3.2 volts @15 C and 3.1 at @40 C (the internal junction temperature is much higher than you think). So, if at a fixed 3.2 volts power, the current starts to go up and the heat too. Repeat. Figure 2: http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slyt284/slyt284.pdf The manufactured voltage variation is about +/- o.25 volt. The minimum voltage is just under 3.0 volts and typical average 3.3 volt and 4 volts at the upper. At the low 3 volts, there should only be < ~1 ma (average). At 3.3 volts, the current versus voltage curves 'flattens', where the current becomes very sensitive to the voltage, with about 1-5 ma for any given LED connected to the 3.3 volts, meaning varied light intensity (and color). At 3.5 volts, 5-10 ma. See graph at Figure 5: https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3070 Plus, 3 volts wall-warts are next to impossible to buy. Why not use typical 12 volt warts, available for $1 everywhere due to the security cameras and also part of the the Z-Bend Track 'Accessories' connections. Wire a 1K to 10K resistor in series with each LED (it does not matter which lead, they are both part of the series circuit). 1/8 or 1/4 watt is fine. 1K will make just under 10 ma which is QUITE BRIGHT in today's white LED's. ~10K is less intensity. With a 1K resistor, you could put one of the typical dimmers in between the 12V wart and the LED wire distribution (you still need the resistor to each LED !!!!). The 1K just sets the brightest light level. Example: https://tinyurl.com/y9xwwhb2 For an overview of LEDs: https://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/TND328-D.PDF
@SJ Z-man The plan isn't to hook up a bunch of LEDs to a 3V rail so I can turn the lights on and off using a SPST switch on my fascia. I'm planning to go much more digital than that. The plan is to hook up each LED to a separate I/O pin on an Arduino (or similar) so when the Arduino receives an input (such as from a stationary decoder) it will light them as programmed. Essentially, each LED will be under independent control rather than working as a group. If I want the lights to flash in a chaser pattern down my platforms, I can do that. I could also have platform lights only turn on when a train is in the station via JMRI/Block Detection. Pretty much whatever I want. But, I have to wire them up first. So, my options for this are to use a standard 5V Arduino (each I/O pin is 5V), with each LED having a 1 KOhm (or so) resistor between it and the pin. Or, I could just use a 3V microprocessor, such as the Teensy (which has more I/O pins anyway) and dispense with the resistors. Also, I could hook up the LEDs using a positive, 3V common (3V wall warts are cheap and plentiful, although more than $1) and hook up each ground pin to a 5V Arduino, turning them on by sending a LOW signal, which should let me operate 3V LEDs using a 5V Arduino, making things a bit simpler if and when I figure how how to do it. So, why not do the serial, limiting resistor and 5V pin thing? Well, I'm lazy. I really don't want to solder umpteen resistors if I don't have to. It's always an option, but it's more of a last resort than a plan.
5v + the resistors. This gives you known current limits. Direct drive @3 may not give you the brightness you expect (lets say that the driver isn't 3.0 volts or lossy with even a few milliamps so now 2.87 volts). 1K will be roughly 2 ma. Test with 1K and and maybe 270-680 ohms, assuming the I/O can drive/sink up to 10 ma. But why push it. 2-5 ma should *easily* make them more than bright. At least mine are.
