mkwolf1877 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I've seen several clips on you tube of Bachmann Tornado's with working headlights. Does anyone on here know how this would be done to a DCC fitted model and also where any relevant parts would be purchased? Sorry if this has been posted before I couldn't find anything. Many thanks, Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlink Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Mark, Although I do not have a Tornado I have quite a few A1's & A2's some of which I have fitted working lights. Now I'm not sure what type you are wanting but I used 1.5mm yellow LED's which I purchased from a company called Miniatronics who are based in the USA. I have bent one of the wires coming out of the LED to create a lamp iron bending it down the back of the LED & then solered some very thin wire to it and the bottom wire. I paint them with a couple of coats of white paint. Miniatronics supply resistors with the LED's. I drilled through the top of the footplate directly behind the lamp iron and routed the two wires through into the boiler. I fit the reistors here and then couple up one wire to the blue DCC chip and the other to the yellow and white wires together. This allows for the lights to stay on when going in reverse. Using Lenz decoders I can lower the inrtesity of the lamps. I think you can buy Miniatronics from Digitrains & Bromsgove Models. Cheers silverlink Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Hi As Silverlink has described that is one method which may suit you. The method I use is slightly harder as their is some extra precision evolved. I hollow out the lights supplied with Tornado and add DCC Concepts pre wired SMDs which are about 1/4 the size that Silverlink use. This will give you an idea of how it looks. The last one shows running gear lit. I used 22 fully independent functions to achieve this from 3 separate decoders. Tender also has 8 functions for working lights. High intensity lights only had low resistance for photo. I had a look at the Miniatronics site. They do a nice range of LEDs but not a patch on what DCC Concepts offer plus they are more expensive. Unfortunately DCC Concepts site is not up to date as they manufacturer many products which are not listed on the web site. Bromsgrove is fairly well up to date with his products. If you plan to do the white ones DCC Concepts also manufacture them they are different from the ones in this photo. , Hope that helps. Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted January 20, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 20, 2012 Nice work Martin. I presume that the lights under the running plate are as per prototype? I know there's a set on the rear buffer beam tucked underneath the flange at the base of the body. And I can't find my photo of them...... Cheers, Mick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Hi Yes as per prototype This is the only one I can find but it gives you an idea. I have also lights firebox flicker and 6 of the control buttons plus lit gauges in mine. These are some of the actual lights from Tornado showing bench testing of instruments. I managed to get 6 of these working and have refined it over the 5 models I have built for other with these features. Cheers Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlink Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hi Martin, Am I reading your reply correctly? is what you say about price correct? as when I purchased my Miniatronics LED's they cost me around £3-50 for twelve. Now when I checked the DCC Concepts lamps they were £30 for six! quite a difference in price. Cost per lamp 29p Miniatronics, £5-00 each DCC Concepts. By the way I love what you've done to your Tornado a lot of work I think! Cheers silverlink Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BromsMods Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hi Martin, Am I reading your reply correctly? is what you say about price correct? as when I purchased my Miniatronics LED's they cost me around £3-50 for twelve. Now when I checked the DCC Concepts lamps they were £30 for six! quite a difference in price. Cost per lamp 29p Miniatronics, £5-00 each DCC Concepts. By the way I love what you've done to your Tornado a lot of work I think! Cheers silverlink If you are going to quote prices then you need to compare apples with apples. Making a quick search, the smallest SMD LED I could find on the Miniatronic site was a 2mm x 3mm pre-wired LED costing about £5.50 each before any VAT etc is added (I've quoted the size as stated on their website, but I'm not sure if that is actually right). DCC Concepts pre-wired bare NANO LEDs (0.4mm x 0.7mm) in protowhite or daylight white are currently £12.50 for a pack of 6 with resistors from us (though I suspect that might change tomorrow when we get our next delivery as exchange rates have worsened recently). If you are talking about the LNER loco lamps from DCC Concepts then these are pre-wired LEDs fitted into accurately reproduced white coloured LNER lamps, but there are 6 in a pack, which at our price (£32.70 incl. VAT) works out at about the same price as a single SMD LED from Miniatronics. I've taken the smallest sizes as these are the LEDs used in the DCC Concepts lamps. If you want plain old 2mm tower LEDs then, yes, they are much cheaper, but you need to look at the whites in particular to work out if they are the correct shade for steam locos - we do DCC Concepts 2mm white prototype LEDs for about £5.50 for a pack of 6. Red LEDs are much cheaper at £3.50 for a pack of 10. All packs come with resistors. There are smaller sizes available, such as 1.8mm or 1.6mm in the same colours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Hi As John pointed out their is not much in it and if stuck over a couple of cents go with the quality products from DCC Concepts. Here is a different Tornado tender fitted with the DCC Concepts working lights and Flicker free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUwgaHOTlPY Cheers Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlink Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Thanks for for your price list Martin, I didn't relise there were so many lamps to go at. When I started fitting lamps on my loco's I was buying them from Express Lighting & very good they were too. After carefull inspection I thought u'm I think i'll have a go at making my own. At first I could ony find1.8mm led's and these I had the two wires coming out the back. On assembly & fitting I thought they looked a bit on the big side so started searching the net for something smaller. Eventually I found the Miniotronics 1.5mm so ordered some yellow ones which had the wires coming out top & bottom which was perfect for making a handle on the top of the lamp. End result is a lamp that looks to scale and realistic colour when on. This can of course be ajusted through the decoder should it be needed. cheers silverlink Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Hi No worries but it was John that gave you the more accurate breakdown prices. You will see some more new and very interesting products some light related from DCC Concepts over the next couple of months. I currently doing a review of 2 new products and I will put that up in the next month or so. 3 LED's in photo, 2 in the actual light that comes on the loco and a scratch built one on top. These LEDs are small enough now to achieve scaled prototypical looking lighting on the new Farish A1 which I did the dame as above minus the red lights. Cheers Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poindexter Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Fantastic work Martin. I'm currently doing some research into fitting blue strobe LEDs into an Oxford Diecast Fire engine and one of my search strings brought this thread up. I had to leave a comment just because of the craftsmanship involved into shoehorning the LEDs and decoders in and making such a beautiful job of it. Guy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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