To light or not to light up your layout?

[Chiaroscuro]

Guys, I really could use your opinion right here.

I am in the process of reassembling most of my layout and have a difficult decision: to light or not my city. In the plus side, lights really brings the interior of the buildings to life, interiors are mostly not seen without them. On the other side, wiring. It is really a mess and makes difficult to separate floors or really assembling a modular layout subject to change and grow (even if I make the wiring customized). I-Brix System is really expensive and does not have the options needed (only clear and colored 1x1 bricks, no warm or cool lights).

 

Sorry if if the topic was already discussed. Thoughts?

[TinCan]

[Vindicare]

13 hours ago, Chiaroscuro said:

Guys, I really could use your opinion right here.

I am in the process of reassembling most of my layout and have a difficult decision: to light or not my city. In the plus side, lights really brings the interior of the buildings to life, interiors are mostly not seen without them. On the other side, wiring. It is really a mess and makes difficult to separate floors or really assembling a modular layout subject to change and grow (even if I make the wiring customized). I-Brix System is really expensive and does not have the options needed (only clear and colored 1x1 bricks, no warm or cool lights).

 

Sorry if if the topic was already discussed. Thoughts?

I’m with you. I keep going back & forth on wanting to & not. Light My Bricks is a pretty cool option, especially if you have Modulars.

I went to a plastic models/train show a few years back & they had some good options for lights. You should look & see if there’s any happening in the near future where you are.  

[MAB]

Get some LEDs and a few coin cell batteries and some rare earth magnets. Attach a battery to an LED leg, then a magnet then the other LED leg. Pop it in a building. It gives you an idea of what the display will look like when lit up. How to get them out? Stick a steel bar through a window and the magnet sticks to it, making removal easy.

If you do decide to light up the City, you can get really thin filament wire (like hair thick) that you can put between bricks.

[Chiaroscuro]

I made some tests with lights kits from Lightaling. The modulars look stunning when light up, but they are far from a practical solution. Light my Bricks is a similar solution.

 

Even thin wire (0.04 mm) is still enough to disturb LEGO precision clicking. You usually have to resold the wires on kits to get the right length (I could not find the right cables in stores here).  And then there is the problem of how to make the floors still detaching.

 

The more you try to solve those problems the more you introduce non-Lego parts to your setup (which is kind of bad) and you still loose modularity.

 

I am back and forth about that decision, and since I am doing a rebuild to introduce raised baseplates to my city setup I have to reassemble most of the first floors of the builds, kind of ideal moment to light or not the city.

[adwind]

I understand you, buddy. I don't have that big display yet to start seriously thinking about options but still at this point I think I would light up exceptionally street lamps. This add a lot to your display, you don't loose anything but city starts to look alive. The only negative - you still don't have your interiors visible :)

[kodlovag]

I think the biggest problem with the modular lighting is the wires between the levels, and therefor it is very hard to remove the upper levels of the modulars without installing connectors between the levels. But what about a semi-solution? Light up only the ground floors with wall mounted lights and the street lights / traffic lights. These wires can be hidden easily, and can be operated from a single connector from the back side corner of the building. I don't have any lights yet, but this would be a good idea to light up a city.

Edited February 26, 2019 by kodlovag

[Chiaroscuro]

3 hours ago, kodlovag said:

I think the biggest problem with the modular lighting is the wires between the levels, and therefor it is very hard to remove the upper levels of the modulars without installing connectors between the levels. But what about a semi-solution? Light up only the ground floors with wall mounted lights and the street lights / traffic lights. These wires can be hidden easily, and can be operated from a single connector from the back side corner of the building. I don't have any lights yet, but this would be a good idea to light up a city.

It is good idea but I think in execution it would be, no pun, half a solution. It will look odd that only the ground floor of the buildings are lid at the time. Plus I think the upper floors would be the ones that benefits the most from the visibility of the lights.

[Ikant Tellu]

I have been lighting my buildings.  The interior shows so well when lit.  Look at Brickstuff.  They have  vertical  connectors that allow you to lift off floors.  I have a 5 story building with all floors lit.  I can take each floor off and put them back on with no wires to unplug

Edited February 27, 2019 by Ikant Tellu

[Faefrost]

These might be an alternative. Woodland scenics has a new modular plug and play system for lighting model Railroads. It looks like it might be adaptable for a Lego city.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=woodland+scenics+lighting+system&crid=2AELPQNR5CAV9&sprefix=woodland+scenics+light%2Caps%2C143&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_22

 

 

[AntiZombie]

Since I've illuminated almost my entire city, I can tell you it's worth it (as long as you have money for it).
Sure, you lose some of the flexibility, but it looks fantastic.

Light my bricks also offers "Wireless Power Connector". So you can seperate the floors easily from each other.

[vonado_bricks]

i would like to introduce this lights for LEGO,www.vonado.com,you will find all you need.

[cimddwc]

One of our LUG members has a neat and flexible system for lighting his layout, also on shows: On the table, he puts a plastic tablecloth with adhesive copper strips at defined positions, which provide power to the baseplates with buildings he puts on top; these baseplates have that copper tape on the bottom, wrapping around to the top and into the buildings. (Luckily, LEDs don't use much power...)

I myself haven't lit my full layout, and probably won't due to its size and often non-standard building placements, but I have used such a tape for lighting my Grand Palace Hotel (as well as a spaceship I'm currently building). To connect floors, put the copper tape on top of the tiled walls and on the bottom of the upper floor (maybe with a thick insulating tape between plate and copper tape so the gaps in the plate's bottom don't mess with the copper tape). Multiple layers of copper tape or insulating tape underneath may improve the contact especially when the upper floor isn't heavy. And it probably won't work with a thin, lightweight roof.

The copper tape is thin enough to put between bricks or plates, and when you use a 3mm wide version, it fits between studs, so you can hide it between (base)plate and floor tiles. If you get one with conductive adhesive side (don't know if that's standard, I made sure the seller explicitly mentioned it), you can easily connect sections of it, overlapping a few centimeters. Or even connect thin cables leading to LEDs (which cou can also buy complete with wire and resistor, by the way) between two layers of copper tape - one example (even including resistors) from my spaceship:

 

[ER0L]

It may be difficult when you're dealing with modular buildings, but if you want to light up a whole building it might be an option to just omit the floors and use only one light source for the whole thing, like it is done in model train layouts. I did this on the building to the right (plus an outdoor light; all the lighting is Lego):

Firehouse & Painted Lady (R66 mini diorama) - Night Scene

 

 

[adwind]

18 hours ago, ER0L said:

It may be difficult when you're dealing with modular buildings, but if you want to light up a whole building it might be an option to just omit the floors and use only one light source for the whole thing, like it is done in model train layouts. I did this on the building to the right (plus an outdoor light; all the lighting is Lego):

Firehouse & Painted Lady (R66 mini diorama) - Night Scene

 

 

Looks super realistic!

[mirecg]

yes, definitely it is worth to illuminate the city. 

Even though the soldering of tiny smd LEDs and resistors can be anything it makes a huge difference and the best thing is, you can admire your layout also in the night :)

Maybe you can start with the street-lamps - is quite easy to add the LEDs and it looks so much better.  

For the connection of the parts you can consider to use e.g. the plate with contacts (4757 or 4755)

[pirzyk]

Lighting all the way!

This uses Brickstuff lights w/i each modular and custom wiring in the roads to run power to each building.  Show setup is only a couple of hours.

[tmctiger]

Hi, Actually I think you do not have any chioce here, lighting up your city makes it so much more immersive! So I recommend to go with lighting. I made this decission also some month ago:

(look at the second half of the video, showcasing my current state of lighting my city)

BR,

Guenther

[TurboBrick]

On 3/1/2019 at 9:07 AM, AntiZombie said:

Light my bricks also offers "Wireless Power Connector". So you can seperate the floors easily from each other.

Thank you!!!  I've illuminated three modulars - so far, the ones my kid is least likely to play with.  The ability to separate floors without cables is a game changer.  I'm ordering a pair now along with a kit...

Do you--or does anyone anyone here--know if the connecting sockets are compatible with other lighting sets?  It would be nice to retrofit existing buildings.

[Roadmonkeytj]

I use brickstuff and brick loot for lighting.   I highly recommend it as it just adds another wow factor...  Especially in a city scene.

 The nice thing about brickstuff is they are really easy to deal with.   I was able to make a custom wiring kit for my emerald night with flickering firebox and forward and reverse lighting and an option for cab lighting all with exact wire measurements so I wasn't stuffing extra wire somewhere ..  Just took a few emails back and forth.   

The thing I like about brick loot is they put their leds in bricks so you don't have to get creative to hide the led just the wire.  Plus now that they offer custom wire strings I've enjoyed using them as well for vehicles.

[lswmocs]

does anyone know of a quick release for lighting?