Getting in to the building faze and interested in what components are best if you want to light a building using DCC?
TIA, Brian
I would wonder WHY use DCC to control lighting of a building? Unless you have a lot of different buildings and want lights turning on and off at different times with only one control circuit…
I use old power packs to light buildings and power any other acsessories on the layout. The only things I use DCC to control are things that are directly related to running the trains. Now, you COULD light buildings with DCC, but you would spend a fortune on components to do so. Powering lights with your old power packs is cheap and easy.
This reminds me of the science teacher who challenged the class to design a solar clothes drier.
The students came up with all kinds of Rube Goldberg arrangements involving solar air heaters, or an acre of photoelectric panels. The winner was the girl who brought in 25 feet of clothes line.
It strikes me that using $$$ DCC controllers, power boosters and such to light structures is in the same ballpark as using a howitzer to shoot mosquitoes.
On my layout, structure lighting is on a separate set of circuits powered by several small transformers - a couple of 9V wall warts (leftovers from dead devices), two toy train power supplies (yard sale booby prizes) and a 3 amp 12.6V filament transformer from Radio Shack. Detailed control is provided by the cheapest slide switches I could buy. The bulbs are 2.5v, el cheapo Christmas light variety, wired in series strings so each gets about 1.5V to 1.8V. That gives a nice, not overbright light and guarantees long bulb life. (I bought a whole case of 150-light strings for less than ten dollars the week after Christmas.) My entire investment, present and projected, is probably less than the cost of three DCC fixed decoders, and will be more than adequate for a well-lighted 20 x 20 double-garage-filler layout.
Chuck (who is a firm believer in the KISS principle)
Everyone is right. Using DCC to power anything but your trains will just rob power. I only use my DCC to power trains, nothing else. You can use all sorts of different power supplies to power accessories.
I have two structures that are ran with a stationary decoder. One is a 130’ turntable at my engine facility and the other is a bascule drawbridge. Its neat to be able to operate these from a wirelees throttle…
But if you insist on doing this…
Digitrax makes a one-function, lights-only decoder called the TL1. It lists for $18.95. You can control one light, or a string of lights, but you will be limited by the current draw. Lex Luther would put one of these in every building, and use computer control to sequence them.
You can increase the number of lights that can be powered from a single decoder function by switching from incandescents to LEDs. LEDs have a very direction “beam” light pattern, though, and the cheap ones have non-realistic colors, so you will need to set up some sort of “bounce” screen to light the buildings, and you might want to think about window shades to mute the harsh tone of the LEDs.
Remember, though, that every light will still count against your maximum current rating on the DCC system. If you’ve got 25 lamps at 200 millamps a piece, that’s 5 amps. For most DCC systems, it’s Game Over time.
My structure lighting runs off a cheap old Lionel transformer. It was built in either the Eisenhower or Truman administration. (really.) But, it still works. I have split my structure lights into a couple of sets, each controllable from a small, cheap toggle switch. I think just about everyone does the same, using a separate transformer of some sort, and isolating the DCC system from all the random lights.
I use an old PC power supply and have no trouble in the least. I have about 45 lights, some are Christmas lights, some are GOW bulbs. I still have about half of the outputs not in use so I still have plenty of room for future espansion
[#ditto]
That’s the same thing I use, and I have no complaints.
you could also use the decoder to pull in a optoisolator or relay and not even have to worry about current draw on your boost/command station. adding some TTL/CMOS logic and perhaps another decoder or two could give you lots of options…3-8 decoder type circuit or more, depending on how far you want to take this…
just a thought.
I designed a solution which uses external power but allows DCC control of lights. See:
That is the only reason I could see one would want DCC lights. To control them for effect. At 7:00 grandma on the corner of 3rd & Elm turns on her porch light. At 5:30 the street lights come on, the yard towers light up at 8:00. etc. Still seems like way overkill for a MR.
I would use LED’s for lighting buildings, streetlights, signs, etc. They use so little power, that you can get all the power you need from an old power pack or even batteries. The nice thing about LED’s as opposed to GOW’s is they put out a “scale” amount of light and are small enough to be hidden easily. Some GOW’s in HO are about the scale size of a milk bottle. You can imagine how they look inN and Z scale.