Flashing hazard beacons

[col_kilgore]

Hello everyone , I want to add a roof mounted flashing amber beacon to one of my shunters , I know you can buy these from several places but was thinking of making my own .I have seen that you can buy battery powered versions but I would prefer power to be fed from the track .

 

Would anyone be able to provide me with a simple parts list I could take into Maplins or wherever for the bits required ?

 

The reason I ask is that I have found a few things online about making your own but to me they are bit too " techy "  and I'm not too sure if I would be buying the right stuff

 

Any help appreciated

[smokebox]

If you aren't too bothered about the speed of the flashing it can be done using a flashing LED. These are usually red but if you wire one in series with an amber or orange LED then both will flash at the same time, about once per second. You will still need a bridge rectifier, a current limiting resistor and perhaps a capacitor to provide the dc power.

 

Hide the flashing red LED inside the loco, maybe paint it black to stop the red light from showing.

[Gordon H]

Or just get a flashing yellow LED in the first place, e.g.

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Kingbright-L-36bYD-3mm-5v-Yellow-LED-Flashing-56-0805

Not sure why they are saying this one is '5V' specifically, when the datasheet clearly shows it isn't. Not the first time their descriptions haven't tallied with the proper data.

[RAF96]

Maplins do 3mm flashing orange and yellow leds. Looks Ok on my shunting locos.

Or you can get smaller ones from Express Models if memory serves me right.

You will have to put a 1K resistor in line with one leg of the led for DCC use and either connect to one of the decoder function wires or wire across the track pickups.

For DC you will need to rig a circuit using resistor and diodes or a voltage regulator to allow it to light in both directions.