led wiring help ?

[monica]

hi all maybe not the right place for this,

I,m after so help with power supply for leds ,what to use ,?

do i use a 9v battery or 4 x AA , and what do you look for and were ,?

and also swichers, for on/off under model trains or do you have any site that is good and cheap for this type of thing ?

any help would be great thank you :D

 

[Graham D]

There are plenty of online lighting shops that specialise in LEDs, one I use in the UK is http://www.ledhut.co.uk. This might give you some idea on a psu for LEDs

 

[roymattblack]

Get them from Maplins if there's one near you.

Cheap - 10 LED's for £3.50.

They even do a box of 80 mixed, for £6.50!

Simple on/off switch, £0.50p.

Almost every LED on the planet runs on between 3v and 12v.

Run them from a PP3 battery, all wired in parallel.

Easy.

If you're a bit baffled, PM me. I use LED's all the time.

Roy.

 

[Airfix Modeller Freak]

For Australian people, go to Jaycar electronics and you will find what you need. A rocker switch is ideal as it can fit into the side or wherever you want to put it.

John

 

[Laurie]

Moni I got mine on Ebay.

Put in your browser "LED strip lighting model trains". Ebay Australia have some but not the amount that the USA and UK have.

If you put in the above to Ebay UK you will see the range which includes switches PP9 battery connectors. There is also a battery holder which has a switch incorporated within the box.

Not sure how much it will cost shipping from the UK. A couple I looked at on Ebay Aus. had UK adverts and the shipping did not seem to bad. But they did not have switches and the battery boxes.

I bought amber coloured lights. What ever you do it is best to suit the colour to your model. Mine are going in a merlin Helicopter so I wanted subdued lighting.

Laurie

 

[monica]

thank you all, for your help, :D

some times just not real sure on what to look for know what i need but not the right names,

like that one Laurie,PP9 battery connectors, i know what they look like and are used for but not the name im so silly at times, :oops:

think i will use the warm yellow ones the white are to bright, for my liking,

have never been to jay car John, just sound pricey :eek: i like cheap,

thank you Roy i will remember that,always handy to have someone who know,see 50p or $ 1.oo to us is good,for a switch :rolleyes:

ta Graham will have alook

 

[Deleted member 3568]

For help with wiring them up check Led array wizard you put your source voltage in the number of leds you're using the forward voltage of your led and it will work out the wiring and tell you if you need any resistors.

 

[monica]

oh thats getting tech on me Ken, is there a link to that site to have alook plz, im only using 3 maybe 5 tops, but most likly only 3

and what dose a resistors., do get wire in before the switch ?

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Hi moni if you type led array wizard in Google it will come up as led parallel series array wizard or something like that . If you are using a pp9 that's 9volts most leds run at 3.2 volts so if you were using 2 leds that's only 6.4 volts and if you wired those to a 9 volt battery obviously it would blow them. The resistors absorb the extra voltage and stop the leds blowing. Sorry not good with Internet don't know how to give you a link to the array wizard.

 

[monica]

ta Ken that makes 2 off use my friend the dark powers of the net

i think the ones i buy do have a resistor on them as you can feel it under the covering they have on them a long kind of round thing

as they are prewired,

just trying to find a simple on/off switch,and i think if it has only 2 wires out you just brake the red to each side ?

 

[Deleted member 3568]

moni leds when you buy them have 2 long wires on them one longer than the other the long one is the positive anode if yours have 2 stiff wires coming out of them with no insulation on they do not have a built in resistor could you post a pic of what you have.

 

[Airfix Modeller Freak]

Jaycar is actually quite cheap btw

John

 

[Laurie]

I bought mine as a set ie LEDs PP9 battery case and switch. Good point you brought up there KP. Had not noticed that some sold with out the battery etc. ie just sold as a strip are sold as 12v and up to 18v. Preseume you then run on a charger type unit. as a 12v battery is big and cumbersome.

These are the PP9 ones I bought.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Model-Railway-Scenery-Building-LED-Strip-Lights-Kit-All-Colours-Lengths-/261180875194?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&var=&hash=item3ccf97e1ba

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Model-Scenery-LED-Strip-Lights-Kit-Enclosed-PP3-Holder-ON-OFF-Switch-Prewired-/261353141339?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&var=&hash=item3cd9dc745b

For both these sites, think they are the same company, the postage given for Aus. is £4

Mine have been on for 12 hours at a time I can only presume that they have a resistor built in some where. Noticed that there is a little black object looking important which is soldered into the array. You can see it in the pictures on the above sites.

Laurie

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Yea they have the resistors in them but if buying singly a doubt they would as the manufacturers would not know whatyour ssource voltage would be so could not know what resistor you needed

 

[Laurie]

moni leds when you buy them have 2 long wires on them one longer than the other the long one is the positive anode if yours have 2 stiff wires coming out of them with no insulation on they do not have a built in resistor could you post a pic of what you have.

The ones in the sites above actually have red and black insulation.

If you can hide the PP9 on your model some where the wires are probably long enough. If not you will need an extension you can pick this up for peanuts.

Laurie

This is how I have lit the Merlin..View attachment 83722

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View attachment 83726

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Alternatively if you didn't want to worry about resitors you could use 2 watch batteries on top of eachother depending on what type of watch batteries they last upto 3 hours on 1 led

 

[monica]

hi Laurie, thank you for the help as an inside light that works very well, and i do remember you doing that chopper as well, :D

but i need to run them as single back to one point as there street lights, so that would not work in this case, but i mite use some think inside the building :rolleyes:

hear are some pics did try to get good one for you Ken sill phone camera

if you look you can see a long tube thing on one side under the heat shrink , with a raised bit on each end ,hope that gives you a better idea

View attachment 83756

View attachment 83757

 

[Deleted member 3568]

Yes moni I can see there is something there but did you buy them from a supplier who knew your source voltage as without that they would not know what value resistor to add to the led. the bulge is on the side where a resistor should be if there was one. It's a bit late now but I will photo one of the single ones I use tomorrow so you can compare

 

[monica]

mmm thats a hard one for me to answer, as i got the cheap ones off evilbay,

what i could do is open up the heatshrink and see if i can get a pic of some type of the color patten on it ?

because once set into the Dio, it would be a nitemare to try and change them :oops:

 

[Deleted member 3568]

here is what I use they are 12 quid for 50

there is no resistor on these