Thanks Don for the info. I tried it and hey they work!!! and didn't burn out! I did the happy my lights DID NOT burn out dance. Of course this leads me to more questions. Now that this set of lights is hooked up to the 4.5 v adapter, how many more strands or other lights can I add to the same adapter? They are all 4.5 powered.

Hello Jonathan I'm Back! I need your advice or anyone else who might know, how can I hook up these lights to an adapter? and what size adapter? I want to do away with the battery power Do I need a resistor? How do I hook them up so I don't burn out this set of cool lights? They use 3 AA batteries, so the novice I am think that means maybe a 4.5 volts? But hey, I thought that a few days ago and burned up a nice set of lights on a tree so....... I am sure I am wrong on this guess.

This is the battery box with switchable choices. I'd like to keep that feature if at all possible


As you can see they are tiny lamps on two wires, is this magnet wire?


This is the circuit board inside the little black box


This it the other side of that circuit board


There are 2 wires to go to the battery terminals and 2 wires to go to the lamps.

I sent these photos to help view this particular problem I am having. I am pretty sure I would need to snip the 2 wires going to the battery terminals to use for the connection to an adapter. The BIG BIG question for me is what adapter would I use? a 4.5 volt? a 3.5 volt to be safe? what?

There is nothing on the black box or the packing it came in of what volts they are or what they pull. All you are suppose to do is add 3 AA batteries, and turn it on. However I do not want anything powered by batteries, this is why I want to change the power source.

I don't have a multi meter to check anything (that is on order). So I hope someone out there can help me. Thanks!

Don I have attached photos of what the box looks like. I now believe there is something in that box that regulated the power. that green power board was probably it. The adjustable dial on the side is how to regulate the speed of the blinking. I used the word Rheostat maybe that was the incorrect word?



this is side view of the box showing the the power info. I bought it used on ebay so it didn't come with a box or any other literature.



and yes everything worked fine and dandy until I messed with it. It took 3 normal AA batteries.

I am just frustrated because I don't understand power, current, volts, amps ohms law, etc, etc and each and every time I wire stuff together I burn it up and it is useless. I guess I need to break down and buy a volt meter and ohms meter. Are there any out there that you or others recommend? Once I have it I can watch how to videos to know how to use the darn thing. Possible this will save me from wrecking more stuff I really liked.


I was looking at this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Voltmeter-Ohmmeter-Ammeter-Multimeter-OHM-Voltage-Current-Tester-XL-830L-/291110298613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43c786a3f5

I just remembered I want to go shop for a helping hand apparatus. any recommendations on that? With a magnifier? with a light? Will something like this be sufficient?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quality-Soldering-Iron-Stand-Helping-Hand-Clamp-Clip-2-5X-Magnifying-Glass-EM-01-/311057271518?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item486c754ade

As I always say later gator.

Had a fairly good weekend wiring as planned. I have run into one problem and not sure how to avoid it in the future.

One of the new Xmas trees I bought is powered by a 4.5 volt battery or adapter. It has a rheostat on it to increase/decrease the blinking.  I don't want anything powered with batteries so opted use the adapter. I didn't want it blinking either so I snipped the wires from the battery box, hooked up a 4.5 volt adapter I have. I  turned on power and bingo I have lights. Well for a short time, one by one (before I even noticed) the LED lamps burnt out. I cut the power and cursed quite a bit to be honest. What the heck? This tree actually used a resistor for each lamp. The lamps must be 1 mm, they are so tiny like a grain of rice. I figured this tree would not be a problem hooking it up to the adapter as there were resistors used. What caused them to burn out? It was a pretty tree, still is but won't be lighted any longer. I am cursed when it comes to this wiring stuff!

I was afraid those words would come from my question, his passing. I am sorry to hear that. Thanks Don for letting me know. Peace be with him.

This is why I love this site/forum so much. Its one huge think tank. We all have ideas none the only way to do it, we take it as we want to take it in. We can agree to disagree if we want. NO ONE on this site has EVER made me feel dumb, inferior, talked down to me because I am a novice and ask questions over and over. I have been on a few other sites way back when I first started Jamestown and lets just say they are snotty condescending jerks. So here's to the hokey pokey, the spring thingies and to Jamestown! This gal is very fortunate to have found such a nice bunch of people to help me.

So a few days ago I stumbled upon a how to on youtube about LED's, didn't bookmark the page dah! but finally found it today and wanted to share. For me, he explained quite a bit that I actually comprehended. He went into detail about LED's, resistors, volts, amps, omhns law, etc etc. He has numerous tutorials. He isn't a model railroader, just does something with model space ships I think. The basics is what he talked about. Here is the site

http://youtu.be/6Msko3wgets?list=PL244BE83D6709F44E

He answered the question about can I burn out LED's by over powering and yup you sure can and yup I have. Bummer cause I think I burned up a really cool set of three lights that changed colors and was going to make Ice Mt really cool. I believe I messed up by using the wrong wall wart. Live and learn they say!

I liked the fact that he kept saying you don't need to spend a fortune on most things to get the electrical stuff working. He isn't a fan of RS if you watch enough of his tutorials and to be honest RS has priced themselves out of business the way I see it. Well enough about bashing RS.

I now know I will be using a resistor for each LED I use on the on the telephone pole street lights. That will save me time and money in the end. there are a total of 10 LED's so it won't be an expensive thing to do.

I have been racking my brain over the lamp shade effect on the street lights I am adding. Jonathan used plastic wheels and brass ones he got on line. My layout is not to any scale, wish I had know about that way back when but now I am just going with what I like. Those shades are going to be too small I think, I got 5mm LED's as I wanted them brighter than the 3 mm. So....... I think I have an idea to try. Bottle caps, I don't drink anything that has them but my neighbor is very fond of MDG or is it MGD? Miller beer! and I have asked him to save me some to experiment with. I might have to do a little bending to get them back in shape but we will see. If it works great if it doesn't oh well. I thought of dimes or penny's but I'd hate to go to jail for "defacing us currency" it's bad enough I rip the tags off the pillows and haven't gotten caught yet! Paint can make anything look cool so I will let you know how that turns out. I am trying to keep with the old fashion theme of the village.

I have read, went over or just glanced at many many many post on this HO forum all the way back to it's beginning. Jim Banner was well versed in model railroading it seems but after a while he wasn't posting. Does anyone know if he is still into the hobby. Gosh he was a wealth of information. I haven't gone thru all the post I'd be a there a long time doing. I was just curious if he still is involved.

Tonight since its already dark out, winter isn't far away gents. I am going to make list of all I need to wire up so I know how much wire, shrink tubing, wire connectors, etc I will need. Tomorrow is a new day and my weekend so I can get started on that wiring project.

So for now........ you put your left foot in, you take your left foot out...........

Thanks for that tip! I was trying to think what I could use without buying special tubing bender spring looking thingies. I think that is how Jonathan described those spring looking thingies. Still get a chuckle out of that!

Thanks for the tip jbrock, wehonest_us  I may just need to resort to some of the stuff they have there. It's now a waiting game for me to get the led's I ordered. 100 pcs of 5 mm clear are coming from the New Jersey paid 3.79, the 3mm 100 pcs, y, r, g, b, white (20 ea) 1.95 are coming from China in 3 or more weeks. Shipping free on both. Might need to look into resistors next just not sure.

Questions-

1. can you burn out LED's by wiring them incorrectly or over powering them? Are LED's the same as Diodes?

2. It is okay to solder a resistor any place on the wire as long as it is on the negative side? I want to make "street lights" protruding off the side of each telephone pole I have on the layout.  I was thinking of connecting the first LED "street light" to telephone pole 1, bring the wires down along the back side of the pole, under the platform and up to the next telephone pole, I was thinking of connecting the resistor to the wire where it is under the platform, just so there isn't a bulge showing. In all likely hood I will be stringing the lights from pole to pole like the strand of Christmas lights. These are pencils for the poles, I wish I could figure out how to remove the graphite in the center, then I could run the wire right up the center of the "pole". Okay so "talking out loud" on this wiring thing, icksna  on the under the platform thing! What was I thinking? If this stayed assembled all year round I would do that but since it isn't, it sure would be a lot of work undoing each pole, so yeah forget that idea! But still need to know the distance requirement from led to resistor.

Thanks jbrock! now I have the hokey pokey song stuck in my head! Guess better than the one that's been stuck for over a week, "I asked the witch doctor and he told me what to do"

Yeah Friday!

Had to share, Jonathan replied back from his project, night lights and as I had hoped he was a wealth of info, not that you guys haven't been but he answered the questions regarding his lights and now I can imagine how he did them, how I can do mine. I am so excited. I went an ordered a bunch of 3 and 5 mm so I will have plenty to mess with. Tonight I soldered 9,  3mm red, green, yellow leds on probably 30 gauge wire to string on one of my xmas trees. It took 2 hours! My mind and eyes are fried! It isn't a pretty job and I won't be posting it here but it did give me practice and next one might go better. It is on a tree that will be in the back ground so it wasn't a complete waste. I got two new xmas trees lighted of course, bigger ones, 8-9 inches tall, one is decorated with little tiny bulbs the other is fiber optic, oh man is it cool. I got a few other things to and the lady threw in a few things I wasn't expecting, nice little surprise. I love buying on Ebay from every day people, they don't price their stuff like it's gold. I paid a fraction of what I would had if I went to a store or bought new on line. I don't think I mentioned I also put up a Big size house village as well. This one goes in a hutch and is not near detailed as Jamestown, and to be honest that is only due to space available. One of those trees just might go over to that one.

Next project is completing the massive wiring that is needed to make it much more neater. That is slow tedious work. Night all.

Thank you thank you thank you! You have given me lots of useful info and ideas. I have to say the aluminum bent tube, pill capsules, old plastic wheels, my kind of thinking. Now I have ordered a bunch of 3 and 5 mm leds to play with. and I am digging through all my "what do these wall warts go to" pile and I salvaged some nice small gauge wire from usb cords that went to

I will share when I get some of my projects completed. Christmas is still a little ways away.

Thanks again! M

This is my telephone pole creation.  A Wooden Dixon Ticonderoga #2 Pencil, wrapped in a stripped tape with pop sickle sticks for the arms. Held in place with tiny wire and decorated with artificial garland! These are placed in the foam board along the tracks. There are ten in all.



A string of tiny LED lights are strung along each Telephone pole now and I want to add a "street light" to each pole like Jonathan has done on his layout. I can drill through the wood pencil to attach wire if need be and the second wire I figured to just run it down the back side under the platform or just run both wires top side. Running them topside would be the easiest as they are all taken down and put away after Christmas. Jbrock has the play station wire. I have 22 gauge black/red stranded for the main wiring jobs I do. As my layout is not to scale or authentic scale does not factor really into what I am doing.

RS was once "it" but now with ebay, amazon and a zillion other places to purchase electronics or electrical stuff it is no longer "it". The only reason I have gone there lately is to see if they have something and to buy one or two to experiment before I buy more. The last time I was in RS one of the 5 wandering employees asked me if I was paying with cash or a card?? I said card and he said okay as he was carrying an empty cash register draw to the employee only door.  I still have no idea what that was all about. Maybe he was afraid the other 4 didn't know how to use cash. 

So should I up the resistor? if so to what? they also confuse me with 1/8 watt, 1/4 watt, 1/2 watt. I believe 1/2 watt maybe 330 or so resistor? I know I am sounding like an old broken record asking the same questions over and over, I just don't like electric, I get nervous around it, connecting stuff even if the power is off. Turning power on and having it spark or blow something out, I just don't like it so....... I am so careful on what I should be doing. On that note I am off to RS, need alligator clips.

I guess I will experiment. and see.

Thanks jbrock now giving a shout out to jward for advice/help, just sent Jonathan a shout out too. ANYONE that wants to give advice/their 2 cents have at it.

Here is what I want to accomplish.

I have ten telephone poles that circle my oval track layout. total around is 12 ft. I want to use 5 mm clear LED lamps per pole. I want to run them in parallel (not sure if parallel is the correct term, I want to run them like a strand of Christmas lights. From pole to pole.) I will be using either a 3.0 volt wall wart or 4.5 volt one, so here is my questions

1. What size wire should I use?
2. What size resistor?
3. How many resistors? 1 for each 5 mm?
4. Can all ten lamps be run on one wire to one wall wart?  I don't mean one wire, obviously there will be two wires, pos & neg what I mean is one length of wire?

And last question, should I start a new topic called Jamestown or keep this one going? I've come a longgggggggggggggg way since my first posting on the topic, didn't know if I should start anew.

jbrock, I think fiber optics is out for now but will go watch the video you suggested. Once I realize how tedious the job would be I just came up with a new better plan gosh it is really cool.

Jonathan, what size LED lamp did you use for the pole lights, what size resistor? and what gauge/type wire and what did you use for the "lamp" base? Oh also, how many poles did you run together? Do you think I can run 10 in parallel, 12 feet in lenght? I plan to use either a 3.0 volt or 4.5 volt wall wart do you think that is sufficient?

I have 10 Telephone poles I would like to create something similar for Jamestown, my Christmas village. Here is the photo I am referencing. BTW ingenious how you come up with these awesome ideas. Jamestown is out of control with lights!!! I can't seem to get enough and now I am making my own LED lamp connections or "strands" of wire to go on trees. Just still a novice and doing things hit or miss right now. 



Thanks for any info you or others may have. I have picked jbrock27, doneldon, rogertra and many others minds asking questions and I am so thankful!

so Jbrock27 I was thinking of a 40 watt station! what do you think? 

I love Reno, but my family is in NY. Every time my grandchildren experience something new their Grammy isn't there to share it. I think it's time Grammy gets to share more than once a year. But moving sure does suck.

http://youtu.be/ZcIcLUnlXwo

this video is what I watched regarding LED wiring. They were very informative to me and explained things in a language I could understand. Some of that Ohms Law language is gibberish to me!  I wasn't interested in the last part of it but then one never knows. The shrink tubing over the bulb sent me into a frenzy Sunday. Ice mountain has needed some extra sparkle to it but didn't know how to do that, well fiber optic is the answer and I am working on it, I bought a fiber optic light at the dollar store not sure why I bought it but now I am happy I did, I will be using those fiber optics and possibly the LEDs that came with it to produce that sparkle. It will be tedious to add each strand of that fiber optic but it will be worth it in the end.

Thanks for the input on the resistor info. I will continue to do research on what I want to produce.