I want to add a strobe light (or rotary beacon)to a couple of SW9’s I’m painting, but I’m not sure how to go about it. I’ve got a few strobes seen below in the following picture. I’ve got a 3mm and 5mm white LED’s on order from Tony’s and planned on using them. They don’t take the place of the strobe do they? I assume you place the led diode underneath the plastic sprue of the strobe and it works like that? I’m using the SW9 NCE decoder.
I’ve but a rotary beacon in a SW1200 with the NCE decoder. The Dw part is for a rotary beacon, technically different than a strobe.
There are 2 ways to do this. One is the use a LED to transmit light up the light pipe to the beacon head. You’ll need to drill a small hole into the top of the LED to mount the light pipe to it. I would then use heatshrink tubing to keep the 2 together in additon to the ACC and also to block out the light from the LED.
The other way to do it is to use a very small bulb. Cut off the light pipe from the top. Drill a small hole into the beacon the same diameter of the bulb. Stop drill before you go thru the top. Then glue the bulb into the top and run the wires thru the beacon base and into the hole in the top of the cab. Connect to the proper outputs on the decoder. Be sure to use the right resistor so you don’t pop the bulb the first time you turn it on.
My personal preference is for the second method. The light is more pinpoint and loks more realistic.
Drilling through the beacon sounds like delicate work. I think I’ll stick with the LED even though it may not look as good, but it will last much longer.