Hi All, I'm wanting to add some lighting to my little holiday layout and am considering using the Woodland scenics JustPlug system to light some buildings. I like how you can dim the lights and control various sections. I also want to add a few street lamps like the ones from Viessman, but I'm not sure if I could just splice them into one of the JustPlug adaptors. Has anyone tried this? I did something similar with my current RC-02 controller and an accessory switch. I'm currently lighting a Brawa light with this set up and just spliced the light and the power plug together. This switch has an extra plug port, so maybe I could just splice a few lamp posts together and try to run it off of the current switch. I'm just not sure how much power the accessory switch puts out or how much the lamps need. I have to disassemble my layout, so the plug and play idea is appealing in either case. Thanks in advance for any help or ideas. Best, Ray
Ray, My background is in electronics and I just build my lighting as needed. But the JustPlug system looks like an excellent way to add light with a minimum of effort. I would caution you that the original accessory power for Märklin is 10V AC. The German accessory manufacturers seem to build to this standard. I think you should keep this in mind when adding Brawa or other German lighting to the system. In general, I would not expect using DC voltage would be a problem for the lights, but the additional voltage may shorten the life of the unit. The lighted Christmas trees really need an AC voltage to work right. As for the current for lighting you're talking about the 10mA range. I suspect you could easy run 10-15 LEDs from your existing connections. Mark
Hi Mark, Thank you for the info/help!! I can do plumbing, carpentry, and a host of other things, but I've never been much good for electrical! Hooking up a light fixture/fan is about the extent of my skill set . Good to know about the German manufacturers. You helped me with my little Christmas tree last year and it is still working great; although, I tried to ruin it. I snipped the wires to make them shorter not realizing that they were tinned. I put YouTube to work figured how to tin a wire, now I'm back in business! Sounds like what I have will be enough to power the lights I'm considering, but the voltage will be off unless I can find some thing 12VDC. If I do use the 10V lights, could they harm my accessory switch, controller, or trains? I wouldn't assume so, but you know what the say about assumptions. Best, Ray
Ray, You know that tinning and soldering wires is really no different than tinning and soldering a copper pipe. In fact it's easier than plumbing because you don't have to worry about leaking electrons all over the floor! Regarding the RC02, if you power it with a wall wart, it will supply either 10VDC or 12VDC depending on the output of the wart, If you power 12V lighting off 10V you shouldn't have any problems, the lights will be a bit dimmer. Powering 10V lights on 12V should work, but the lights will be brighter and if they use grain-of-wheat bulbs may burn-out quickly. If you find you'd like to run the later way, there are simple circuits to get the voltage right. Mark
Mark, lol, you are right! I will check out the power output on the wall wart and go from there. I appreciate the help! Best, Ray
