Lighting Trains

[gavino200]

Thanks Kiha. Lights it is!!

[gavino200]

On 6/14/2015 at 8:18 AM, JR 500系 said:

 

Sure~ Please see attached pictures. Much alike to the original Tomix or the illumi or TORM, just that the light tube is much different and it defuses the light evenly.

 

 

 

The pictures might be a good clue ~  :P

 

 

Went ahead to fix in the lights into the 485 salon trains Yamanami & Seseragi. Looking good now! Also used the remaining 6 tubes into the Tomix E233-8000 Nambu line, and complete it with all it's attachments and decals. E233s look nice!  :)

 

 

 

 

JR500, was that brown paper just part of the packaging with those shanzhai TORMs? Or is it added to tone down the light? If it's a light filter, can you tell me what kind of paper it is?

 

I really need to find a way to turn down the brightness on my TORMS. I thought they were too bright on my Shinkansens, but the windows are small, so it wasn't a big deal. They still look better than the Kato kits.

 

But I just put a set into a Type 500 Marunouchi Line subway. The train has a lot of windows and they're huge. The train looks like a fluorescent bulb on wheels.

 

If filtering the light won't work, I may have to solder in an SMD resistor. That'd probably be a PITA though. 

Edited December 17, 2017 by gavino200

[JR 500系]

38 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

JR500, was that brown paper just part of the packaging with those shanzhai TORMs? Or is it added to tone down the light? If it's a light filter, can you tell me what kind of paper it is?

 

I really need to find a way to turn down the brightness on my TORMS. I thought they were too bright on my Shinkansens, but the windows are small, so it wasn't a big deal. They still look better than the Kato kits.

 

But I just put a set into a Type 500 Marunouchi Line subway. The train has a lot of windows and they're huge. The train looks like a fluorescent bulb on wheels.

 

If filtering the light won't work, I may have to solder in an SMD resistor. That'd probably be a PITA though. 

 

Hi:

 

Nope the brown paper are just that with the packaging, and needs to be stripped off when installing onto the trains.

 

I'm expecting a new batch of shanzai lights soon, and shall revert with the new technology... I do agree sometimes the lights are just way too bright... and if the shells of the cars are light colored like white, you might even need to either paint the inner shell black or apply aluminum foil to diffuse light away from the roof of the car....

[inobu]

On 12/15/2017 at 10:20 PM, Kiha66 said:

Ah ha!  Found a video!  From the pictures, it seems that in a well lit station or city it appears dark, but out on the line a glow is seen through the curtains.  If the model has clear windows, you could put a strip of printer paper over the inside to simulate the curtains. 

 

Cut Mylar sheets to emulate the shades. The thickness should control the translucent effect. 

 

Inobu

[Robert46]

Hi guys,

If the idea is to use cheap 12v LEDs that are widely available on the market, I was told by friends that we also should use other components such as rectifier, capacitor and resistor from the current collecting tip before connected to the LEDs.

The thing is the size of those components are big enough for N scale car interior, especially for rectifier and capacitor. Roughly about 1cm diameter and 1cm length. Of course it won't look good for interior.

Any suggestions for the IC component which is small enough to look good for N scale interior (commuter trains especially) and can replace the functions of the above components mentioned before?

Thanks in advance. :)

Sent from my ASUS_T00Q using Tapatalk

[gavino200]

14 minutes ago, Robert46 said:

Hi guys,

If the idea is to use cheap 12v LEDs that are widely available on the market, I was told by friends that we also should use other components such as rectifier, capacitor and resistor from the current collecting tip before connected to the LEDs.

The thing is the size of those components are big enough for N scale car interior, especially for rectifier and capacitor. Roughly about 1cm diameter and 1cm length. Of course it won't look good for interior.

Any suggestions for the IC component which is small enough to look good for N scale interior (commuter trains especially) and can replace the functions of the above components mentioned before?

Thanks in advance. :)

Sent from my ASUS_T00Q using Tapatalk
 

 

Agree. I'm interested in trying that, if I can find a good write up and diagram.

[gavino200]

9 hours ago, inobu said:

Cut Mylar sheets to emulate the shades. The thickness should control the translucent effect. 

 

Inobu

 

Turns out they weren't necessary. Every carriage has a built-in plastic "blind". Doctor Yellow seems like it's uniquely well suited to TORMs. The over-brightness problem isn't an issue as all the light is diffused. The appearance to the eye is actually more subtle than it appears in the photo below.

 

 

[gavino200]

As opposed to the Type 500 Marunouchi Line subway train, which just looks ridiculous. If I can't find a good method of either diffusing/filtering the light, or adding a resistor, I'll just have to remove them. It's probably good that this train has forced the issue - they're really a bit too bright for the Shinkansens anyway.

 

BTW, in this case the phone camera gives the correct impression - "Looking directly at this train may cause retinal damage".

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by gavino200

[Kiha66]

Wow, those are bright.  Are they harder to install than the kato light units?  I've been happy with the kato lights, so I haven.t had a reason to use torm myself.  The doctor yellow looks amazing with the lights installed.

[gavino200]

10 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Wow, those are bright.  Are they harder to install than the kato light units?  I've been happy with the kato lights, so I haven.t had a reason to use torm myself.  The doctor yellow looks amazing with the lights installed.

 

I envy your success with the Kato lights. I gave up on them before, I really learned anything about how the diffusion is supposed to work. I may try them again - if only out of curiosity.

 

The TORMs connect exactly the same way as Katos. The only difference is that instead of one LED there is a strip of LEDs projecting out of the (white plastic/metal connector) unit. The white plastic part had to be modified to fit the EMUs of the E5 and the Type 500 "EVA". Also, they didn't work well with the Marunouchi so I had to find another way. But for the most part it's the same experience as with Kato. They're only "easier"in that you don't have to worry about the light diffusion being right. But then there's the over-brightness issue......

Edited December 18, 2017 by gavino200

[Kiha66]

Yeah, the old version of the kato lights was pretty bad, but the LED one works very well.  The brightness seems to be pretty good too, but some cars need the floor painted to tone down the shinyness.

[gavino200]

40 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Yeah, the old version of the kato lights was pretty bad, but the LED one works very well.  The brightness seems to be pretty good too, but some cars need the floor painted to tone down the shinyness.

 

 

 

Those look amazing Kiha. Any chance you could do a little write up sometime, on exactly how you install the Kato light diffuser?

[Kiha66]

22 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

Those look amazing Kiha. Any chance you could do a little write up sometime, on exactly how you install the Kato light diffuser?

 

Sure!  Its mostly the same as the instructions, the important thing is lining up the LED with the end of the diffuser.  I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow evening. 

[gavino200]

I experimented with adding a strip of paper over the TORM. Left is no filter. Middle is one layer of paper. Right is two layers of paper. The phone camera picks this up a bit different than the eye. In person there's a big difference between bare TORM and the two papered TORMs,, and very little difference between one and two layers of paper. 

 

It's a definite improvement. I can't imagine there's any fire risk doing this, but I'd like to hear some opinions on this before applying paper strips to all six cars.

 

Incidentally, this is the only Kato train I've seen with absolutely no interior detailing. No seats, nothing. Just bare.

 

[Kiha66]

TORM is LED correct?  Try holding your finger on one bulb while its on at full voltage.  If you don't want to keep it there cause of the heat, then paper is a fire risk.  Its a nifty trick we use for seeing if bearings are too hot on ships, but it works well for a bunch of things.

[gavino200]

There was essentially zero heat from the TORM LEDs. I put two layers of paper over the TORM strips. The train looks much better. The picture below is of a strip of thick ivory resume paper that I experimented with. It made the carriage light very yellow, so obviously I didn't keep it. But I think the TORMs can be adjusted for brightness and tone very subtly using different thicknesses, number of layers, and paper shades. 

 

[cteno4]

As inobu preaches, diffusion! Small adjustments can work wonders.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

22 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

As inobu preaches, diffusion! Small adjustments can work wonders.

 

jeff

 

Yes. Inobu is a very wise man. 

Edited December 25, 2017 by gavino200

[JR 500系]

A newer technology to the 3rd party lighting system sees an increase in brightness and easier installation, more versatile and less likely to be susceptible to damages:

 

 

[gavino200]

9 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

A newer technology to the 3rd party lighting system sees an increase in brightness and easier installation, more versatile and less likely to be susceptible to damages:

 

 

 

Can you show a picture of the device?

[changkh]

I am trying to install LED lighting on my KATO N700 Shinkansen.

The conducting strips should go below the the small tab in the groove as shown below and not above it right?

[Kiha66]

Most likely they should go below, but either way shouldn't hurt anything and you can try both if below is giving you a poor connection.

[changkh]

It is easier to go on top but it does not conduct properly. I have to lightly press on the train for the LED to light up. Going down gives good conduction just that it requires some force to push the strips.

[Yavianice]

12 minutes ago, changkh said:

. Going down gives good conduction just that it requires some force to push the strips.

It Goes below. I poke the copper rods with a needle to make it so. 

[changkh]

39 minutes ago, Yavianice said:

It Goes below. I poke the copper rods with a needle to make it so. 

 

Great! Thanks for the info.