Thursday, August 7, 2008

FREDS, Flashing rear end devices...


...and for less than three bucks.

I get my circuits from cheap toys and children's shoe boxes. I use a standard two cell (usually AAAs) battery clip in regular freight cars and scratchbuilt button cell clips for my pig trains and other cars with a high center of gravity. The SPST switch runs $1.29 at Radio shack. Filing down a 3mm LED into a small rectangle then wrapping it in shrink tubing makes a respectable FRED and creative wire routing sets it properly on the coupler, something those $39.95 cars don't do.
Photobucket

Photobucket

The flash rate of most cheap circuits is a bit high but a real life flash rate just isn't as effective in my opinion. A slower flash rate can be made from this circuit Bakatronics offers. It's easy to assemble, is adjustable and no mean trick for a newcomer to substitute an LED for the bulb.

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