I have rebuilt my control panel and want to put in T 1 3/4 (or 5mm) bipolar LED's to indicate direction on turnout position. The bipolar LED's I am finding are all about 2.7 to 3.0 max volts. I am going to use these mostly w/ Tortoise machines. I have assigned one of my many power packs left over from the DC block days to be dedicated to the Tortoise machines. That way, I can hook variable DC and adjust voltage as necessary.. up or down. Circuitron shows the LED's wired in seriew and indicates an approxmate VD of 2 volts across each LED... yet the Tortoise needs a minimum voltage to run. Seems to me if you have more than enough voltage to run the LED's and a Tortoise, you'd blow the LED.. .. if you crank on supply voltage, the Tortoise machines wouldn't operate properlly with voltage drop across multiple LED's. ?????? Also for someone that has done this.. what is the best way to hook up the LED leads to have them swapped out if they are blown. I'd hate to keep cutting-stripping and soldering wire everytime one "goes".
I've used bi-colour leds on my old layout for over 2 years with no problems encountered. I'm now re-using them on my new layout. Check out the following thread: Slow motion turnout machines
I have used LEDs in series with one of th leads to the Tortoise motor for several years now. The Tortoise motor acts as a resistor and limits the amount of current that can go to the LED. In fact, they limit it so much that the LEDs are not as bright as I would like them to be. David
