[zmil]

Hi All

I have been fixing up one of my favourite old Rail Bus units
It had interior lighting , which had the bulbs in the Trailer , but the light source was quite obvious, considering the Opaque windows . I replaced all the Lighting with LEDs

Here are some pictures of the Install

Powered end

Trailer

Wiring Complete

Grainy picture showing the result

Tail Lights

Head Lights

A mess of wiring , The Front and Rear Head lights were replaced with a Warm White LED utilizing the Light Pipe (director)
The Front and Rear Tail Lights the same idea except using a Red LED (the original had a Clear lamp)

The LED replacement lamps were created the same way as I had done previously - soldering on the wires -cutting the tails short and insulating with heat shrink ( see post Here)
The LEDs were held in place using the original lamp contact springs , which had been insulated with heatshrink as a precaution against a short to the chassis . All Head and Tail Lighting wiring was taken to the front end and looped to the decoder and the rear units lights

The Internal lighting LEDs (one in each unit ) received a special treatment and were mounted against the ceiling of the units

Lots of wiring between the two units

You can see underneath in the link between the two cars , 7 wires , originally there were only 4

I'm pleased with the result of the interior lighting , but the Red Tail lights are a bit bright (higher value resistor Next time)

Regards Zmil

 

[upnick]

Looks good Zmil

not sure it it would work as an alternative for the rear red lights but a piece of tissue paper will diffuse lights if you can fit it between the LED and body lense .....try it wih a spare led if you have one it has worked for me in the past.

 

[zmil]

Hi Nick

The problem I had is I used the same value Resistor (1k) for the Red and the White LED and as they are in the same circuit the red comes up brighter I should have used a 2k resistor for the red. The Red LEDs are the water clear variety (I bought 100 for about $5.00 + $3.00 postage) so you cant tell them apart when next to the Warm White LEDs(when not Lit). To differentiate between the two I put a short length of Red wire on the Cathode , Blue on the Anode of the Red LEDs , as I don't have any different colour Heatshrink at the moment.

My Diffusion experiment this time I filed the end of the LED flat and glued on a piece of approx 1.5mm square Aluminum foil
this now reflects light in all directions I did this in the Headlights as well and the result is a more even spread between the 3 headlights (lit with 1 LED)

I also discovered , that the more you file off the end of the LED , the more the resulting light yellows (don't go to far!).

The internal light was further diffused by gluing foil on the ceiling of the body over the LED and fitting a Diffuser (made out of a Plastic Milk bottle) down the length of the ceiling over the LED , so that the LED sits between the Foil on the ceiling and the diffuser)
The result is that it hard to tell where the light is coming from , better than the picture shows and definitely better than the original 2 30mA Incandescent lamps.

The powered unit has the LED at 50% power (from the decoder) as the motor was silhouetted rather obviously

Regards Zmil

 

[Lancashire Fusilier]

That's some extensive LED research there Zmil. Like your work.

 

[upnick]

Have to remember filing the LED's Zmil good tip

Yes Lancashire Fusilier research like that shows dedication

 

[zmil]

Hi All

When I first bought the Golden white LED's (many years ago) Specifically to replace some lights in a tender , Richard told me I could reduce the diameter a bit to fit . Put the LED in the chuck of a drill and run the drill while holding a file on it , that worked well.

When I went to replace the 30mA interior light lamps in one of my coaches with 2 LED's I filed them Flat at the ends and a little off the sides to end up with a rectangular shape , which just fits inside the holes in the circuit board that runs the length of the coaches. That's when I discovered filing to much changes the resulting light output colour to a more yellow colour

Regards Zmil

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (zmil @ 7 Nov 2008, 09:25) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi All

When I first bought the Golden white LED's (many years ago) Specifically to replace some lights in a tender , Richard told me I could reduce the diameter a bit to fit . Put the LED in the chuck of a drill and run the drill while holding a file on it , that worked well.

When I went to replace the 30mA interior light lamps in one of my coaches with 2 LED's I filed them Flat at the ends and a little off the sides to end up with a rectangular shape , which just fits inside the holes in the circuit board that runs the length of the coaches. That's when I discovered filing to much changes the resulting light output colour to a more yellow colour

Regards Zmil

***Another tip for you to increase dispersion:

If you carefully drill directly into the end of a 3mm LED with a 3mm bit (centre drill with a tiny bit first to keep it centralised) you make a concave indentation - because of the angle of the cone created, this will throw light to the sides as well as still allowing some through the end.

experiment with this, with and without also painting the cone interior matt white (typists white correcting fluid is good for this). Useful when using LEDS for interior lighting in buildings etc....

Richard

 

[zmil]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 7 Nov 2008, 12:33) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>***Another tip for you to increase dispersion:

If you carefully drill directly into the end of a 3mm LED with a 3mm bit (centre drill with a tiny bit first to keep it centralised) you make a concave indentation - because of the angle of the cone created, this will throw light to the sides as well as still allowing some through the end.

experiment with this, with and without also painting the cone interior matt white (typists white correcting fluid is good for this). Useful when using LEDS for interior lighting in buildings etc....

Richard

Hi Richard

I would like to try that technique , I have put in a request for a smallish Vertical Drill with Stand for Christmass
as currently I only have a Largish Metabo electric drill Indestructable but not subtle

Regards Zmil