LED lighting on track
So I am nearing completion of the track upgrade that I have done over the past month with cars running fairly smoothly. Still might be a Tweak or two in the last few feet of track. Now I want to kind of dress things up and improve lighting in some of the areas of my track.
So next, I wanna dress up some parts of my track with some LED lighting either around dark areas or in dioramas that I've set up. I'm gonna take an approach of using a Altoids box as a power distribution center. Just trying to keep things simple.
I'm gonna use terminal blocks to allow me to easily add LED lights that use 12volts DC. Let me know if there's any interest in me doing a video on how I'm doing this and everything from some simple calculations of resistance from voltage and current information.
Discussion
Hey Dr Dodge glad to have you along - the goal here is to make a small voltage/power distribution box that I can add lighting LEDs as needed without soldering them in. The terminal blocks will allow you to just strip the wire and then insert and tighten the screw.
So then I can use 2-conductor cable to put LEDs where ever I want or need them around the track. Whether its only a foot or so from the little tin box or many feet away to the area needing some light this should handle from 8 to 14 LED's. The LED's I'm using are a bit diffused so they put out a warm white light which would work for streetlights - tunnel lights - inside buildings.
- Cool! — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
- yea, I like it, post sources of stuff, if you would be so kind! — dr_dodge
- (I made an asci keyboard w/ junk microswitchs once, in a vhs tape case) — dr_dodge
I like it! Keep us posted. I'm an electronics junky too... Need a fix.
So here is a brief video on what I'm trying to do. Next video will be tools and parts you need to do this sort of thing. Then a video covering the construction - and a little electrical theory - and some rules around LEDs.
I should mention that the vendor on Amazon for the LEDs I purchased has a wide selection of pre wired LEDS of many colors and sells a variety pack of colors. I'm using frosted white LEDs for a soft glow.
Here is an update on getting LED lighting and the power distro box ready for the track. This is looking promising.
Here is the next update and the the power distro box project is about completed. Want to still install a single LEDs into some diarama buildings. I am very happy with the final results and look forward to final testing on the track. I mentioned discussing some info on LEDs and doing calculations of current - let me know if there is any interest in that.
- Very cool! — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
- Great videos. Thanks for sharing them. I may have lighting questions later ???? — JaredC
- looking good — dr_dodge
Those arrays are pretty sweet! Slim, unobstrusive but effective. I felt your one post of "stadium lighting" well executed there.
Any host watching who's looking toward such discrete lighting would benefit from your proposed talk on power calculations -- I'd be in the weeds, though. Naming the sections and turns! Really speaks to me as a fan, that always grants more "personality" to the course, love it!
- As I noted, I’m very happy with the results and the light that they provide. I do want to play around with this night racing idea by getting some smoked plexi glass pieces that I can use to shield some of the lighting. I would be happy to cover the basics of how to do some of this Electrically so I will put together some stuff and we’ll talk about two equations that are very simple and what they mean in real life. I am really hoping that the speech recognition worked pretty well since I can’t edit any of this and it could look pretty silly, but let’s find out. — AbbyNormal
I like it so far
dr