DC trains switch polarity (whenever you back up) and train transformers have "spikes" or "ripples" as well as surges and interruptions.

You could use a small channel molding (1/4") to attach around the base, and then tape the wires and battery underneath. Cut either plexiglass or stiff plastic to slide in the molding.

Cool white is sometimes called "daylight". Cool white is a good choice for kitchens and bathrooms or diners. We also suggest using cool white when the light is shining in a window from outside.

Below are some tips for using 3-volt and 9-volt lights to ensure proper operation. Click related product titles to go to the page with that product.

LED lightwiring diagram

When LEDs get toward their end of life they fail by dimming over time, rather than an abrupt failure of incandescent bulbs.

1.8mm is our most popular size light for 1/2 scale, 1/4 scale and 1/144th scale. It is the light of choice for many miniaturists! The 1.8mm gives off a nice bright light and does a great job with light coverage.

AR lenses have  a specialized coating that is made of a microscopic layer of metal oxides that neutralize reflections, allowing it to minimize glare from the front and back surfaces of each lens. They aid in the transmission of light through the optical lens and into your eye.

The chip LEDs have a green wire and a red wire. The green wire goes to the black on the coin holder or battery holder, and red still goes to red. You will also need to protect your connections with shrink tube or tape, to prevent a short circuit.

Surface mount LEDs from smallest to largest are Z, Pico, Nano, Chip, Mega.  Surface mount or chip LEDs are flat and ideal for all Model Train Scales including O, S, HO, N, and G, or dioramas and building lights up to 1/4 scale.

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3mm is the middle size. Use 3mm when you need a round, classic bulb shape. It's popular with 1/2 scale, 1/4 scale and 1/12 scale.

AR coatings can also help prevent eye fatigue and digital eye strain. Your eyes don’t have to work as hard to capture a quality image since they get more light.

If you use a high-quality regulated 12V DC adapter, you will not need any extra protection since you will have "smooth" regulated DC power that the LEDs require. DC LEDs are less costly since they do not have the bridge rectifier and capacitor. DC lights will also run just as long as universal LEDs, provided they have the correct power supply.

The 3-volt lights usually do not have a resistor under the shrink tube (cool/warm white, blue and green do not. Yellow/orange/red will).

Without an AR coating, lenses have noticeable glare, which means light reflects off their surfaces, limiting the quantity of light traveling through the lens. This can make your vision less clear and lower your ability to detect contrasts, especially at night.

Universal LEDs have more protection built in to compensate for AC or DCC which switches polarity and protection from non-regulated DC power supplies which can look like this and often deliver more than the listed amount of power. So for example a listed 12V non-regulated adapter can put out as much as 17 volts of power due to the low draw of LEDs. The proprietary Evan Designs circuit covered by shrink tube that you can see in the following picture

In our tests with Duracell, we connected 3 flashers to a 9V, and the lights were nice and bright for 40 hours. We used our Strap/Switch Combos that make it really easy. The strap has an end that snaps onto the terminals of any 9V battery and a long tail of red and black wire that can be connected to the lights.

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Most LEDs only draw 20 milliamps of power, which is less than 1/3 of an incandescent at 65 milliamps of power. You can connect quite a few LEDs to your power source without dropping any power to your model trains.

After learning all the top tips for using LEDs and getting answers to common questions, you should no longer wonder “How do LEDs work?” We now hope that you can confidently add light to your project to make it stand out. Now that you have the right tools and knowledge for wiring LED lights, it’s time to choose the right ones for your project! With nearly 15 years of experience working with LED lights, you can expect nothing but the best from our products. Purchase today!

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With Bulb Style LEDs, (1.8mm, 3mm, and 5mm) the light emitting diode is encased in epoxy. The epoxy is globe shaped. This shape provides directional lighting similar to a flashlight. You can sand the globe shaped tip of the LED flat. This will disperse the light over a wider angle. When sanding the light, just sand it until it is flat. Do not go near the metal you can see inside the bulb.

The LED’s are made to run on DC power. If you are running AC, DCC or plan to run DC in reverse (backing up) we recommend our 7-19 Volt Universal LEDs.

Our 3-volt lights are for 3-volt batteries only. A 9-volt battery is just too strong and will destroy our 3-volt LEDs. Instead, consider using our 3-volt coin cell holder/switch with a coin cell.

An LED can only handle 2-3.5 volts of DC power. AC Trains, Digital Command Control Trains and DC trains have power supplies putting out 7-25 volts. We have added a full wave bridge rectifier and a larger ohm value resistor to these LEDs to protect the LED from both the higher forward voltage, and the switching polarity of AC and DCC trains. The great thing about the Bridge Rectifier is that these lights stay lit even when the trains are run in reverse!

When you have AR coatings on your lenses, driving at night becomes a lot easier. The halo effect around car lights is reduced considerably.

There are numerous reasons why using and wiring LED lights for your project is the best choice. Below are a few answers to popular questions that will help you understand why.

You wouldn't touch an incandescent after it runs for a while, and you wouldn’t want that incandescent anywhere near your delicate artwork or finished model either. LEDs are the perfect solution. You can leave your project lit up day and night for years if you want. The LEDs will never get hot or burn out!

After you bend the wire 90 degrees, make a "fake" ceiling out of stiff paper (Bristol board), and punch a hole for the light. Then, glue the "fake" ceiling in place with the wiring headed in the directions you want it to go (back, side, etc.). Or, you can paint the leads and wires white like the ceiling and hide the wires with ceiling textures, like plaster, or use some tissue paper or other material.

LEDs last 25 times longer than incandescent. They draw very little power, so they can run for a long time on a small battery without any issues. There is no need for a bulky wall transformer and a wall plug to light your project.

For the older era police and fire vehicles, we use a normal speed red flasher in the dome light and either solid or flashing headlights and tail lights. If you're placing your car near your model trains and connecting to track power, look into using our Universal Flashers

Remember to locate the switch in a convenient place. You can disguise the switch with a bit of something that matches the overall theme of your project. The switch can be put in a mushroom cap, a small trash bin, or even under a plant. Check out this switch disguised as a mushroom!

Our pico and Z tiny LED has the thickness of a credit card, and pico is only 1mm wide. Z LED is also thin and only 0.6mm wide. Our mini LEDs include the chip nano. Our small LEDs are 1.8, 3mm, 5mm and Mega. They can be used with larger model trains, O scale or G scale.

The 9-volt lights are made with a resistor for use on a 9-volt battery or regulated power supply. They will not be bright with 3-volt coin cells. You can use our battery snap with a switch for the 9-volt lights.

We have white (warm or cool), red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. We also have a fire kit and haunting kit. Try some other colors for interesting effects!

When connecting red-to-red and black-to-black, you can cut the wires to even everything up. Then, you will need to expose some newly stripped wire for the connection.

You can put your LED wires under a fake rock, or curl wires up as a hose after painting the wires green. You could also consider putting wires under a bush or potted plant.

Yes! You can mix any color light and size of light (and solid and flashing) in the same application. see a great example of this:

Anti-reflective coatings allow 99.5 percent of light to flow through the lens, compared to 92 percent for regular lenses.

Try a bit of solder where you have the wires connected: red-to-red and black-to-black. Solder acts like strong glue in getting things to stay put permanently when wiring LED Lights.

The bulb style LEDs we sell are “wide angle” lights, and most have an average of 35 degrees of light spread. If you find that you need more spread, you can sand off the rounded top of the LED without harming the diode. This will increase your light spread to 80 degrees or more. Alternatively, consider our surface mount Z, Pico, Nano, Chip and Mega lights. These bulbs have a much wider viewing angle and are flat, so they can be placed on the ceiling to light a whole room.

Yes. These LED’s are the same ones you see around car license plates and in flashlights. The Light Emitting Diode in an LED is completely encased in tough epoxy.

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Our LEDs at Evan Designs are fully guaranteed for 2 years with free replacement, and in the many years selling these, we have had to replace very few. LEDs really do last for years!

has a full wave bridge rectifier for reverse polarity protection and a filtering capacitor to remove voltage spikes/dips. Then, a resistor is added just as in the DC bulbs. Universal LEDs are built for unstable power supplies, and ensure that the power making it to the LED is "smooth" DC power.

No, LEDs do not get hot. Incandescents are resistance based and only create light as a by-product as they get hot enough to glow. If you're concerned about that — LEDs to the rescue!

Lighting a project using LEDs can immediately bring your creation to life, but getting started can be a little intimidating, at least at first. If you’re unfamiliar with LEDs, you’re probably wondering, “How do LEDs work?” Luckily, you’re in the right place! Evan Designs has put together answers to the most frequently asked questions to help hobbyists like you install LEDs for models and crafts

Generally, ceilings do not get as close a look as floors do, so you can be more creative with your ceiling coating. Another benefit of gluing to the ceiling is you do not have to put a hole in the floor.

Also, note that the base of the LED is square, which makes it a little tricky for round holes. When we drill the 5/32 hole, we bend the stalk of the LED 90 degrees and tape it from the backside. This will keep the LED firmly in place.

If you already have a power supply you use in your project, get our AC/DC lights which have the extra parts to protect for AC power input.

With a 9-volt battery like a Duracell, you can run 50 LEDs for 4 hours or run 5 lights for 26 hours per battery. You can also run solid and flashing LEDs together with no carryover flicker on the solids.

An LED bulb can only handle 2 - 3.5 volts of power, depending on the color of the LED. White can handle more voltage than red, for example. If you were to connect an LED bulb straight to a 12 Volt DC power source without a resistor, you would see a very brief bright flash as the LED burns out. We have soldered a color-specific resistor to the LED so that it will work with your 9 or 12 volt DC power source without harming the LED. Our 12 Volt DC LED's can run on anywhere from 6 to 14 Volts and are fully guaranteed to work, with a 2 year Replacement Guarantee, if you run the LED at the correct power.

The stalk of the LED, up next to the bulb can be bent 90 degrees for gluing to the ceiling (to have the light shine down) or for taping in behind a shade.

The general rule to follow is red-to-red and black-to-black. Twist the leads on your LED with the battery lead, and use shrink tube or tape on the connections.

Wire lights in parallel. Gather 1 wire form each LED and bring to + then gather the remaining 1 wire from each LED bring to ground. That's all that is needed! Each LED draws 20 milliamps so 20mA x say 5 LEDs is still only 100 milliamps. The lights already have a resistor rated for 7-19 volt operation so no worries on voltage input. The accessory side or track side of your transformer will work just fine.

Yes, you can. Our Bridge Rectified Universal LEDs are specifically designed to run on any track power. These lights are "plug and play" pre-assembled. You need to do nothing more to these lights! The bridge rectifier means "constant on" lighting with DC, AC, or DCC track power. Refer to the diagram that came with your locomotive to check where to attach the leads for your particular loco. To light a passenger car, you will need to run the wire down to the track through the "truck". Check back soon for a short article on attaching an LED to power on your rolling stock. In general, the red wire goes to the positive the black wire goes to the negative.

You can use LEDs in Locomotives, passenger cars, buildings, emergency vehicles, model boats, model airplanes, model dioramas, RC Boats, Planes, Helicopters, Trucks. The durability, low heat and extremely long life of LEDs make them by far the best choice for every type of modeler! check out our gallery to see some great photos that our customers have sent us!

Yes, they can bend in any way that is convenient for your project. Go easy on the leads, bending repeatedly will break them. Any metal can fatigue with repeated bending.

We have installed lights in many types of police cars and firetrucks. They're much more real when lit up, and the LEDs are super bright! For modern emergency vehicles, we like to use the DC fast flashers in the light bar and on the vehicle. Headlights sometimes look better with normal speed flashers or our wig-wag circuit.

For optimal clarity throughout the day, anti-reflective coatings can be applied to regular optical lenses as well as sunglasses.

2-wireled lightwiring diagram

Another advantage of AR coatings is that they make your glasses and eyes look better by nearly eliminating distracting reflections and glare that would otherwise bounce off your glasses.

Refer to the manual that comes with your decoder board. Most positions for added lights are 14 volt, though there are some positions that are 3 volt. Often, within parts made by one company -- and even within a single decoder board -- there are usually at least those two voltages present.

Duct-tape is also pretty good for LED connections. If you don't like or don't have solder, use duct tape on the connections

Yes, LEDs can be bent up to 90 degrees to perpendicular at the stalk and still light! While you can bend the bulb style LEDs, you may want to consider the flat LEDs, as they are easier to hide and are used in many modern electronic devices.

Anti-reflective (AR) eyeglass lenses reduce glare and reflections that are distracting and affect how well you see. That’s why anti-reflective coatings are one of the most popular lens choices among people who wear glasses.

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LEDs light by electroluminescence. The color of the light produced depends on the metal used. LEDs are true color and are very efficient in converting energy to light with none of the heat that incandescence relies on. If you’re wondering “How long do LEDs last?” or you need help wiring LED lights, look no further! Continue reading our top tips for using LED lights and help transform your project into a showstopper.

Running your LEDs on a 9V Battery or Regulated 12V DC wall adapter, get our DC LEDs. These LEDs all come with the correct resistor and connector wire pre-assembled, so they're set to go.

The LED’s we sell draw 20 milliamps of power. So check your power source. If you have a wall plug power source with 1Amp of power you can run (1000 / 20) or 50 lights in parallel!

You will not melt delicate artwork even if you leave the LEDs on forever. You can even "dress up" your LED with a plastic or paper shade, or paint it, with no worries of damage.

We offer a variety of LED sizes, and the choice of size can be based on how much room you expect to have in the ceiling, in a lamp, or outside a window. The largest size, 5mm, is great for 1:12 scale, or for when you have a lot of room and need a lot of nice bright light. Depending on where it is used, even 1/4 scale can use 5mm sometimes.

One thing about flashers especially that we should emphasize: They need to stay flashing! And the biggest thing is flashers that stop and go to steady after some period of time on power. We don't like to dwell on how much time it has taken to get the ones we carry now. Let's just say a lot of trial and error, and a lot of pitched lots of LEDs. We have test boards everywhere with LEDs connected to various power supplies. Some of them for years now. There are 2 things that go into making LEDs we can guarantee for at least 2 years of use 1)high quality chips 2) perfect soldering technique. We trained the factory we use now ourselves. And financed their purchase of some very high quality Taiwanese ESD irons, sooner than have them use the irons they already had available. Using other LEDs is kind of hit or miss. It's worth it we feel, to pay a little extra for LEDs that don't need to be removed down the road when they fail.

Our 1000ma 12V adapter has the ability to run 50+ lights with ease. And, when we don't want to use a wall adapter, we simply use a 9V battery. According to Duracell, their alkaline 9 volt batteries are rated 580 milliamp hours.

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What we are referring to when we mention size is the measurement across the width of the bulb. If you are unsure of the size you need, you can try measuring the opening that you plan to fit the bulb into.

The warm white is also called "soft white". Warm white is very close to what an incandescent bulb looks like. Warm white is a good choice for most interior rooms like living rooms, bedrooms and dining rooms.

There is nothing wrong with this uneven power for most devices, but for LEDs this spells trouble. To protect the lights from this, we have added a full wave bridge rectifier and a filtering capacitor along with the resistor. Even if you have a DC train and you only run your train at 12 volts or less with N Scale Kato power supplies, we still recommend getting universal LEDs.

This means with a 3-volt coin cell type battery like the one in our mini light kit can run up to 10 lights. 6 lights will run approximately 24 hours per coin cell. The coin cell we use is about the size of a nickel.