Electronics, Valves, Steam, Speakers and Stuff: March 2018

There are various commercial solutions available to add lights to a model train carriage. These are perfectly fine and work either from track power of battery power.

My g scale railways is all battery lowered RC controlled, no track power. The rails haven't been cleaned for over a year.

So track lowered light isn't convenient. And I don't want to keep on buying 9V batteries. So what to do?

Then I saw these us b battery chargers when searching for 18650 batteries for the RC control i was building in one of my locs.

Also contained a 18650 and the full control for it and booster to 5V.

And all for the same price as a 18650 battery. So battery sorted, now the lights.

LED, of course. Use 5V of course. That was not to difficult. I saw 5V usb led string that can be cut after every 3 leds. Perfect. Use connector, even better!

So the battery is protected by the electronic s of the us b charger it's in and will feed the 5V led chain by the boosted voltage the charger gives out.

Now a switch and a way of charging. Can use a micro us b extender cable but it's a bit big and may get clogged if left outside.

I had some small 3.1 mm power sockets and a usb to 3.1mm cable. That sorted it.

Now what about turning the led s on and off?

I played with some switches and these all required holes of taking bits out. Or perhaps a patching ball effect transistor switch? How to turn it off again? Too complicated, better stick to the old kiss: keep it simple silly.

Then I noticed that the carriage had pop in chimneys that were not glued in but had barb shaped books holding them. And the rotated and where kind of rectangular. Lever switch!, I thought. By rotating the chimney the lever switch is operated. Quick rummage through the component bins in the shed and he's i had some.

Advice: make sure you got well stocked odds and sods cupboard full of thingymebobs, ignore the better half complaining about the mess, it'll pay of.

Anyway, got all the parts, just solder and thermal glue.

I am using One of these cheap but quite good looking Newqida Train carriages.

These must be about the best value for money in g scale. But peop!d are catching on and China is getting slowly more expensive, so better get them altogether later if you want some. The first i bought for £27 now they are £33 plus £4 shipping, or $99 in the US for 4 plus $27 shipping, it's one of the other.

Then one ish to micro US b cable is needed for power to and from the charger.