# Problem with lights



## Conductorkev (Nov 5, 2021)

Do I have a couple of these
1 x power distribution board self adapt distributor HO N O LED street light hub | eBay to help distribute power to Mty lights. 
When I try to hook up one of the kind of lights the screenshot shows it barely lights up. Do they need more voltage than what the boards I have will put out?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

From the ebay listing have it set to 3 volts and adjust the dimmer right next to it. Green and yellow may work together but red should be kept separate. They operate at slightly different voltages and will vary on brightness.


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## rrman987 (Aug 29, 2021)

It appears the board has a poteniometer for voltage adjust. However it depends on what voltage the streetlights run on and if they have a built in series resistor for current limiting at the designed voltage (12V?, 6V?, 3V?). 
Can you give some more information. I did not see a shot of the streetlamp you wrote about.


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## rrman987 (Aug 29, 2021)

Yellows and greens work at higher voltages typically 2.5-3V. However you should always have some resistor in series maybe 100 ohms 1/4 W just to be safe and keep LED from being zapped. If you have a meter you can measure the current to the LED and adjust for typically 20mA rule of thumb (unless the directions specifically state a higher current is permissible.)


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## Conductorkev (Nov 5, 2021)

rrman987 said:


> Yellows and greens work at higher voltages typically 2.5-3V. However you should always have some resistor in series maybe 100 ohms 1/4 W just to be safe and keep LED from being zapped. If you have a meter you can measure the current to the LED and adjust for typically 20mA rule of thumb (unless the directions specifically state a higher current is permissible.)



I also have some mini LED's connected to the board should they be seperated then from the bigger ones on a different board?


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## rrman987 (Aug 29, 2021)

Conductorkev said:


> I also have some mini LED's connected to the board should they be seperated then from the bigger ones on a different board?


The size should make no difference as far as the current and voltage that LEDs run on, just the amount of light given off. However you can run all the yellow and green on the board (with appropriate sized resitor) The reds take less voltage but if you increase the resistance ohms higher that will absorb the voltage differential between say 3V and red 2.2V.
Ohms law Resistance = voltage / current. resistance is ohms voltage is volts and current is amps so mA is amps divided by 1000.


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## SF Gal (11 mo ago)

Do not mix incadencent light with LED's unless you have enough resistance on the LED to stop it from overloading and burning out your LEDS. I converted all my lighting to LEDs, what you have in the bag are all LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes. Add a 600 to 1K ohm resistor to the plus side of the LED (the longer lead is usually positive) and adjust the potentometer on the board to light up the LEDs. I usually set the output for about 4 vdc.


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## Conductorkev (Nov 5, 2021)

SF Gal said:


> Do not mix incadencent light with LED's unless you have enough resistance on the LED to stop it from overloading and burning out your LEDS. I converted all my lighting to LEDs, what you have in the bag are all LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes. Add a 600 to 1K ohm resistor to the plus side of the LED (the longer lead is usually positive) and adjust the potentometer on the board to light up the LEDs. I usually set the output for about 4 vdc.


I have two of the boards so I'll just split them up and buy another board or 2 for the other side of my layout.
Can I run a Bua to power these boards along with my switch decoders off a booster. I have a nce dcc booster I'm currently not using


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

LED's are current mode devices, so the best results will be with current limited power supplies.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

The board is very flexible and takes plugs for lights supplied by the seller. If you scroll down the listing the board parts are explained. The linking and power supplies and the dimming. Are you making your own lights?


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

Put a resistor in series with each LED, makes no difference whether the resistor is on the cathode or anode side. I typically run a 12 volt bus and use 1k resistors. While you can put the resistor on either the anode or cathode, make it easy on your self and pick a standard for your RR so you can glance at the LED and know which is +ive and which is -ive by which lead has the resistor.

While there is some dimming effect based on the resistor, its much better to drive LED's you want to dim with a pulse width modulator (there are really cheap, look on Amazon for RGB dimmers, that way you can dim virtually from full bright to 0. While they might be labeled for RGB there is no reason they can't be used as 3 separate dimmers!


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## Conductorkev (Nov 5, 2021)

T-Man said:


> The board is very flexible and takes plugs for lights supplied by the seller. If you scroll down the listing the board parts are explained. The linking and power supplies and the dimming. Are you making your own lights?



No I'm not that talented. The pic of the ones I showed will light up rooms in my buildings


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Those LEDs do not have a wide angle. That is why they do well with street lights and headlights. For interior lighting you may have to experiment a little. I always thought the tape lighting was best for interior use. One of my early experiments had 8 LEDs for one small station.


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