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Structure LED lighting Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 188 posts steamhog Regular poster 188 posts
steamhog

This building front is illuminated with 2 LED's removed from a 3-LED strip.   It's  the "machine shop" from  River Leaf Models .

front(1).jpg 

The light from the "warm white" 12 volt 3-LED strips looks incandescent, and the strips can also be run on a 9 volt battery, looking quite bright. 

In this example, I cut two of the LED's off the strip to use them underneath the shades that came with the structure.

ip%20cut.jpg 

This above picture shows an uncut  strip and one with two cuts and jumpers to illuminate the LED's. Ordinary scissors are fine for cutting the strips.

20serial.jpg 

This above picture shows the two LED's ready to be mounted in the shades.  It's not something I would recommend doing, but in this case it was good to make use of the LED's and the shades.  They're attached with white glue.

dividual.jpg 

This is a closeup of the LED in the shade.  I used 30 gauge wire , which doubles as a bracket.  

tester.jpg 

It's good to test each LED individually. This is my 99 cent tester. The two batteries are wired to provide 3 volts.  I added a 100 ohm resistor which drops it to 2.6 volts.

side.jpg 

Here's a side view, in subdued room lighting the interior illumination from the 3 light strips is excellent. 

Also, a ceiling view:ceiling.jpg 

The two exterior LED's are connected to the short strip above the door, and two 3-LED strips are on the center beam.  There's also a 470 ohm resistor reducing the voltage to 7 volts for the interior lights.  The exterior lights are at about 8 volts.  For modeling, 12 volts would probably makes the lights brighter than needed.  

For modular setups going to train shows, 12 volts might be okay, because the room lights are typically bright.  

 

 

 

 

Chris
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CVmike Active Member 92 posts
CVmike

Nice job

Had not though removing from strip and connecting back up with wire.

Be CVna ya

Mike
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CofG_810 New member 7 posts
CofG_810

Thanks

A nice how-to indeed. I am considering lighting up some of my buildings, how should I put power to them?
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steamhog Regular poster 188 posts
steamhog

reply to lighting question

There are two options for do-it-yourselfers who solder:

the lights : Micro-Mark warm white LED strip

a dimmer:  Micro-Mark LED dimmer

A no-solder system is available from  Woodland Scenics.    The lighting looks good, but I haven't used it myself.

 

Chris
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UglyK5 Super User 1,128 posts
UglyK5

Nice job and nice tutorial!

Nice job and nice tutorial!  

I use the Woodland Scenics just plug lighting hub to power and control brightness on similar 3 LED strip sections:

https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Hobbies-Collecting/Diorama-Figurines/Just-Plug-Lights-and-Hub/p/80725650

Not too spendy with their everyday 40% off coupon and works well

jeff

 
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“Think before you post, try to be positive, and you do not always have to give your opinion.....”
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Ken Hutnik huthut Regular poster 191 posts
Ken Hutnik huthut

Thanks for sharing what your did

I have some strip remnants and now I better understand how I could chop them up to use them.  However, I got a little lost at testing. You only needed 3V to test them but they run at 8v normally?  Why the 100k resister if they could handle up to the 8v? Thanks again for documenting and sharing! Ken

Ken
My projects: Ken's Model Trains
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Jim at BSME Prolific poster 2,078 posts
Jim at BSME

LEDs

I could let Steamhog answer, but I want to keep this idea handy so...

The LEDs in the 3 LED piece of the strip each need about 3V to light, the groups of three are connected in series so each LED drops about 3V from the power supply. Since an individual LED needs about 3V to light, that is used for testing.

Resistors are used to limit current for LED purposes, not really to drop the voltage although they do that. A 100 ohm resistor is used in this test setup to make sure the LED doesn't get blown by too much current. I'm guessing you are referring to the 100 ohm resistor when you mention 100k.

In use the strips are in their series group of three and a 560 ohm resistor on the strip, an additional 470 ohm resistor is used to dim the interior LEDs slightly. The two exterior lamps are connected back in series with the single LED above the door on the inside.

So 3 volts for testing an individual LED and 8 volts to run the three LEDs in series.

Hope this helps.
- Jim B.
Baltimore Society of Model Engineers, Estd. 1932
O & HO Scale model railroading
Check out BSME on: Facebook, Instagram
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steamhog Regular poster 188 posts
steamhog

LEDs , thank you Jim

Jim: thank you for an excellent explanation to Ken's inquiry about the differing voltage.  Without exception, all LED's require a 3 volt limit, but in the 3 LED strip they're wired in series, sharing the voltage limited by the tiny built in resistor.   

This 2014 issue of O Scale Resource has a thorough description of LED structure lighting, applicable to any scale.

http://oscale.uberflip.com/i/229776-january-february-2014.  See page 48 for "The Magic of Lighting".  It's a fun read with a bit of detail on how to wire LED's.

Chris
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Jim at BSME Prolific poster 2,078 posts
Jim at BSME

O-scale resource article

Your welcome and thanks for the O-scale resource article it has an excellent LED current limiting resistor calculator link. I think the article is more detail than most people want, but it is probably the most complete one I have read in the model press.
- Jim B.
Baltimore Society of Model Engineers, Estd. 1932
O & HO Scale model railroading
Check out BSME on: Facebook, Instagram
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herronp Prolific poster 1,831 posts
herronp

I made some "globe" lights for my station platform by......

..........cutting the top off of old clear 5 mm LEDs and gluing them to 5 mm mega LEDs from Evan’s Designs. The housings were made from styrene channel with ends added.

54EB471.jpeg 

0E85879.jpeg 

B05ADC1.jpeg 

Peter
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