G scale festive lights

[tramcar trev]

Having been inspired by Gregs flickering firebox my thoughts turned to a) creating an illuminated Xmas tram and b) creating a string of festive lights to wind through the village Xmas tree and string across the traction poles.
I found these that are flickering RGB LED's;
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10pc-3mm-Colorful-Flashing-Flash-RGB-Red-Blue-LED-CF3-/140833564654?pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item20ca55a7ee&_uhb=1

I'm thinking that wired up in parallel that they would soon get out of synch (and if they don't would it matter) and provide a colourful display. There are others that are bi-colour usually red/green.
I wonder if I returned to the wire wrap technology could I do it that way or is it better to drill rows of 3mm holes in a bit of wood to create a jig to hold the leds while soldered to some thin wire. Power them via a 3.3V x.8A regulator and I could drive around 80 leds with a 1 Ohm resistor in series... And I need either dark green or black thin figure 8 wire with solder thru insulation.
This will keep me busy over winter............ The way the post is ATM if I buy them now they should be here by June

 

[trammayo]

Ah, the slow boat to from China. I wondered about the self-adhesive strips for dolls house, etc. They might work, with a few dabs of glass paint, for decorated trams.
I did get hold of a couple of those "blinking" Xmas wreath badges you showed last year - still pondering the rest of the tram.
Keep delivering the ideas Trev.

 

[tramcar trev]

I too looked at the strip LED lights, this sort of thing?;

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3528-5050-12v-led-strip-5M-RGB-Warm-Cool-White-300-600leds-Flexible-Car-Lights-/161181852152?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&var&hash=item25872fe1f8&_uhb=1
I was given a 300mm sample "to play with" and it has possbilities but lacks flexibility.

I have given a little more thought and I reckon that this is not going to be to hard to do. For the tram drill 3mm holes where you want the lights then poke thru the holes and hold in place with a drop of superglue from behind. Connect up with Kylar wire used for wire wrapping. Why? well this wire is very thin and silver plated plus the insulation (Kylar) melts at 177c (and has low toxicity) so you can solder thru the insulation, its very thin. For strings of festive G scale lights, proceed as suggested get a length of wood of any convenient length and drill a row of 3mm holes at the pitch ( I think maybe about 20mm for strings of festive lights) you desire making sure that they are all polarised so the the + and - are on the same side. Then solder the connecting wires on and trim off the excess pins on each led, ease the string upwards out of the Jig and then twist the length so that you have a string of multicoloured lights. Keep going until you have the length you want. They are all going to twinkle at different rates and they are all going to be of different intensities, just like the real thing! You can then calculate out the value of the resistor you need based on the number of LEDS in the string, the voltage drop for each led and the current mA you want each led to draw... see here you can let this program do it for you; http://www.hebeiltd.com.cn/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator

 

[trammayo]

Hi Trev, The lights that came to mind were a Doll's House thing - self adhesive strips (if I ever get around to it).