[Lennietheblenny]

I find the lighting system on my Artin Porsche interesting - a single bulb with light directed to head and tail lights via clear plastic pipes! Some questions for people out there - 1) the main problem with my Artin car is that the light only seems to be noticeable at full blast on the throttle, is it wired incorrectly, or do I have the wrong bulb in it? 2) is it easy to wire in a capacitor to keep the lights on for a while when the power drops or stops, can someone explain how to do it? 3) has anyone tried to scratch build a similar "light pipe" system to put into other cars ?

 

[beardy56]

as the bulbs need to be to be the same as the maximum track voltage which for Artin is 7,5 volts in their mains powered sets they will run dim on lower power setting. Unless the bulb has already been changed for a 12v one be careful as I have blown a couple running on 12v.

A single bulb system should be possible. I would of thought, depending on room, a bright white LED with voltage controller so it works from 12V. put this in a small box to prevent light bleed and 4 runs of fibre optic cable to each light. Think about this with the right diameter cable you could also simulate side light and twin headlights.

 

[Lennietheblenny]

Thanks Keith...I think I must have changed the bulb ages ago, I vaguely remember buying a few spares for my AFX cars at a swap meet, so probably it's a higher voltage bulb. My Artin car is running on Scalextric Sport track, which says 16v on the power supply, and the bulb hasn't blown after blasting it at full throttle a few times at any rate. Maybe the bulb has too high a voltage rating if it is not sensitive enough to glow strongly at lower speeds ? As you can tell I am a bit clueless about these things!!

 

[beardy56]

I was lucky as when I built my first 1/43rd scale track, my Winter Layout, I was using n Artin power pack. Blue the bulbs while testing the cars on my routed track, see Westleigh 2, at 12V. haven't run any of them since this the routed track was scrapped as the Winter Layout is now under my Airfix test track and all the Artin, Go!!! and Compact cars are boxed up and in storage at the moment.