# Brighter LED for N LifeLike SW9/1200?



## Never Get Old (Apr 16, 2016)

Hi everyone, I have a few N scale LifeLike SW9/1200's that I have custom painted, and although the headlight LED's do work, when running at slow (in other words normal) speeds, the LED's are pretty dim. In fact, they are barely visible. I'd like to replace them with something brighter. My layout is DC not DCC. Newer Atlas locomotives have very bright LEDs even at slow speeds.

A picture is attached. I was hoping that an LED board from an Atlas RS-3 (on the right) would be a drop in replacement, but it's too long.

The resistor on the SW9/1200 appears to be green-red-violet-gold, which I think would be 520 megaOhm 5%.

What can I do to get a brighter headlight? Replace the LED? Replace the resistor? Replace both? With what?

I have some very old (like 15 years old) yellow LED's and a whole bunch of various values of resistors if any of that might work. There is nothing on the board except the LED and the resistor.

I have a couple of DC light boards from Atlas SD35's. Might I steal an LED from one of those and use it?

Thanks,

-Never Get Old


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

520 Ohms might work, but 520 megaohms will never work. You probably need some kind of circuitry to get it to light at low voltage and not burn out at higher voltage. You might try using a CL2 LED driver as it outputs 20 ma to the LED independent of the input voltage. You can get an SMD version of the CL2 if you need something really small, its a 2 terminal device you put in series with the LED.


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## Never Get Old (Apr 16, 2016)

I have no idea why LifeLike put that high value resistor in there. I swear those are the right color bands. I have checked three times under different lighting.

I have a junk SW9/1200 here that I use as a parts/test unit, so I pulled a 1k resistor out of my box and soldered it in a few minutes ago. Zero difference. Interesting. I am guessing that the stock LED simply isn't capable of putting out any more light than it is right now.

These N scale LifeLike SW9/1200's are great as long as you don't bust the flimsy little contacts off of the sill and have to reattach them. Well, that and the dim LED. Now that I am a little more confident with my custom painting skills, I'll start using Kato NW2's, which will solve this issue, and others, entirely. The Katos are pricey though. These are cheap for practice at $35 or so. I don't care much if I bust one.

Still, I'd like to know for future projects what is required to upgrade LEDs in older units like these. You never know when you are going to come across and old loco that has sentimental value or something but is screaming for upgrades. I had an older Atlas that had dim LEDs, and fortunately, it was a split frame design and Atlas had available a DC light board with brighter LEDs that worked perfectly. That was lucky. No soldering required.

-Never Get Old


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## Mark R. (Jan 26, 2013)

This actually works quite well for using LEDs on DC ....

http://www.pollensoftware.com/railroad/index.html

To get the full benefit of that circuit, be sure you are using a good bright white LED. A lot of white LEDs are in an orange casing which greatly diminishes the light output. You can use two AA batteries in series to test white LEDs. The ones I use are too bright to look at directly for more than an instant.

Mark.


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