As part of the second railcar that I am constructing, for simplicity, I thought to permanently wire the trailing car interior light and the two tail lights, directly to track power. The bulbs are 18 volt incandescent (three off). Should I wire the lights through an on/off switch for programming the decoder as I feel the current draw may be seen as a short circuit?
Decoder and fixed track lighting
- Thread starter Tim Brien
- Start date
It wouldn't be a short circuit but it would be additional load which may upset the programming track output of whatever system you use to program the decoder. Programming tracks are normally limited to just enough current to operate the decoder.
Yes, I'd advise fitting an on/off switch.
Are 18V bulbs going to be ok on your DCC? You've got an NCE system like me, right? I have mine dialed up to 18 volts and I've had no problems with lights blowing, but worth remembering that Massoth/LGB (& Piko?) put out something more like 22V-24V.
Yes, I'd advise fitting an on/off switch.
Are 18V bulbs going to be ok on your DCC? You've got an NCE system like me, right? I have mine dialed up to 18 volts and I've had no problems with lights blowing, but worth remembering that Massoth/LGB (& Piko?) put out something more like 22V-24V.
What would be the difficulty of powering these from the decoder and then you can turn them off if need be. Personally I'd use LEDs as they'd last forever in such an application and once installed no more fiddling. As this is a trailing car and presumably always coupled some fake hoses containing the wires (I use black shrinkwrap) would work to get power from the decoder?
Richard
Richard
Like Richard says LEDS and through the decoder you can then set the voltage and no need to worry about the varying voltages
Must admit I'd use LEDs (as they're far more efficient) unless you have a particular reason such as preferring the light given off by bulbs?
Personally I'm not such a big fan of relying on the decoder to drop the function output voltage: if you have to replace the decoder later and forget to set the CV's then "pop!" I always leave the function at full voltage and use a suitable resistor. It costs the same few pence/cents whatever resistor value you use.
Personally I'm not such a big fan of relying on the decoder to drop the function output voltage: if you have to replace the decoder later and forget to set the CV's then "pop!" I always leave the function at full voltage and use a suitable resistor. It costs the same few pence/cents whatever resistor value you use.
And with LED's it doesn't much matter about voltage as long as you go with worst case, also you can get LED's to match most any spectral desire and if not, a light glaze can fix it!
Richard
Richard