[Accrs] Building Lighting

[Alameda County Central Railroad Society]

I think the Xmas lighting that Light-O-Rama does would be more appropriate for most model applications for lighting, even though they are more expensive.  They can run 100s of channels and support both AC and DC.  I think the 16 channel DC controller will run a program in a memory so you do not need a PC to run it. That may be good for this building. There was a layout (in MR I think) that had a large number (30 plus as I remember) separate lighting channels that were looped around the layout.  That way different light scenes in each area could be connected to different channels and times.  All the light channels had different programs for when they came on and off.

Light-O-Rama web site: http://www1.lightorama.com/
This is a DC board with 16 channels. http://www1.lightorama.com/dc-low-voltage-boards/

A 25 pair telco cable and punch down blocks might be the ideal way to do this.  Run the 25 pair cable between major scenery areas, use a punch down block at each area and then make the lighting connections from that. 25 lighting channels would enable a range of options, you could have 15-20 come on a different times and then go off at different times. These could represent office and living areas as well as businesses. You could have 5-10 that would turn on and off at either fixed or "random" periods to simulate rooms being occupied and then left.

Also, the SW is much easier to use than writing an app in code, even Arduino code, and is supported as well. The sequence editor has a simple user interface that has defined time slots. The duration is defined as part of creating a scene.  Each light level can be managed (including colors) by the SW.

[SequenceEditor]

On the other hand, for your building you could try to emulate the Empire State building that is lighted up.....you could use colors in blocks of the windows to create an interesting pattern.

The lighting could be patriotic:

[cid:image003.jpg at 01D412CD.5EC37350]

Or reflect diversity:

[Image result for empire state building night lighting]

Or Love:

[Image result for empire state building night lighting heart]

Though the heart may be a movie trick, I vote for a heart.

Phil Edholm
Office 925-264-9420
Mobile 408-832-5618

From: Accrs <accrs-bounces at mail.accrs.org> On Behalf Of Alameda County Central Railroad Society
Sent: Monday, July 2, 2018 7:03 PM
To: accrs at mail.accrs.org
Subject: [Accrs] Building Lighting


What if you have a building like this and you want to partition it into groups of light blocks and have the whole automatically controller to turn on and run a light sequence pattern.


[https://www.ironhorsehobbies.co.nz/image/cache/data/product/bac88003_1358392057-750x750.jpg]


This building view shows 120+ windows plus a lobby area that would need to be lighted.  The partitioning can be gone in groups then reduce the number of wires to 17 or less.

Lighting and effects I think can easily be done with Arduino.  It has 17 digital IO ports,  6 support PWM ( smooth, slow on-off).

This would require a 5V supply,  a some LED's, transistors, a it would be nice to have a custom PCB with solder pads and easy-connect cable between board and Arduino.

Think about that.





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