Hello Everyone! Filming is wrapped for the movie and I am happy to say I am back for a bit. The film sold to a very large film company and will be coming to a theater near you........someday! We also recieved a script for another movie from the company that purchased this one and I have the Lead role and will start filming again......Someday...also! As a bit of good more good news....as of October 1st, I will have my very own agent who plans on keeping me busy in front of the camera for awhile! So work on the Lay-out will be a start stop start stop thing for quite some time. I am getting the itch to start work on the layout again so I have a question. I am going to be lighting my buildings, streets, houses etc, and need to know what type of device do I use to hook up all these lights to for a power supply that wont blow the bulbs when I turn them on. I plan on using individual switches to light buildings randomly as would be done in real life. I just dont know what to hook the lights too that will save them from pretty much popping at the first sign of electricity. I am using everything from 1.5v to 6volt bulbs. I am also going to be lighting some LEDs. Is there something I need to purchase to regulate all of these. I know I could go with curcuit boards but I dont have the tech knowledge to build something like that myself. Any help would be a pleasure to me! Thanks all, and....Its Good To be BACK!
Glad to hear the news. I don't have any experience with something like this, but I have pieced to gather this info from reading stuff and my relative's layout. Get a cheap DC power pack that has AC power on it. Wire up all your lights on blocks. Then connect the block to one of the atlas connectors ( the one with the yellow switches) and wire the connector to the AC terminal on the pack. Well, that's one way of wiring up light bulbs.
1) I would recommend changing all lighting of structures to LEDs because a. LEDs will last virtually forever eliminating the need to change later b. LEDs produce less heat c. One power supply could control all due to reduced current requirements. d. LEDs are not affected by surge current like bulbs are. 2) With each LED, a current limiting resistor is used - use a resistor for each LED. Typically the LED manufacturer will specify the resistance to use for a given supply voltage OR they will specify nominal and maximum current values allowed through the LED. To determine the appropriate resistor value to use with the LED, divide the supply voltage by the nominal current listed to get the appropriate resistance. To get the appropriate resistor wattage, multiply that current (in amps) by the voltage. Example: 12V power supply LED nominal current 30ma, max 40ma (.03Amps and .04Amps) 12V/.03Amps = 400 ohms resistor [yellow, black,brown] (if 400 ohms isn't available, use next larger value available - may be 470 ohms [yellow,violet,brown], or you may get by with 380 ohms [orange,grey,brown]) 12V*.03Amps = .36 Watt resistor (1/2 Watt) Note: resistors come in 1/4, 1/2, 1 & 2 Watt sizes Add total of all nomimal current values for all the LEDs to ensure you don't exceed the current capacity of the power supply.
Hi All Here is a neat link to check the resistance of a resistor if any of you are like me I have scrap circuit board laying around just loaded with resistors. It will keep you from running to radio shack everytime you need one. http://www.samengstrom.com/nxl/3660/4_band_resistor_color_code_page.en.html Darren
We had a way of calculating resistors that was taught at Pitt State University back in the 1970's. It involved memorizing a saying that would help one to remembernot only the color code but the numbers as well. It has stuck in my mind and I use it to this day. I wish I felt comfortable in copying it here but I feel that it is inappropriate for the group. Bob Wintle ET for 34 years (No I will not phone home) Parsons, Ks. PS: Yes, El Slug man I am having trouble sleeping again.
And I'm not that far away.... BTW: color code for resistors black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white respectively 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 first two colors are individual digits, third is power of 10 multiplier therefore resistor with bands Brown, Black, Red = 10 00 ohms or ten hundred ohms (one thousand) resistor with bands Yellow, Violet, Orange = 47 000 ohms or 47 thousand or 47k where k = kilo (thousand) ohms Blue, Green, Blue = 65 00000 ohms or 6.5 megohms (mega = million)
