# Glow in the dark buildings!



## Vernon (May 13, 2016)

Ok - I am planning on having my internet model railroad switch from day to night every 12 hours. To that end I removed all the IR illuminators from the cameras (they interfere with the IR machine vision navigation) and ordered a solid state relay to switch the room lamp. Then, as a preliminary test, I put an LED in one of the buildings and discovered that more light comes through the walls than one gets through the windows. I bought the buildings used on Ebay about a year ago and they have provisions for lighting. Where can I get opaque buildings? Can I paint these somehow? I just want the windows to show light.

www.internetmodelrailroad.com


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

I have not tried LEDs inside buildings, but in the old days, painting the inside of the building black would keep the light from the small incandescent bulbs from penetrating the walls. Not sure about LEDs.


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## Vernon (May 13, 2016)

MtRR75 said:


> I have not tried LEDS inside buildings, but in the old days, painting the inside of the building black would keep the light from the small incandescent bulbs from penetrating the walls. Not sure about LEDs.


Thanks. Might be something to try. Don't want incandescent - too much IR for the machine vision but I have to do something. I have one building without a base that I could paint.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

You need IR opaque paint, black paint is not necessarily opaque to IR and may just be a good reflector instead. We had a lab once that was used to experiment with IR that we painted black. The result was that it was so dark and dim the we humans could not see very well in but IR reflected all over the place defeating any testing. Eventually found some nice white IR absorbing paint and both humans and the experiments were much happier.


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## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

We routinely spray the inside with a rattle can and use multiple LED lighting. Works fine. 

O scale but don't see why there would be a lot of difference. If you are using thin plastic, it might need mulitipe coats.

Don't know about IR but a coat of fast drying paint will tell you pretty quickly. It will take longer to tape the windows, etc than for it to dry.

Your bulb looks mighty bright from the picture. Check out Evan Designs; they are an excellent source of LEDs in various sizes.


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

Bill Webb said:


> Your bulb looks mighty bright from the picture. Check out Evan Designs; they are an excellent source of LEDs in various sizes.


Or just insert an appropriately sized resistor to reduce the intensity if it is too bright.


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## Vernon (May 13, 2016)

MtRR75 said:


> Or just insert an appropriately sized resistor to reduce the intensity if it is too bright.


I got it pretty well dialed in with minimal "glow". The grey buildings seem to like a blue and a white LED, they don't glow - and I cut the red one in the house back to about 5 ma. Looks OK now so I put the day - night switching in on the web page. 

www.internetmodelrailroad.com

I haven't put all the parts in the circuit board yet - but I can PWM the LEDs if I want. Using fixed resistors right now and it is about right.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

As the members have said you do have to black out
most plastic buildings when you light them.

I use thick black enamel, card stock any black
electricians tape.

First you use the tape in corners, along and joints
including where room joins walls.

Then glue the card stock between the windows and
doors and any large surface like the roof. 

Use the black enamel to black out any other places
where the above materials would not work.

Sometimes you get a good effect by blacking out
some windows indicating that room is not
occupied.

Generally it is easier to get good building lighting
using the reel of 300 LEDs. They run on 12 volts
DC. You would want warm white. The effect
is of flourescent lighting.

Don


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Light and IR? stopping tape*



Vernon said:


> Ok - I am planning on having my internet model railroad switch from day to night every 12 hours. To that end I removed all the IR illuminators from the cameras (they interfere with the IR machine vision navigation) and ordered a solid state relay to switch the room lamp. Then, as a preliminary test, I put an LED in one of the buildings and discovered that more light comes through the walls than one gets through the windows. I bought the buildings used on Ebay about a year ago and they have provisions for lighting. Where can I get opaque buildings? Can I paint these somehow? I just want the windows to show light.
> 
> www.internetmodelrailroad.com


Vernon;

You might try refrigerator tape. It's available from appliance parts stores, or online. One cheap roll should be plenty. It is silver and very reflective on one side, and adhesive on the other. Stick it to the inside of the structure walls, silver side facing in. On a new kit, without the window castings installed, you could cut the tape through the window openings. The metal reflective surface might stop infra red as well as visible light. You would need to try it out, to make sure.

good luck;

Traction Fan


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## thysell (Jun 8, 2013)

I've applied paint directly to the LEDs. I turned an overly bright bar into a very seedy looking establishment by applying blue and red paint to the LEDs.


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## The New Guy (Mar 11, 2012)

Vernon said:


> I have one building without a base that I could paint.


with a small saw or knife you could have a bunch of buildings without bases.

HTH


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Once you do the blackout of your buildings, you'll
want to install a base. Otherwise you'll have 
light showing under the walls.

Don


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