Interior Lights

[hbr245b]

Right now I have three Kato trains where I have installed LED interior lights - the trains look great as they run around the layout. Two other Kato trains where I have yet to install the interior lights look inferior by comparison.

I don't have any Tomix or MicroAce trains, but are interior lights available?

[Martijn Meerts]

There are a whole bunch of different light sets available for both Tomix and MicroAce. In fact, MicroAce uses Tomix light strips (for now)

I prefer the Kato ones, mainly because they come with the little orange filter. Tomix doesn't have that, so the light is really white and very harsh. A little but of clear orange paint will fix that though.

[hbr245b]

I did a search on the Hobby Search website:

http://www.1999.co.jp/search_e.asp?Typ1_c=104&scope=1&scope2=0&urikire=1&itkey=interior+light&kensaku=Search

Would the "White Color" kits be the DCC safe versions i.e. like the Kato LED lights?

Is there a standard fitting inside the coaches so the kits will fit most (all?) trains?

[Martijn Meerts]

Optimally, you'd want the "constant lighting" kits. Those have a couple of components (rectifier, capacitor) that get rid of most of the flickering you usually get with LED lighting.

As for which ones you need, it depends on the car. Usually it's listed in the instructions that come with the car/set, and in the case of Tomix it's usually also listed in the catalog.

[alpineaustralia]

Martijn  - can you please do me a favour? Can you please look at the interior lights that fit a tomix 300 series. I know the tomix 785 and 797 (6 pack) fit but they are not available from anyone anywhere (not even in Japan). What else fits? Had anone tried to fit decoders to the tomix lights? any particular points I need to be aware of?
I have fitted Kato 29-353 decoders to all my trains so far except the Tomix 300 series of course. Where the train does allow the Kato 29-353 decoder to sit neatly against the Kato LED lights, I have wire soldered them in.
Works great. No flickering unless the wheels and track are dirty.
 

[CaptOblivious]

Good call soldering the Kato 29-353. I have many of the Kato LED lighting kits, and I dislike how the pins are finicky and often don't make contact with the brass strips. But then, there's no good way to solder those together that I can see…

[Martijn Meerts]

Martijn  - can you please do me a favour? Can you please look at the interior lights that fit a tomix 300 series. I know the tomix 785 and 797 (6 pack) fit but they are not available from anyone anywhere (not even in Japan). What else fits? Had anone tried to fit decoders to the tomix lights? any particular points I need to be aware of?
I have fitted Kato 29-353 decoders to all my trains so far except the Tomix 300 series of course. Where the train does allow the Kato 29-353 decoder to sit neatly against the Kato LED lights, I have wire soldered them in.
Works great. No flickering unless the wheels and track are dirty.
 

According to the catalog, you'll need either 0752 or 0782 for the motor car(s) and 0751 or 0781 for the others.

0781 and 0782 are kits with constant lighting. They're all yellow however, which might not be the best for a shinkansen.

The catalog doesn't mention whether or not 0785 fits, it may be 0785 is just a white LED version of 0781. As for availability, they should all be available from Tomix, so ordering them may take a while, but they should be available.


I've thought about adding decoders to the interior lights, but on a 16-car shinkansen it'd get too expensive =)

[alpineaustralia]

Photos of my solder job re Kato 29-353s.
The only reason why I did it in the first place was because the older shinkansen (in my case the E1 and 500 series) do do allow the room for the decoder to sit against the interior light fitting as designed. I thnk I will adopt this approach for all non-DCC plug n' play models.

[Bernard]

Alpineaustralia---Thanks for posting photos of the interior lights install. Does the decoder give you any other functions besides no flicker?

[alpineaustralia]

No - unfortunately they are the bog standard 29-353s that aloow you to turn lights on and off  using F1.

[Martijn Meerts]

What else do you need anyway, disco lights? ;)

[Bernard]

One of the 500 people I ordered looks exactly like John Travolta, complete with white suit and all. He look good with a strobe light effect sitting in my 700 Shinkensan. ;D

[Martijn Meerts]

hehe, well, in that case you can put in one of the newer decoders, quite a few of them have light effects, including strobe ;)