Model Railway Forum

Morning all

I purchased some 12v SMD Led lights, the flat ones for some interior buildings. even though I got the warm white they are still incredibly bright and popping one into a Hornby signal box it looks quite dreadful considering there is no interior fittings.

Now I can make a detailed interior but the poor signal man would need sunglasses.

Can the brightness of these lights be reduced, think I have seen somewhere that this can be done with resistors but which type would I need, however I will be wrong as usual!

These lights will be fed from my 12v ring main so to speak.

Cheers
Thanks

Just increase the value of the current limiting resistor by replacing it or adding additional resistors in series. If you have a potentiometer you can use this to adjust the light output to desired level, remove from circuit and measure the resistance then replace with nearest value fixed carbon one. If you do use a pot. use the middle leg and either outside leg. DO NOT REMOVE THE EXISTING RESISTOR WHILE YOU DO THIS!

Think painting the LEDs can help as well.

Use a 4K7 or 10K series resistor per LED. Cost about 6p to 10p.
If you want to reduce all your LED lights or groups of them to the same level, then I personally like these, as they tell you the actual output voltage (input too) and are variable eBay Buck convertor
Or cheaper still ... Cheaper eBay Buck Convertor

I found using a voltage regulator worked well - £1.98 on ebay. Still have resistors in most of the wiring.

thanks all, appreciate your suggestions.
I went for resistors and the buck converter.

btw have started the interior detail, may post a pic when done if you promise not to laugh.