Rechargeable coach lighting

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daveyrd11
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Rechargeable coach lighting

Post by daveyrd11 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 9:55 am

Hi,

I like thing to have lights in them! It just brings the railway to life for me.
I added some bulbs to my coaches some time back but I was always a bit upset that they didn't run very long on the rechargable batteries I had. Reading articles on here about LI ION batteries and other technologies persuaded me it was time to experiment!

I had an 2 old LI POs rescued from a scraped broken pad pc, these were rated at 1000 Mah (you can pick these up and ebay brand new for under £5)

Image

The problem was how to handle the charging and discharging for the battery. you must never over charge or over flatten these types of battery.

The answer came in the from of this little jobby on ebay,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Li-ion-Li ... 754885070?

It safely handles charging via a USB connector and shuts of the power out when the batter is exhausted. even better is that its tiny and very cheap!

So I removed the battery holders from under my coach and added the LiPo and charge circuit, it fits between the wheels so the USB conector is below the buffer at one end.


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I added a little black paint to disguise things and put it on charge!

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It has a red led whilst charging and goes green when fully charged.

In order to be able to switch of the lights I added off center contacts to my removeable roof, put the roof on one way around and the lights are lit, the other way and they are off! simples!

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And how well does it work? Well, I used 6V bulbs because I wanted a nice glow and not to dazzle my 16mm passengers, with 2 bulbs it lit for over 5 hours with a charge time of 1.5 hours and I don't need any special charger, any phone charger can be used.

Image
Last edited by daveyrd11 on Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Put that light out!

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MDLR
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Post by MDLR » Sat Jul 25, 2015 10:45 am

Sounds interesting, but the "pictures" have come out as "No Entry" signs!
Brian L Dominic
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philipy
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Post by philipy » Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:29 am

MDLR:112196 wrote:Sounds interesting, but the "pictures" have come out as "No Entry" signs!
yep, same for me!
Philip

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daveyrd11
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Post by daveyrd11 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:48 am

Arrrgh!

I think they only show for me because they are my photos. I'm trying to fix it!
Put that light out!

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Post by daveyrd11 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 4:43 pm

Is that any better?
Put that light out!

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Post by ge_rik » Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:20 pm

daveyrd11:112206 wrote:Is that any better?
the first pic shows up but the rest are still showing 'no entry'
I refreshed the page just in case.

Rik
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daveyrd11
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Post by daveyrd11 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 5:40 pm

Ok, sorry for the messing about, this time I think I've cracked it!
Put that light out!

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MDLR
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Post by MDLR » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:06 pm

Ah - that's better! An interesting idea, but I still prefer to use LEDs with either a switched 2X AAA battery box where you've put the battery, OR an on-off switch in the floor with a fixed 2X AAA battery box - the switched ones can come off the bit that's fixed to the floor, with dire consequences to the wiring and battery box. Don't ask me how I know this.........................
Brian L Dominic
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Flagg Fluorspar Co
www.mdlr.co.uk/ff.html

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Post by Big Jim » Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:44 pm

Very nice, I do like the roof operated switching! Very cunning.
If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer!

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