Paddleducks
Paddler Modelling => Accessories, Lighting, Sounds etc => Topic started by: Stuart Badger on August 26, 2009, 12:47:53 AM
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Hi PDs - I need some advice and a quick course of instruction! I THINK I understand electricity (pre 1950) but electronics is the science of satan as far as I'm concerned.
I want to light my model of the Connaught (cabins, portholes etc - she didn't carry any navigation or running lights as there was no legal requirment then!). I was thinking of using these new fangled LEDs, yellow ones to give that gaslight glow.
What I need to know is in PRACTICAL terms how does one wire them? in series or parallel? are they just connected to a battery, do they require any electronic wizadery, do they come in different voltages etc.
Any help will be gratefully received!
Stuart
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I just wire mine up parallel on a 3 volt source. LEDs are polarized so you have to have + to + and - to -. If they're backwards they won't work.
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LED's do come in different voltages, as well as different light outputs (Lumens), and as Joe pointed out, they are polarity sensitive - You won't do any harm if you connect them the wrong way, they simply won't work!
Buying all the LED's seperately can be expensive, but if you take a look at places such as "Poundland" in the UK, they do LED light units used for camping at only £1 each, You could either install the complete unit as it comes, or dismantle them for the components. The slight downside is that they are white LED's, but a bit of amber headlight paint will give you the colour you require....
http://www.poundland.co.uk/pages/offers/camping.aspx
Regards
Eddy
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Just to clarify a little (or confuse more?), When I said you can get LED's in different voltages, that isn't true strictly speaking, the higher voltage ones actually have a built in resistor to accept the higher voltage.
All LED's actually operate on between 1.5v - 3v depending on their colour. Various colours need different voltages....
Assuming the colour you have chosen needs 2v to work at full intensity, you can wire up 6 in series and connect them to a 12v battery exactly as you would with normal light bulbs. Applying too much voltage will burn them out quicker than usual, and too little voltage and they won't light at all.
So did I help or confuse? :hehe
Eddy
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That's brilliant lads -
Towboat and Eddy. Thanks very much. I think I shall wire them in series groups to operate off the same battery as the motor. I would love to power the model with steam - but it will simply be too difficult to arrange enough access.
thanks again.
Stuart
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Be sure to wire them up series/ parellel. If you run them in series it will weaken the intensity of the LED. May not even work at all plus when one goes out they all go out.
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if you want to read a lot of technical stuff, have a look at this page - http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/mh_led.htm
I got my LEDs from here - http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Goodwill-Leds-Sales - you get resistors that can be connected in series so each can run off 12 volts (probably with model rail enthusiasts in mind) but I have also connected two in parallel to run on 6 volts without problems... that said, they have to be the same type or the voltage will not be distributed correctly, I tried to do that with a green and a red (for navigation lights) and the red one became so hot it melted the solder - turns out the max voltage for a red LED is 2.5 volts, 3.4 volts for a green or white (at least it was with the ones I had) also, the 5mm dia LEDs take a higher current than 3mm ones so they can't be used together in series circuits... (the supplied resistors - from 'goodwill sales' - are different for each type)
by the way, october 2009 issue of Model Boats has an article about using LEDs apparently ...and I'm sure I recently read one, possible in Marine Modelling a month or two ??? ago...
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Thanks for that - I shall begin some reading I think!
Stuart
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I have found a good source for led's is my local garden centre at xmas.
They always sell a set of 5 white 5mm led's attached to a 2 cell AA battery pack, they have a good intensity and are just right for navigation lights, you have to colour the red & green with a bit of paint.
The wires are a bit thick but nothing that cannot be replaced and extended to suit your need, the five lights make the 2 mast lights, port/stbd and stern light, weight is not significant and they have a battery box & switch already fitted.
Last year I bought out their stock and got a thick ear from the missus, worth the pain. ;D
Price between £2.99 and £4.99 depending on the greed of the seller.
Watch out for the flashing units as well, could be good for a disco boat.
TTFN
Geoff
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....for navigation lights, you have to colour the red & green with a bit of paint....
The best thing (i've found) for that is the coloured lacquer for making fake stained glass windows, most B&Q, Homebase etc. places have it... it may even be possible to mix a colour to create the 'golden glow' effect of grain-of-wheat lamps from the rather blue-ish glow of 'white' leds - but I haven't tried it yet
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Thanks for the tips guys. I may well purchase a set of xmas lights here and 'pull them apart. The tranparent laquer for 'stained glass' painting is available here!!!!
Stuart
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Hi
while wasting some time today i noticed there is an article in Model boats this month about LEDs
When i bought my last lot of LEDs i bought them from a Ebay seller in Hong Kong and they worked out at about 20p each if i remember right - sorry can't remember the sellers name.
anyway one of the links from the magazine is for a supplier that moulds the LEDs into lights (if that makes sense)
Might be of interest to Eddy if your still looking for deck flood lights.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res1tf1s/id12.html
http://www.modelbouwshopnederland.nl/?menu=category&categoryID=442292
(If it helps i used google to do the translation of the sites)
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Just had a rumage at the bench and still have loads left and the appropriate resistors if you need a few let me know.
They are the small domed type - white/clear 3mm
Kim
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Stuart, cosmic here. Sorry to chime in so late on this thread, I just got back here after a long absence. Go here http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz (http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz) for a good calculator that will give you a wiring diagram for any LED array you want. All you need to know is the forward voltage and current of your LED(s). Also, if you might want them to flicker, you can look at my tutorial on the MSW database.
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Like Big-Geoff says look in retailers around Xmas.
A couple of years back Homebase were selling 24 white Leds attached to a switchable battery case for miniature Xmas trees. I bought a bagful as they were only £4.99 each and have used them successfully in model theatres.
To mount the bulbs I used strips of 5mm foamcore drilled with suitably spaced holes (6mm I think) and just pressed the bulbs in. The only restriction is that he bulbs are at fixed centres on the cable (around 5 cm I think).
I have one left and will try it on my current boat project when I get near the upper deck stage.
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Hi again
I just found these on Ebay......could be useful.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Flexible-stick-on-LED-strip-50cm-x-8mm-30-LEDs-12V-RED-/110711059673?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item19c6e4b4d9
Strips of stick-on LED lights that can be cut into seperate lengths....I might give these a try.
Cheers
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during the course of the working day (taking garbage and old toys and furniture from the streets to be recycled/dumped in a landfill or whatever) I picked up an artificial christmas tree, it was a Tesco pre-wired one with 100 white LED lights - so I kept those for future use :D
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can I recommend the following supplier for all your LED needs. www.goodwillsales.com. Direct from manufacturer at cheap prices, covering the whole spectrum of LED's with a fast postage service. Have used them for years for all my model railway requirements.
Dubree
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Here's another EBay seller doing low voltage/battery LED lights.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BATTERY-OPERATED-X10-WHITE-LED-LIGHT-SET-MODEL-BOATS-/250922039572?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item3a6c1e7914
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that looks exactly like the sets of xmas lights for £1.99 in a couple of the shops in the high street....
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Yes Mick....not surprising.
That seller is a 'model boat specialist' so there's the reason...and...looking at the description they aren't even in pristine condition...might be flood-damaged stock?
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Buy a set similer to the set shown for a pound from the Pound shop.
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hello paddlers,
i found the idea with the xmas lights very usefull.
so i'm using it on my new project.
but i was thinking about the ugly batterybox, it has the on/off switch on it .
i wanted to keep it on deck for ease of handling and switching batterys.
so i hid it in a toolchest, but then it had to be verry easy to open .
i remembered i kept some springs of a ballpoint somewhere (never know what they aare good for)
the result speaks for itself i think.
i hope this idea is of some use , you can always use it on some kind of hatch that needs easy opening.
PS if your wife is throwing away an old purse check it out , those magnets in the flaps are just amazingfor a zillion things
any comments always welcome
greetings from bombus
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... I have also connected two in parallel to run on 6 volts without problems...
...just reading through this topic before I post (to see if anyone's already pointed this out) - and noticed a mistake! I meant two in series of course, not parallel or they'd both get 6 volts through them and burn out!
Anyhow, what I'd meant to say... I see this year the sets of christmas lights are available in not only high brightness white (the blueish white) but also 'warm white' which looks much like white grain-of-wheat lamps, bought 3 sets from one of the cheaper places in the high street and I wish I'd had them before, they're ideal for model use :)
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I'll add a little electronics theory all LED's have an optimum running current of around 20mA and a forward voltage typically 2v and require a resister to limit the curren't the formula is r = v/c or the resistor =your battery voltage minus the 2v forward divided by .02A eg: 12v -2v =10v divided by .02 = 500 a 470ohm is the nearest.
The exception is high brightness LED's the have a forward Voltage of 3.7V
The resistor will stop excessive current that will shorten the LED's live drastically.
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I have never really got on with electronics and find online calculators like this really handy:
http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz (http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz)
This one works for single or multiple LEDs and as well as simple circuits suggests arrays that would be complex to work out from the formula.
Brian
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I've bookmarked it Brian that takes the hard work out of it. :bravo :bravo
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Hi Damien
If you are firm in German language, her`s another one. This also brings the wiring diagram, for mor than one coluor of LEDs on one accu.
http://www.spaceflakes.de/led-rechner/
Regards
Gerhard
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Not a word i'm afraid and Google translator only does the first page.
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Sorry for that, maybe it helps someone else?? :whistle
Gerhard
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No problems Gerhard I'm quite good with Leds I used to sell kits of them on ebay sold about 20.000 of them still have several hundred.
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:terrific :respect
Wish I had them.............
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LIDL have 20-light LED Xmas sets including battery pack and battery for £2.99...they come in warm or cool white ... I bought one of each to try.
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Correction......£2.49 per set...