Street lights and wiring for LED's

Adding resistors

flyerrich said:

1)In HO scale, what is the normal distance between street lights.

2) What size wire do you guys use when wiring up your lights to a power supply?

3) When using LED lights if a resistor is required as an example, you needed a 460 size could you put (2) 230 size back to back?
I realize the values shown may not even be right but the concept is what I am asking.

Thanks

Click to expand...

flyerrich;

1) Whatever distance you want, or google the spacing of real streetlights, I doubt the latter is identical everywhere. On a practical level, a city will usually mount street lights, on alternating sides of the street, close enough so that the ground level light patterns from successive lights are close to each other, with little overlap.

2) 22Ga. or larger will work. LEDs draw so little current that wire size can be quite small.

3) I'm not sure what you mean by "back to back." Resistors are connected either in series (current goes into one resistor, then out of that one and into the next resistor, then out of the second one.) Connected this way the resistances add. Two ten ohm resistors, wired in series would have a total of twenty ohms.
If the two resistors are wired in parallel (the current enters one end of both resistors simultaneously, and exits the other end of both simultaneously.) The overall resistance is cut in half. Two ten ohm resistors wired in parallel will have an overall resistance of only five ohms.

Traction Fan :smilie_daumenpos: