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Offline river6109  
#1 Posted : 23 January 2016 04:21:19(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
Hi, in my spare time I've made a led light tower for houses or churches, I'm using led strips on 4 sites, take the adhesive back cover off and stick it onto a 11mm square block of wood. the circuit board consists of 4 resistors, 1 AC/DC converter and 8 pin sockets, the led strips get 2 wires each and they are than pushed into the pin sockets.

the circuit board and the block of wood are secured with a screw and a 2nd screw will mount the whole tower to the board underside.
I've made different versions of it, one consists only led's on 2 sides for houses (ex Faller socket) which are placed in the middle of other houses. there are several purposes for this conversion from bulbs to led,s a.) less power consumption, slightly brighter lights and no heat is created.

on another note the tower can be fully dismantled for easy MEL transportation around the world. = micro economic logistics


John



DSC05763.JPG

Led tower10000.JPG

Led tower10002.JPG

Led tower10003.JPG

Led tower10001.JPG

Led tower10004.JPG

Led tower10005.JPG
https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
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Offline Danlake  
#2 Posted : 23 January 2016 06:36:39(UTC)
Danlake

New Zealand   
Joined: 03/08/2011(UTC)
Posts: 1,571
Hi john,

Excellent idea - thanks for sharing.

I am also using these strips for layout building light, but always place them flat down.

Now I feel a bit dump of never having thought of putting them upright in the tall buildingsBlink

Brgds Lasse
Digital 11m2 layout / C (M&K) tracks / Era IV / CS3 60226 / Train Controller Gold 9 with 4D sound. Mainly Danish and German Locomotives.
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Offline sgtb  
#3 Posted : 23 January 2016 07:30:44(UTC)
sgtb

United States   
Joined: 21/04/2014(UTC)
Posts: 27
Location: Central Ohio
Hi Guys,

I'm still unpacking mine from 30 years ago and replacing the bulbs with led bulbs as I go.

But this is way better its so even on all the floors. Thanks for the sharing.BigGrin


Bob
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Offline river6109  
#4 Posted : 23 January 2016 12:11:16(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
Well, I've designed another version, this time you can screw the light tower straight into a Faller light socket. it has 4 ledstrips with a total of 36 leds,

instead of being square I've used a round dowel (9.6mm, I had to abandon another design using the same dowel but placing the led strip in a spiral around the dowel but for some reasons the led strip didn't like it as some led's didn't work anymore, would have been interesting what effect this had. I only would have used 15 leds.


I've noticed you don't need a rectifier to stop the flickering because the lights are fused by the curtains and coloured paper,


John


Led tower 20001.JPG



Led tower 20000.JPG
https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
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Offline kiwiAlan  
#5 Posted : 23 January 2016 21:30:44(UTC)
kiwiAlan

United Kingdom   
Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC)
Posts: 8,082
Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
Originally Posted by: river6109 Go to Quoted Post

I've noticed you don't need a rectifier to stop the flickering because the lights are fused by the curtains and coloured paper,


One way to minimise the flickering is to wire one half of the lights 'backwards', so where you have probably wired all the positive connections together, do this with half of them, and wire the other half with the negative side to the same terminal.

This also evens up the load on the transformer so that instead of having all the load on one half of the cycle it has half the load on one half of the cycle and the other half of the load on the other half of the cycle. This also means that you will not get over voltage in the reverse direction across the LEDs, although the strings you have will have a resistor which will ease any problem that may occur as a result.

However you do end up with a problem if you then feed the LEDs with DC, as only half of them will light.

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Offline river6109  
#6 Posted : 24 January 2016 09:24:13(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: river6109 Go to Quoted Post

I've noticed you don't need a rectifier to stop the flickering because the lights are fused by the curtains and coloured paper,


One way to minimise the flickering is to wire one half of the lights 'backwards', so where you have probably wired all the positive connections together, do this with half of them, and wire the other half with the negative side to the same terminal.

This also evens up the load on the transformer so that instead of having all the load on one half of the cycle it has half the load on one half of the cycle and the other half of the load on the other half of the cycle. This also means that you will not get over voltage in the reverse direction across the LEDs, although the strings you have will have a resistor which will ease any problem that may occur as a result.

However you do end up with a problem if you then feed the LEDs with DC, as only half of them will light.



now you're telling me it BigGrin

https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
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Offline Mark5  
#7 Posted : 26 January 2016 03:46:23(UTC)
Mark5

Canada   
Joined: 29/01/2012(UTC)
Posts: 1,420
Location: Montreal, Canada
Ok confession time.
Today, instead of trying to find jumbled internet info, I went to the library and took out "Electronics all in one for Dummies" Blushing Subtitle 8 books in 1.Crying I have been fiddling for a long time without enough coherent theory or practical examples. Lots of great stuff in this book to come to my aid.ThumpUp
That said I have only finally understood (more) clearly the theory of "alternating cycles" with AC, and that at 30 or 60 or whatever cycles per second the current takes the entire circuit (Edit: both ways around...just seeing a sine curve wasn't enough for me to visualize.) that many times and this is how you can do what our Kiwi wizard is talking about. Its nice to know the theory behind the puzzle, instead of just putting the pieces in the right place. And its nice to know you can have "aha" moments as a late middle aged adult male.

That said, the simple schematics always help. I think I get what you are talking about Alan, but you mean two independent circuits going different ways? Or does the strip stay as one piece?
- Mark


.
Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: river6109 Go to Quoted Post

I've noticed you don't need a rectifier to stop the flickering because the lights are fused by the curtains and coloured paper,


One way to minimise the flickering is to wire one half of the lights 'backwards', so where you have probably wired all the positive connections together, do this with half of them, and wire the other half with the negative side to the same terminal.

This also evens up the load on the transformer so that instead of having all the load on one half of the cycle it has half the load on one half of the cycle and the other half of the load on the other half of the cycle. This also means that you will not get over voltage in the reverse direction across the LEDs, although the strings you have will have a resistor which will ease any problem that may occur as a result.

However you do end up with a problem if you then feed the LEDs with DC, as only half of them will light.

Edited by user 26 January 2016 20:18:43(UTC)  | Reason: added info for clarification

DB DR FS NS SNCF c. 1950-65, fan of station architecture esp. from 1920-70.
In single point perspective, where do track lines meet?
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Offline kiwiAlan  
#8 Posted : 26 January 2016 19:41:33(UTC)
kiwiAlan

United Kingdom   
Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC)
Posts: 8,082
Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
Originally Posted by: Mark5 Go to Quoted Post
Ok confession time.
Today, instead of trying to find jumbled internet info, I went to the library and took out "Electronics all in one for Dummies" Blushing Subtitle 8 books in 1.Crying I have been fiddling for a long time without enough coherent theory or practical examples. Lots of great stuff in this book to come to my aid.ThumpUp
That said I have only finally understood (more) clearly the theory of "alternating cycles" with AC, and that at 30 or 60 or whatever cycles per second the current takes the entire circuit that many times and this is how you can do what our Kiwi wizard is talking about. Its nice to know the theory behind the puzzle, instead of just putting the pieces in the right place. And its nice to know you can have "aha" moments as a late middle aged adult male.

That said, the simple schematics always help. I think I get what you are talking about Alan, but you mean two independent circuits going different ways? Or does the strip stay as one piece?
- Mark


Each strip stays as one piece. Treat it as an item with two wires, red and black. Take two strips, the red of strip one wired to the black of strip two, and the black of strip one wired to the red of strip two.

When you have a lot of LED lighting all wired in the same polarity (assuming it isn't already set up for AC supply) your transformer will not like you. It will appreciate having around half the strips wired in reverse polarity. This all assumes you are using an old transformer to supply them, i.e. one of those transformers that weighs a lot, not one of the light weight switching supplies that provide DC. In the latter case if you have some strips wired backwards they just will not light up, and then you will know it is not being supplied by a transformer.

Glad to see you are managing to learn and understand the theory behind it.

Offline Mark5  
#9 Posted : 26 January 2016 21:06:03(UTC)
Mark5

Canada   
Joined: 29/01/2012(UTC)
Posts: 1,420
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thank you Alan, so then with the two wired together they both go to the source, one goes to yellow the other to black and its irrelevant which one is which. Sounds simple enough.

I did often wonder, how the cutting of the strips worked.
Found this basic info here helpful. I prefer text tutorials over youtube ones.
http://www.flexfireleds....rip-light-install-guide/

- Mark

Originally Posted by: kiwiAlan Go to Quoted Post
Each strip stays as one piece. Treat it as an item with two wires, red and black. Take two strips, the red of strip one wired to the black of strip two, and the black of strip one wired to the red of strip two.


DB DR FS NS SNCF c. 1950-65, fan of station architecture esp. from 1920-70.
In single point perspective, where do track lines meet?
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