Question for the E-Whiz'z

[peteski]

You also keep saying that you don't like using resistors,and now you say all the LEDs have resistors?   In your earlie r post you stated "The smaller LED I use 500 ohm resistors to connect their negative wire to the - bus."  That seemed to imply that not all LEDs have resistors. 

Anyway, going back to your original post:

What I want to know is there anything I can add inline to that LED to prevent the flicker to the other LED I want constant, or is it just simpler to use a separate power source for just that LED?

I have a switched battery solution planned, but wanted to explore any other options.

No, I don't believe there is anything you can add to the flickering LED powered by small 3V coin cell along with couple other parallel-connected LED to completely prevent them all from flickering.  As I mentioned earlier, adding a 500 ohm resistor  to the flickering LED will reduce the flicker of the other LEDs, but likely not fully eliminate it.

As for exploring other options, powering the flickering LED (through a 500 ohm resistor) from your 3.4V bus will likely not  make any other LEDs flicker. 

Either suggestion should be very easy to test.

[jagged ben]

Do I understand that you're 'worried' the flicker LED will cause other LEDs to flicker when you connect it to the layout bus, but so far you've only seen that with the battery tester?  If so, I say try it on the layout and see what happens.

[Lemosteam]

You also keep saying that you don't like using resistors,and now you say all the LEDs have resistors?   In your earlie r post you stated "The smaller LED I use 500 ohm resistors to connect their negative wire to the - bus."  That seemed to imply that not all LEDs have resistors. 

Anyway, going back to your original post:
No, I don't believe there is anything you can add to the flickering LED powered by small 3V coin cell along with couple other parallel-connected LED to completely prevent them all from flickering.  As I mentioned earlier, adding a 500 ohm resistor  to the flickering LED will reduce the flicker of the other LEDs, but likely not fully eliminate it.

As for exploring other options, powering the flickering LED (through a 500 ohm resistor) from your 3.4V bus will likely not  make any other LEDs flicker. 

Either suggestion should be very easy to test.

What I suppose I meant to say was, I do t like the process of choosing a resistor for each LED. I realize I need to protect all of them though, which is why they all have the same resistor value already.

After I tested the engineouse with all temporarily wired in parallel and discovered the flicker issue, I then decided to power the flicker led separately already.

At that point it became a choice of powering the flicker led separately and directly to the bus with a safety resistor, or powering it from a battery for a separate source of power.  The switched battery power source for only the flicker led was the fall back idea.

The question I posed really was if I attempted to power the flicker from the bus, would it make the entire circuit flicker, as seen I witnessed in the test rig (which again was just to make sure that they lit, for the most part before I buttoned up the wiring hiding them against the walls, etc.

And you are both top right, I can still test this, but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble now. All of the buildings are wired to be removeable with micro connectors, especially just to see if the flicker led won’t be an issue.

[peteski]

Well, I'm glad that at least you are using resistors with your LEDs.  TBH, when I thought you were saying that you power your LEDs directly (implying "no resistors") from a source of 3.15 V I was always puzzled because if 3.15V (with plenty of current begin available) was applied directly to a white LED, it would be severely over-driven. It would glow really, really bright.

Looking back at this thread, it almost seems like waste of time.  It seems that when you asked the questions your mind was already made up, and even through were told that your fears were unwarranted, you will still use coin batteries.  But I suppose there is some educational value here for others.

I strongly dislike using batteries for lighting in passenger cars or on the layout. They are just a pain to deal with (especially when a source of voltage (like DCC track power or a wall-wart) is readily available.

[mmagliaro]

Wow, my head is spinning at how confusing this got.

"The question I posed really was if I attempted to power the flicker from the bus, would it make the entire circuit flicker, as seen I witnessed in the test rig (which again was just to make sure that they lit, for the most part before I buttoned up the wiring hiding them against the walls, etc."

My short answer is "No."  If you just hook that flicker LED to your bus, WITH a 500 ohm resistor like all the other LEDs you are connecting to that bus,  nothing else will flicker.    If the tiny load from that one LED switching on and off makes all your LEDs flicker, throw the power brick you are using for your lights away and get something better.

[Lemosteam]

Max despite the confusion, was my original post question unclear?

Anyway:

[mmagliaro]

Max despite the confusion, was my original post question unclear?

To me it was.  When I read, and now reread, the original post, I thought you just added on the flicker LED
to your layout circuit and had the problem.  Then I read more posts and it looks like you only attached that
flicker LED in a test on your workbench with the enginehouse, but I can't tell if you used resistors in that test,
or if you used them on all 3 LEDs.  I see test hookups with the battery, and no resistors.
I can't honestly tell if you tried just hooking all 3 up (the two static LEDs and the flicker one), each with their own
500 ohm resistor, to the layout power supply.  And my position is that if you do that, the flicker LED should not disturb
the others.