The batteries are LR41 or AG3 size. This corresponds to many different numbers, but if one of them is LR41 or AG3, they will fit. I did a little research and found expensive Chinese and Japanese sources and cheap Chinese sources. If you buy the cheap Chinese ones, buy them in a 50 or 100 pack as some percentage will be DOA. This is normal for cheap cells. You can also buy them from Radio Shack, but they are still Chinese cells, just with a much higher price. The price for one at Radio Shack was the same for 100 from a no name supplier. I can afford to have some dead ones for that price.
Just put my first one in a Kato Cal Zephyr 10-6 sleeper and yanked the Kato lighting kit. Oh, man. This is so good even my wife thinks it is cool! OK, this gets my vote as the product of the year. Revolutionary. Earned its name, well-priced, effective....yeah! Edit: Just put two more in Kato El Capitan coaches, never used tools. Dropped them in, reassembled the car, bang. Just ordered four more. I've held off finishing the layout streetlights and building lighting because the passenger train lighting system was so erratic it was distracting and very unrealistic. Now, this is just stunning.
Thanks Randy , I thought they were pretty cool and good to hear others are finding them Easy-Peasy!!! We just ordered 300 batteries wholesale , we will see what we get! Mike
Don't hold back, what do you think of them? One thing you have to remember that you didn't with Kato lighting kits is to switch the lights off when you've finished running trains.
Oh, I haven't even begun to tinker with that one - the magnet 'problem', although its not much of one. I found cleaning the Kato car wheels a lot more annoying and no matter what I did they'd still flicker. And four F-units and a fully-lit nine-car train could put the ammeter to 'stun'. But that's why I think its important to NOT glue the things in the roof. You're going to have to get them out - entirely - to easily change batteries out in the board. If you glue them in the roof swapping the batteries could get interesting. I can certainly live with the 'tinkerbelle' method of touching them with my magic wand. Years ago in the Atlas and Con-Cor and MRC car years I did an entire train in PFM micro-lites (ultra-tiny 1.5V bulbs) and wired the cars up permanently - 7 cars - and put an AA battery in the baggage car and the diner kitchen and dummied up a tiny wire clip switch on the side to turn the whole works on and off. It was heavy and a battery lasted for maybe 10 minutes. It took half an hour to change a battery. The between-car light-bulb wire cables derailed cars. Placement and soldering of the bulbs was difficult No, I've been tinkering with this problem for many years. This blows me away. My 'new' idea was to do the cabling at least between every paired car set and do the battery thing again using LED's and AAA batteries to reduce drain. Lots of hackwork, on the 'maybe' list. I've invested a lot in lighting effects on the layout - loco strobes & Mars lights, Miller lighting kits, grade crossings signals, streetlights, interior lighting. The passenger train lighting was the flaw that even I couldn't convince myself was OK.
Concerning Easy Peasy battery life from the Atlas Forum: I had previously written Jason (Shron) about concerns over battery life: > > There has been some discussion on the Atlas N scale forum about your > > Easy-Peasy lighting for the new Micro-trains heavyweights. Most has > > been centered around battery life, or lack thereof, so if you could > > weigh in with a comment or two, it may help. > > > > Thanks, > > Mike He kindly (and quickly) responded with: "Hi Mike, I didn't see any complaints about battery life. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place. You can post this message online if you like. We've tested the batteries and found that they will go continuously for about two days, but by the end of it the light is pretty weak. You should get at least five 3-hour operating sessions out of them. If you forget to turn them off, well then you'll only get one! We've had these on the market for about a year and have not received any complaints about short battery life. Occasionally there is a dud battery, which we replace immediately free of charge. Best regards, Jason" As always, YMMV Mike
The Kato El Capitan 'tail car' has a very odd access hatch in the bottom that sure looks like it was designed to handle two watch-style batteries and feed something. Kato must have changed their mind but not the molds. There's the prototype for doing something more involved, whatever it may have been. I was tempted to completely rip out the pickup systems but you never know if somebody either has or is going to perfect a charging system and those wheel pickups might still be useful. I'm sure if I post this I'll find out about it! The integrated LED light board that just fits in the roof works for me even if the battery/power supply gets changed eventually, so I'm content that this may be an evolutionary step. The key is that LED's need so little power that yanking the Kato bulbs changes it nicely.
To be specific, the FL12. The Super Chief, Daylight, Broadway observation cars and the El Capitan tail end car all have the slots for the FL12 to control the marker lights but there has never been any mention of it anywhere by Kato, it's as if they don't want you to know about it. On the Super Chief it allows the white backup light to be turned on when backing up and the red marker lights on when going forward. DCC Decoder FL12 (for head and tail light)- Kato 29-352 - eBay Kato, N Scale, Model RR, Trains, Toys Hobbies. (end time 06-Aug-10 12:37:03 AEST)
I fleeted my NP Con-Cor cars with them, and LOVE it! I have been slowly but surely painting my interiors in the cars, and let-me-tell-you: With some color inside, these kits make any interior STUNNING! I did gray floors and red seats, all matte. It's really one of the coolest things I have done in a long time, and it takes about 2 minutes per car to paint the floor, then seats, from the top-down with the roof off. Give it a shot- with a bit of practice and some testors 1oz. bottles & thinner at-hand, it's fun and has a dramatic effect on the realism of the cars! As far as the lighting kit? I had 100% operation rate in all 11 kits (just the start!) and even though I broke two reed switches, I soldered new ones in with great results! It looks splendid rolling along behind a well-lit Intermountain F unit (with a cab light installed!) and adds that touch of color/detail that most trains seem to lack. VERY well worth it! Fifer, I'll be ordering some of your electronics posthaste, I want to have an industrial center and those welding/fire kits would be great for a steelworks section! Sound is on the ledger too....
Thanks for posting Randy , I just have an overwhelming desire to just wave the wand over them when I walk by the cars! Nice Job! Mike
