EOT Passenger Lighting Question

[eja]

I would like to illuminate the EOT lights on the last car of my Amtrak trains and am looking for "simple" solutions.

I am aware of Ngineering's lighting kit (https://www.ngineering.com/color_led_photographs.htm).  however, that requires a Kato lighting board, and I do not want to light the car interior.

I don't care about train direction, or switch to turn it off. I just want to see lights on the last car if it is on a powered track.

Has anyone else done this?

Any suggestions appreciated.

ed

[peteski]

If you run DC then you would likely need some sort of battery in the car to keep the lights lit.

If DCC, you can get power from the tracks.  Kato passenger cars already have the power pickups installed.  You just need to tap the power from the pickup strips.

I don't know of any simple ready-to-install solutions. I would just build one from a bridge rectifier, a anti-flicker capacitor, couple of resistors and LEDs.



You would use the non-directional circuit.  You could also connect the LEDs in parallel using only one resistor.

[eja]

Thanks Peteski

Two questions:

1. Any suggestions regarding how to install the LEDs so they don't give the the whole car a red glow?

2. Where does the keep alive cap go in your diagram?

Ed

PS:It's a DCC environment

[peteski]

Ed, the anti-flicker capacitor connects at the outputs of the bridge rectifier.  Positive to positive, and negative to negative.  I recommend a value between 100 and 470 µF and a rated voltage of 25V (not lower).

Even with 1.5 k ohm resistors the red EOT LEDs might be too bright.  I usually use small SMD LEDs. As for preventing light leakage, I most often cover the LED with 5-minute epoxy (I put little on first, then wait until it thickens up a bit before slopping more of it on, so it doesn't run off). When the epoxy hardens, I just paint it with either silver, or black, or sometimes sliver, then black paint.  That blocks the light from shining into the interior.  I usually have to apply more than one coat of paint to fully seal the light out.



Here is an example (looking at the ceiling of the cab from the bottom of the shell)  Here the white object is (fairly large) SMD LED. I first tack it in, then it is flooded with epoxy.  Photo was taken before I painted the epoxy area with black paint.  Sometimes the plastic the shell is molded from is somewhat translucent. If that is the case I paint the inside of the shell at the LED area with black paint before gluing in the LED.

[John]

Why not use an NCE lightit?

https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000497683-The-Light-It-A-Programmable-DCC-lighting-and-signal-decoder

[craigolio1]

@peteski designed the circuit on page two of this thread. I have used it with great success for lighting passenger cars, marker lights, and ahead of a flasher circuit for flashing marker lights.

It includes the keep alive you were looking for.

Craig

Edit: 

The missing link!

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=29654.15

[peteski]

@peteski designed the circuit on page two of this thread. I have used it with great success for lighting passenger cars, marker lights, and ahead of a flasher circuit for flashing marker lights.

It includes the keep alive you were looking for.

Craig

Craig, you didn't include a link to that thread, but this is the circuit for powering LED strips for  interior lighting.  Sure, it can be used for other ligths (like EOT).

[eja]

Thanks to all who replied.

Looks like I need to order some parts, find some time and start experimenting.

Ed

[craigolio1]

Craig, you didn't include a link to that thread, but this is the circuit for powering LED strips for  interior lighting.  Sure, it can be used for other ligths (like EOT).

Shoot. Thank you!

[peteski]

Ed, if you are planning on using the circuit I drew up for Scott, I want to let you know that the part numbers are for small SMD components (not standard parts with leads).  Also, the 10k resistor was to run the white LEDs at a very reduced brightness. You might use a smaller value resistor value with the red LEDs for the EOT markers.