Having been blessed with a gorgeously-detailed passenger car built by Bruce Chandler, I’m wanting to see the interior when both on the shelf and the track. The first step was to install LED tape along the ceiling, and connect it to a 9v rechargeable battery pack. That was yesterday; and the battery is for track running.

Since I wanted to install this in as non-invasive a way as possible, I just dropped the 9v battery pack in one of the vestibules (the 12v version didn’t fit, and I didn’t want to harm the walls).

For shelf lighting, I didn’t want to mess with switches. So today I received a small 12v infrared sensor, and hooked it up to a 12v wall wart and matching connector to the LED tape. Here’s the setup, pretty simple.

To switch back to battery, you just unplug the sensor cable and plug in the battery cable. The sensor is hidden beneath a shelf, and the wires just go behind everything.

I got the sensor here. It’s 12-24vdc in, and when triggered, sends the same voltage out. The on-time is adjustable from 1 to 10 minutes.

This is right outside my basement office. So now whenever I walk to the fridge or the bathroom, I get to see Albert and his travel mates!

Thanks again Bruce!

Cliff

The strip lights are just the long tape you cut to length and solder your wires from the connector to?

Hi Pete,

Yes, you can cut and solder them about every 2 or 3 inches. You feed 12v (max) to them, regardless of cut length. There’s a number of colors, and some are remotely controllable. Just look for “LED tape.”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HSF64JG

So today I received a small 12v infrared sensor, and hooked it up to a 12v wall wart and matching connector to the LED tape

The LED strip hookups are fairly standardized. I bought one of those sensors and it controls the LED strip under the top step between my living and dining rooms.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32801843162.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dmUvugU

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32931314892.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dmUvugU

Thanks Pete, very cool.

Pete Lassen said:

The strip lights are just the long tape you cut to length and solder your wires from the connector to?

The connector pads are labelled so it is tough to go wrong.

Something else I tried on one coach was to cover some of the LEDs. The strips are quite bright - I’m surprised Cliff needed a dual strip! On EBT #5 I covered every other LED. They don’t get hot (as long as you keep the voltage down.) The covering was a strip of wood with holes cut for some of the LEDs to shine through.

Two strips are overkill, I agree. But I wanted to run on 9v and have it decently lit – which it barely is. On 12v though, yeah, too bright. I plan on knocking that down with a resistor.