Anyone have good pointers for LEDs to use for building and other accent lighting? Something that will mimic a GOW bulb in brightness and tone? I’m not looking for the stark bright white that a lot of LEDs that Ive found so far.
Bob, I use the inexpensive, $.99, solar powered pathway lights from Wal-Mart, and either build the solar panel into the building or just cut a 1 3/4" hole with a hole saw and push the whole head in the hole and silicone around it. Have had some out side for over 3 years now with only 1 failure which turned out to be a bad battery. Of course building them in looks better but is a little bit more time consuming my favorite is chimneys see this year’s MIK challenge (cracker house). Recently I have but one in a window and it works just doesn’t get a full charge so hence doesn’t stay on as long but that’s good if it is a business and light goes off when the owner goes home. found that most last 3 to 4 hours and I have a custom blinking red one on my city water tower that stays on dusk to dawn. The thing I like about them is they don’t all come on or go off at the same time and extra led’s added to their circuits dims them a little but makes them last about 25% longer. To get rid of the to bright whiteness I just paint them with a yellow highlighter, + no wires and don’t have to turn them on or off, hope tis helps, Bill
Bob McCown said:
Anyone have good pointers for LEDs to use for building and other accent lighting? Something that will mimic a GOW bulb in brightness and tone? I’m not looking for the stark bright white that a lot of LEDs that Ive found so far.
You MIGHT take a look at Miniatronics and their misspelled “Yeloglo” https://miniatronics.com/search?type=product&q=yeloglo
I bought a set of on sale “warm white” LED Christmas tree lights, and they do cast a nicer glow then the “bright white” LEDs. To make them yellower, you could colour their lenses with a yellow marker, or the clear amber paint the car modelers use to paint turn signal lenses on model cars.
In my Tyco 10 wheelers, I actually use a bright yellow LED to simulate an oil lamp.
Since I get them free from old signs we replace, I’m using commercial LED modules. They are a very harsh bright white. To mitigate that, I coat the inside of the roof with yellow and orange vinyl and aim the LEDs up at the roof, reflecting the color. Works very well for me.
The modules are 12 volt and I power everything off the track using it as a bussbar for constant 12 volt power.
Bob
While I have used the cheap solar lights and taken them apart and put them in buildings, I find that the components are so cheap they just fall apart after a while.
And there are many many on the market so hard to know what you are getting until you take them apart and see.
So what I have done is buy the LED strip lights, usually run about $15 or less for many feet of them, and they are designed to operate off of 12V DC. Usually cut them into 3 light pieces. Colors from cool to warm are available, and you can always dab some warm color craft paint on them. There are a few ways to power them, one is using 110C AC and a wall wart, another is a hard wired garden light transformer which comes with a built in timer, running of 110V AC and producing 12V dc, and finally, you could use a 12V sealed lead acid battery powered by a solar panel. All except the cheap solar path light need wires from the power source to the LED in your buildings
So maybe food for thought
Jerry
Bob McCown said:
Anyone have good pointers for LEDs to use for building and other accent lighting? Something that will mimic a GOW bulb in brightness and tone? I’m not looking for the stark bright white that a lot of LEDs that Ive found so far.
Yes,
If you are after the one GOW bulb/accent lighting look it’s pretty easy but it don’t blow my dress up. Remember you can easily color a clear white LED with the “sharpie” of you’re,your choice. You can also grind down the top/sides/corner of a rounded 5mm Light Emitting Diode as long as you don’t mess with the anode 22.5 angles on a clear/white rounded LED with a sharpie …
Shut up Rooster
Rooster said:
Bob McCown said:
Anyone have good pointers for LEDs to use for building and other accent lighting? Something that will mimic a GOW bulb in brightness and tone? I’m not looking for the stark bright white that a lot of LEDs that Ive found so far.
Yes,
If you are after the one GOW bulb/accent lighting look it’s pretty easy but it don’t blow my dress up. Remember you can easily color a clear white LED with the “sharpie” of you’re,your choice. You can also grind down the top/sides/corner of a rounded 5mm Light Emitting Diode as long as you don’t mess with the anode 22.5 angles on a clear/white rounded LED with a sharpie …
Shut up Rooster
I need to try this. I have several places where I tried using 18V GOW bulbs, but with my auto timer running lights 10-14 hrs a day / 365 days a year, they did not last long.
The sharpie trick works well to change the color of the LEDs. Make sure the marker dries before touching them and reapply after it is assembled. I like to do two coats of marker on my bulbs.
I used one of those voltage dropping circuit Buck boards with the Rectifier and capacitor spoken about in my car lighting thread. I then put in an orange and a red flickering LED in parallel to look like a fireplace in my log cabin. It looks good. I got the idea from doing the same thing in my engine fireboxes.
I plan to do the same thing but with yellow flickering LEDs to look like candle lighting. But not sure how that looks yet. My trains are turn of the last century time period so I don’t want anything too bright either. If it is too yellow I will try to mark orange stripes on the bulbs to get that flame coloration.
I use the “warm white” tape lights Bob, in rolls of 16’ for about $10. Cut to length and solder the wires on.
The silicone waterproofing is fine; but for additional application of yellow or orange sharpie (or translucent craft paint, I’ve heard of), you might use the non-waterproof and apply the colorant to the LED’s directly, and, I suppose, lay a bead of clear RTV over that for waterproofing and color fixing.