I've always kept structure

I've always kept structure lighting, and misc. lighting on a completely different circuit, maybe powered by a separate unused DC power pack.

I didn't know it was cool to tie this into the main buss for used for the track work.  I'll have to watch along and see what advise you get.  I'm sure it's going to include some resistors.

Mike.

Styrene "U"

Hi Patricio,

I usually make "U" shaped pieces using scrap styrene, glue them to the inside of the building with solvent cement and run the wires through them.

I've also used tape and glue...but they tend to come loose over time.  The plastic insulation on the wire is not compatible with most adhesives.

separate power supply

Hey Mike,

The LED's I'm using did come with resistors attached and I do have an old Tech3 Power pack I could start using to run the lights on my layout.  The layout is just a small 9X4 shelf layout. I'm using the NCE starter throttle to power it. If anyone could jump in and let me know if it's ok to run off my buss or use a separate power pack I'd appreciate it

Pat

Power Supplies

For lighting power supplies I have what's called a wall-wart. They are a dedicated 1 voltage power supply like what charges up your phone. You can also get them as a variable supply. The ones I have start at around 12v and go down to 1 or 1.5v. Walmart has them in their electronic section. Cut the connector part off and pull the paired wire apart. Solder or use suitcase connectors to connect to the bus wire.

I would also run the paired wall-wart wire through a toggle on/off switch then split the wires between the terminal strips. Sounds more complicated then it is.

DO NOT mix lighting and RR power. You get a short and it's 2 or 3 times the checking you have to go through to find it.

Bus wire, I'd strip enough insulation off each bus wire to go the length of the building. Solder each led wire to the the bus wires and make a couple of U shaped brackets out some small scrap styrene pieces or file a notch in some bigger pieces and trapping a bus wire under that glue it to the wall with several inches between each bus wire.

Back before LED's I used 1.5 and 12v mini lights for my structures. I also had terminal strips that used some pretty good sized screws to hold the wires. These came in 2-12 paired strips. I would take 1 of the power supply wires and run it the length of a power strip. Do 2 terminal strips like that and then run my wires from each light bulb to the terminal strips 1 wire to each strip.

I would also run the paired wall-wart wire through a toggle on/off switch then split the wires between the terminal strips. Sounds more complicated then it is.

Back then I had a city section with retail and industrial buildings on it and wired up interior and exterior lights to 2 wall-warts. Worked really well.

Jack 

Separate power bus

I’m no electrical guru, but I’d go for a separate power bus for any accessories or lights. I’m going to run a couple of Arduinos which will control servos to switch my turnouts off such a bus. I’ll use a 12volt power supply and just drop wires off the bus to wherever I need power. If I need something other than 12v I’ll add a “DC buck converter” to change the voltage. These are cheap on eBay and accept a wide range of input voltages, and allow you to adjust the output voltage, typically over a wide range. Just search Buck Converter.

For the wire runs, you might consider using “magnet wire”. This is very thin wire (like the stuff they wind motor coils with) which is insulated by enamelling the wires. Just a thought.

12 volt DC bus

Hi Pat,

My layout is DCC.  My switches are Switch-its and Hares with Circuitron Tortoise switch machines run off the DCC bus for both power and control.  I found that a 12 volt DC bus afforded me further control of the switches, lights, anamation and sound by using Arduino and shortly ESP32 with inexpensive voltage converters.  This has been a good marriage of technogies as well as spreading the load.  The DC side of the equation has been fairly inexpensive.  The power supplies can be a spare wall wart, a car battery substitute or charger or a Chinese switching power supply.  At 12 volts a simple resistor can reduce the current for LED or incandescent lights.  I prefer voltage converters for Arduino and ESP devices.

Essentially the 12 volt bus is an easy way to supply useable electricity to your layout.

Hope this helps!

Nick 

Nick

hey Nick,

are you suggesting I could use my old tech2 dc transformer for my LEDS just to add resistors to them first then make a new buss line using the tech2 and use it only for lights separate from my track power?  Am I understanding that correctly?

thanks 

Pat

Jack

i get what you’re saying about the wall wart for power, will my old tech2 dc power pack work for my power, just run a separate line next to my track power and keep them separate?  All the LED’s I use have resistors.  With that being the case what would be the point of hooking up a toggle switch?  I appreciate the help

Pat

Ron

hi Ron,

i actually have one of those buck converters laying around I just have no clue how to use it.  Can I use my old power pack tech2 dc and hook it up that way for my lights buss?

Pat

I want to say yes, but with qualifications.  I think there is a dc and an ac output on your throttle.  You will want to know which is which and the voltage output of the dc one.  (Borrow a volt/ohm meter if necessary.). I think that the track out is dc and varies as the throttle is increased and decreased.  Again the volt/ohm meter will help you set the output voltage.  Polarity will be changed with “direction” and I would not use pulse dc function.  I forget what the pulse dc switch is called.

I use my MRC tech? To power my Atlas switch machines.  It works very well.

I happened to have some 14 gauge solid wire for house wiring to make the bus with.  If you use the heavier wire you can expand the use over time.  A smaller gauge wire will work as well (larger number, 18 or 20 or 22 or even 24 gauge should get you started.

YouTube has a guy, learnelectronics, that has done a number of videos on VOMs and just finished one that might suggest a good cheap VOM that would work for you for a very long time and be very useful as well.  Here’s the link

Good luck!

Nick

Pat

As Nick said, make sure you use the DC output on the tech2, not the AC, otherwise the magic smoke will come out. As to using the buck converters, hook the input side to your accessory bus (taking note of polarity) and then adjust the output voltage appropriately. Mine have a small screw to do this. You can use a multimeter set to read voltage to monitor the output voltage as you adjust. The whiz bang models have an LCD which shows the voltage. Mine don’t. The converters I have are adjustable (from memory) between 3 and 12 volts. The only caveat is that the input voltage must be higher than the required output voltage. Most of these will accept a range of input voltages, but check the specs. 

Once you’ve set the output voltage, attach the output side of the converter to your LEDs, Arduino, etc. Using this method you could have an assortment of accessories running off a single bus, just by running individual drops off the bus through a number of converters, each of which can be set to different voltages. Simple. It must be if I understand it.

edit: I just had a quick look on eBay and the Tech2 units I saw there had three sets of outputs: Variable DC (for controlling train speed), Fixed AC (magic smoke) and Fixed DC. 

The Fixed DC is the one you’ll want to use for your power bus. It didn’t say but I think that will be 12v. If not, it will be pretty close, and should work with your converters.

@Ron, Nick.... AC is not that dangerous

Not dangerous to use the AC for LEDs.... But I agree, DC is optimal.  Just don't forget to watch the polarity.

IF using the AC, Add a  diode [suggest 1n4001]  to derive pulsed DC from those terminals.... add a capacitor to buffer the pulses... all in all, too much to add compared to using the DC terminals.

Using the DCC Track Bus would be an advantage IF you intend to do LCC (layout command control)... otherwise, an added dedicated wall wart would suffice. 

Pat

I agree with the rest of the replies. I used the toggle switch because I could turn the lights off when done with running the layout and didn't have to unplug the wal wart. On/off switch on Tech 2 does same thing.

One thing about adding lights to keep in mind is that sometimes our layout lighting comes out far brighter then the real world. LED's are good at this which is fine if your are doing a modern layout. Mine is set in the 50's and I can tell you from wandering home from a friends or my hitchhiking days street lighting and outside area lights don't cast a light very far. One reason I used the variable walwarts was that even with a resistor on the light lead I would put the walwart at 1.5v. It dimmed the lights considerably but to me they looked much more realistic. When hitchhiking at night and I did a lot of that, you had to stand directly under the light. Get 20ft away from the pole and you were invisible. 20ft in HO scale is 2 3/4inches. Not very far and in N scale it is about 1/2 of that.

Just some observations     Jack

Modern street lighting is very dim!

I remember bright almost white street lighting in the 50's, 60's, & 70's.  Sometime in the 90's I think cities out here started installing low wattage "efficient" lighting.  Now local street lights appear to be dull yellow!  It seem to me that the street lights light up an area of about 10 feet.  Since the lights are higher than 10 feet the light almost does not reach the ground!  Every time I see a bicycle rider or pedestrian who is almost invisible even while directly under a street light, I want to put a bunch of city planners who caused the installation of such useless lighting in prison.  

The change was...

from Mercury vapor to Sodium vapor a lot more efficient and not as hazardous, not as bright a noted...

Peace, Bill

Russ

While reading your comment I remembered that city lighting was proving to be a real issue with astronomy and seeing things way out there in space. Way to much artificial light so changes were made. Safety lost out.

Jack