Help with an electrical project?

[FishInMaryland]

Anything electrical seems advanced to me, but I think this is pretty basic. Anybody out there who can help me, including providing drawings?

First, are adapter and "transformer" synonymous? I use them interchangeably, but am not sure. "Wall wart" is the best term I've seen.

I have a train layout that's been landscaped with a lot of ceramic houses and various other lighted objects - streetlights, spotlights, train crossing sign, etc. The houses all have small nightlight bulbs on wires that plug into an outlet. The other lighted objects are from Lemax and Dept 56, are all battery operated and burn through batteries like there's no tomorrow. Some use 2 AA batteries, some use 3 AA batteries, and most can be plugged into a transformer instead of being powered by batteries. But, a couple of them don't even have the jack to plug into a transformer. Even though using the transformers saves me on the batteries, it's a monumental pain to plug in all of those transformers. I'd like to wire everything together somehow, including the houses and the other lighted objects, and have a single on/off switch, and have a wire or two going to a single plug. Oh, a couple of things use C batteries, too.

There must be a way to wire all this together very elegantly, so that I can get rid of the 10 powerstrips under the layout and can stop climbing on top of everything to change batteries and turn on all the lighted objects.

Is this possible?????? If it is, and you can explain it to me, please use VERY basic instructions - think kindergarten!

Thanks!
Ruth

 

[bschuhart]

I have a train set up using Lemax houses and never used the batteries. The best thing to do is use the "Wal Warts" and power strips connected together, then I bought a remote controled power block, used mainly for outdoor Christmas lights. Everyhting is conneted to this. This is cool, little kids come to see the train set up and everything is dark and I give them the remote and tell them to push the button...and the whole thing just lights up and they are amaized.

Lexmax sells Wal Warts that you can plug 4, 3volt devices into. The Lemax things that I have that use 4.5v, I went to Goodwill and also found a few Walwarts left from old phones, answering machines... and spliced them in. Just make sure the voltage and Polarity are the same, the miliamps don't matter.

 

[FishInMaryland]

Thanks. I have some of the wall warts already, but not all of the houses and other items have the jack in the battery holder into which I can plug the lines from the wall warts. Additionally, I would still need to have a ton of the wall warts and power strips, and I'm really trying to get away from having to plug in any more than one plug. I'll still have the one switch for the kids to bring everything to life.

By the way, your setup looks very nice!

 

[hydrodmg]

Best bet for you is to go to radio shack with a list of what you are running and then they can sell you the right parts

 

[bschuhart]

You can rig a wallwart into those devices that don't have a jack. Example if it uses 2- 1.5v bateries then you need a 3 volt wall wart, 3- 1.5 - use a 4.5 volt ect. Just find the positive lead(usally red) and the negative lead (usually black) in the case that holds the batteries, snip them and splice them to the wires on the wall wart (postive wire usally has a white stripe on it) just cut off the plug and splice or solder the wire together.

You can actually connect more than one device to a single wall wart, example you have 5 devices that are 3 volt, just slice all the posivies to the positive wire on the wall wart and the negatives to negative. here's where the milliamps come in the more devices you connect to a wall wart the more milliamps you'll need. The good new these devices in our set ups you very little power, so most wall worts will have plenty of power and if it were to have too little it just wouldn't work right, no harm will be done, same if you have extra milliamps, no harm done. You just have to worrie about Voltage and postive/ negative.

You can add as much wire from the wall wort to the device as need, 22/24 gauge will do the trick and this is low voltage that comes out of the wall wart, so you can't electrocute yourself.

Thanks. I have some of the wall warts already, but not all of the houses and other items have the jack in the battery holder into which I can plug the lines from the wall warts. Additionally, I would still need to have a ton of the wall warts and power strips, and I'm really trying to get away from having to plug in any more than one plug. I'll still have the one switch for the kids to bring everything to life.

By the way, your setup looks very nice!

 

[TOMMYN3D]

Sorry that i cant help, but I also have 2 train sets but i dont have any houses or anything wired up but the trains.Bschuhart thats a nice looking set up:happy0144: Looks like the Polar Express. I have the B&O and the New York CentralFlyer with train sounds.Their is a train expo here in New Jersey November 27-28 that i will be going to pick up some more track pieces.
Tommy