Upgrading and Modifying HO Scale Locomotive LED's
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- Опубліковано 2 гру 2024
- While trying to get my HO Scale locomotive headlights to look more realistic (and actually provide light), I discovered a few things along the way.
Enjoy and Thanks for Watching!
Very helpful video for modelers seeking to upgrade their HO locos to more realistic lighting. Thanks for taking the time to make this -- it clearly illustrates what must be done!
thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!
Outstanding. This how-to is why I subscribed.
That, and I grew up in Buffalo NY, so PC and EL were what I saw in my youth.
Thanks for watching and your comment, glad you liked it!
Well done Terry!
Thanks!
First -
Thank you so much for your time and instructions
Very inspiring!
Second -
I learned that you have sunglasses under your sunglasses
Dude - so hilarious are you!!
Thanks again
We’ll done
Ha! After all these years, you're the first to mention the sunglasses skit, which I tried to mimic John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in the Blues Brothers. Thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!
Turned out great. Thanks for sharing
Glad you like it, thanks for watching and commenting!
Nice, I think the headlights turned out great. Several of my locomotives need some work done on the lights. Might have to give this a try!
Thanks! I wish I would have taken a pic of the surface mount LED's in the headlight before changing them so you could see the difference. This method takes less time to do than explain.
I've never used the SMD LED's. I use either 3mm or 5mm LED's depending on what I'm doing with them. For illuminating coaches I always use 12 volt LED strip lighting with keep alive circuits. The first strip of LED lights I ordered the bright white which were actually too bright for my liking and the period that I model. So, I painted each LED with some yellow acrylic paint and now they are perfect. The next strip of LED's I ordered were warm white. One learns from ones mistakes. I even use the LED bulb itself for a lens most of the time. Cheers from eastern TN
sounds like you have some experience with lighting and LED's. I don't have any passenger cars/coaches/combines, so my experience with that is almost none. LED's have come along way over the past few years. Thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!
Nice project, really enjoyed it. Gotta try that myself, thanks for sharing!
that lookscool
Thanks, I appreciate your comments!
Very nice 'how to'! You have given me a good idea to use. I've never messed with the surface mount led's yet. Since I am very familiar with regular leds I think I will just use your method. I think it looks more realistic than the surface mount way too. Great job and thank you very much for sharing this!!!
Deryk
Good, glad it sparked some "creativity" and hope your idea works. Thanks!
Excellent informative video! Happy holidays!
Thanks! Happy Holidays to you and your family too!
Great idea! and great job on it. Those engines look awsome! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter. Iwas going to try it in asimilar way, but now you solved my problem, thanks. And you have your self and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. RT
Hey, glad it could be of help and I'm sure you'll do just fine. Yes, I think the lights look WAY BETTER than before. When using the surface mount LED/resistors/wiring/tubes, it was hard to fit 2 individual lights under the shell. This way, I got one light and 2 tubes to deal with, much easier fit. Thanks for commenting!
great how to video(and well done), when I retire next year I can use this to fine tune my locos thanks for sharing
thanks! it's easier than it looks and your locos should turn out fine
Very nice and informative video as always. Thanks for sharing will be doing something similar in the very near future. Merry Christmas!
Thanks! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!
Awesome, thanks.
thanks, I appreciate it!
Really enjoy the video. Thanks for taking the time to explain everything. The "oscillating" LED is from Evans? What speed to you pick up?
Larry
Larry De Roos The LED is from Evans Designs. The light effect on the decoder is programmed to "oscillating" or "mars", which is what gives it that effect. Not sure what you mean by "speed to you pick up"? Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks for showing some tips! Just a quick question, in general where can you get that fiber optic tubing? Ive looked around and cant seem to find (that or I just havent looked hard enough) Also where do you get your heat shrink tubing? I had a decent amount I bought for cheap at an old hardware store that just recently shut down and, Lowes doesnt seem to have any in a small size.... Thanks for the help!
Christopher Huffman I bought the fiber optic tubing on ebay, $11/free shipping for 24 feet. Just do a search on ebay for 1.5mm fiber optic and they'll come up. I bought my heat shrink tubing at Lowes. The smallest they have is 1/8". Radio Shack has shrink tubing, but it's a variety pak with different sizes. If you want smaller shrink tubing, you may need to order it off the internet. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks for sharing.
Sue Line RailRoad thanks for watching!
Great salute to Robert Stack in "Airplane!"
Thanks Dude!
Nice job. Informative. Great result. How about using a heat gun/hair dryer for shrinking the tubing? This produces a quick, gentle, uniform shrinkage. Also, the fiber optic material you're using is a rod not a tube, correct?
I didn't own a heat gun when the video was made, not sure if it would work and I would have to experiment with it to see what happens (I'm really good at melting stuff that shouldn't be melted). Yes, the fiber optic is solid core. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Looks great! Did you try covering the part of the LED in the shell with liquid electrical tape?
Thanks! No i didn't (but it might be worth a try). You would have to be careful not to apply to much and make it thicker than the light opening. I did try using a black permanent sharpie on the sides (which wore off as I was putting it back together).
Hey, Cool! i was actually thinking about doing the same thing with the 3mm, with the fiber optic tube. How hard was it to get the tube's in the holes?
Yeah, one 3mm and 2 tubes take up less space under the shell. As long as you don't put the heat shrink too close to the end and allow the fiber optic tip to be flexible and separate, it goes in the holes easily. Thanks!
Great video!! What size SMD LEDs did you get and what dealer?
Thanks! They are Osram LWT673 White Hyper-Bright TOPLED SMD SMT (qauntity 100) from seller tkimkc on ebay.
PennCentral99 Thanks!
I have a few athearn RTR locos I need to try this with. I have 3 SD50s, 2 SD40s, a GP38, and a proto 2000 SD7 I need to try the LED upgrade to.
Looks like you have quite a fleet of locos. Glad you found the video and hope it works for you. Let me know how it works out. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@PennCentral99 will let you know if I don't mess up the first couple. I'm more of a Chessie modeler. Newer stuff isn't to appealing with the depressing paint schemes, lack of cabeese, and ditch lights.
I'm sure you'll be happy with LEDs instead of incandescent
@@PennCentral99 thank you for the response. I hope I will be happy with the results too. Getting tired of the tiny bulds burning out.
Love the vids keep them coming .thanks for the great info ...Alan
Alan Goodley thanks, much appreciated! i also have a recent video that you may be interested in, please watch "Makeover: HO Scale, Athearn RTR, C44-9W, UP 9807". And thanks for the sub!
Excelent video.... sorry but is better than Al Mayo. And also In Evan Design they have everything that you need for installing leds. Thanks
glad you enjoyed the video and found it useful. thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!