Walthers HO traffic lights - wiring to custom controller

Has anyone here been able to wire the Walthers HO traffic lights to a custom controller? I’m considering the purchase of these and hooking them up to an Arduino microcontroller to have a custom traffic light sequence / setup, but I can’t seem to find anything online about the voltage for these lights and whether or not a resistor would be required or if there is one already pre-wired into the lights.

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Anyone know the voltage or whether the lights are pre-wired with resistors? Would anyone be kind enough to upload the manual for the lights?

Thanks!

I tried to do this with a controller from Bakatronics. It was a kit that only cost a few dollars.

Untortunately, I discovered that the circuit was for a common-cathode arrangement, but the Walthers traffic lights are common-anode. I looked into re-designing the circuit to flip the polarity, but it just wasn’t practical.

Thanks for the replies.

MisterBeasley, I actually want to hook the lights up to the Arduino which from what I have read can handle the common anode lights just fine. It’s just a matter of hooking these up without burning out the bulb that has me. I’m not so good at the electrical wiring aspect of Model Railroading.

I asked about the resistor because I thought I heard somewhere they had resistors pre-wired, but I can’t seem to find any information supporting this.

Thanks!

In the end, I chose the simple route, too. I just bought the Walthers controller. If you wait for the Walthers flyer every month, sooner or later it will go on sale. Not right now, though. If it’s any consolation, it works very nicely.

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Hongrui Manufacturing.

The controller is said to operate two complete 4-way intersections. I have two 3-way intersections on my layout, and I’m about to add a third. Does anyone have any experience running these controllers above their rated number of lights?

Also, note the statement about the 18VAC. The controller does not come with a power supply, so that’s something else you need to consider. I use an old train transformer.

Thanks for the info.

What I wanted to do was have some custom traffic light poles printed from a 3D printer and mount the walthers hanging traffic lights to them. Then I wanted to have the prototypical sequence of my area, where first the left hand lanes get the green, then the rest of the traffic. I haven’t seen this setup yet with the Walthers controller.

I also wanted to have a red light camera 3D printed and try mounting a bulb in there somehow and have the Arduino flash the red light camera bulb once in a while when the light was red. Also, I wanted to eventually tie all this into a railroad crossing so that the lights also turn red when the crossing is active.

It seems like a lot, but since you can run your own code on the Arduino to get it to do what you want it to I think this is possible. The only challenge for me is the more mechanical stuff.

The Walthers traffic control unit just doesn’t seem “real” enough for me.

For the Walthers traffic control unit, is the output voltage 18V, or is that just the input? The Arduino by comparison outputs 5V.

Hmm, interesting, as 2.9V is too high for anything but a white LED. However - it could be pulsed, depends on how many wires are going from the controller to the lights. Like the Digitrax signal controller, where 10 wires drive 12 LEDs.A common circuit design to do this sort of thing with LEDs is called ‘Charlieplexing’. Since LEDs are diodes, you can do ‘wild’ things like hooking two two a single output, ine by cathode and the other by anode, then connect the free swide of each LED to the appropriate + or - power supply terminal. If the output is low, one LEDs lights. When the output goes high, the other one lights up. 2 indications, one output.

–Randy

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