| | | Connecting either Fire or Welding to Battery Power |  | Probably the easiest way to connect these LED kits to power is using a 9V battery, with a battery strap. As you can see from this photo, the battery strap is designed to snap onto the leads on the terminal end of any standard 9V battery. |
 | The battery strap has two leads, a red "positive" wire and a black "negative" wire. Each of the three LEDs in the fire and welding kit also come with a red positive wire and a black negative wire. All you need to do is twist the 3 red wires from the LED kit together with the red wire from the battery strap. Next, twist the 3 black wires from the LED kit with the black wire coming from the battery strap.
Instant flickering light!
We like to use some electrical tape on the twisted wires just to hold things securely and ensure the wires to not touch together. |
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In our tests with a 9V Duracel, our welding pack flashed nice and bright for 36 hours before slowly getting dimmer. With this approach, you have an instant hook up solution for short term use. |
So I place the led's in a shed to make it look like I'm welding something to a train, what do I wire the led's to???
You have quite a few choices here. You could wire the LEDs to a 12V wall adapter. We sell a 12V regulated adapter
you can use a regulated 12V adapter that you have around the house already
you can buy a used discount transformer at a train swap meet or train shop (they run about $5-15)
you can run the lights directly off your train power, hooking them to power supply lines running underneath your layout or hook them directly to the nearby track.
If you choose to use the wall adapter you cut off the end (not while plugged in :) and strip and use the 2 wires from there. On power adapters, the wire with a white stripe is the positive. You would gather up your red wires from the welding, connect them to the white stripe wire, gather up your black wires and connect them to the black wire. Wire nuts work great for this.
Here is a great suggestion for wiring a bunch of houses and structures:
Someone I know took a long section of HO track, Connected a + and - wire to the track section (from a separate transformer than the on his trains were running on), then put the HO track UNDERNEATH his layout.
Now you have 2 rails that act as "stripped wires" running underneath every building or structure you want power in. When you are ready to hook the LED you have placed into your building to power, drill down through your Layout substrate and connect to that HO track you have placed underneath everything.
Another tip: don't worry about connecting the LEDs the "wrong way"
with the bridge rectified LEDs there is no "wrong way" thanks to the bridge. They will always light , forward or reverse. For the DC LEDs, if you connect them backwards they will not light, but they will not be "fried" by the reverse polarity like an incandescent might be.
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