LED or Fiber Optic ligthing

[davyou5]

Hello to all,

Has any one tried LED or Fiber Optic ligthing on a Model Build? If so how would one go about it?

[Len Woodruff]

I would like to know too. I have the Micro Mark fiber optic kit myself.

Edited October 5, 2010 by Len Woodruff

[Railfreak78]

Coot topic that I hope some shed some light on. I am building KITT from Knight Rider and want to actually have the red light on the nose work so any advice is welcome.

[The Modeling Hermit]

I started doing fiber optics on a semi truck, but I've now changed to doing it with grain of wheat bulbs. There are just too many sharp angles to use the fiber optics.

[Ramcharger]

LEDs are the way to go. They don't heat up when the are on and use less energy. Check out some model train websites, they usually have them. It's fairly easy and self explanatory, stick the bulb where you want light and run the wires to a power source. I'm working on a project right now with some, I'll post pics when I get a chance. BTW, they make some very small LEDs.

[davyou5]

LEDs are the way to go. They don't heat up when the are on and use less energy. Check out some model train websites, they usually have them. It's fairly easy and self explanatory, stick the bulb where you want light and run the wires to a power source. I'm working on a project right now with some, I'll post pics when I get a chance. BTW, they make some very small LEDs.

Ahh that would be great! Just so long as I can get an idea of the how to, the rest I can do on my own, I can not wait to see what you have done, this is gonna get interesting .

[sjordan2]

Here's a tutorial. Looks complicated.

http://bit.ly/dgEgJe

[davyou5]

Here's a tutorial. Looks complicated.

http://bit.ly/dgEgJe

Hey thanks for the Article, I have read it, I do understand the Diagram, as I have done electronics as a hobby at one time. When time and funds permit I am going to try the LED's this looks interesting. Now I have to decide which car to try it on .

Edited October 6, 2010 by davyou5

[krow]

Hey thanks for the Article, I have read it, I do understand the Diagram, as I have done electronics as a hobby at one time. When time and funds permit I am going to try the LED's this looks interesting. Now I have to decide which car to try it on .

LED's are fairly cheap these days, and since they're getting used in Christmas lights, the replacement "bulbs" are available in a bunch of colors, white, blue, red, amber, yellow, green etc. etc. The only thing I don't see with the schematics and stuff in the tutorial is they don't have current limiting resistors for the LED's. If you're using battery power, they may not need them in theory (AA cells don't release a whole lot of current), but if you are thinking about using a power supply for the project, you'll want to do a search on LED current resistor and there will be a bunch of programs that you can use to figure it out. If you don't have a current limiting resistor attached the LED will use all the current it can get, light up very brightly for a second or so and burn out. Different color LED's typically take slightly different voltages too, 3.6 volts for white/blue 1.7 for green/red/amber. The nice thing about them is they don't produce the heat that a regular incandescent grain o' wheat bulb does so they can be left on for longer periods of time, and usually they can run on less current too. The only part of the project that might be difficult is flasher circuits and sequential flasher circuits if you're going to go there. Then you might have to start playing around with counters, or microprocessors. For a simple flasher circuit 555 timers can get you there, doing a reproduction of the lights from K.I.T.T. would probably take a microprocessor, or a mitt full of logic chips to recreate.

[gkulchock]

Led's are cheap, quite easy to install, and do not put out a lot of heat, as long as you size the resistor properly. Simple wiring diagrams and resistor sizing charts, can be found on the internet. Mock up a test circuit before installing it in your model. Have fun.

[davyou5]

I would like to say thanks, to Both krow, and gkulchock for you explainations here, I have found them both informative and refreshing, It has been awhile since I have done electonics, but I am sure that I can get right back into it . This is going to be interesting. Thanks again guys.