dr_spock Posted February 28, 2018 Posted February 28, 2018 This is my DIY LED lights on a budget. White 5mm LEDs are 2 cents each and resistors are 4 cents each on eBay. A large spool of wire-wrap wire costs around $5-7. Do-It-Yourself LEGO LED Light by dr_spock_888, on Flickr I tapped into the 9V and GND lines of the IR Receiver for power. Note this will void your warranty. Do so at your own risk. I fed the wires through the pin holes on the receiver. No drilling or cutting needed. I sandwiched the LED between two Technic 1x2 bricks. The 5mm sized LEDs fit right in the Technic hole. I decided to try wire-wrapping instead of soldering. It might be easier to disassemble later on. The LED turns on when the battery pack is turned on. It makes a good reminder to turn off the battery pack when done playing. Little Yellow Locomotive by dr_spock_888, on Flickr The hard part was calculating what size resistor to use to limit the current to the LED. Too much current will blow the LED. Tools used were small Philip head (+) screwdriver, wire cutter & stripper, soldering iron, wire-wrap tool, and tweezers. Plus a multimeter to verify polarity. Quote
MAB Posted February 28, 2018 Posted February 28, 2018 I do something similar, it's much cheaper than PF lights plus you can get colour too! The resistor calculation shouldn't be too big a deal, as there are many calculators to work out the value you need if you know the forward voltage, for example: https://www.kitronik.co.uk/blog/led-resistor-value-calculator/ http://ledcalc.com/ I also found some 5mm LEDs are bigger than others, and need a little fine sanding around the edges before they fit into a technic hole. This doesn't make any difference as you don't see the sides. Quote
JopieK Posted February 28, 2018 Posted February 28, 2018 Very nice hack, seems to me that you did a (Dutch) NS 17xx series locomotive? Making it a little longer would add to the realism. They are getting old, I experience them regularly while they draw / push DDAR trains (double deck material) and they now and then suffer from issues including high voltage switches that malfunction. N.b. heat shrink tube is also very cheap and would be a good way to ensure (maybe in combination with hot glue) that your LED's/resistors don't get ripped from the leads. Take about 1K I would say for driving the LEDs. Use the LED resistor calculators online that MAB pointed out indeed if you need more precision. Quote
dr_spock Posted March 4, 2018 Author Posted March 4, 2018 On 2/28/2018 at 4:45 AM, MAB said: I do something similar, it's much cheaper than PF lights plus you can get colour too! The resistor calculation shouldn't be too big a deal, as there are many calculators to work out the value you need if you know the forward voltage, for example: https://www.kitronik.co.uk/blog/led-resistor-value-calculator/ http://ledcalc.com I also found some 5mm LEDs are bigger than others, and need a little fine sanding around the edges before they fit into a technic hole. This doesn't make any difference as you don't see the sid Yup, definitely much cheaper than PF LEDs or cutting a PF extension cable. I can get 200 white LEDs for the price of one PF extension cable. Thanks for the links. It sure beats struggling to figure out how to use V=IR again. On 2/28/2018 at 5:54 AM, JopieK said: Very nice hack, seems to me that you did a (Dutch) NS 17xx series locomotive? Making it a little longer would add to the realism. They are getting old, I experience them regularly while they draw / push DDAR trains (double deck material) and they now and then suffer from issues including high voltage switches that malfunction. N.b. heat shrink tube is also very cheap and would be a good way to ensure (maybe in combination with hot glue) that your LED's/resistors don't get ripped from the leads. Take about 1K I would say for driving the LEDs. Use the LED resistor calculators online that MAB pointed out indeed if you need more precision. Thanks. I would love to see the train in real life. Are they going to be remanufactured or retired? I like the unique look of their front windshield. The wirewrap seem to stand up to pulling. I had to unwind the wire to get it off the leads when I was testing. On 2/28/2018 at 6:46 PM, Blk69 said: You are my hero! Thanks. On 3/1/2018 at 4:16 PM, kieran said: Looks good, nice and simple Thanks. Quote
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