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Passenger Car Lighting

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TwinStar:
I thought I had seen a simple dual DC/DCC circuit to power interior passenger car lights. I'm open to any style/design but I'm running into walls on finding a simple, and hopefully cheap, solution to light a LOT of passenger cars.

I could have sworn I saw a rectified capacitor circuit somewhere.

G8B4Life:
Something like this?


From http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/251747.aspx?sortorder=desc

Adjusting the values for the required brightness for H0 shouldn't be too hard, just don't ask me how as I don't know  :(

There are plenty of circuits out there, a Google search for "passenger car lighting circuit" brings up quite a few. In fact there's probably more than a couple of commercially available circuits if you want to spend the time looking.

Edit: Depending on how many is "a LOT" of passenger cars you'd probably need a lighting circuit for each car. It is probable you could use a circuit like the above to light a few cars in a set but something like a 10 to 14 car streamliner set the current draw of all the LED strips is likely going to make the component size and inter-car connecting wire become too big and cumbersome.

- Tim

TwinStar:
Something like that Tim. I finally found what I had buried in the back of my mind:

https://www.scalesoundsystems.com/product-page/basic-stay-alive-kit

Two things may be missing on this though. I need the ability to run on fixed DC and DCC and I'd like a on/off switch (reed perhaps). I also do not want to interconnect cars as my passenger consists will vary and actively be switched out.

The C1 in your diagram is the capacitor?

TwinStar:
I think I'd want it switched between one power lead and the rectifier to prevent too much in rush current for cars that are off but on the track.

Capacitor capability would only need to be 2-5 seconds just get over intermittent track and keep the lights from flickering.

G8B4Life:
I guess a stay-alive would work. To get it to be DC and DCC capable you'd need to put a bridge rectifier in. Wiring the car's up like the way we have to wire an LM-2 up for keep alive should work, feeding lights instead of a module.

There are latching reed switches around, some models here came with them for exactly the same purpose, turning the lights on an off with a little magnetic wand. I guess where you put the reed switch is up top you (I've put the reed switch inbetween the bridge rectifier and the rest of the stay alive) as long as it's between the track and the keep alive.

Hopefully Alan will come along and poke any holes that need to be poked in this idea.



I hope to use this circuit one day; I've got a LED light bar here that uses it and it's very effective, plus it has a pin on the IC to turn the whole thing on and off which might be able to be controlled with an LM.


www.diodes.com/assets/Datasheets/PAM2861.pdf

- Tim

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