For those who have used either/both which do you prefer in terms of installation and effect. I installed a Kato light kit in a RDC recently (with Digitrax decoder) and I am going to need to work on reducing and evening out the lighting and wondered if Easy Peasy was any better in that regard. Thanks.
Can't comment on the ease of installation, since I've never installed an easy peasy, but the battery power eliminates a lot of other problems like the intensity varying with track power, flickering, ect. A club member installed some in some ConCor Heavyweights.....it required a little trimming to the light board at each end (be careful!) and a little trimming on the car interior. He also put a couple in a building with good results. Downside is having to buy batteries....guess it depends on how much you plan to use the lights....for a few hours a week they seem to last quite a while.....at least the ones in my Rapido cars have.
I've put them in a Super Chief and Daylight set, the main advantage is no flicker from dirty wheels and track, and when running DCC the lights can be switched off when not needed, several 12+ car lighted passenger trains sitting on the layout can draw a bit of power. I think the batteries will last quite a while as I only have the lights switched on when running in the dark. I have had to shorten the light boards to fit some cars, eg;Super Chief RPO. I just cut the board beyond the black 'blob' containing the circuitry, cut a piece off the remaining section to shorten the board, ACC the sections back together and solder across the tracks on the board. I have left the second LED off some altogether by bridging across the tracks on the shortened board with a short piece of wire.
Thanks guys. I forgot to mention that I'm looking at installing in a Super Chief set. Not having the current draw and flicker is a nice feature and I won't be running the lights all the time so I don't think battery life will be a concern. How is the brightness and light distribution? The Kato/Digitrax set up was too bright for my taste and the light distribution was not even (expectedly). I can work with this but if the Easy Peasy is better out of the box that would be a plus. The lighting as a more subtle effect as opposed to a prominent feature is what I'm after.
It's my understanding that the batteries in the Easy Peasy boards are good for about four hours of total use. That's not too long, but if they are only on for running when needed that's likely to last a while. Kato's LED passenger car lights draw little/no current to speak of. They shouldn't be compared at all to the current draw of the old bulb units. However, if you have some of the old bulb units, Richmond Controls makes an upgrade piece for them that in its simplest form will give you an LED at a reasonable brightness (Tell Jim what you want). Upgrade it a bit and you have flicker free lighting too. Compare the co$t$ of batteries and the trip(s) to the store to buy them and you may find that an LED upgrade powered from the track will last much longer. Just my thoughts. No affiliation other than a happy customer. Speaking of this whole topic - though perhaps I should start my own thread: I've always been interested in the idea of making my own high end lighting for passenger cars. I've mail-ordered a lot of parts, looked at a lot of great websites (mostly in German, this doesn't seem too popular in the US), read older articles in MR (through-hole parts) and RMC (SMD parts), and done a lot of wishful thinking. Richmond controls has 24" by about 1/4" strips designed to be cut to length and stocked with your own parts to make surface mount flicker free lights custom configured any way YOU want to make them (Yourself). I am apparently the only person who has ever ordered bare boards. I want to try soldering them myself. Too much work? Do you think there would be general interest among the readers of any of the published magazines? I don't want to give away all my secrets here, but I'd love to share what I'd like to write! Terry
Stan; Use the new led lights that Kato has come out with. The current draw is minimal and you said the passenger train won't be run that long. You'll be replacing batteries all too soon. I have them in the new Rapido passenger cars. It's a novelty but sometimes the new technology isn't that great in the long scheme of things.
Terry, thanks for the "four hour" info and the mention of Richmond Controls. I would certainly have an interest in a quality track-powered lightboard in the future. Bob, have you used the decoders for the Kato Light kits? The Easy Peasy kits sound like they look good and short term they would probably work ok but once I am able to start a bigger layout where we can run it longer it may not be as good an option. The Super Chief belongs to one of my boys and he keeps bugging me about lights so I want to do something-at least in a couple of the cars for starters.
Thanks for the info on easy-peasy lighting. I have four kits on order from internet trains right now to try and install in my Con-Cor heavyweights and lightweights. When I finally get them I'll post my results. Paul/
Battery life is definitely an issue, but mine have lasted way over 4 hours.....probably 4 or 5 times that at least. I also have a hat light that uses 2 pancake batteries like the easy peasy lights and has 5 LEDs and it's probably got 40 or 50 hours on the batteries and still seems to be going strong.....I had a FRED light that ran continuously for over a month when I put it away after a club event and forgot to turn it off......LED's don't draw that much but I'm still dreading when the time comes to replace all those batteries, and they'll most likely all go together since they all run together. You didn't mention the age of the son , but if he's young and would be inclined to turn the lights on "cuz they look cool" or would be apt to walk off and leave them on, then I'd probably go with the Kato lights. The fact they'd drop right in would be a plus also. I like the E-P lights for my use, but the Kato LED's should be easy to install and do a good job also.
