Sakatsu gallery stop lights

[cteno4]

interesting new working stoplight system from Sakatsu Gallery on HS. not cheat at 17,100Y, but interesting. it has a controller board to sequence 4 lights at an intersection.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10147333

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10147332

 

they also have a 2 light version that came out in feb

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138136

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138592

 

they also have some led streetlights coming out.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10147336

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10147335

 

cheers

 

jeff

[rankodd]

Those LED streetlights, at about $7/ea look nearly identical to the ones I bought of ebay for $0.70.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/T92-10pcs-Model-Trains-Lamppost-LED-lamp-HO-N-45mm-12v-/160585866247?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2563a9dc07

[cteno4]

yeah $7ea seemed a bit high. they do have a bit more detail than the ebay ones you posted and others i have seen and bought, but i dont think its worth that much more...

 

some tubing (metal or plastic) and a smd led would do the trick! i keep looking for beads, washer, or other tiny bits that could be used for detail parts like the lamp head, pole bases, etc, but not lots of luck yet on anything...

 

btw one of the japanese n scale magazines i have has an interesting article on how to make plaza lamps using 3mm leds. basically sand down the round end to make a flatter disc, then they used some collars made by a detail company (ill look this up later) and then use thin solid core wire to wire the lamps and use the two wires to hold the lamp out at a horizontal and run all 4 wires down a vertical rod for the pole. made nice lights for a plaza or parking lot.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[David]

$115 for 2? No thank you.

 

I'm going to have to think of an economical way of making 1, 3 and 4 color signals in quantity at some point in the future. One idea I have is to use SMD LEDs connected with magnet wire (obviously), then make a rubber or ceramic mold and use something that can be mixed at a low enough temperature so as not to melt off the insulation from the wires - the LEDs and wires would be baked into the mold itself, rather then trying to thread them into an existing tube.

[cteno4]

david,

 

interesting thought, but how will you keep the wires in the center of the mould? would you worry the wires near the surface could cause the surface to be a bit deformed?

 

you can fit a lot of magnet wires down a small piece of metal tubing! also could use a common ground wire.

 

trick is to bend the tubing well w/o kinking it micromark makes tubing benders that are basically metal chinese finger cuffs to bend thin tubing, but they dont quite go down to n scale sizes.

 

i have thought of trying to heat brass tubing and bend it around a form slowly.

 

ill look in one mag they had an article of making a crossing signal lights and over head signal lights using smd leds and running the wires down tubing.

 

btw a great solution for making lenses over your smleds for streetlights and stoplights is the stuff called gallery glass by PLAID. its basically a really thick paint that hardens into a translucent hard glass/plastic (used to do pho stained glass on top of glass). stuff seems pretty tough. i have yet to put it directly on an smd led to make sure it will hold the heat, but expect it should. like $2.79 at your local craft stores. there looks to be a good red, green, and yellow for stop lights but ive only tried the clear for street lights so far.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[rankodd]

I've put the frost white gallery glass on one of the led strip 3528 square SMDs and ran it for a couple of hours without issue.

 

I'm also a little put out at $200 for an intersection's worth of streetlights. I'm planning to try building my own with either 1.6mm LEDs or 0603 SMD leds, using an arduino for a controller. Total cost for a set of four will probably be under $50.

 

Jeff- can you point out an image of one of the plaza lamps you're talking about? I'm having a hard time picturing what they look like.

[clem24]

OMG that's pricey. Maybe if it interacted with the Tomytec bus system, it might even be mildly worthwhile but yikes. On that note, you could buy 2 Tomytec bus systems plus some accessories.

[cteno4]

rankodd,

 

ill scan the article and email it to you, please pm me an email address. sorry i dont like posting published material to the web, not really kosher with copyright.

 

basically they come out looking like two squat lampshades on either side of a pole, slightly tilted. i thought it interesting to use the wires as the connector bit between the pole and the lamps. gets you out of having to bend tubing!

 

ive been tempted to start playing with arudino, but one of those things that would require a bit of time to get into and fiddle with and not great need right this minute, but can see lots and lots of potential projects, and this stuff just gets better and cheaper with time!

 

cool the gallery glass holds up well to the smd leds. i noticed my tests here never got rock hard, they are always a tad soft (ie you can poke a finger nail into them with a good push).

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

OMG that's pricey. Maybe if it interacted with the Tomytec bus system, it might even be mildly worthwhile but yikes. On that note, you could buy 2 Tomytec bus systems plus some accessories.

 

clem

 

the one thing that occurred to me is that operating lights with stationary vehicles might seem a bit odd. kind of like a post nuclear holocaust scene... usually you set up traffic scenes with static cars, with the assumption each intersection is at a certain red/green combination and set the traffic to match. this would be out of whack with operating lights half the time (ie the red light to the cars speeding to and thru the intersection!). other option would be to just have static red/green lamps set as would make sense with your traffic pattern, of course then things would be lit but static! id only given thought to animated signals on train tracks before, but there it makes sense as the trains are running.

 

its that old issue of what is animated and what is not and what animated things make the scene look more realistic and what animated items might make the scene seem more like a fake... some even get creeped out by any animation save the trains running (that twilight zone thing of the mannequins coming to life or post apocalyptic life i guess!)

 

cheers

 

jeff

[rankodd]

rankodd,

 

ill scan the article and email it to you, please pm me an email address. sorry i dont like posting published material to the web, not really kosher with copyright.

That's even better, thanks!

 

ive been tempted to start playing with arudino, but one of those things that would require a bit of time to get into and fiddle with and not great need right this minute, but can see lots and lots of potential projects, and this stuff just gets better and cheaper with time!

The arduino seems ready made for railway applications. I've got a motor controller kit for it that I'm planning to use for an automated point-to-point tram controller, I've got Capt's code for the LED controller, and I've got a servo controller that I'd like to use on railway crossing booms. There's also the possibility to use it to switch electromagnets to control the Tomytec bus system in conjunction with the stoplights. List goes on and on :) My biggest problem is working out train detection.

 

cool the gallery glass holds up well to the smd leds. i noticed my tests here never got rock hard, they are always a tad soft (ie you can poke a finger nail into them with a good push).

 

I don't think the stuff will ever completely harden. I think it was supposed to be some sort of latex material? I wouldn't use it on a surface that's going to see traffic of any sort.

[cteno4]

rankodd,

 

here is sort of what i was describing. just less ornate connection between the post and the lamps. the lamps they had were more just partial conical shades w/o a brim though

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/L333-10pcs-Model-Railway-Lamppost-lamp-HO-N-4-5cm-12V-/310317215733?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item484058eff5#ht_1056wt_836

 

you could easily do these with this technique with a sequin as the brim behind a sanded down 2 or 3mm led and then one lead does the top loop and the other the horizontal straight one! also you can vary the thickness of your pole by getting telescoping sizes of tubing. you can buy various gauge hypodermic tubing cheap on amazon or similar stuff from ngineering.com (http://ngineering.com/tubing.htm) they also sell various small light shades (http://ngineering.com/stamped.htm)

 

who is going to put some solar collectors on their streetlights?!

 

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00tMwalDUWvoiE/LED-Solar-Powered-Street-Light.jpg

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

cool the gallery glass holds up well to the smd leds. i noticed my tests here never got rock hard, they are always a tad soft (ie you can poke a finger nail into them with a good push).

 

I don't think the stuff will ever completely harden. I think it was supposed to be some sort of latex material? I wouldn't use it on a surface that's going to see traffic of any sort.

 

yeah was not worried about that so much as potential softening more from heat on direct contact with the diode.

 

arduino really does look like it can do all sorts of fun things. networking things is where it will get to be a bit trickier but again that is something that is getting more common and cheaper with devices like this to work independently but then communicate to do the swarm/community thing when needed easily!

 

rfid tags are a definite possibility for train detection. the tags are cheap and you can get them tiny. they make tiny ones that are in small glass tubes about the size of a large grain of rice that are inserted into animals that would fit fine on tomytec busses even. even the smaller product tags are small enough to put in most n scale trains. small cheap detectors are the issue though... but with rfid tags getting so ubiquitous now days the detectors are getting cheap as well. again is the issue of networking the detectors. most are build as stand alone units to record and dump later or as usb attached devices. you can also modify the antennas on the detectors to make all sorts of shapes and sizes of detection fields so you can really localize your detection. i played with this years ago at the aquarium to see if we could use it to detect critters in a tank really interesting what you could do with the fields.

 

barcode is cheap, but HO seems to be the limit on size to work well from the accounts i have seen.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keitaro]

i was going to put lights down on my layout but i have not worked out how i am going to drill a tiny hole through my 25mm mdf, the 30mm foam and the brown filler i have put down over the foam.... with out destroying it and making a larger hole than the base of the light post.

[cteno4]

i was going to put lights down on my layout but i have not worked out how i am going to drill a tiny hole through my 25mm mdf, the 30mm foam and the brown filler i have put down over the foam.... with out destroying it and making a larger hole than the base of the light post.

 

how about drilling a larger hole and then putting a styrene plate on top of the filler and then drill the small hole thru the plate to mount the light to it. could put the plates down in the places you wanted to mount lights (with the large holes beneath each) along a street then put down your sidewalks on top and drill thru to mount/wire.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[rankodd]

 

arduino really does look like it can do all sorts of fun things. networking things is where it will get to be a bit trickier but again that is something that is getting more common and cheaper with devices like this to work independently but then communicate to do the swarm/community thing when needed easily!

 

You can daisy chain arduino boards together using an I2C network. It just needs a couple of wires and a resistor.

 

rfid tags are a definite possibility for train detection. the tags are cheap and you can get them tiny. they make tiny ones that are in small glass tubes about the size of a large grain of rice that are inserted into animals that would fit fine on tomytec busses even. even the smaller product tags are small enough to put in most n scale trains. small cheap detectors are the issue though... but with rfid tags getting so ubiquitous now days the detectors are getting cheap as well. again is the issue of networking the detectors. most are build as stand alone units to record and dump later or as usb attached devices. you can also modify the antennas on the detectors to make all sorts of shapes and sizes of detection fields so you can really localize your detection. i played with this years ago at the aquarium to see if we could use it to detect critters in a tank really interesting what you could do with the fields.

 

Nuts. I was considering RFID last year, but had forgotten about it by now. Thanks! :)

[cteno4]

just noticed this for bending the fine tubing

 

http://ngineering.com/using_n_stlight_tool.htm

 

you can easily make these type jigs.

 

the interesting thing is to put the piece of rod thru the tubing before bending to prevent it from crushing, then pull the wire out. i had thought about this but thought it would not pull out but sounds like it will with some oil! going to give it a whirl.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keitaro]

I was going to have really tight streets. i.e. was going to have the typical tarred road right up to the house's fence so no side walk.

 

To do the tar i was going to do a plaster and smooth it then paint a tar colour.

 

i guess i could do a small hole next to the tar and have the light right against the properties fence.

[cteno4]

keitaro

 

if you plan out where you want the lights along the street, just drill larger holes (like 4-5mm) in all your base materials. then glue little plates like 1cm square of 1mm styrene over the holes. then plaster over the hole thing so the plates are part of your road plaster layer. then just drill small hole through where the plates are later once your road is finished to mount your lamps.

 

you could do even larger holes if you wanted more wiggle room. only thing is to figure out a way to remember where your plates are in the road. you can do this easily by laying a piece of paper over the area when your plates are down and tracing out where they are along with 3 or 4 reference points outside the street that you can find after your plaster layer (ie a couple of temp nails). then just put the template back down and poke holes where the middle of the plates are to drill your small holes through.

 

another technique to locate the holes later is to just be a surveyor with a few nails strategically placed and measure with some thread a couple of distances to spot the holes. think the paper template would be easier.

 

one thing that will help when you run your holes through your foam and such under the layout is to drill the larger holes the diameter of a plastic straw. then slip the straw through the hole and glue in place. wires will run throughout he plastic straw very easily w/o getting hung up or having to fish though a wire fish. also helps locate the holes under the layout easier with the straw end protruding a couple of mm.

 

cheers

[keitaro]

sounds complicated :p

 

anyway i just ordered some ebay led lamps and some leds pre wires 3mm for buildings and my station

[cteno4]

sounds complicated :p

 

anyway i just ordered some ebay led lamps and some leds pre wires 3mm for buildings and my station

 

not really, pretty simple.

 

1. drill holes where you will want poles

 

2. glue a piece of plastic straw in your holes to make slipping wire through later easy. you could put small wad of plaster in the top of the hole to give yourself a bit of extra 'stuff' to mount the street lamp pole into if you want.

 

3. glue little 1cm square piece of plastic (like 1mm thick material) over the top of each hole, centered on the hole.

 

4. put down a sheet of paper over the road

 

5. put in 3 or 4 finishing nails around outside of your road thru the paper (around the edge of the paper)

 

6. trace around each plate so you know where they are relative to your nail markers

 

7. pull off your paper template off the nails carefully. keep the nails in place until you are all done with the steps

 

8. plaster the road over and paint

 

9. after your road is done just put the paper template back on top of the new road over the marker nails.

 

10. you can just drill through the small holes to mount just your street lamps in the middle of where your marked spots were on the template.

 

11. pull off the paper template and you can remove the marker nails and mount your poles

 

 

alternative you could just do your road and then drill a hole from the top with a drill that is as small as possible to be a drill bit long enough to make it all the way through the bottom MDF board. then come back and fill the top of each hole flush with the surface with plaster putty like 5-10mm deep. then come back and drill your small hole in the middle of the plaster plug and then repaint the road. just paint the road a bit first so you can easily see where your plugs are after they dry do you can then drill your small hole through the center of them. this is simpler, but just relies on the plaster plugs in your top surface to mount the poles into.

 

cheers

 

jeff