LED’s v Grain of Wheat Bulbs

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8 June 2009 at 18:55 #21374
Paul Godfrey
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@paulgodfrey14946
Hi all,

I’ve had a super wiring diagram produced for me by Dave Millbourn at Action Electronics for my new Sir Lancelot project, to include, amongst many other things, lighting for areas within the superstructure, the wheelhouse, outside deck illumination, navigation lights, and the searchlight.

Dave has already recommended an ultra bright LED with appropriate resistor for the searchlight, but what about all the other lights?

He has also advised me that GOW bulbs give a wider angle of light compared to the narrower beam of an LED. I’ve also read that LED’s have a very long operating life, whereas GOW bulbs have a much shorter lifespan. Bearing in mind that some lights once fitted are there for good, are LED’s the way to go?

But what about resistors? I believe that each LED will need it’s own resistor, unless the LED is a 12v version, and can the 2 wires from the LED be bent – if not, that’s going to limit the spaces they can fit into.

Any advice / your experiences with the above will be much appreciated.

Regards

Paul
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8 June 2009 at 18:55 #1881
Paul Godfrey
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@paulgodfrey14946
8 June 2009 at 21:54 #21376
Paul T
Participant
@pault84577
Paul

LED is the best and for me the only way to go as they will last for thousands of hours so I can put them in and forget them.

I bought a load of white 12v LEDs from Maplins a couple of years ago and I haven’t had a single problem either with installation or performance.

Paul
9 June 2009 at 23:29 #21388
Dave Milbourn
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@davemilbourn48782
Paul

If you contact Iain at Component Shop he’ll send you his latest Little Book of Lots of Batteries and More, which includes a very useful article on LED lighting in models. It has the forward voltages of all of the LEDs he supplies along with a simple resume of how to calculate the resistor values and connect them all up. And yes – you can certainly bend the leads on LEDs as long as you insulate them from each other.

Dave M
10 June 2009 at 21:19 #21397
Paul Godfrey
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@paulgodfrey14946
Thanks guys – I’ll definately go down the led route.

Do you think white or yellow lights will be better for interior illumination?

Cheers,

Paul
11 June 2009 at 06:09 #21398
Paul T
Participant
@pault84577
Good Morning Paul

For me the question of white or yellow light depends upon the model and its scale, for example my Trent Lifeboat has white lights but for a Titanic at the same scale I would use yellow..

The thought process behind this is the perception of how light seems to soften and “yellow” at a distance so whilst the Trent might be considered to being â€œclose upâ€? as regards to the perception of distance the Titanic would be thought to be a lot further away and as such white light would be to harsh.

Doe’s this make sense?

Paul
11 June 2009 at 18:26 #21408
60watt
Participant
@60watt
If you want a realistic colour tint and consider white leds,note the majority of white leds have a blue tint so look for the colour temperature 2700K.That appropriates to the reddish colour of tungsten filament bulbs.

You can get them at up to 140 degree radiant angles too.
11 June 2009 at 19:48 #21411
Paul Godfrey
Participant
@paulgodfrey14946
Hi Paul & 60watt.

Yes, makes sense Paul, and thanks to you both for your helpful comments.

The wheelhouse of my Sir Lancelot is approx 5in wide x 6in long x 4in high (only guessing as dont have plans with me at mo), and has 5 windows at the front and 3 each side, all around 1 inch square. How many leds do you estimate I would need based on the 12v versions available from Maplins, and what is your preferred method of attaching them to the ceiling?

The navigation lights in the kit are white metal, and as previously mentioned, I want to have working versions on Sir Lancelot. I can easily ‘hollow’ these out to fit the led, but what would you use for the lens? Alternatively, are working nav lights to replace the white metal items commercially available?

Cheers

Paul
12 June 2009 at 10:03 #21418
ashley needham
Participant
@ashleyneedham69188
Paul. The only problem with LED`s is they are very directional. You can get diffuse ones, or possibly a diffusing screen could do the trick…OR…and I have not tried this,,matt the led surface or even varnish it (is there any reason why not???) You would have to do something along these lines for a wheelhouse or it would look like it has stylish spotlamps in it ! For nav lights, unless you can angle the leds a bit, you may suffer from directionalism (the millionth and one english word). Could use cellophane sweet wrappers for coloured filters. I was toying with the idead of LED nav lights for the Fantome, these would be relativly large of course, and one of the ideas I was thinking of was to set the LED in the light box/housing with f/glass clear resin…the idea being that the LED would light up the resin and thus get over the pointy light. The resin could be painted with thinned paint for colour, the big LEd`d having more than enough brightness to overcome thin paint. Ashley
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