Coach Lighting The Easy Way...

Nigels · 2021-11-27T11:31:39+00:00

I don't know if you guys have seen or heard of this product, but Hornby have recently released what they describe as 'Mag Lights' (I know its also a brand of...

Super

If they are only 'Momentary' Switches then I can't see how they would be good for coach lighting. Maybe best for them to control a momentary action on a Layout for example: Crossing gates come down and lights flash as a train rolls over a crossing and once passed, the gates go up and crossing lights go out. But with something like that there would have to be a magnet in each coach and engine to increase the 'momentary' time that the switch stays open or closed as the case may be.

Nigels

Agreed, unless of course you have one of these little circuit boards that come with the Hornby lights or similar, there must be a chip or circuit out there that does it, if (when) I get some spare time to do a bit of research I'll see what I can turn up 🙂

Super

Don't go out of you way Nigel, its the Holidays, use your time wisely to search for new goodies to supply your ~~habit~~ collections. 😃

Nigels

Super, I'm on leave between the 29th Dec and 7th Jan so effectively when I include statuatory holidays the 25th Dec to 7th Jan so will have plenty of time to do research among other activities. Of course scanning fleabay will be bottom of my list :angel:

Super

I hope Mr Nigels doesn't mind me showing these lights in this Thread but eureka...I found exactly what I needed and looked for. The first wire LED lights using the Button Battery pack was close to what I was going to use them for...the bulbs were spaced too far apart and I would have had to double up the lengths to get them closer together which would then double up the wires exposing them more. What I finally found out is that most of the fairy lights came with 20 bulbs 4 inches apart on a wire 7.7 feet long. What I finally found was a 20 bulb on a 3.3 feet long wire...perfect...the bulbs are now closer at 2 inches apart...fantastic. This is the only one I found withe the bulbs only 2 inches apart. Everything else is 4 inches apart. What I also like is that its only 3.3 feet long which creates less waste if I have to cut them to fit. Also...the wire being silver is perfect as its blends in better than the copper color wire and...these tiny LED's are close the the scale of our trains which makes them fit in better in a Layout IMO.

I am hoping to be able to take some still pictures and/video of the complete first project in Supers Thread when I figure out the best way to take night time pictures.

Nigels

Super I don't mind in the slightest, nice to see you find a workable and probably cheaper solution, I look forward to seeing the results! 😃

WernethStation

Nigels wrote
If you could find some way to turn them on/off easily they could possibly be fitted inside coaches as well I guess, if not they would be fine inside buildings and stuff on a layout 🙂

Well you could get a magnetic reed switch and one of these maybe?

[size=small]Bistable Switch Module Theremin KY002 Single Button Trigger 3-27V from Aliexpress or surely available on eBay etc.[/size]
[size=small]basically use the reed switch to flip flop the switch module.[/size]
[size=small]They are only about 1cm square so easy to fit in the model.[/size]

[size=small]Note: I haven't actually tried this yet but plan on ordering a few to play with in the new year.[/size]

[size=small]Cheers![/size]

[size=small]Gerry C[/size]

Nigels

I did think about this myself and if I were to add more to other coaches I may well go down that route myself. But for sheer convenience and simplicity of fitting these ones if you are using the appropriate Hornby coaches then they are an easy option...

Super

Welcome to BPT's WernethStation ðŸ˜ƒ

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