I was in Wallyworld yesterday, and they are putting out christmas stuff already. Saw a string of 20 LED lites for 6.95. They were the Warm White type. They had some lited in a display and they looked good for loco headlights. Thats about 35 cents each.
havn’t looked yet this year, but last year, target had 60 count globes with mini warm whites inside for $12.
the actual LEDs inside each globe were a bit smaller than standard 3mm, instead of the normal 5mm xmas light size
I needed micro LEDs for my HOn3 railroad use. I Found not warm white but pure white, tiny, flat rectangles 1.6mm X 0.8mm X 0.4 mm thick. Almost impossibly tiny and the devil’s own work to solder, but fabulous otherwise. These were designed for micro PC board mounting. They were dwarfed by the massive #30 gauge wire wrap wire I soldered to them. The fine wire looked like it had a drop of glue on the two ends! Get out yer’ watch-maker tools and needle tipped soldering iron.
Jameco.com, Part # 2033164, 100 LEDs for $15.00
Richard
American Science and Surplus has 5mm white LEDs for $1.95 per. The catalog blurb does not say if they are the warm or cool types.
I’m not afraid to chuck an LED in a drill and take a file to it so a 5mm becomes a 3mm…
The L.E.D Switch Co has all types of LED’s and the 3mm warm white are 3 for $1.80 or $ .60 each. I use them for my LED’s for convience, fair shipping and you don’t have to dismantle a string of Christmas lights. Just my 2 cents.
-Bob
The 5mm Walmart Xmas lights I got last winter are still in my parts inventory. This size is particularly good for structure lighting (HO) but now that others have seen that smaller LEDs are also cheaply available, it’s time to do some frugal hobby shopping I see. Thanks for the heads up! Cedarwoodron
I just purchased some ‘warm’ white LEDs from Quickar Electronics Inc. They cost me $.50 each ($.45 if you buy 100). I put the quotation marks on the ‘warm’ because they are a tiny bit too blue for incandesent headlights. I was able to solve that problem with a yellow highlighter. They come with proper resistors supplied so the price is very reasonable IMHO, and they are available in 3mm and 5mm sizes.
Here is the link to their LED listings. Scroll down to find the warm whites:
http://www.quickar.com/discrete.php?session=C09n3FaU
Dave
Thanks for the info on LEDs. I’ve been trying to find a supplier that doesn’t think they are made from gold.
Thom