I installed an NCE decoder in my locomotive and I installed 1.5v lights installed with a resistor well they are to dim. Should I just go with a 14v bulb or LED? Would using a 12v LED need a resistor? has to be 3mm or smaller to fit where I installed the rear light thank you for any help.
you will need to adjust the resistor value to achieve the desired brightness. i will try to come up with a value to help you.
Should I go higher up in the value or lower in the value to get brighter lights? And how may resistors do I need to control the front and rear lights?
Need a bit more info. What value of resistor are you currently using? If you don’t know then can you read the color bands and post them? To answer your question, lower resistance will allow more current and therefore brighter lights. The reverse is true. But you need to becareful not to allow more current than the bulb can handle as it will burn out. Likewise for your decoder, draw too much current off the decoder and you can fry that output or worse, the whole decoder.
If you can post you light bulb specs (ex 20mA Max @ 1.5V) and the decoder model # then we can help ya out better.
Lastly, its probably best to use 1 resistor per light.
Belay my last post.
Heres a manual for a NCE decoder. At the bottom of page 6 is your resistor chart.
I’m using LENZ decoders. Should I just use a 12v bulb or would this run to hot?