# Warm White LED's at Walgreen Drug



## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Just picked up a bunch of warm white LED's @ $5 per box of 50. The lower lead on the the replacement lights is positive. Top is negative. 3 volts (2 AA's) light them up right nicely. 
Walgreen item number is 500581. $5.00 per box. 

The also have multicolored (50 per Box) as well. Same price.


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Stan, I'll pick up a box tomorrow.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Pictures Stan? Especially next to a "normal white" LED? 

Regards, Greg


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 09 Nov 2009 04:05 PM 
Pictures Stan? Especially next to a "normal white" LED? 

Didn't buy any regular white's, Greg....


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

Walmart also has two styles of warm white LEDs for $6.87. One uses a wide angle 5mm lens. The other uses a 3mm lens with a refracting cover.

JimC.


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## bottino (Feb 7, 2008)

Stan, where are they located in Walgreens. Are they Christmas issue, or what? I hate walking isles looking for something that I don't know what it looks like.
Paul


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Paul..... At the store in Prescott Valley, they're located with all the other lights in the Christmas section toward the front of the store about head high for me, chest high for Jerry McColgan.









If you want all warm white, you might check each box. They get mixed and you could grab some that are not warm white. I'm going to use LED's for all my decorations this year. 

Jim.. I didn't check the closest Walmart store but did look up the lights on Walmart.com and saw them there for the price you mentioned. Walgreen's is 8 miles closer to us and usually has that type of stuff for less money or the same price as Walmart. 

Isn't there a Walgreens just down the street from you?


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I'll go to Walgreens at lunch!


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

Costco has strings of 100 for about $13. They are 3mm warm white and are brighter than the ones I got from TheLEDLight.com. 

- gws


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## lincoln pin (Feb 24, 2009)

I went there today, I think these are the ones Stan was referring to. Sorry about the size of the picture.


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the tip, Stan. 

I picked up a couple boxes at Walgreens while running errands today. They gave me a senior discount so they ended up being only $4.50/string. I should have enough bulbs to light up my whole town! I love a bargain 

Ed


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I bought a string of those last year, and used them everywhere--in building, in locos, in passenger cars. I have about a 8 left. at least they look like the same one--the one I bought have an inverted cone on the end. The disperse light better than any LEDs I've ever used before.


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Anybody know what size they are? 3mm, 5mm?


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## digger (Jan 2, 2008)

They're 5.0 mm diameter, 7.5 mm tall, leads are ap. 14 mm long. Although the box says they have "dome" bulbs, they are not bulbous. The end is squared, with an inverted conical depression for better light dispersal. Don't know that I'd call the light "warm" (similar to incandescent), but they definitely don't have the bluish tint that bright white LED's often have. They should work fine for most of our purposes. 

Ed


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I got 2 boxes. I might use them as Christmas decorations before I steal the LEDS. 

They're not the blinding blue light that comes from the ones I got at Menards a while ago. Each set even comes with 2 replacement bulbs, so there's 52 in the box.


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Sorry about the size of the picture
_Mr Moderator - thanks for shrinking it. The text was getting way out in right field..._ 

Interesting. I picked up a string at my local True Value store for $3 last year and found the LEDs firmly glued inside the white plastic decorative cover. I broke a couple trying to get down to the size of the LED. 

A tip: I found some paint at Michaels Crafts for finsihing plastic car kits, which included red and yellow/orange translucent paint for the rear lights. I dip the LEDs in the yellow paint and it looks like an oil lamp glow.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Stan, 
Thanks for posting AND for the wiring info. 
By the time I got to the local Walgreens it looked like a LS run on the white lights, all the colored ones were still there! I found them in a box behind the display! 
They also had some battery leds that they said would last for 150 hours! Whereas these are said to be good for 25,000 hours... 

Thanks again for the tip. 
John


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

Well I chucked one up in the lathe, turned the bottom 3mm down to fit the Mikado light housing and parted off the inverted cone on the front, polished it so it is clear. Great head lamp for 10 cents..


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

They also had some battery leds that they said would last for 150 hours! Whereas these are said to be good for 25,000 hours... 

That's 150 hours on a set of batteries.


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## jbwilcox (Jan 2, 2008)

What is the difference between the SOFT and the WARM lights?

I see walMart has both styles.

John


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

There are now 3 flavors of "white" LED. These are basically all the same blue LED inside, but the diode is covered in different phosphor formulations. 

1) The original "white" LED with the hard blue cast 
2) the newer "warm white" LED with a much more yellow cast 
3) the newest "soft" white LED which is sort of in between the first two


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Surprise at Walgreens: 

I stopped at the Walgreens 'cause the sign said "Red Baron Pizza's 1.99" While I was there, I thought I'd pick up a couple of these $5 boxes of the multi color lights to use as Christmas lights. They rang up 3.33 each. The colors are bright and vivid. Oh, yes. I got 2 Red Baron pizzas. All they had left was Pepperoni.


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## jbwilcox (Jan 2, 2008)

Okay,

I bought two boxes of the warm lights. 

Now the question is: What do I do with them?

Can I cut a section of 4-5 lights and re-wire them to light my Bachmann passenger cars?

I guess they could be divided up and used for interior lighting in buildings.

John


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Good question as I bought some also and like you would like to do the same. Later RJD


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

John,

I know from nothing about these new lights. Except that they're LED's. So, do they step house power down via a cube? Is there a current-limiting resistor in one leg of each to limit current, or has technology sped by me? What are their voltage ratings? Current draw?

I'm very interested in the warm yellows for kerosene lamps and whatnot. 

Thanks to anyone who can answer.

Les


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

John and Les... The bulbs work on 3 volts. I will power them with a 3 volt circuit and/or 2 AA or AAA batteries. Remove the light and it's holder from the string, the lower lead is positive and the upper is negative. When you remove the LED itself from the green holder but bending the metal legs, you will find that the lower one is longer than upper. Put your positive lead from your power source ( 2 AA or AAA batteries or 3 volt power suppy) to the long leg and negative to the shorter leg and it will light up nicely.

BTW, the little green adapter on the string near the 110 plug holds the dropping resistors and other magic stuff so they light up real nice when plugged into 110.









Here's 2 of the LED's removed from the string and both longer leads hooked to the positive in the battery pack, both short leads hooked to the negative.


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

If you use sets of 4 or 5 bulbs cut from the string and used with the original holders and wires, you will have to calculate the needed voltage based on series wiring. The bulbs in the original wiring on the strings I have are in series.

Used individually and removed from the strings, the info Stan gave is correct. 

Used with 12c-24v power supply, a 1k resistor placed in series with the bulb will work throughout the range. 

If you have a fixed voltage supply [non-variable] greater than 3v then use All Electronics LED calculator if you want a more precise resistance value.

JimC


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I found the same ones at our Walmart, no Walgreens here in the wilds of Nebraskey.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Thank you, Stan. Always the gentleman.







Thanks also to Jim and Jerry. I believe I will go get a string of those.

Les


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Posted By pimanjc on 28 Nov 2009 07:14 PM ... then use All Electronics LED calculator if you want a more precise resistance value....



Question, LED calculators are new to me, where do you get them?

Forrest Scott Wood 

Boonville, Missouri


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## Dr G (Jan 16, 2008)

Forrest,

Here is a link to the LED calculator I have used.

http://www.ngineering.com/LED_Calculators.htm

Check out the rest of the web site--really cool stuff you can do with LED's and simple circuits they sell--all designed for N SCALE--should work great for G.

Matt


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

Stan

Thanks for the tip.I bought a few boxes too. 

Also this year I decided to switch from mini-lights to all LEDs for Christmas displays. So after buying 30 boxes of 100 LEDs each, the front yard should blaze as always but the meter will spin quite bit slower. Another factor, most mini-light strings caution the user to not hook together more than 3 strings, the LEDs sets I bought specify I can string together up to 35 strings. Neat.


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Thanks Matt. 

Just finished soldering together 4 warm white 3mm LED from one of those battery powered sets to make a MilwaukeeRoad-ish 
4 bulb headlight. Have pictures up in largescaleTrolley Yahoo group. 
Will later put some where they can be seen from here. 

Here's the text of relevant post: 

Have some thing of success with kitbashing a 4 bulb Milwaukee-ish headlight from 
a Bachmann Big Haulers 4-6-0 front light. Light itself was sawn off platform 
which snaps into smokebox top. 

Getting light halves apart was going to be a real event but at one point it 
finally just fell apart. 

Warm white LED came from a set of battery powered Christmas lights. 

3 photos are in Forrest's Projects album. 

Circle of .030 white styrene 16mm diameter was marked for 3mm holes then cut, 
drilled, glued to another layer of .030 and installed. 

Headlight is on bell mount. Hole for wires was drilled through bell mounting 
hole into hood top. 

LED are wired in series. 
No idea yet what kind of resistor to use to keep them from blowing. 

Had 2 headlight castings, one for each end's hood, but one headlight was really old and shattered when I tried to 
drill out its back. :-( 
Now, how to come up with another one? :-/ 

FSW


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Okay, photos here http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/...20project/


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey, 30/15........ You should be able to light up the whole neighborhood with that headlight...


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By Stan Cedarleaf on 10 Nov 2009 06:49 AM 
Paul..... At the store in Prescott Valley, they're located with all the other lights in the Christmas section toward the front of the store about head high for me, chest high for Jerry McColgan.




















Hi Stan,

I guess that just makes me 1.20.3 "narrow" gauge as compared with 1:29 "standard" gauge guys.









Cheers,

Jerry


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Dr. G,

Thanks for posting the link and the extra info. I'm always on the lookout for simple electronic solid-state circuits directly applicable to G RR.

Les


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

I guess that just makes me 1.20.3 "narrow" gauge as compared with 1:29 "standard" gauge guys.









Cheers,

Jerry
Jerry, or maybe 1:32!!!?????!!!


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I haven't ripped into one yet. Using mine for Christmas Lights for the time being.

There's a round piece next to the plug that looks like a ferrite bead. It might be. There could be a little current regulator built into the plug, or maybe in the round thing. They do flicker. Looks like 60Hz or there abouts.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

I may have missed the answer to the question I am about to ask, so please forgive my asking , With the LEDs that we are stealing from the Christmas trees, can we light our passengers cars? Would they give off light that would be visable by someone viewing the cars? I plan on using battery power if the answer is yes.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

The LED is encased in clear plastic, but instead of a dome, it has a dent in the t op. It seems to radiate nicely in all directions about like a light bulb. Very nice.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Mad,

The answer to your question is on the first or second page of this thread, where Stan Cedarleaf detailed the how 'n why 'n whatnot of these lights. Whether they can be seen if mounted in a passenger car is a question I cannot answer, though it seems someone said he was going to do it. 

Les


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By Stan Cedarleaf on 28 Nov 2009 06:12 PM 
John and Les... The bulbs work on 3 volts. I will power them with a 3 volt circuit and/or 2 AA or AAA batteries. Remove the light and it's holder from the string, the lower lead is positive and the upper is negative. When you remove the LED itself from the green holder but bending the metal legs, you will find that the lower one is longer than upper. Put your positive lead from your power source ( 2 AA or AAA batteries or 3 volt power suppy) to the long leg and negative to the shorter leg and it will light up nicely.

BTW, the little green adapter on the string near the 110 plug holds the dropping resistors and other magic stuff so they light up real nice when plugged into 110.









Here's 2 of the LED's removed from the string and both longer leads hooked to the positive in the battery pack, both short leads hooked to the negative.











Stan,
What would you estimate the battery life would be as you have them wired in your photo?


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Since there is no resistor in the circuit to limit the current to the proper value, it is hard to tell. Are you exceeding the max current rating? Maybe. Maybe not. 

Since we don't know the specs on these devices, I would recommend 20ma max. I know many of you get away with this. It just isn't the proper way to do it. The 3 volts from the batteries is very close to the voltage drop across the white LEDs. So if you calculated the resistor value, it would likely be very small, and perhaps even inconsequential.


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

Stan

The LED set that was $5.00 at Walgreens is now $2.50 for the 50 LED string. I stopped by my local Walgreens on a whim, saw the reducded price, and cleared them out of eleven boxes. Some weret he colored LEDS and some were white.

I will add the 550 LEDs to the outside display, we have quite glow at night in our neighborhood. Neighbors down the street have more than 10,000 LEDs glowing in their yard, I am envious. After Christmas it might come time to canabilize one set for train matters


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Posted By Pete Chimney on 18 Dec 2009 01:43 PM 
Stan

... might come time to canabilize one set for train matters 
What's this "might" business? Where's your sense of commitment?


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Pete Chimney on 18 Dec 2009 01:43 PM 
Stan

The LED set that was $5.00 at Walgreens is now $2.50 for the 50 LED string. I stopped by my local Walgreens on a whim, saw the reducded price, and cleared them out of eleven boxes. Some weret he colored LEDS and some were white.

I will add the 550 LEDs to the outside display, we have quite glow at night in our neighborhood. Neighbors down the street have more than 10,000 LEDs glowing in their yard, I am envious. After Christmas it might come time to canabilize one set for train matters


Somehow the "save the planet" scheme in using LEDs instead of incandescents is being undermined by the low price of the LED sets. Instead of wasting a few kilowatthours running a few dozen incandescent light bulbs around the front room window frame, along the roof eave and around a bush or two... now it is 10 times more kilowatthours to run tens of thousands of LEDs around all the window frames on the house, including the basement windows under the patio deck, along the roof eaves, and outlining all the dormers, and the roof peak and sides, (and the same on the doghouse and the child's playhouse, swing and jungle gym), then down the sidewalk, up all the trees, outlining every branch over 1/2 inch diameter in the front yard, both side yards and the back yard, all the bushes in the front and back of the house and covering the hedges on each side of the house as well as lacing every wire of the chainlink fence seperating your property from that crazy neighbor that has the lighted pinwheels and animated reindeer on the roof!


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan..... So sorry for the delay in responding about the time for the running as wired. I really don't know how long they'll last but I can imagine it would be months. I've been running other LED's on the same set of batteries for almost a year. 

Thanks, Pete.... I'm on my way to Walgreens...


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Just got back from Walgreens... They weren't marked down so I shared with the manager on duty that other stores around the country had them at 1/2 off.... 

got 8 boxes at 50% off....









Thanks, Pete...


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Stan Cedarleaf on 18 Dec 2009 06:42 PM 
Just got back from Walgreens... They weren't marked down so I shared with the manager on duty that other stores around the country had them at 1/2 off.... 

got 8 boxes at 50% off....









Thanks, Pete...









Stan,

I hate to raise questions like this, but what if the lights are 75% off *after *Christmas?









Ol Vulp


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

No problem, our stores LEDs were gone 2 weeks ago.............


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## nkelsey (Jan 4, 2008)

Just a word of warning on the colored sets, the yellow and orange will pop using 2 AA batteriies, the other colors are okay, use one AA on the orange and yellow and they are fine wired direct, otherwise, its hook in the resistor.


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

Les

The decision when to buy Christmas decorations is similar to buying shares in the stock market, timing is everything. 
One might wait for a better price later on only to find the item is sold out.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Stan,

I hate to raise questions like this, but what if the lights are 75% off *after *Christmas?









Ol Vulp











Les.......... From the looks of the stock remaining in our local store, there ain't gonna be none left after Christmas nohow unless they're sandbaggin' more stock in the back room....









If they do go on sale for 75% off and there's any left, I'll buy 'em.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Stan & Pete:

Well, there's my go at seasonal humor. Glad it's over.







I'm heading down to my local Wallygreen to see if there's any on sale here in MO.

Les


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I raided THREE different Walgreens over the weekend to no avail. Tried Wally Mall and Menards too... Have not found these type bulbs or LEDs anywhere...YET! 
I am wondering if I could run a string of them through my LGB Wild West train, in series and what it would take for them to work with a 9 volt battery set up etc.?


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Good luck finding them now... stores aren't stocking as much of anything this year ... less money to play with. 

I'd look in stores where more people live in apts, than homes with outside decorations and more affluent areas where the need to save is less important might yeild more choices of LEDs. 

What I bought ar one Ace on Friday weren't available at another Ace on Sat.... 

After Christmas we used to get outdoor solar lamps on sale.... for building lights.... 

John; read the thead; 'Help with LEDs', more than enough info is there... 

John


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