I've been thinking of adding lights to my Kato N scale Daylight set. From what I've read any kit involving bulbs is a no go due to the heat. Of the LED kits are any better or worse ? Did any of the LED kits have faults such as failing from too high a track voltage ?
LEDs are always better than bulbs due to their low current consumption and longevity. I used kits on all my Operation North Pole cars and they have been running for a few years (only during the holidays) with no issues at all. I run DCC so even at HO DCC voltage, it isn't an issue. No, I'm not a HO person. For big shows where we have big layouts, sometimes we switch to HO voltage in our DCC command station to have decent voltage on the farthest ends.
I got a 6 pack of the Kato lighting kits specifically for my Daylight set. Now I'm wondering if they come with capacitors or not. There doesn't seem to be much written about them ....... While I'm at it I shall try to figure out why the Kato articulated bogies seem to pop off so easily.
Kato lighting kit(s) don't come with capacitors. There's really no need for capacitors. Assuming you installed them correctly, if they flicker you have dirty tracks.
@308GTSi are you running on a DCC layout? If so would you like to be able to control lighting on and off with the command station?
LEDs visually respond to variations in their driving voltage much more rapidly than bulbs, and thus my visibly flicker more than an incandescent light bulb under the same track conditions. This is a very minor disadvantage of LEDs, compared to all the disadvantages of incandescent bulbs. A capacitor can eliminate the flickering, and due to LED's lower current requirements, the capacitance value does not have to be as large. The capacitor should be in parallel with the LED(s) on DC locos. However, DCC decoders include capacitors in the on-board power supply from the rectified track power, and thus should eliminate LED flickering unless track is really dirty, which would also affect general operation, not just lighting. Since DCC voltage is constant, independent of throttle speed, DCC lighting at low locomotive speeds is much less dependent on track cleanliness than with DC.
308GTSi, I am by no means an expert but offer my experience. The articulated boogies should not easily fall off, check KATO website and they have excellent videos on how to dismember and reassemble the articulated sets. If not done right they are a PITA. The KATO light sets will work as is. However, I did not care for the non prototypical ( IMHO ) bright lite. here is a night image with their original on the right and my version of a modified on the left. Much better IMHO : Just because I like to show off, here is what I did to the bar car : As Nike says " just do it ".
Considering my level of electrical ability you are being put in the "expert" group as far as I'm concerned
Can't argue with any of that @308GTSi The reason I was asking if this was going to be operated on DCC is to suggest some out of the box (mostly) solutions for that scenario. I forgot the context of the parent thread which is DCC so major DOH! on my part lol. Even on analog having power backup takes out the toy-like flicker but comes at a cost to the wallet. https://www.modeltraintechnology.com/ manufactures a really nice DCC light board with electrical storage options that are perfect for most Kato cars as they snap into place to the shell. One other advantage is they have a dual row light board option for cars that have offset longitudinal partitions like sleepers to get the best symmetrical lighting. Price is one drawback though and the other is (at the time I last purchased) they didn't have shorter boards for the articulated cars and you can't cut them to size. So for my Daylight set I went all ESU DCC light boards as you can cut those to varying lengths depending on needs and you can add in supercaps for a little extra cost but you purchase them separately and solder them into place yourself. Still though the ESU solution is cheaper than modeltraintech with power backup at ~$28 per car. Downside is they are more of a generic board meant for N and HO therefore do not fit/snap into place to a kato car like the model train tech boards. Both solutions do require some minor soldering as there is no plug and play like the Kato lighting kits. Also each offers the ability to to set lighting intensity as well other effects. Here is a model train tech board during installation. Note the black rectangles which are the stay alive caps. There are more open slots but cost more money to fill from the factory. I found this combo to be adequate for my needs. With 1/2 intensity I get about 10 seconds of reserve power. Like Carl mentioned full intensity is unrealistic so turn them down a bit and enjoy the extra power reserve. Below are pics of the ESU install on my daylight set. First pic is showing wires ran to the pickup strips under the floor. Those had to be soldered so the floor does have to be removed to extract the strips for soldering. The supercaps I installed on these boards. These are ESU branded caps but you can get the same thing on digikey for a bit less. With 1/2 intensity settings I get almost a minute of power reserve with these! Installed in the car. There is enough room between the roof and the board to keep the caps up and out of the way. I use double sided 3M foam tape to keep the board attached to the car body.
Our club track (I don't have a layout) is DCC. If I put a DCC equipped coach on DC I guess it would be bad right ?? Just as bad as putting a DCC loco on DC only rails.
I checked those videos and they are veeeeeeeeery helpful, thanks mate. Maybe I'm overly cautious these days but I hesitate to pull some trains apart if it doesn't seem somewhat obvious. The worst was an Athearn Challenger even though it has a parts diagram it does not hint at how to get it apart undamaged. So what was the solution to make your Daylight cars more realistic , , they look good.
Both brands look great ......... I don't have to stick to one brand so the most suitable board for each car would be the go. I like their variability of lighting intensity and whiteness. While writing my response I realised all those tan interiors are going to look awfully generic (Tan does look awfully good in sports car interiors though. ). I have a good collection of SP books with plenty of interior photos so I may have to get the very fine paint brush out. I have a Digitrax PR4 and Sprog 2 for programming ........ will these work with these light boards ?
Each of the boards I mentioned use the function keys from the command station differently so that is something to consider when mixing them in a single consist. For instance the Model Train Tech turns on lights with F0 while the ESU has 6 zones on each board that can be activated individually (F3-F7) or F2 for all zones. Note that on n scale and after cutting the boards to fit the most zones you'll have is 3. If you want a single function key to turn on and off the entire consist you'll want to stick with the same brand. Because these are DCC decoders you can program addresses like you would a loco for each individual board. Also both of the boards have axillary outputs so you can activate EOT lights and drumheads with their own F key.
