OK, I took a 9 volt battery and tried the LED’s strung together. If I hooked 2 of them together, it did not matter either way, they still lit up OK. If I added a 3rd one, it wouldn’t light up either way. If I added 16 volts of track power, it doesn’t matter how they are hooked up they all light up. Will it matter if they are hooked up randomly on 16 volts of track power? Will it damage something? Thanks for helping, Jake
PS. I’m hooking these up as a string, and it didn’t seem to matter which wire from each was hooked to the next one. Sorry about the crude diagram above
Jake, I’m afraid I don’t understand your diagram. Here’s how I would describe the wiring:
There is a wire that starts at the locomotive or tender pickup and extends without interruption through the full length of the train, with connectors between the cars. In each car, each LED assembly is connected to two points. One point is anything that connects to the outside rails through the wheels, like the frame of the car. The other point is the wire that runs through the train.
pickup—<<---------<<---------<<---------<<---------<
| | | | | | | |
LED LED LED LED LED LED LED LED
| | | | | | | |
FRAME FRAME FRAME FRAME
I had assumed that your LED assemblies comprised the actual LED in series with a diode (to protect against reverse voltage) and a resistor (to protect against excessive current). They are obviously some different circuit, perhaps two LED chips in anti-parallel and then in series with the ballast resistor. But there is no reason to worry about that. The fact that you can see no difference when you swap their individual leads means th
Sorry Bob about the crudeness of the drawing. These are not hooked up in the cars, just laying on the table top. The two lines at the bottom of what I have labeled as the resistor are the wires coming out of the resistors. I simply hooked one wire on the first LED to the - side of the battery or 16 volt track current, then took the other wire to the next LED and hooked it to one of the leads coming from the LED. Then took the othe wire from that LED and hooked it to the next LED and so on down the line. With track current it made no difference at all, but with a 9 volt battery if a 3rd LED was added, it would not light up regardless of how the wires were arranged. With track voltage, you could not make them not light up. Does that make any sense to you ? Thanks much, Jake
One last request. Can you take just one and use the battery ( 9 volt, Bob was right again, Thanks for the correction) and have it work both ways by switching the leads. Oh and check to see if you didn’t burn out that third light. Just curious.
If I switch the leads, the lights still light up just fine. The 3rd light did not burn out, I just checked it. So now what do you think of this? Thanks for all the help, Jake
It works I’ll give it a rest. Enjoy Them.
The third one didn’t light because the forward voltages of two white LEDs use up the entire voltage of the 9-volt battery.
You can run LEDs in series on AC voltage (with appropriate ballast and reverse-voltage protection), but you get to put more of them in series because the peak voltage is about 41 percent higher than the RMS voltage. So a 20-volt transformer output will light as many LEDs as a 28-volt battery. I do not recommend series operation from track voltage, however, because it is more sensitive to changes of voltage. LED light varies much less with current than incandescent light does; and LED current varies less with voltage if you use single LEDs in your circuits. My opinion is that constant-brightness circuits don’t buy you much with LEDs used in this way.
Should I dump the LED’s all together then? Is there a way to wire them in the train cars that would make sense? I think I’ve asked this before but I still don’t really know what I should do. Should I wire conventional bulbs in series? Thanks for the help,. Jake I turned towards the LED’s for their lack of heat, hopefully I can use them somehow.
No! Wire them just the way I showed in the diagram above. That is the best way to get almost-constant lighting, much better than incandescent. I was just trying to explain why you couldn’t get more than two of them to light on a 9-volt battery. You’re on the right track so far.
On the right track! We had us a little play on words right there we did! Oh boy, OK, better stop that grammar before the West Virginia jokes start flying! Yes, I know what a WV girl who can out run her brother is called!
Thanks Bob, and since I can’t tell the anode from the cathode, I guess it doesn’t make any difference eh? I appreciate the help, Jake
Don’t feel bad about telling anodes from cathodes, Jake. Every Lionel transformer schematic I’ve ever seen has the diode symbol in the whistle controller drawn backwards!
Thanks Bob. Once I get the connectors from you, I’ll have lights in the observation cars with no alterations of any kind, a real plus in my opinion. Thanks for your help, Jake