by PetrOs » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:05 pm
So, as I got asked many times how I really did it, here is the sketch:
http://www.modellbaudienst.de/diff/searchlight.pdf
A few comments:
I took a hollow searchlight cylinder (5 mm outside diameter), and did a narrow cut (app. half a millimeter wide) up to the middle of it. I painted the inside of the cylinder with a silver color. Then I took an OSRAM LY-M676-PS yellow LED (from a local electronic parts supplier, I had plenty of those for railcar lighting for my model railroad, costs something like 10 cents/piece. You can really use any LED which is small enough, has an appropriate color and allows for side contacts), and carefully soldered 2 copper wires to it, so they form a straigt line. Then I inserted the LED's wires into the slot of the cylinder and fixed them with superglue, so they stick out of the middle of cylinder's side. Then I covered the wires with isolating lack, and bend them to shape. I glued a small plasticard ring to the wires, so searchlight has the right height over deck. LED wires were extended using a simple thin wire from the old transformator, so that they begin under the deck. Then I filled the slots, attached the back part (also silver colored inside), and rebuilt a front part (a plastic ring with 2 thin wires crossed, inlaid with thin transparent plastic, in my case from the overhead projector slides). Then I hollowed out the sponsons on which the lights are mounted, and inserted the lights into the holes on the platform.
I hope this sketch will be useful for you.
So, as I got asked many times how I really did it, here is the sketch:
[url]http://www.modellbaudienst.de/diff/searchlight.pdf[/url]
A few comments:
I took a hollow searchlight cylinder (5 mm outside diameter), and did a narrow cut (app. half a millimeter wide) up to the middle of it. I painted the inside of the cylinder with a silver color. Then I took an OSRAM LY-M676-PS yellow LED (from a local electronic parts supplier, I had plenty of those for railcar lighting for my model railroad, costs something like 10 cents/piece. You can really use any LED which is small enough, has an appropriate color and allows for side contacts), and carefully soldered 2 copper wires to it, so they form a straigt line. Then I inserted the LED's wires into the slot of the cylinder and fixed them with superglue, so they stick out of the middle of cylinder's side. Then I covered the wires with isolating lack, and bend them to shape. I glued a small plasticard ring to the wires, so searchlight has the right height over deck. LED wires were extended using a simple thin wire from the old transformator, so that they begin under the deck. Then I filled the slots, attached the back part (also silver colored inside), and rebuilt a front part (a plastic ring with 2 thin wires crossed, inlaid with thin transparent plastic, in my case from the overhead projector slides). Then I hollowed out the sponsons on which the lights are mounted, and inserted the lights into the holes on the platform.
I hope this sketch will be useful for you.