Evening,

I've just bought some lights for the Rosebuddy TMD. I ordered them from Layouts 4 you. They area all LED lights, yard lights, lamp posts, exterior wall lights etc and are all described as being 12 volt.

I am assuming that they are 12 volt…….DC….as the description does not stipulate and as usual, I jumped in before noticing the lack of info. I'll make a call to confirm this but meanwhile I need to source a 12 volt DC Supply.

I want to keep all accessories seperate from my DCC controller opting to keep this exclusively for " loco control ". Ibought a Cobalt supply for my cobalt point motors but this only supplies either 9 volt DC or I think from memory 16 volt AC so that's no good.

I have looked at a Gaugemaster " Mi DC cased transformer which delivers 12 volt DC at 1 amp.

Questions,

Does anyone have any experience of this transformer ?
Given that the transformer would be solely for powering lighting accessories say of an average 2 / 3 volts at say 20 mA ( again average ) how many lights would I be able to power from this transformer.

I'm guessing but I would reckon that on the TMD side of the layout which is about one third of the layouts footprint, I have a mixture of lighting totalling say up to 40 / 50 LED's.

Can anyone comment.

Cheers

Toto

One of the electrical gurus will be along shortly Toto. :thumbs

Have you thought about using a laptop power supply or something similar ?  You can get those for peanuts compared to a full blown transformer. 

Alternatively, most analogue controllers from the likes of H & M (Hammant and Morgan), gave a 12v supply - transformer built in - and they come along a knock down prices. 

[user=1505]toto[/user] wrote:

Evening,

I've just bought some lights for the Rosebuddy TMD. I ordered them from Layouts 4 you. They area all LED lights, yard lights, lamp posts, exterior wall lights etc and are all described as being 12 volt. This means then they already have a limiting resistor of approx 1000 ohms and so should be OK  BUT becareful.

I am assuming that they are 12 volt…….DC….as the description does not stipulate and as usual, I jumped in before noticing the lack of info. I'll make a call to confirm this but meanwhile I need to source a 12 volt DC Supply. Yes DC supply is required

I want to keep all accessories seperate from my DCC controller opting to keep this exclusively for " loco control ". Ibought a Cobalt supply for my cobalt point motors but this only supplies either 9 volt DC or I think from memory 16 volt AC so that's no good.

I have looked at a Gaugemaster " Mi DC cased transformer which delivers 12 volt DC at 1 amp.

Questions,

Does anyone have any experience of this transformer ?
Given that the transformer would be solely for powering lighting accessories say of an average 2 / 3 volts at say 20 mA ( again average ) how many lights would I be able to power from this transformer. Assume 25mA per LED maximum = 40 LEDS - you could even put two in series for a duller light. I guess it depends on how many are going to be lit at the same time, ideally you only want to run the transformer to 90% of its rating constantly for it to maintain 12v.

I'm guessing but I would reckon that on the TMD side of the layout which is about one third of the layouts footprint, I have a mixture of lighting totalling say up to 40 / 50 LED's.

Can anyone comment.

Cheers

Toto

Hope that helps Tom.

I'm not a Guru, Peter.  However I have had some very character building experiences with power supplies.

My best advice is the same as Peter's.  Use laptop power supplies.

They will deliver clean, regulated DC power up to 19 Volts at nearly 5 Amps.

They are available on ebay for around A$15.00 including freight/postage.

I buy them in lots of 5 at a time and I use them for everything - Lokprogrammer - Lenz - you name it.

They will save you lots of grief in the long run.

Try charity shops - I picked up a box that contained 2 laptop transformers and 20 assorted 3 to 12 volt plug-in phone transformers for a fiver. Ideal for seperate supplies.

When I dumped my old laptop last year I kept the power supply for this very reason.

When (or if) I get around to using it is another matter.

Ed

You mean some thing like this;-

http://www.railroomelectronics.co.uk/Controllers-Transformers/Power-Supplies/9V/Page1.aspx

Those look like they'd do Paul - except the link you gave is for 9v - they do similar units for a 12v supply.

I think I'd still look at laptop power supplies as well - they offer a fully regulated supply ………….

Whatever, the cost is far less than the Gaugemaster transformer.

Hi chaps,

I think I get the idea. Laptop supplies. Ok.

Sol, the lights do come with resistors.they don't say if they are 1000k resistors but given that they come with the kit I will assume that they are sufficiently rated.
40 LED's, hmmmmmm it won't take long to fill that up. There will be approx 8 used for the front approach roads to the six lane loco depot right away. Possibly 3 or 4 around the TT. Further wall mounted lights to the exterior sides of the loco depot and that doesn't allow for any internal lights. The above could easily total say 18 to 20.  Then there is exterior warehousing lights, a couple of lam posts a couple of little flickering braziers. Yes that could be the 40 used up on one side of the layout.

At night, you could easily have most of these lit at any one time. Maybe I need  a couple of supplies. The reason I'm jumping about with my purchases is that I would like to get all the wiring and location of structures out of the way before I start with ballasting, scenics etc.

If using laptop transformers, what is the interface between the round plug on the end of the lead and the low voltage cables. Do you just strip the plug off  or is there a gizzmo required ?

Sorry for the thick questions and cheers for the posts to date

Toto

Just cut the round socket off Toto and use the two wires as necessary.  I've connected mine direct to my accessory decoder.  You'd use some kind of junctions - choc blocks maybe or your solder tag strips. :thumbs

Hi Petermac,

Thanks kind Sir,

I think laptop transformers it will be. The Gaugemaster gives you two 12 volt outputs at 1 amp each but at £47.95 would be more expensive than a couple of second hand laptop transformers.

Good call

Cheers

Toto

You could try the old plug it in the mains controllers from Hornby. They are around quite cheaply or another old controller and keep it seperated.

Just acquired a couple of the laptop power supply jobbers from my daughter, she was only going to throw them out with some other stuff. That was a close call. If I hadn't read this thread they would have been thrown in the electrical waste bin.:doublethumb  

So thanks to you Peter for mentioning them in the first place.

I use what some call wall warts, the type of thing that  has transformer and rectifier built into an oversize plug, similar to those in Bike2steam's post. you may well have a few around the house that you can't remember what charger or phone they belong to, voltages can be aywhere between 3V and 12V, you can also buy them with switch selectable voltages.