wireless LED structures

[sandiway]

I've been experimenting with new wireless LED lighting. Just acquired Osaka-jo (1/350 scale) and Kinkaku-ji (1/200 scale) from a friend who made them years ago. They'll go onto my tatami layout. White LEDs for Osaka-jo, orange for Kinkaku-ji.

Edited February 9, 2019 by sandiway
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[Kiha66]

Very interesting!  I assume its some sort of battery and led arrangement? 

[sandiway]

25 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Very interesting!  I assume its some sort of battery and led arrangement? 

Completely wireless like the new iPhones

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, sandiway said:

Completely wireless like the new iPhones

 

C'mon. Stop teasing! Tell us how it works. Spill the beans. Do you have to remove them to recharge them? Or is that square mat, the recharging station?

[sandiway]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

 

C'mon. Stop teasing! Tell us how it works. Spill the beans. Do you have to remove them to recharge them? Or is that square mat, the recharging station?

I am not kidding. No batteries. Each tiny led is wirelessly powered and can be placed anywhere (nearby).

The base below the castle is just like the wireless iPhone charger base. Same principle for getting electricity.

Edited February 9, 2019 by sandiway

[Beaver]

So the castle base is an induction pad and the lights powered by induction! What is the range of the induction effect?

[sandiway]

2 hours ago, Space Beaver said:

So the castle base is an induction pad and the lights powered by induction! What is the range of the induction effect?

Around 20cm if both bases at right angles to each other are used. Just the main base, seems around 10cm.

[cteno4]

Very cool sandiway! Often wondered if this would work and the sizes of the induction coils would need to be. Did you just wind the coils yourself or get ready made ones? 

 

Cheers

 

jeff

 

ps you get the Tesla award for the month!

[sandiway]

You can buy the LEDs pre-wound in packs of 10. The base separately lists for a fortune at Yodobashi (19,000 yen) when I saw it last week (but now I see it's on sale too), but I found another shop selling it for 25% off.

 

https://www.yodobashi.com/product/100000001003732335/

 

So I bought it on a whim to try. Because I wasn't sure it would work without the two bases together. Pleasantly surprised it works. It'd be nice if I could power the base itself using a powerbank. Needs 12V 2000mA.

 

At that shop, I also got 8% tax-free plus another 5% off plus another 3% off because of the Spring Festival promotion, so I also buy all my Tomix track there.

[cteno4]

Ah those looks like high capacity charging units. Cute light units, wonder what they are usually used for? Really only needs to be the coils and the led. The coil looks similar to many board mounted councils Ive seen.

 

fun trick, I may wind some micro coils with a smdled and see if I can get the car’s wireless charger to light it.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

 

ps amazed gavin didn’t want you burned at the stake!

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

ps amazed gavin didn’t want you burned at the stake!

 

ha, yes. My inquisition style was tongue-in-cheek. I thought that was obvious. But since maybe it wasn't, perhaps I might have a calling as a Grand Inquisitor.  

 

This is an interesting gadget. What to you mean by "micro coils"? How small could a coil be? small enough to fit into an n-scale automobile. It would be interesting to make a base mat in the shape of a road and put a road surface on it. The cars could be lit by induction powered LEDs. You could then have cars with working lights that could still be moved around.

 

You and I had talked about this technology before, but back then I was only thinking of recharging batteries (like with the iPhone etc). I didn't realize you could just power an LED directly by induction. 

Edited February 9, 2019 by gavino200

[sandiway]

I just ordered another one on amazon japan just in case this one craps out... it was cheaper than the place with the 25% discount. They must be discontinuing them.

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by sandiway

[cteno4]

yep thats the one place i thought as well for having wireless is vehicle lighting! in theory it should work, but it will depend how thick your baseboard is if you put these under the layout. cars have the room for a small coil in them.

 

here are some small ones to play with. i think in theory these should work with just a coil and led as it just induced a high frequency current that should light the led (on and off very fast).

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-QI-Wireless-Charging-Receiver-Charger-Module-For-Micro-USB-Phone/183567382329?hash=item2abd77f739:g:IWIAAOSwwXRcBkKi

 

ill see if i can play with this some soon here with the phone charger built into our prime. 

 

I am very curious how the shape of the receiving coil will effect things. cell phones use flat wound coils as things need to be flat. the leds in this pack are little vertical coils which may give better reception higher. with this little unit you can experiment on the transmission coil as well as play with your receiving coil.

 

I had a project way back using PIT tags (micro RFID tags the size of a grain or rice like the kind they now id you pet with by injection) to label animals in a tank and be able to identify each critter to a multimedia system. i played with all sorts of transmission coil geometries to see what would work best for sensor to register the tiny tags in water. the tags used a long thin vertical coil, but then that may have been due to the shape they were made for injecting the tag. i was able to engineer ones to focus tighter for longer distances and ones that were better when fish would go thru a large ring and ones that were more close but wider area.

 

might be able to come up with a long oval for the transmitter that would cover a longer patch or road. maybe a ribbon cable and wire back the ends.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

This is way cool! But it is pretty expensive, though I would love it for the reduction in the number of wires I have to lay and bury in my layout !

[sandiway]

24 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

This is way cool! But it is pretty expensive, though I would love it for the reduction in the number of wires I have to lay and bury in my layout !

Yes, not cheap but so flexible. Look on amazon.co.jp to see price. My first set and 2nd set worked out to be about the same.