refurb 108 light problems

[gronk the shunter]

Evening all. Recently got one of the refurbished 108's (the white and blue livery) and compared to my other 108 the interior lights are poor. Overly bright at both ends of the coaches and almost turned off in the middle. What's more they're so bright at the ends that they shine through the white body work at the cant rails. Anyone had similar problems? and if so is it fixable?

[Summer_Saturday]

The interior lighting in all my 108s is as you describe. If you are using DCC, you can dim it by changing the CV value (CV63 on a Bachmann 36-553 decoder, range of 0-7).

[dmustu]

Have you had the bodies off yet? Some batches, such as the 3 car buxton set released a while ago, had no covers on the LEDs for the internal lights, making the lighting bright at the ends. A small piece of eletrical tape covering the LEDs should cure the problem, providing that is the problem!

[gronk the shunter]

Your right dmustu, there's no covers on mine either, i'll try it out tonight in the gloom and see if that solves the problem

[Mr.S.corn78]

Hi all,

 

if when you take the top off you have alook at the clear plastic insert that has the leds at each end it is supposed to direct the light from the leds along the interal structure of it and then every so often it has dimples (as i call them) to direct the light down

 

hence the very poor lighting in the centre of the unit. Even with covers on them its still poor in the middle.

 

Best solution i can suggest is to get some DCC suppiles (other comapnies/products are avalible) lighting strips and add some more in the centre of the car using the exsisting led boards at each end to even the lights out or even make your own using vero board (think that is the name) and some leds

I have done a few like this and it makes a difrence.

hope that helps a little

 

cheers

Simon

[gronk the shunter]

Fixed it. Had thought of adding extra lighting in the middle but this seemed a bit excessive as most of the time (ie running during daylight) you shouldn't be able any lights at all. Covered the leds with tape, which lights up the centre of the car and dims the ends, but the light still pours through the white body. So off with the body again and paint the inside of the body black (along the cant rails and the ends) and paint the edge of the lighting strip black. This stopped the light leaking through the body, but now it shone through the cab roof! Body off again but this time you can't get to the cab roof without removing the cabs which if you're a ham fisted idiot like me means you break the glazing bar to the cab lights! D'oh! One quick repair later, a splodge of paint, and all is well! A quick tweak of the cv's (ooh eer missus) and it's like it should have been right from the start.