Can you just slice and dice and splice to make it shorter or longer if needed. Got an extra string of the micro wire type LED’s that works from batteries and has a remote. Thought this would work great in my roundhouse but way too many lights.
I think so. The string I used in my roundhouse is all wired in parallel. If you have a series-wired one it won’t work, To check simply cut off the LED at the farthest end of the string fro the battery. If the rest still light they’re wired in parallel.
Even in series can you just rcconect the two end wires together, and solder it?
I’m not sure what your “string” looks like exactly but I’ve been using plenty of these with (for me) great success:
The tiny SMD LEDs are encased in a blob of clear resin of some kind. I cut them to the length or number of lamps I need, usually no more than 8 or 9 LEDs. More will require a larger wattage resistor. 1/4 watt can get pretty warm, 1/2 watt is better.
IMG_4759_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
There’s 100 LEDs on a string of soft copper wire. I strip away the third wire and save it for use as HO “hose”. The lacquer insulation takes a little scraping, plus heat to clean it off.
I use an LED tester to find out which wire is anode and mark them with red and black sharpies just so I don’t get mixed up.
I use these in passenger cars where their spacing is nearly ideal for even lighting, especially in a sleeping car where I can place each lamp where it will do the most good in stead of shining light down the middle of a walled-off corridor.
This Walthers car shows my homemade keep alive, too:
ATSF_10-6_Pine-King-wire by Edmund, on Flickr
In this car I retained
Generally not. When wired in series they usually use a resistor to limit current and the value of the resistor is based on the total voltage drop of the LEDs. If you remove LEDs without changing the resistor you’ll have more current flowing through the LEDs, and if it’s too much they burn up. If you add LEDs you’ll have less current and dimmer or possibly not lit at all LEDs.
[quote user=“gmpullman”]
I’m not sure what your “string” looks like exactly but I’ve been using plenty of these with (for me) great success:
The tiny SMD LEDs are encased in a blob of clear resin of some kind. I cut them to the length or number of lamps I need, usually no more than 8 or 9 LEDs. More will require a larger wattage resistor. 1/4 watt can get pretty warm, 1/2 watt is better.
IMG_4759_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
There’s 100 LEDs on a string of soft copper wire. I strip away the third wire and save it for use as HO “hose”. The lacquer insulation takes a little scraping, plus heat to clean it off.
I use an LED tester to find out which wire is anode and mark them with red and black sharpies just so I don’t get mixed up.
Several years back, I purchased several 100 LED strings of warm white Christmas lights from Home Depot the day after Christmas. The prices were significantly reduced so it was quite reasonable to buy several strings.
It did take a bit of time to disassemble each string to retrieve the individual LED’s but it was well worth the effort. I doubt I’ll ever run out of these LED’s.
The 3mm LED’s in these light strings are of an inverted cone design that reflects most of the light out the sides of the LED’s (perfect for building lighting). However, I also discovered that the point of the inverted cone still allows quite a bit of light to escape out the tip of the LED. In fact, these LED’s work great as headlights because the light greatly resembles the look of an incandescent headlight. Not only is the color right, but the light comes from a small point source in the middle of the LED. I like to use these LED’s for the headlights in all my EMD F7 locos. I use Testors Clear Parts Cement or Krystal Clear to form headlight lenses in the loco shells and mount the LED’s inside the shell directly behind the lenses. Great look!
Prototypically speaking every heavy industry building I have been in is extremely well lit to reduce injury related issues. That being said if we are modeling a steam era roundhouse I really don’t know how well it would have been lit.
Only well enough to get the job done but that depends on era too.