LED Lighting for Valence using Strings

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
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Not Pucks or rope lights but the strings of LED bulbs that I saw this season (and bought)

I know this topic, in numerous variations, has been discussed many times, and I’ve looked at many of them, but not using/discussing, the newer strands of lights whose plug-in bulbs are LEDs not mini-incandescents. I picked some strings up in the after Christmas frenzy, a couple of different colors. There are Bright White, Cool White and Blue, (three different string types, i.e. not mixed on the same strings.)

These strings do not have a wall-wart type transformer, but rather the same kind of plugs the regular mini-light strings come with, where you can add string after string after string, until the fire department comes. [}:)] I will stay within manufactures spec BTW.

I have two levels with a valance over both, about 12" between each level and its corresponding valance

My questions (and thanks in advance for your responses)

Anybody using these to light a shelf layout type or similar situation?

Are these strings dimmable?

If dimmable, to these lights exhibit the same habit incandescents do in turning yellow to orange as they dim,

I’d like to use them for daylight, then dim a little for dawn or dusk, then transition over to the blue for night.

Thanks again.

Roypea

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So these things plug into at 110v wall outlet like ‘regular’ christmas tree lights?

If that’s the case, then I’d say that you should be able to dim them… to a point. and they should not yellow.

In your train room do you have a wall switch that turns a wall outlet on and off like for a lamp? If so then you could use that outlet for the LED’s and replace the wall switch with a dimmer which is easy enough to do, just be careful about it (turn off the power before working on it)

By the way, those ‘compact florescent’ light bulbs that are spiral shaped that everyone’s going bat poop over right now… you can’t use a dimmer with those.

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Perhaps I’m overlooking the obvious, but since you already have the lights, wouldn’t it be easy enough to temporarily tack them up and see how well they work? As for a dimmer, I bought an inline dimmer (I think that’s what it’s called) at Walmart a few years ago for $5.95. You could try one of these - just plug it into the wall socket and plug the lights into the dimmer. If it doesn’t work to your satisfaction, you can probably return it.

BYW, where did you find the LEDs? I’d like to try that.

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WaxonWaxov

you’re thinking like I’m planning, I’d planned to actually install two of the round kind of dimmers, push on/off and turn to dim in a double gang box and wire them to two seperate outlets, blue in one outlet and white in the other and see how that works.

Harry

You’re right and I plugged them in but its hard to tell with out having actually finished the layout/valance.

Garden Ridge is where I got mine, 50% off after Christmas. so about $2.50 a string then. I also saw some at WallyWorld (Walmart for the rest of you) but they clear the seasonal stuff out so fast they’ve likely been gone three weeks by now.

You make a good point about plugging them in, main reason for the post was to let the world know they are out there, and to see if anyone had tried them, and the dimming thing.

the string of 60 lights has the standard cord ends that Christmas lights have, male plug on one end with a female receptical on the back of the plug, and a female on the other end of the cord, and two deals on the cord, one half way down and the other between the plug and the first light, resistors is my guess doesn’t seem big enough for anything else. the lights fit into socket a lot like the mini Christmas lights, and are little buttion lights.

hope this infromation is useful, still interested in dimming but I may pick up an inline one and test it out as Harry suggests.

Roypea

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Thanks for the info, Roypea. Let us know if they put out enough light. LED certainly have the benefit of generating far less heat than other lights.

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I don’t believe LED’s are dimmable, and I don’t know how much light these strings will put out, but you may find that one string isn’t bright enough to suit your needs. Simply add another string or two in the same valance and to dim, just turn off strings as needed.

Earl

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The white LEDs in those Christmas tree light strings are very bright, but have a bluish tint to them. I bought a string of them at Wal-mart before Christmas thinking they could be used as locomotive headlights, but they are too blue.

They should be dimmable, and will last much longer if you dim them slightly instead of using them at full voltage.

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I suspect these are LED’s in series. LED’s can ‘sort of’ dim. There is a minimum voltage that they ‘fire’ at, and them the normal operating voltage. The ‘dimmer’ would be what I would try. Experimenting with 3mm LED’s for locomotive lights, I have found that most will start to light up around 1.8-2.0 volts and the maximum voltage is about 2.8 volts. They are ‘current’ devices and you do not want to run more than about 20 ma through most of them. I suspect these are similar and are just wired in series so that the 120 volt ‘load’ is split over the entire string.

Jim

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Not true! Check out Lowe’s, or any other home center, and you can now find dimmable CFLs. We have a couple of them around the house and they work great. I like the idea of using LEDs or CFLs as they generate a lot less heat (as well as being cheaper to operate). Thanks for the tip.

Ray

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Here’s and update to most of the comments to date.

As to brightness, I can’t really tell until I put them in the space. They put out a fair amount of light and being placed with in 12" of the surface of the layout, they might actually be enough light, of course, as noted, I can always add strings.

Color: I bought three different “colors”, cool white which come in strings of 60, warm white and blue which both are strings of 30 bulbs. cool white is pretty blue in color, warm white is quite yellow, I will experiment with a mix when I install, but I’m thinking the warm white will be the main usage. On thing I will not get, which is typical of the outside world, the prototype if you will, is distinct and directional shadowing, oh well. I haven’t pulled the blue, but that will be for night operations. One other note, these bulbs are flat on the top and the resultant light is somewhat directional, with a dark center in the lighting pattern. Could paint the top of the valance (bottom of the layer above) and get some reflection, could even warm the cool whites a little I expect.

Dimming, they do dim, to a point. As noted they don’t go the full range from 100% to zero, but unexpectedly to me at least, they dim only about 40%, using the turn the dial on the dimmer measurment method, 12:00 full, 3:00, dimmed by about 30% give or take, 4:00-5:00, dimming stops and the lights remain lit, the surprise to me. (they actually strobe in that point between dimming and fixed) The intensity would be more than 50% in my estimation, but light guys will tell you that that is not 50% power. Probably work okay for dusk, and I will use blue for night probably not doubling the strings, and off for that moonless night. To dim I took an unused, heavy duty computer power cord, cut off the female end, put it into a 2 gang box, added a duplex outlet on one side and a cheap rotary dimmer on the othe

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The Christmas LED light string I bought at Wal-mart has inverted cone LEDs. If you examine them closely, you’ll see that the tip is concave, not convex like most other LEDs. This spreads the light out so they radiate light from the sides instead of the tip.