LED's for building lights

[alco539]

Good morning folks. I want to use LED's for building lights. There was a thread on the "old" Atlas Forum which I should have copied, but didn't. I just tried to do a searce over there and my "lights" went out. The search knocked all of my windows "down". Maybe my internet connection failed, right at the same time, but it seemed strange that it happened at that very moment!

Anyway, do any of you use LED's or remember that thread on LED lighting in structures. Since they are 1.5 to 3.5 volt devices, they need a dropping resistor. Even though I worked in an electronics related field most of my life, ie working and designing Telco circuits, Bell Labs did the math, LOL. Using Ohm's law to figure it out gives me head ache. I've wired all of my lighting circuits back to a wiring panel. Therefore, they would all be parallel circuits, in other words "not daisy chained" in series for voltage drop. So I need to know the value of that resistor. I planned on wiring the building and gluing it down, maybe not smart, but the LED if it's a good one, it should out live me or this layout. Thanks. Charley.

[keystonecrossings]

Head over to railwire.net and hit the N scale forum. Find member Lee Weldon. He did an excellent write up on using LED's for structure lighting. Not sure if it was direct in Railwire or in his blog, which you can get to from his signature.

[alco539]

Jerry thank you for the info. I haven't found the LED info yet, because I got side tracked looking at all the "stuff" there. Lee has a great site and we're almost neighbors in Maryland. However, he's on the other side of that big body of water called the Chesapeake Bay. Also, I've decided to find a cheap trainset power pack to power the LED's using it's variable DC. That way I can control the voltage they receive. I think it will work, but if someone out there thinks it's a bad idea, let me know. I'm sure it's been "done" before. Regards Charley.

[keystonecrossings]

Link to Lee's blog. Check out the 2nd and 3rd entries down. Maybe more...

wmrywesternlines.blogspot.com/

[alco539]

Thanks Jerry, there is some great work happening on Lee's railroad. He doesn't mention how he's powering the LED's, but I'll keep digging on his site. I won't have to use that many LED's anyway, so his power supply may not fit my situation. I'm going to experiment with some Radio Shack LED's. However, I'll buy most of them from Allied Electronics or Mouser. That's where I usually get my bulk components. Regards Charley.

[keystonecrossings]

Lee is very receptive... send him an e-mail.

He is one of the best modelers I have encountered... and the fact that it is N scale is amazing.