LED Light Frequently Asked Questions
There are many reasons to switch to LED’s instead of regular incandescent lighting!
* LED’s do not get hot like an incandescent, so you will not melt the roof of your
building or the housing of your train, water tower, or emergency vehicle!
* LED’s last and last!! Over 10 years (100,000 hours!) per light. So, you will not have to take
apart your building or train to change out the lighting when it burns out! A standard incandescent
bulb will last 750 hours or so. We guarantee our lights for two full years with free replacement.
* LED’s give a lot of light in a very small package. The LED’s we sell have a minimum
of 5000 millicandels of light, approximately 1.45 Lumens. Some colors, like white, have 15,000 mcd.
. Compare that to a GE 14 volt Midget bulb which gives approximately .3 lumens (mscp).
* LED’s are tough and durable. There is no filament to break, and the diode is encased in solid epoxy.
Which type of LED do I need?
If you are planning to run your LED on a 9V or 12V battery or a 12V wall adapter, then you will want to get the DC LEDs. The DC LEDs have the correct dropping resistor and six inches of connector wire, all assembled and ready to go.
If you are running your LEDs directly on your railroad track or hooking them to the accessory outlet on your train's power pack, then you will need the Universal LEDs. Even DC Trains tend to switch polarity (whenever you back up) and the lights are also subjected to voltage "spikes" and surges and the occasional interruption and re-start when the track is not perfectly clean. To protect the lights from all of this, we have added a full wave bridge rectifier in addition to the dropping resistor. So even if you have a DC train, and you only plan to run your train at 12 volts or less, like the N Scale Kato power supplies, we still recommend the universal LEDs.
What are 5mm, 3mm, and 1.8mm Lights?
The size of the light is measured across the base of the bulb. The size measurement refers to the diameter of the bulb.
5mm (T 1 3/4) is a larger sized light, for building lighting, passenger car lighting, or larger scale train running lights.
3mm (T 1) lights are smaller in size, and better suited to street lighting, warning lights, and train running lights in smaller scales. Brightness-wise there is little to no difference between the 3mm and 5mm size.
1.8mm LEDs are really very small and most useful in N scale and smaller models where there is not much space to fit a bulb. The 1.8mm are still bright at 3,000mcd.
Why Do I need Pre-Assembled DC Lights?
An LED bulb can only handle 2 - 3.5 volts of power, depending on the color of the LED. White can handle more voltage than red, for example. If you were to connect an LED bulb straight to a 12 Volt DC power source without a resistor, you would see a very brief bright flash as the LED burns out. We have soldered a color-specific resistor to the LED so that it will work with your 9 or 12 volt DC power source without harming the LED. Our 12 Volt DC LED's can run on anywhere from 6 to 14 Volts and are fully guaranteed to work, with a 2 year Replacement Guarantee, if you run the LED at the correct power.
Why do I need Universal LEDs?
As stated above, an LED alone can only handle 2-3.5 volts of power. AC Trains, Digital Command Control Trains and DC trains have
power supplies at a higher voltage, 7-25 volts. To handle this, we have added a full wave bridge rectifier and a greater ohm resistor to these LEDs to protect the LED from both the higher forward voltage, and the switching polarity of AC and DCC trains. The great thing about the Bridge Rectifier is that these lights stay lit even when the trains are run in reverse!
On your pre-wired DC LEDs, with a 9 volt battery, how many could I install in a Scale Police Car?
We have installed the lights in several different types of police cars and firetrucks. They really look terrific all lit up, and the LEDs are super bright! For modern emergency vehicles, we like to use the fast 2.5HZ flashers in the light bar and 2.5HZ white flashers in the headlights. For the older era police and fire vehicles, we use a slow 1.5HZ red flasher in the dome light and solid headlights and tail lights.
We run our whole display of cars and trucks on a 12V wall adapter which runs them forever (until it is unplugged). To use a 12V adapter, we cut off the prong end (furthest from the wall plug), strip the wires on the adapter and twist the wires to the + and - leads on all of the LEDs. In general 12 volt wall adapters put out out either 500 or 1000 milliamps, check the adapter you plan to use. A 500ma adapter can run over 40 lights nice and bright in our display.
The wall adapter method does require having the vehicle near a wall plug. At trade shows when we do not have the wall plug nearby, we use an old 12V Dewalt Drill Battery (the drill battery is nice because it is rechargeable and runs all 40 of our lights for the whole 8 hours of a show).
Getting to the 9V battery question...
According to Duracell, their alkaline 9 volt batteries are rated 580 milliamp hours.
In my tests with Duracell, I put a welding pack to a fresh 9V battery (the welding pack consists of 2 flashers and 1 solid LED). The lights looked nice and bright for 40 hours. After 40 hours, the lights slowly dimmed.
If you follow that result out, the 9V battery should easily run 6 LED lights for 20 hours or 12 LED lights for 10 hours, provided some of the lights are flashers and some are solid. In our tests, Flashing LEDs use less than 1/2 the power of solid lights, we think this is because they are drawing 0 power when they are in their "off" phase.
I just now connected 12 lights (5 flashers and 7 solid) to a fresh Duracell and they are nice and bright. I can let you know if they are still going in 12 hours.
For use with 9V batteries, I have "battery straps" for sale for 50 cents. The strap has an end that snaps onto the 9V terminals and a 6 inch tail of red and black wire that can be connected to the lights.
Can these work outdoors?
Yes! These LED’s are the same ones you see around car license plates and in flashlights. The Light Emitting Diode in an LED is completely encased in tough epoxy. Our "Garden LEDs"also have a marine coating on the electronic parts for years of carefree use.
Can I wire these to my track power?
Yes, you can. Our Bridge Rectified "Universal LEDs" are specifically designed to run on any track power. These lights are "plug and play" pre-assembled. You need to do nothing more to these lights! The bridge rectifier means "constant on" lighting with DC, AC, or DCC track power. Refer to the diagram that came with your locomotive to check where to attach the leads
for your particular loco. To light a passenger car, you will need to run the wire down to the track through the "truck". Check back soon for a short article on attaching an LED to power on your rolling stock. In general, the red wire goes to the positive the black wire goes to the negative.
You say AC or DC, which is preferred?
The LED’s are made to run on DC power. If you are running AC, DCC or plan to run DC in reverse (backing up) we recommend our 5-19 Volt Universal lights.
How many LED's can I wire in parallel?
The LED’s we sell draw less than 20 milliamps of power. So check your power source. If you have a small wall plug power source with 500 milliamp of power you can run (500 / 20) or 25 lights in parallel! At the shows we go to, we have 38 LEDs running on one 500 millamp adapter, and they are all very bright!
Can I get more light spread?
The LED’s we sell are “wide angle” LED’s, most have an average of 35 degrees of light spread.
If you find you need more light spread, you can gently sand off the rounded top of the LED without
harming the diode.
Can I fit my LED into a tight space?
Yes, LED’s can be bent at the stalk up to 90 degrees to perpendicular and still light! LEDs used in computer keyboard and cellphones are often bent in this way. If you need a really small light, try our new 1.8mm LEDs.
How much power do these lights draw?
The LED's draw only 20 milliamps of power. So you can connect quite a few of them to your power source without dropping your power to your model.
Can I mix colors, sizes, flashing and solid in the same model?
Yes! You can mix any color light and size of light (and solid and flashing) in the same application. Visit our gallery to see some examples of this!
What Can I used LEDs in?
You can use LEDs in Locomotives, passenger cars, buildings, emergency vehicles, model boats, model airplanes, model dioramas, RC Boats, Planes, Helicopters, Trucks. The durability, low heat and extremely long life of LEDs make them by far the best choice for every type of modeler! check out our gallery to see some great photos that our customers have sent us!
Still have questions? Contact us! Or call 303.410.1118 We will be happy to answer your questions!
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