At Walmart this evening, I saw these "rope lights" in white and blue strings. They were $5 for 18 feet (5 watts per foot). I was thinking they might make good general lighting for my new layout, with a dimmer on each strand so I could adjust for the time of day (noon to midnight). The question I have is whether anyone has any experience with these lights for this purpose, and if they work on a dimmer. It's hard to tell if they're a string of LEDs or NE2s inside the plastic tube. (This image is from the Consumer Product Safety Commission site. They don't like the on/off switch shown because it only works on one-half of the circuit. The switch is not safe for protecting against shock.) [ 09 July 2001: Message edited by: ten87 ]
Sounds like an interesting idea. For what it's worth, i use the small, straw shaped christmas tree lights[twinkle lites without the twinkler installed] to light the lower level of my two level layout-the bulbs individually give off almost no heat, but when five or six 100 lite strings are strung over an 8' area, the lighting effect is quite pleasing. The beauty of it is [model RRing on a shoestring is my speciality], i got the lights after christmas on clearance for twenty five cents a string-got 60 strings of them. Dimmer sounds like a good idea-will have to try that. Curt
I am using those rope lights for under the upper level to light my bottom level. I experiment with a borrowed string before I bought and found laying it like a snake with lots of curves gave the best lighting. I now have 5 strands waiting to be installed.
I haven't got a response from the mfg yet, but I found several DJ web sites that talk about using the rope lights with color organs and dimmers. It looks like the biggest issue is wattage. A 10 foot length is a little over 50 watts. I'll need to get a high-wattage dimmer. Rick, did a single strand of rope provide enough lighting? I'm planning on the lamps being a foot above a 18 inch deep shelf layout.
I use the string lights to light the buildings of my layout..... Its economical and and very less expensive to buy the bulbs when one blows.... Just don't for get to buy up all you possibly can at Christmas time or your going to have alot of buildings and homes with lights on on one floor of the building and ALOT out on other levels if you would happen to forget to buy up the replacement bulbs at Christmas time And it works great being I rewire mine from 110 AC current to 24 volts DC and have a multiple range high output controlable Xformer.... Not like you would get from a hobby shop, but from an electrical supply store.. Expensive as well but with out last and hobby Xformer! And has a higher output in amps then the hobby Xformer does.... 12 volts DC with 1 amp is great with a real touchy with a real touchy reostat..... Very sensitive controls is the way to go to make your loco's creep at eye watch revolutions on the wheels, where you actually see the wheels go around and not something that just went flying by! It makes up for the scale speed and control and feel of actuall railroading... "Just like the real thing....only smaller" [ 10 July 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]</p>
I had one string about 19 inches above the lower deck. It was not straight across, but snaking. I found by snaking I got the required lighting. I think if I hadn't snake it, I might not have had enough light. However, my lighting is about 7 inches higher than what you are planning, so I can't comment on yours if you are planning to run it straight instead of snaking, and 12 inches instead of 19 inches. If you have already bought one, it would be easy enough to experiment with it. I don't have plans to set it on a dimmer.
Most of your standard household dimmer switches are rated for 660 watts. At least the ones that you hard-wire into a light switch are. $10 and a box with some wire and you'll be in business! Mark
As it turns out, the hotel I'm staying in this week has these rope lights under the bathroom counter. A single strand is NOT bright enough to even consider a dimmer. It would be four or five strands to reach the desired full brightness. That being the case, I could put a switch for each of the five strands. Turning one strand off would give me 80% total illumination, two off would be 60%, and so on. Since my intent was to have equal strands of blue and white so I could dim between full moon (blue strands) and full noon (white strands), there'd be TEN strands above the layout. I'm not sure that'd be worth the hassle...
One strand will work if you snake it across. BUT I have an upper deck to reflect light back down onto the lower deck. I haven't painted it white yet, when I do I know more light will be reflected down.
