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Teleman

Has anyone tryed ?

I been thinking (thats what the noise was)  
Has anyone tryed fitting a voltage regulator of about 3 volts in a loco to work leds ? .Thinking about it if a resistor is fitted before the regulator to dump the extra volts you could have the leds on at a slow speed and not limit the motor voltage .
poliss

I might if I knew what one looked like. I don't use seperate resistors as they're already built in to my LEDs. I use a diode to stop the reverse voltage b;owing them. I saw some common anode bi-colour resistors I'd like to try.
The beauty of my DCC fitted loco is the light is on even when the loco is stopped.
Teleman

A regulator will stop the voltage going above the level it is set at even if the input voltage goes higher , so if you have a 3 volt regulator and put 5 volts into it you will only have 3 volts on its output pin , and if the voltage goes to 6 volts it will still give 3 volts out . The only time it won't is when the voltage goes below 3.5 volts then it will give a lower output
poliss

Soooo, what's the difference between that and a resistor?
Teleman

A lot ! as a regulator gives a fixed output no matter what the input is as long as its above the output voltage , so even if it has 12 volts going in it will still have 3 volts coming out if its a 3 volt regulator
Where a resistor will always lower the volage by the same amount , ie if its value will drop 10% of the voltage so at 5 volts it will drop .5 of a volt and at 10 volts it will drop 1 volt
poliss

I see it all now. Well some of it anyway. On my setup I have it like this, but without the resistor as it's built in.



The light only gets dim at very low speeds. I'll have to video it when it's dark.

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