I have several Athearn RTR locos that were bought within the last five years. All of their lights have individual lamps for the appropriate headlight holes. I was considering upgrading these units to have LEDS in them so I can not worry about heat melting around the lamp holes in the shells. I am considering switching over to DCC within this year. Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Will
Here is a link to using LEDs. If the locos have 1.5 volt lamps, it may not be an issue.
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn1/Lights_in_DCC.htm
Rich
I like pages like this
buchmann has some great lights amber bluish
just not pure white
K
1 1/2 volt bulbs don’t do much melting, which is why Athearn uses them. They also aren’t very bright. They filled a need for constant brightness headlights on DC, where they need to come on around 3 or 4 volts.
That said, I would get some small diameter clear styrene rods to fill the headlight holes, and put a single superbrite LED behind them. I believe you can buy a clear plastic insert for the headlight holes. Check the Walthers catalog.
Will,
LEDs are terrific for headlights because they not only emit very little heat but are more directional than incandescent lamps.
I would go with 3mm - T1 LEDs. “Golden-white” or “yellow-GLO” LEDs are appropriate for pre-70s locomotives; “sunny-white” for more modern locomotive headlights.
If your locomotives come with the clear plastic light rods, use black heat shrink as an interface between it and the head of the LED. This will help focus the light down the light rod rather than lighting up the interior of your shell.
If they don’t come with the clear plastic light rods, you have a couple of options:
If the headlight lens is thick enough (say 1/8" or >), remove it from the shell (if possible) and drill the back of the lens out (i.e. ~1/2 the depth) with a 0.116" (#32) OD drill bit to accept the head of the 3mm LED. (3mm LEDs will fit just right in that size hole.)
If the headlight lens is NOT thick enough or your locomotive shell doesn’t come with one, use the same drill bit size in 1. to drill the center out of the headlight lens or headlight opening.
To adhere the LED to the lens or shell opening (but still make it removable later), use some thinned Elmer’s glue at the base of the LED to hold it in place.
And, don’t forget to add a resistor for each LED if your light board doesn’t have one. My Athearn Genesis Mike came with a “green” LED. Switching it out for a golden-white LED was very easy because there already was a resistor on the board.
Tom
Thanks for the great responses. I should have stated in the original post what models I have that I would like to upgrade. A dash 9 series and 2 P42s. I have considered experimenting with fiber optics for this projects. Any suggestions?
If i were you, i’d go ahead and leave in the 1.5 volt bulbs. To me, LED lights do not have a natural prototypical yellowish glow to them as the incandecent bulbs do and a yellow LED bulb is just too much of a yellowish glow. The problem with the bulb brightness may be due to the fact that there is a piece of clear plastic between the bulbs and the light bracket that carry the light to the light housing which Athearn is famous for installing in their locomotives.
If you want them brighter, Take out the clear plastic lighting part ( remember to save and re-install the number boards) and then take a 256 drill bit and drill out the light housing so that the 1.5 bulbs fit in the light housing. Next, use a toothpick and dab some clear silicone on the back side of the 1.5 v bulbs and gingerly fit them into the lighting sockets. For extra support tape the wires of the bulb to the roof of the cab with a small piece of electrical tape. Let the silicone dry overnight before wiring them to the decoder. When the bulbs are mounted directly in the light sockets, they are plenty bright. I also put in about a 5 ohm resistor so that they will last longer. Miniatronics sells some really great 1.5 grain-of-rice bulbs that you can use instead of the stock bulbs from Athearn. Miniatronics bulbs also seem to last a lot longer than Athearn stock bulbs…chuck
Have you even tried any of the newer “yellow-glo” white LEDs or “sunny-white” LEDs? As one of the previous posters already mentioned, the former mimics pre- 1970’s loco lights and the latter mimics more modern locos. These are NOT yellow LEDs! I have replaced almost all of my 1.5v micro bulbs with the “yellow-glo” white LEDs and they are just as convincing as the micro bulbs were, if not more so and they’re brighter, cooler and will last almost forever.
Where’s a good retailer for these sunny white LEDs?
You can rework LEDs a lot. I sanded and filed them. Here you see what I did for beacon lights. Usually I use 1 kOhm resistor.
Here you see a white LED with SMD resistor.
I colored the LED with water color or a color for light buls to get a warmer light.
Wolfgang
Will,
You can get them from Litchfield Station:
Bruce Petrarca is a terrific guy to deal with. One of the best.
Tom