Hi,
I want to replace the lights in my KATO SD70MAC and was wondering how I would go about wiring it. KATO uses led’s in thier locos and I want to either put led’s to each headlight or just reguler light bulbs. What type of LED should I use and how Would I wire it?
Thanks,
Smoke
lately i have been converting my locos to have been using individual 1.5v “grain-of-rice” bulbs to replace the single light that my locos used to have.
im not sure what kind, if any, “light piping” kato is using to get the light from the LED to the front of the loco, but what i have been doing is completely removing said piping, and then fitting the bulbs into their individual light housings. then i calculate what size resistor i need for the voltage requirements i have. for instance, if i have 2 headlights i will wire them in series. for two 1.5v lights that means i can run them at 3v. usually a resistor of around 300ohms will give me what i need when i take into consideration voltage drop for the loaded loco, and other lights etc…
i have found that with the incandescent bulbs the voltage/current is not super critical like it is for LEDs… as long as you stay within say 5% you should be okay.
for LED on the other hand, i usually just directly replace the old incandescent bulb with an led (with the proper resistor of course) and leave the light piping in place. i just try to get the LED as close as possible to the light pipe. the viewing angle of most “water clear” LEDs is shallow enough that the cab doesnt normally get filled with light.
though the LED installation is slightly easier and will last exponentially longer than an incandescent, i find that the look of the grain-of-rice bulbs when installed properly is far superior.