I recently picked up about 10M of 1mm fiber optic cable for cheap. I am thinking about using it to install some head and taillights in a few of our automobiles on the layout using red & white leds. Any of you use Fiber optic cable? Would you place the Leds in the cars or run the cable under the layout and light all of it with just a couple of LEDS. Any other uses for it?
All of my vehicular lighting is in the vehicle. I use a pair of 1mm 1½ volt micro bulbs for head lights and a single bulb on fiber for the taillights. I use incandescent bulb because they are much more realistic looking for the 50s era than LEDs. I operate the bulbs at 1.4 volts for longer life.
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2016/04/april-15-2015-vehicle-lighting.html
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2011/02/february-19-2011-more-vehicles.html
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2010/04/april-24-vehicle-lighting.html
Fiber works great with either LEDs or the micro bulbs.
I think I’d run the fiber optics out of the car and down under the layout. You’re going to have to have a wire or something, anyway. By running them under the layout, you have the option of using just about any light source you want. And you can flash them, too.
Ed
Any time there is a group of cars, anyway - I’d collect the fibers and run those under the layotu rather than fit each car with lighting. One set of lights, regardless of what you use. Slight variation in brightness since not every fiber can be at the brightest point of the light source. And no worries about like leakage through the body of the car. I wouldn’t run 10 feet of fiber optic to light cars on the other side of town.
–Randy
I have to politely disagree with Randy and Ed.
The problem with having several fiber optic cables coming out of the bottom of a vehicle is that the cables aren’t all that flexible. That makes it difficult to get the vehicle to sit down properly on the road surface without having to glue the vehicle down permanently.
Mel has a much more eloquent solution. He mounts all of his bulbs (he doesn’t use LEDs - he doesn’t like the light colour) inside his vehicles and uses a very simple scratch built plug system to run power to the lights. Go back to his post and click on the links.
His system allows you to move vehicles around the layout at will. You can plug them in wherever there is a socket in the road and you can put the sockets wherever you want.
Dave
I have illuminated quite a few vehicles using fiber optic cable where the vehicle came with painted lights instead of clear plastic lenses.
The first step is to drill a hole through the center of the painted lens the same size as the fiber optic cable. Then I use a slightly larger drill bit to hollow out the headlight or tail light.
The next step is to form a lens in the fiber optic cable. All you need to do is hold the end of the cable close to a heat source like a soldering iron and the cable will flare naturally. The longer you hold the cable to the heat the larger the lens will be, but if you apply the heat for too long you might find that the lens will start to bubble.
Then I cut the cable so there is about 1/4" of cable attached to the lens. Then slide the cable into the hole and hold it firmly in place. Then use the iron to flare the inside end of the cable.
I use 90 second epoxy to hold the LEDs in place, and I illuminate the LEDs when positioning them. The placement of the LED relative to the inside flare is crucial. You need to be really patient. If you let go of the LED before the epoxy is fully hardened the LED may shift and the light won’t come through the lens properly.
The whole process takes a little practise. I won’t tell you how many LEDs I have had to grind out with my dremel because they didn’t end up lined up properly.
Dave
I haven’t had any problems with light leaks on my vehicles, a dob of black paint on the rear of the headlight bulbs takes care of leaks. I put the taillight and marker lights (trucks & buses) bulbs in a short Styrene tube then a drop of CA and insert the taillight fibers against the bulbs. I paint the tube black to prevent leaks. I use a standard contact spacing (¼”) with a pair of .030” brass rods as the male plug and place pairs of brass tubes as sockets around my layout for female contacts.
I have over 90 pairs of tubes scattered around my layout for my vehicles. I can easily remove the vehicles without the tubes showing or just move the vehicles around my layout. I’ve installed the 1mm bulbs in well over 90 vehicles without any light leaks or problems.
There is a downside to using bulbs, high current draw at 1.4 volts. The 1mm bulbs draw .013ma each at 1.4 volts and I have roughly 350 1mm bulbs plus another 25 or so 2mm bulbs on my 1.4 volt DC to DC converter. My 1.4 volt power supply is currently supplying 5.1 amps.
This is my latest, a three headlight Rolls Royce using three 1mm bulbs. I will install a fourth 1mm bulb in a small Styrene tube under the hood with two .02” red fibers running to the taillights.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
&nb
My Rolls Royce has been sitting waiting to be finished for several weeks and this topic got me going. I decided to finish it.
Here is a picture of my taillight assembly before painting it black.
I mounted the grill with the bulbs in the headlights.
As I’m a fan of 50s mystories this Rolls belongs to Nero Wolf, I’m going to put Archie (left) in the drivers seat and Nero in the back (right), had to chop them up to fit.
Mel
This all sounds to me like it should be an MR article. How about it?
Hey Mel,
Thanks for showing your excellent, incredibly clean work! You have me thinking about ripping all my illuminated vehicles apart to install the brass tube connectors.
Dave
I really like the ability to move my vehicles around my layout. You can use Bulbs or LEDs with fiber inside the vehicles. Both LEDs and bulbs work great on fiber. I used .02” fiber on my Rolls Royce for the taillights and that is a bit to small, not quite enough light in .02” fiber. .039” to .058” or 1 to 1.5mm fiber works good for HO headlights, the larger the fiber the brighter the headlights.
When making the brass rod male connectors make one rod slightly longer than the other, makes it much easier to guide the rods into the brass tubing.
I’ve built up another group of vehicles in the last few weeks so I need to add more brass tubes on my layout to make room for them.
Another tip on fiber taillights, leave about a 1/32” hanging out of the taillight.
Mel,
What’s your source for the 1mm 1½ volt micro bulbs?
Thx.
Hi Lonnie
Sorry for commandeering your thread, I just really get into my lighting projects and don’t know when to stop.
I normally buy packages of 100 micro bulbs from Wehonest off eBay for about $19, I just checked their site and apparently they are out of the 1mm bulbs. Wehonest has a good selection of bulbs as well as LEDs. They kinda lean towards model railroading, they have a good selection of scale street lights and threes.
http://stores.ebay.com/WEHONEST?_rdc=1
There are a couple of other sites selling the micro bulbs at a higher price.
Here is a link to another good seller, but at a higher cost. I’ve bought from them several times and they can be trusted.
Lonnie
If you are kicking around going to 1½ volt bulbs you need to think about power too. Using Alkaline batteries to directly power the bulbs is not a good idea. A fresh Alkaline battery is 1.56 volts and the micro bulbs won’t last long over 1.48 volts. I use DC to DC converters for my regulated voltages. I power the converters from 12 volts and their output is adjustable from .8 volts to 28 volts. Their voltage regulation is fantastic. I set my 1½ volt bulb voltage at 1.4 volts or a bit under but the bulbs look good at 1.3 volts. The lower the voltage the longer the life of the bulbs. Running my hundreds of micro bulbs at 1.4 volts or slightly less I’ve only lost two bulbs in 7 years.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Commandeer away Mel. I’ve learned a ton in this thread.