LED Loco Lights

[stan.c]

Hi. I have a hornby railroad class 33 whith is chiped with a hornby decoder R8249 I would like to fitt Bi-Colour LED to this loco, has any one undertaken this and how easy is it .

[Fishmanoz]

Directional lighting is a standard feature in loco decoders. White wire is forward lights, yellow reverse and blue the common return. You can see details at http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC.html#Decoder_1

 

I remember PJ talked of a kit to do it

 

some time ago and I'm sure can give you a reference. Don't remember what class it was for though.

[PJ_model_trains]

Fishmanoz said:

Directional lighting is a standard feature in loco decoders. White wire is forward lights, yellow reverse and blue the common return. You can see details at http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC.html#Decoder_1

I remember

PJ talked of a kit to do it some time ago and I'm sure can give you a reference. Don't remember what class it was for though.

Hi Fishy

Not me this time ;-)

I talked of lighting to cars, burger bar, street and station lighting and

similar but not loco lighting.

PJ

[PJ_model_trains]

Fishmanoz said:

Directional lighting is a standard feature in loco decoders. White wire is forward lights, yellow reverse and blue the common return. You can see details at http://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC.html#Decoder_1

It

is good to remind the members of the wiring colour procedure again though.

[RDS]

@stan.c

I fitted a bi-colour LED to the lead car of a Hornby Inter-city 125, in place of the standard filament light.

[pidder]

If you are any good at a bit of fiddling, with a bit of ingenuity I have used these two colour LEDs to provide a pair of lights at each end of a diesel, using the sort of nylon line used in grass strimmers to carry the light from one diode to two small

 

holes in the light positions at each end of the engine, in the same way as glass fibre carries light. In this way one diode provides two lights. Also, the thin nylon line gives a smaller light cross-section, more like the real thing, the nylon just needs to

 

project slightly to look correct. Something to try?

[Fishmanoz]

PJ_model_trains said:

Hi Fishy

Not me this time ;-)

I talked of lighting to cars, burger bar, street and station lighting and similar but not loco lighting.

PJ

Oops, talking through hat again. Might have been

Augustus Caesar then. Do a search through his threads and also a forum search on loco lighting and see what it brings up.

[Fishmanoz]

It may well be 12 months and more ago.

[Augustus Caesar]

Hi chaps... I did discuss and proceed to offer a pictorial guide on how to wire up a Class 43 loco (BR 125) from the eighties so if you're referring to that one Fishy then for the benefit of the original postee, stan.c, I offer up the following:

 

The

 

link to the pdf file I created for lighting up an 80's 125 analogue loco to digital is here...

 

http://www.octaviancs.com/hornby125/Fit4FDecandPCBtoHornby125.pdf (the file is always available)

 

The wiring will be the same or very similar for any

 

loco with a lens... it's just the board the LED's are fitted to here are for the 125 from that period.

 

The thread for this topic can be obtained by following the link below...

 

https://www.hornby.com/forums/hornby-forums/hornby-digital/4871/?page=1&added=false

 

I

 

am attempting to obtain diagrams and circuit boards for a 225 (Class 91) fit with similar effects... bi-directional lighting in other words. If I can I will post said info for that model too if I can get hold of it. If not I will have to attempt making my

 

own. I will then offer up those to whomever wants them. Hopefully I will be able to make others after that but it will be trial and error to start with.

 

What I WOULD like to know is where to get the clear plastic rods that would be ideal to make the

 

lenses sit flush against a board with SMD's (surface mounted led's). These would be cut to length in order to sit against the LED as stated and also in place where the white and red lights would be on the loco front and rear.

 

Hope this helps stan.c

 

at least look in the right direction...

[Fishmanoz]

See pidder's post above AC.

[Fishmanoz]

The fact is that any piece of clear plastic, usually longer than it is wide, will act as a light pipe. All that is needed is a surface at right angles to its bulk to get the light in from the LED and another at right angles where you want it to come out

 

ie. where you have the plastic protruding through the loco to form the light. Light is kept within the pipe from one end to the other by a process known as total internal reflection, just as used in optical fibre cables.

[Augustus Caesar]

Hi Fishy...

 

After I submitted the post and went down my staircase to the cellar (actually it's the kitchen - but I spend most of time upstairs it may as well be a cellar :-) ) to put on the proverbial kettle for a well-earned cuppa I thought to

 

myself... "I've just posted a question about something I realised I had the answer to, more or less...." and made my cuppa and forgot to come back and add further to it!

 

Anyway, your response Fishy , as always, was appreciated and has defo offered up

 

some info. One thing I did come across though after reading Pidder's post and then yours is just how to connect the cable to the LED. It’s not something I have thought about prior. I would prefer to follow the same process the fella used to make the board

 

for the 125 setup so eliminate the cabling to a certain extent as I would prefer to do this without cables running the whole length of the loco for front and rear lighting except for the decoder of course.

 

Is the idea to glue the optic cable to the

 

LED using clear glue/super glue or can it be done another way?

 

In the 125 the already existing plastic clear lens of the loco and dummy car sit flush to the LED on the board so no 'sticking' was required.

 

Why do I always complicate matters? When

 

I do stuff I tend to want to do things properly and sometimes come up with a slightly harder process than is really required... other times I get it and do the simple thing... maybe humanity is built this way?!?

 

I think, in my case, I am really looking

 

at two solutions... one which would use a solid board with the LED's and resistors in place where the simple lenses of a 125 for example are already in situ. The second is one I have not yet built where the process is a little bit different. I've looked at

 

other sites of course for wiring etc and will go back for another look. It doesn't seem like anyone on the tube wants to do a video for loco LED's using DCC or I can't find it. What I have is a couple of Class 37, 47, and 91 loco's where I would like to put

 

LED's in and convert to DCC (which is the easy bit). I know how to wire these up but the main problem is getting the light from the LED to the front of loco using the fibre optic cable. Do I glue them together? Keep in mind I have not considered using LED’s

 

which sit flush at the front of the loco and simply need soldering to a resistor etc… I prefer the other method but am open to both.

[Fishmanoz]

AC, I would think putting the LED into a hole where you want the light to protrude would bee simpler then fiddling with light pipes.

 

Not sure about gluing to LEDs if you do use a pipe. Should be fine as long as the glue makes a smooth transition

 

from cable to the glue and then to the LED. That way,there'll be nowhere for the light to leak out. It will do at any sharp edges you make.

[Augustus Caesar]

You're probably right Fishy... so I will almost certainly go the other way then which means putting an LED flush to the front and rear of the cabs etc. It will be fiddly, yes, but I don't mind that as long as the result would be good or better.

 

I

 

remember seeing a video on the tube where a guy has a 3mm LED and has to fit it in a smaller hole for his headlights and he just simply clamped the LED and proceeded to use a file to thin it down to the required size. While this is fiddly it does give an exact

 

and tight fit to the holes where they are to be mounted. Can't see me doing this but at least if one buys too many of these in a pack and has some spare you can experiment.

 

Thanks for the advice mate... I'll probably go with that... :-)

 

[pidder]

Don't think the plastic, strimmer line, piece of clear plastic or whatever, needs to be dead in line with the LED. These LEDs have plenty of light to spare, I've just fitted two colour ones in my Hornby Class 67 in place of the existing white LED, retaining

 

the strip of plastic which carries the light to the holes at the front. This gives white/red depending on the direction. I know the red light is not strictly correctly positioned but it shows me which direction the engine is set for.

[Augustus Caesar]

If you say, pidder, that the cable or whatever you use doesn't have to be absolutely in line with the LED then it shouldn't matter if the cable is glued or not. As long as it is pretty much static beside the LED and as close as possible without movement

 

impinging on the final light through the front or rear of said loco then that should be fine. It looks like a little bit of thought for each loco will have to be given and I will also look at room available for wiring and boards if not using the idea Fishy

 

mentioned above.

 

It may be a case of trying out both methods to see which will suit each loco or all loco's for that matter. Thanks for input pidder :-)

[pidder]

AC I have made a mock-up of a twin light system using one LED with a semi-circle of strimmer plastic line curving past the LED and the ends exiting where I would want the lights. This works quite well, giving the appearance of headlights. I would expect

 

it to work well with bi-colour LEDs, giving head or tail lights, as long as one isn't too fussy about placement of the rear lights. This arrangement has to be enclosed to prevent stray light where not needed. I should mention that in fitting the bi-colour

 

LEDs in place of the original white ones in my Class 67, I had to use a 1k resistor in series with the blue common lead from the decoder to reduce the light level.

[Augustus Caesar]

Pidder... I understand about the bi-directional lighting. However, I would be fitting the lights in the right places simply because if I do one set I may as well do two... or four as it would be front and rear.

 

I would also be fitting 1K resistors

 

to each LED as you have but won't be looking for flicker free, like other modellers may, with a capacitor fixed as well! That's possibly over the top in some cases as described on Ytube.

 

You say you used strimmer plastic... the only stuff of that ilk

 

I use is coloured green. Is this what you use or is there a clear version? I suppose for different strimmers colours may vary too? What would I know... I gave up gardening years ago when all we used was a simple push and pull lawn mower, unpowered I may add!

 

Being in my lower mid fifties I remain very technically minded and keep up with most things but strimmer cable ain't one of them... lol. I see the ref. number, go to my DIY shop and buy it, fit it and forget it! :-)

 

So, hopefully forgiving my ignorance

 

here, what do you use then? Make and 'model' number?

 

I would have thought any extraneous light from the LED or cable would be got rid of by covering the cable(?) or at least the part of the LED inside the loco that is not seen but emits light in the

 

cab for example where it wouldn't be needed as it may light up through the plastics of the body?

 

I appreciate your comments here Pidder and note all you say for reference or use so thanks for your info...

[RDS]

When I fitted the bi-colour LED to my 125, I just replaced the bulb with the LED.

It works well.

I retained the original clear plastic lens arrangement.

[Rog RJ]

If you are going to use fibre optics you might as well use the proper stuff which is available quite cheaply. ebay has lots of suppliers, just search for fibre optic. You can get 4 or 5 metres for just a couple of quid.

[pidder]

AC and Roj The strimmer line I have used is Black and Decker, a sort of opaque white, it didn't occur to me that other makes of strimmer line might be coloured. The strimmer line is, at a guesstimate, about 3 mm, ebay does show various diameters available,

 

3mm would be about 9 inches in real life...depends what size lamp one is modelling.

 

[Augustus Caesar]

Ah Black and Decker... good chaps! OK... so the one you have is opaque white (ish), Pidder, so at least we now know that it comes in more than one colour!

 

I'll check out the famous auction site for both the optic fibre and the strimmer cable to

 

see what may be better. Probably the former? I should be looking at getting these items in the next week or so and if successful I will report back in a new thread or back here. Cheers guys.