A new type of LEDs ??

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Earlier this week I bought a set of four solar powered patio lights from Wal Mart. These are a really simple design, A small solar panel on the top and a standard 1.5 v recharable AA battery (which can be removed) and a bright white LED.

What I noticed right off is that the LEDs emmit light all around the bulb as well as from the center, much like a regular bulb.

These Solar lights will stay on all night on a single recharging and emmit plenty of light for even a large HO scale building. Looks like they would be great in the modeling process.

Have any of you ever seen anything like these? Mike

2

did theses lights come with instrutions that maybe has replacement parts list that you could buy more what did they cost

3

All the solar lights I’ve seen are pretty blue in color. They make 5 and 10mm white LEDs with a wide viewing angle like that. Just check the specs before you buy.

4

Yes. I have had two sets of these lights for two years now. Never thought of using them on the railroad.

5

This sounds like an inverted cone LED. I bought mine off of ebay. They come with resistors. Very good for structure lighting. Go to ebay and search for inverted cone led. Search Google for inverted cone led for more info.

I just looked at one my brother has and it is a standard 5mm LED pointing downward. The clear plastic housing the LED is in makes the LED light appear to come from all around. I do know inverted cone LEDs are more expensive than standard LEDs.

Rich

6

Good morning. The lights were in a package of four for either $15 or $20, I do not remember which. There were no instructions as far as replaceable parts.

I figure for around $5 a piece, it might be worth it to disassemble one to see how it is made.

Mike

7

With this type of thing you could have a structure with the LED and rechargeble battery within and the solar panel on the roof to charge the battery when the layougt room lights are on.

8

I have cut up a string of white LED Christmas lights that had faceted heads on them - the ones that look like they were dipped in chunks of glass. They give an even light rather than a directional light - I’ll get around to doing some pics one of these days! [:)]