I have some of those. The leads are very long, with the resistor /capacitor at least two inches (probably 3) away from the LED. And the package is fat. It'll be a challenge to fit those in, though I guess you could snip the leads & shorten them, or wrap the wires around. The wires are a bit stiff. Nice LEDs, though. I'll try to get picts tomorrow. I'm sure there's someway to use them.
Here's the 1.8mm LED next to a Kato 11-105 for size comparison: The wires are stiff, and double-wound around the LED itself: I've already snapped one wire off trying to bend them around the LED. I'm sure they could work fine: I just haven't spent the time yet to sit down & figure them out. Nice bright LEDs though. This is the "Warm White"
Do you mean they wire-wrapped the LED leads? I guess that's one way to avoid soldering on the little buggers. Well, if that's the case, then good. That'll make it easier to shorten the leads and adjust the whole shebang to my requirements. I'm probably going to go with the 3mm in the boxcab and the 1.8 in the 59-tonner (since the headlight housing I'm probably going to use has a clear light-pipe in it). Thanks for posting this, oh man of many objects. Now back to your regularly scheduled kitbashing...
OK, I just got an email back from Evan Designs and they sent me a photo of their tiny "chip" LED. They use the super-fine magnet wire from the LED to the resistor/cap/rectifier part, then the heavier kynar wire from there on. They're going to post the picture to their site shortly, but I think that may be the best route for tiny lights, and maybe also for fiber optic use, since the magnet wire will be much easier to coil up and get out of the way in the small space. Nice thing about these is that the wires are already soldered on to the little chip LED. And the price is pretty darn good, too!
I just saw those on their website yesterday after you mentioned them, unless I was looking at the wrong thing. For the boxcab, I think I am better off with two regular LEDs with little fiber-optic octopi coming out of them going to the various lights, but I am noting this for the future. One possible issue - with that magnetic wire it is not hard to screw up the insulation, so one wants to handle carefully. The Intermountain AC-12 uses that stuff for the rear light on the tender. I need to replace that LED as I have apparently managed to blow it out, so this Evan Designs thing looks like the ticket. Adam
Magnet wire is quite robust. I have no fear in scraping the insulation off by mistake. I have a hard time cleaning it off at times to solder to it. I pretty much use it exclusively on LED's anymore. It is so much easier to hide in installations. There are a dozzen 603 LED's used in this HO station scene: All of them are wired with magnet wire and then the wire was painted over and it virtually disappears. Micro LED's are not hard to work with, it just takes the right equipment. I picked up the 12W micro pencil that Ngineering reccomends it makes them so much easier to deal with. 603 LED's are small enough for most applications. I do use the Nano LED's from Ngineering for high mount steam loco's because they are small enough to be installed in the headlight bucket. The LED is mounted in the headlight assembly and the magnet wires run down each bracket into the smoke box to power it. Here are the Nano's used in the making of ditchlights.
Nice one, Tony! Thanks for posting the detailed photos. That's a great help in figuring out my options. It appears that the folks at Evan Designs will gladly make up these LEDs just about any way you want them, if you ask nicely. They're going to make up a pair of chip LEDs for me with just a resistor, capacitor and single diode (rather than full bridge rectifier) so I can easily wire them up for directional lightning (DC, not DCC for me) and I'll be asking for shorter leads (stock length is 2 3/4 inch) so I don't need to cut and/or twist up much leftover in my little 2-inch locos.
My son (up late... time for bed, kiddo!) comes in a moment ago and shows me this in his PRR book: He was saying that if anyone else wants to join in, here's another possible candidate. Amazing how deep this train stuff runs...
I went to Cal Berkeley's InstiTOOT of Transportation Studies Library yesterday. Picked up John Kirkland's Dawn of the Diesel Age (Interurban Press, 1983), which has plenty o' picts & details of a kabillion boxcabs, including these beauties (which are being briefly quoted for review purposes): (Freud said: "Sometimes a cigar is just an early internal combustion engine that looks totally phallic.") (not sure if that counts as a "boxcab", but it looks cool) And this monster: Which would certainly raise some eyebrows on a layout. Very cool book. I recommend it to anyone interested in boxcabs & diesel engines in general. (no schematics, though. For those, I got Walter Lucas' 100 Years of Steam Locomotives, which has detail drawings of every type of STEAM loco from 0-4-0s to 4-8-8-4s. Crazy. But no boxcabs)
OK, had I been drinking, that would've been a two-nostril. I never knew Oscar Meyer had a steam engine. As for the armored boxcab, now that's what I'm talkin' bout! Imagine having some armored cars to go with it, and maybe a nice armored rail cannon. Woot!
Has anyone considered EMD's First E units, the ones they built for the Santa Fe, nicknamed "Amos 'n' Andy"? Does the Rock Island E6BA count?
Wow, other than the splashy paint job, I don't see why not! Seems like you could just chop the nose off an E7 or something and then build up a flat nose with a big headlight. Crazy!
Here's a link to picts of the RI E6BA. (scroll down) It's cab is box shaped. Stylin' but boxy. I'm guessing they served martinis with olives on that. Only two were built? Guess you could do number three.
More progress... Yesterday I was able to work a little bit on the roof-top details. This is just roughed in for now. I need to remove one row of the side radiator piping and I'm going to use something smaller than the WD-40 pipe for the sides of the main end radiators. I'm thinking I'll probably try using the jacket from a strand of CAT5 cable for that. I'm using a piece of styrene with some clear plastic as the center thingy (some rectangular thing on the roof) and some truck kingpin parts for stacks. The roof has yet to be cut to length (still measuring and remeasuring so I don't mess it up) but it's nice and clean now after stripping. Once I get this all cut up and glued, I'll paint it a nice, flat, dingy, very-dark-grey (almost black) color. :tb-biggrin:
Interesting posts. Hope on on the East Coast are safe. I'm back in the game and will be getting a few more graphics done in the next few days. Will be sending the chassis.
Awesome Steve, can't wait to see what you come up with. My son and I have already started sourcing "parts" to use (taking apart an old circuit board, neat stuff on there). Having a blast so far.
This is more of a "concept" image. A few issues: Will need to be re-sized to fit on a Kato critter chassis Nose might need to be adjusted to allow for MT couplers reach Top really could be anything those a semi pyramid "layers" / scoops could be interesting Paint current, (Baltimore and Ohio Blue / Gold), scheme could remain but I'm working on a CP red as well. Details can be "added to taste" such as some form of lights and gizmos. I have a lot of circuit boards from old PCs.
