Power, Sound, R/C
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Lights / LED
Very Simple Fire Glow Lighting
Dec 7, 2005
By Jo Anne DeKeles
LSOL.com Customer Service Manager |
Author
Bio
Besides Large-Scale trains each of us has other interests. Some of us restore automobiles. Some of us collect old postcards. One of the collections that Jon and I have its Nativity scenes.
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Besides large-scale trains each of us has other interests. Some of us restore automobiles. Some of us collect old postcards. One of the collections that Jon and I have its Nativity scenes. 
At this time of the year we are always on the lookout for something new to add to our collection. At Costco we found a unique item. It was three very large Wisemen. Just the Wizemen. Each figure had a place to put a tea light candle as the gift they were bringing to the Christ child. After we purchased them we realized that actual burning candles could possibly damage the figures. So we needed to try something else.
So what does this have to do with large-scale trains? Well that's simple. We went on a search for some type of battery operated tea light. The first place that we went was Michaels. Why not Wal-Mart? Because we were on the other side of town and it turns out they had exactly what we were looking for. We found an LED flickering tea light. 
This light is made by GE and cost only $2.99 per light. The unit comes with one flickering LED and includes the three button cell batteries required to operate the unit. We purchased three of the units and place them in the holders for each of the figures. The most amazing thing was when we had company over people did not notice that these were not actual candles until we pointed it out.
On a whim I placed one of the LED units inside the Post It Falls switching tower. When I turned off the lights I was really amazed. 
It looked just like there was a fireplace glow coming from the windows of the building. It looked just great there in the dark. The LED light was bright enough that you could see the flicker when you're close to the building in room light too. It was very real looking with the lights on or off. The instructions indicate you should not expose this LED product to moisture and to avoid outside use. If you use these in your buildings or other items on your railroad you need to make sure to take them in when you're done running. One might also take them apart and use the electronics inside to place in your own container or structure. So you know what you are getting into, I thought we would take apart one of the units so you can see just what was inside.
Please note any of the following modifications will obviously void any warranty that you have on this product. The first thing that we did was remove the plastic flame cover over the LED. 
This piece is glued into the round base. We slowly rocked the flame back and forth on all sides until it was loose enough to remove. These were small movements. Take special care went pulling the unit up so that you do not break or damage the LED.
Next we used a small screwdriver and X-acto blade on the base of the unit. Remember to be careful as these blades are very sharp. We slowly loosened the seam that had been glued to hold the base unit to the round top unit. We worked slowly and did not try to cut through the seam all at once. 
Once we were able to remove the top we could get a good look at the electronics that make up this device. And now so can you. 
The unit uses three LR 44 button cell batteries. These are 1.5 V batteries meaning this device runs at about 4.5 V. 
It would be interesting to test one to see if you would run and not blow up at 5 V. This way I could use the 5 V power supply that Dave B showed us how to build earlier this year. Maybe I can get around to that before the end of year and let you know what happened. Let me know if you end up trying some of these inexpensive and versatile flickering lights. Maybe you can send us a photograph on how you are able to use them on your railroad. Top of Page
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