Hey gang, first off, I just want to wish EVERYONE a very Happy New Year and hope that all of you and your families out there are good!, and also say that I am glad to be back!, I've missed this site an awful lot!.. I do have an electrical question, or two, that I hope somebody out there knows something about, because, honestly, I don't know what I should do, or need to do! LOL. See, due to finances, I went I bought one of those super cheap, made in China 24-pc. (allegedly for) H-O-scale street lamp sets that come in white plastic-(I sanded the lumps, bumps and rough spots off and painted them in Testors Aluminum to match the steel ones along my local roads)-off of the bay a couple months ago for only about $7 to replace the very few brittle old 12v lamps I have left that seem to burn out on me almost weekly now-(I suppose due to their age?)-, Anyway, the ebay seller claimed that the new ones are either 4 or 6-volts, my trusty old Throttlepack can only send out +/- lines in a 12v fixed (obviously for track-power), 16v fixed (I use for existing lighting) and a Variable (of unknown voltage). Do I need some type of voltage resistor or something for these much lower voltage lamps to work correctly, since I'm assuming that if I was to just hook them up in either series, parallel, or series-parallel (like how I have my existing oldies wired up) these new lower voltage ones would glow much too bright and would probably burn out on me really quick. Also, not sure if you can make it out clearly in the photo, but, one of the two wires on each lamp is completely BARE! there is no rubber/plastic coating on them, are these even safe to use at all? I figure that I would need to clip and solder as close to the bottom as I can and use a similar gauge wire and cover anything bare with electrical tape.. And lastly, would I have to wire these up completely separately from any of the 12volt bumpers, buildings and road sign lamps I have now? ANY and ALL electrical help and tips or advice is very deeply appreciated! Thank you so very much! .. best regards, DJ
You need to hook them up parallel... otherwise, the voltage would drop by the time it made it to the last lamp. You should hook a resistor into the power feed of each lamp to drop the 12 or 16 volts down to 4 or 6 volts. As far as bare wires... BLMA coats their signal wires with a clear varnish. I only had to use a cig lighter and burn some varnish off of the ends. Hope this helps. JMS
Thanks! John, thank you for your reply!.. I figured I would wire it in parallel, but wow!, I should use a resistor on each lamp?! That is good to know! I never thought of doing it like that, I just assumed that using one resistor from the throttlepack for all of the 4 or 6-volt lamps would work!.. Now that brings up a whole new question, and I know this is probably going to sound real stupid, but what size resistor would I need to use to allow only 6-volts to reach each light? If my throttlepack sends out 16volts do I just use 6 volt resistors to allow only 6v to reach each lamp or use 10 volt to drop the 16v resistance from the power pack to 6v?... Anyone know if Radio-Shack even still sells that kinda stuff? Last time I went near one looking for replacement 10" woofers (btw-they don't sell replacement speakers anymore!) all their try-hard employees just wanted to sell me a Satellite TV package, Cell Phone, iPod, new Laptop and take a survey and NONE knew anything about speakers! hehe, Apparently, it's NOT the same Dadio-Shack my old man would run to for some new amp tubes for his ol' open-top Heathkit amp and styluses for his wood case turntable once a year anymore!
Wiring them in series is OK. Depending on the voltage of the supply they should all light with the same brightness without a resistor. Burning them on a lower voltage will make them last longer. Just put enough of them in series to get the illumination you want. With 16 volts you should put maybe three or four in series, without the need for resistors.
As far as brand goes, I kinda doubt these are BLMA lamps, they came from an El' Cheapo Asian ebay seller, these seem very poorly mass produced with absolutely no varnish or anything on one of the two very thin leads. I'm thinking the bare wire is probably something like 30 or 32 gauge wire (if they even make any that slim, slimmest I've ever used was 26 gauge), it's as thin if not thinner than a hair off my head and its only one silver strand! LOL Just to make sure they all worked before and after I painted them I tapped them quickly with a 6v lantern battery, surprisingly every single one worked! LOL
Retsignalmtr, thank you for your advice.. My old antique Throttlepack sends out two screw-type "fixed "12v terminals (I use those for track power), two screw-type "fixed" 16v terminals (I use for lighting and misc. powering up) and two screw-type "variable" terminals of an unknown voltage that I have never used since I have no clue what voltage they send out. I probably could try and test those with a voltmeter I have, I just hope I don't get "juiced" trying it! I've been zapped by electric more times than I care to remember! LOL Removing all my old lamp posts and installing the new ones is going to be an all day/night project. Any of the old 12v lamps that I plan to leave I will rewire together in parallel by themselves, the new 6v ones I will probably do a series-parallel wiring in groups of 4, that way they wont be too bright or too dim. If all goes well I'll try to add some pictures of how it looks once I'm done with the lamps.
