Experiments with Faller Car System

[davy crockett]

Well done,

[Barry Ten]

The perils of sanding and testing at the same time - I'll learn to keep the roadway cleaner from now on!

[Barry Ten]

I'd like to add lights to my Faller vehicle (a van, so quite roomy). Does anyone have any general pointers for a good approach? I'm aware that there's a lighting kit available from Germany but at least when I tried to order one, I wasn't able to due to living in the UK - perhaps I was doing something wrong, though.

[ColinK]

Yes, the headlights would shine on the wrong side of the road!

[Barry Ten]

I've obtained some pre-wired Nano LEDS from DCC Concepts, which I'm going to have a go at installing in a Faller van. I'll be making this up as I go along and will report as I proceed.

[Barry Ten]

Here's my first and not very satisfactory go at adding lights:

 

 

These are 2 DCC Concepts bi-colour nano LEDS which can be white or red depending on the polarity. They're a swine to work with, even though they come

pre-wired. None of the 3 wires are differentiated although the positive common is a bit longer than the other two (although one some of the ones I had,

only a tiny bit longer). You have to fiddle around to find which is the red and white input. They come with two sets of 1K and 10K resistors but it's

down to you to figure out which one to use. I presumed the 10K is for the white terminal but that was already faint on 3V with the 1K, so that's what

I stuck with.

 

I wired the leds to the batteries in the van so they're running off 3V and as it stands they're a bit too feeble. They look reasonably OK in a fully darkened

room but as soon as there's any ambient light to compete with them, they're washed out. The other issue is that the lights aren't as evenly illuminated

as I'd like.

 

So while this has been an interesting test exercise, it's not the solution I want and further research will continue!