Auto on-off for building and street lighting?

[ITG]

I have a DCC layout under construction, and I’ve laid in some (obviously separate!) 12v DC cables and copper tape, so that when I get to the scenic stage, I can easily connect to building and street lighting etc, some of which I already have. At the moment, I have a separate on/off switch for ‘all’ lights (as the 12v D.C. is also used for uncouplers and IR detectors). But it occurs to me that it would enhance the effect if buildings/rooms lighting turned on/off independently of each other. I don’t want to lay separate supplies with separate on/off switches all over the place, so wondered if there was any simple and small electronic device which I could connect in line within a building, which switched on/off automatically after a time delay. If there was, how would one achieve different delays and intervals?
Or am I dreaming?

ian

[Nigelcliffe]

Yes,  but you may need three wires.  

 

If you dig around on the 'net,  you'll find discussion of addressable LED strips.  These are ones where each individual LED can be controlled independently for colour and intensity.  (The typical strips sold have the LEDs in groups of three, so the control is of each three).    Using those strips (which can be cut up and then re-joined), you have three wires: the supply volts (often 12v), the ground, and the data signal which passes from one LED group to the next group.   Alternatively, the little chips used in the strips can be bought on a small PCB for about 10p-15p each in quantity from China (say 100 of them at a time).     

To control them, an Arduino or a Raspberry PI, or similar hardware.  

The level of control, be it individual building, or groups, is down to what you want to write into the control software, including timed events, responding to user-input, etc....   It is not massively expensive stuff.  

 

Similar approaches could be done using IC2 based devices.  

 

 

I've built a layout lighting system using addressable LEDs for Burntisland1883, using a large number of addressable strips.  

 

- Nigel

 

[cliff park]

There are masses of 555 timer circuits on the net, which would run quite happily off your LED supply and cost pennies. A few set at different intervals connected to LEDs in different buildings would look quite random.

[ITG]

30 minutes ago, cliff park said:

There are masses of 555 timer circuits on the net, which would run quite happily off your LED supply and cost pennies. A few set at different intervals connected to LEDs in different buildings would look quite random.

I had a quick look but I’m well outside my comfort zone buying these. I’ve seen some that say this “Adjustable from 0 to 60 seconds by default, or by changing the capacitance adjustment time longer”

 

An interval of 60 secs seems too short - what does it mean by ‘changing the capacitance adjustment time’?  Is that simply the turn of a screwdriver or replacement of a sub-component?

thanks

[nick_bastable]

MERG   do a cheap kit to control 10 LED lights randomly

 

Nick B

[Steven B]

You could always use DCC to turn the lights on and off using an accessory decoder:

 

Gaugemaster DCC30

Zimo MX820Z 16 output

Train Tech LFX6 quad LED controller

 

There are plenty of other function only or accessory decoders that could also be used.

 

Steven B.