Latching Reed Switch for Passenger car lighting

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have installed led strips in my passenger cars and am looking for a latching reed switch so they do not have to be on all the time. I would like to turn them on and off with a magnet similar to ‘easy-peese’. I am having a hard time finding them, does anyone know of a source?

Thank you

Brian

2

Check out Digi-Key.

ROAR

3

Brian,

If you want siwtches, go for it. Don’t mean to discourage you, just offer another option to consider which saves time and effort, as well as the cost of the switches.

I have about three dozen LED-lighted cars, most using 12 volt LED strip lights. None are switched, either a switch or decoder. The lights are on whenever the layout has DCC power. I keep my lighting relatively dim compared to what you see with most factory-lit models. I think they aim to show “Hey, I’m a lit car!” even in broad daylight.

My layout is set-up to do night time ops, so cars like that are just way too bright to be believable when the lights go down. I use lots of resistance to get the lighting adjusted so it looks right at “night.” Once that’s done, the lighting is dim enough you usually can’t see the car lighting on during the “day” so I don’t bother with turning things on and off. It just is.

I have a NCE 5 amp PowerPro and 5 amp booster. It hasn’t flinched with all the “lights” on, because the draw is so low. I suspect my stopping the brightness down with so much resistance also limits the excess draw on the DCC so it’s less of a factor than it might seem by just “doing the math” which is usually based on the draw needed at full brightness.

Details and lots of pics are in my thread, The Night Scene": http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/213765.aspx?page=1

The info on passenger car lighting is on page 2 if it’s of interest.

4

Just so you know, I did some lighting projects a few months back, and I had a very hard time even finding latching magnetic relays. The ones I did find were expensive.

My solution is to insulate one rail of each of my staging / storage tracks, and control it with a panel toggle so I can kill not only the car lighting but also the engine sounds.

5

Mercury used to be the key component in making the switches, IIRC, not so sure about the relays. Anything with mercury is pretty much banned from new production. Most likely any relays or switches using mercury are available as old stock only.

6

Mike:

Are you referring to mercury switches? Magnetic reed switches don’t contain mercury (unless the contacts are mercury wetted).

Joe

7

Joe,

Yeah, used to be and I’m not even sure we’re talking about exactly the same thing. If it’s “mercury-wetted” then my guess is it’s history in terms of buying new.

8

I am not looking for mercury switches but a latching magnitic reed switch.

Thanks,

Brian

9

I bought them from an advertiser in MR for a buck each about 4-5 years ago. to put dimmers in my MTH SP cars. But the distributor (maybe DigiKey, I don’t remember) changed policy to only sell the bare glass switches in large quantities. They instead took to selling the same switches in a housing for PCB insertion for twice the price. If anyone runs across a better price, I’d like to hear.

DigiKey has tons of NON-latching reed switch choices for about a dollar; I bought some a few months ago.

Hal

10

Brian:

You might want to try contacting this guy. I bought a few latching reed switches from him two or three years ago. I’m not sure if he is even selling them anymore:

http://www.trainelectronics.com/LED_Articles_2007/LED_103/index.htm

Dave

11

Rapido uses latching magnetic reed switches on their “Easy Peasy” light boards, and may be able to provide you with a supplier’s address if you ask them.

12

Do you have an address or a phone number for this guy, his email address in his article is no more.

Thanks

Brian

13

Brian:

Unfortunately I don’t have either an address or phone number.

I sent him an e-mail to see if he was still in business at the same time I posted my reply to your question but I haven’t received a response. I didn’t get a bounce back yet either so I’m not sure what his status is.

I can’t see any markings on the switches themselves.

EDIT!!

I just got a reply from Dave Bodnar and he is still selling latching relays for $1.00 each. The e-mail I used was the same one in his blog but his reply came from davebodnar@verizon.net .

2nd EDIT:

Both e-mail addresses are working.

Dave

14

Thank you very much for your help. I purchased some and they work great.

Thank you all again.

Brian