# Dwarvin Lighting System



## Empire Builder 76 (Feb 11, 2016)

If you're using the new Dwarvin fiber optic lighting system, I'd appreciate hearing how well it works and how satisfied you are with it.

Thanks!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I saw it at York, their booth was right across from Henning's Trains. Interesting, but certainly not the "Bee's Knees", at least IMO.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

it's okay for static stuff, buildings, lights , etc ..
but it's very pricey for what it is


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It would be useful where a point of light will do the trick. I just find small LED's are more flexible for most static options. It is pretty expensive as mentioned, that would stop me.


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## MichaelDwarvin (Dec 30, 2019)

Hi there: Take a look at the following to see what people are doing with the Dwarvin product. https://www.dwarvin.com/pages/customer-showcase Customers occasionally send me images of their use of the system on their layout.
Do feel welcome to contact me directly if you like - my contact details are on the web site. Else, let's chat on this forum. Thanks Michael


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## MichaelDwarvin (Dec 30, 2019)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> It would be useful where a point of light will do the trick. I just find small LED's are more flexible for most static options. It is pretty expensive as mentioned, that would stop me.


Hi there. Actually the Lamplighter system of Dwarvin is not focused on providing a point of light -it is designed to illuminate areas. This is a very different kettle of fish. Each fiber that is inserted into the Lamplighter provides ~10 lumens at the end of the fiber, this is the same amount as from a 20mA LED. Take a look at the article I wrote on Directional Lighting on the web page - https://www.dwarvin.com/blogs/stories/directional-lighting-made-easy - this gives you some ideas on the benefits fiber optics provides over using LED's for prototypical lighting - something I did not appreciate a year ago! Let me know what you think. Michael


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'm not sure why you think you can't acheive similar effects with plain LED's. Here's an example of area lighting with a 5 cent warm white diffused roundtop LED and a piece of heatshink to block side scatter. I'm just holding it in place in my LED tester, I don't have time to create the full scene, but the lighting effect is pretty obviously there.


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## MichaelDwarvin (Dec 30, 2019)

That's a nice job - well done. Clearly you had to add to the LED to get it to look like this, as it is not native to the way an LED works. Thanks for the photo.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Actually, all I did was take a round-top diffused warm white led and slip some heat-shrink over it to shield the side scatter and plugged it into power. The LED is a bog standard 5 cent eBay 3mm LED.


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