Electrical Accessories for Dolls House/Model Railway

SORRY! THE ITEMS ON THIS PAGE ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Flickering Fire

£9.95 A tiny printed circuit board 12 x 20mm (smaller than a postage stamp) that flashes two lamps rapidly to simulate a coal fire or oil-burning lamp. Choice of lamp colour and flicker speed for various applications, suggested as follows:

• Flicker/amber and red for coal fire or oil lamp or model train coal furnace or barbecue.
• Slow flash/two red lamps for railway crossing or Police Car rear lights.
• Slow flash/two white lights for Police Car/Ambulance headlamps.
• Slow flash single or two blue lights for any Emergency vehicle or single green for Doctor's car.
• Ultra slow (approx every 8 seconds) white bulbs for railway signal box to simulate movement inside.
• Custom lamp flasher can be tailored to suit your exact requirements! State flash rate, supply wire length, bulb wire length (140mm max.), bulb colour(s) red/amber/green/blue/white
• Why not use several to add interest to your Christmas Tree or window display?

The lighting effect is very dependent on your choice of translucent film and the distance of the bulbs from the film. You can use plain white paper, coloured toffee wrappers, tisue paper, greaseproof paper or our own V-CG3300 heat-resistant plastic film (safer). The effect can further be enhanced by using crumpled aluminium cooking foil as a reflector or by using glass or plastic beads in front of the bulbs to act as light diffusers. Have fun experimenting!

Runs off 12 volt regulated dc supply (see H02-7343) or battery (see below).
IMPORTANT - Many power supplies marked "12 volt" actually give up to 20 volts!
If you use one of these, please connect another miniature 12 volt bulb in series with the red wire to protect the unit.

Doorbell chime

	DOORBELL CHIME HK00245 £21.50 A small printed circuit board that produces a doorbell chime electronically into a tiny earpiece. This acts as a loudspeaker to produce a sound that is suitable for a 12th scale Dolls' House. (You can drive a loudspeaker if you want to wake up the neighbours!) Chimes are adjustable so you can have one, two or three chimes after each push. Runs off 12 volt dc supply. Kit requires soldering skills but my 16 year-old son managed it without problems! (If you want him to build it for you it will cost an extra £10 !!) Illustrated half full size.
	BURGLAR ALARM! BA0001 £29.95 Dolls' House modern Burglar Alarm system comprising one alarm box with blue flashing light and one Siren Box. Both boxes require a single 12v regulated d.c. power supply. The alarm box can be painted (red or yellow for example) and appropriate wording can be added by hand painting or by letter transfers. It measures 37 x 25mm plus 8mm fixing lugs (which can be cut off if not required). Door sensors and wiring will be made available soon.
	Magnetic switch Shown slightly larger than true size is a magnetic switch 15x3x4mm and a tiny bar magnet 13x3x2mm. The switch turns ON if the magnet is less than 5mm away from it. Suitable for use with above alarm system or for controlling items such as lights without the need for a mechanical switch. Example: The magnet can be glued into the edge of a door or window and the magnetic switch can be mounted on or in the adjacent wall. Used in conjunction with BA0001, the alarm will sound if the door is opened. Magnetic switch F732-011 price £2.95 Bar magnet F423-117 price £1.25

Versatile Switch Box for Dolls House or Model Railway (d.c. low voltage)

Until now, to operate your dolls' house lights you had two choices: heave the house forward, reach round the back and operate slide switches in a "pot luck" fashion or buy and fit an elegant (but expensive) remote control system with battery-powered handset.

Now there is an alternative: SatCure supply a simple, low cost kit from which you can build a switching box to control your lights. The kit includes a plastic box, six miniature toggle switches, six Light Emitting diodes, resistors and an umbilical cord to connect it to the lighting circuit.

The end result is a small box measuring just 76 x 57 x 25mm (3" x 2.25" x 1") with six switches and LEDs that light when a switch is "on". The umbilical cord is an unobtrusive white cable 5mm thick and 1 metre long. The combination can easily be hidden away when not in use or screwed firmly to a surface. <-- click on box for more information Tools needed You will need a soldering iron, fine-tip pliers, wire cutters, a drill and a size #1 "Pozidriv" screwdriver. An 8mm spanner makes it easy to tighten the nuts on the toggle switches, but you can use pliers if necessary. Suitable drill bits and solder are supplied. £19.95 (or £29.95 ready built) Not suitable for 230 volt mains

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Wire

IMPORTANT! The following wire and strip must NOT be used for 230 volt mains power connections.

Silk Flex !
Dolls' house electrical cord has never accurately been represented in 1/12 scale - until now!

Remember those pre- 1950s mains cords on table lamps, standard lamps, the first electric irons, "wireless" radios and even telephones? They all used rubber-insulated twin flex that was cotton-covered and often a light brown colour.

That classic twin flex was 6mm in width, which translates to just 0.5 millimetres in 1/12 scale. But what do we use? White plastic-covered "hook-up" wire at least 2 millimetres in width if we are lucky! Such stuff may be appropriate for a child's dolls' house but is hardly representative of what we want to achieve in a real miniature.

Help is at hand. A new flex is available which is truly representative of the style and scale. Silk Flex uses two conductors, each made of no less than 24 copper strands thinner than a human hair and bound together with a covering of fine silk imported from Japan. The colour is a pinkish-brown but, if this is unsuitable for a specific application, the silk can be dyed.

Silk Flex is available exclusively from SatCure. It must be stressed that Silk Flex is specifically intended for the perfectionist as it is really too delicate for everyday play by children. However, it is perfectly capable of handling electric current of 1 Amp at 12 volts; more than adequate for several bulbs. It is available with a suitable two-pin plug fitted to one or both ends. Sub-miniature matching sockets are also available in either two-pin or three-pin style.

LTZ001 Black two-pin plug with light brown Silk Flex approx. 200mm long to suit pre 1960s electrical appliances, lamps etc. Plug pins are on 2.5mm centres (= 1.2 inches to scale).

Fits into socket F177-128 or F103-963.

Silk flex is silk-covered and extremely thin for accurate scale representation.
It contains 24 flexible copper wires, each no thicker than a human hair!

Silk Flex twisted twin 200mm with one plug £2.95
Silk Flex twisted twin 200mm* with plug each end £3.95
*Shorter length can be supplied on request.

Silk Flex (single conductor not twin) sold by the metre at £2.00

	H03-2307 Twin flex (red & black plastic) 4mm wide, 3 Amp £0.18 per metre. Heavy duty stuff for connecting to the power supply terminals. Don't ask me why it's so cheap!
	Enamelled Copper Wire 26 standard wire guage - that's thin! This wire is insulated with enamel so you can safely twist two strands together to make twin. Suitable for carrying up to 1 Amp. Thin enough to hide in a knife groove behind wallpaper. Thin enough to pass through the smallest hole you can drill. Available only on 50 gramme bobbins for £1.25

H03-3096 Twin Flex (white) 3mm wide, 2 Amp £0.12per metre!

Twin flex (grey plastic) 2mm wide, 0.5 Amp £0.20 per metre.
Quite thin for use in tight spaces.

F301-826 Tinned copper wire (uninsulated) 24 swg £0.15 per metre
F301-838 Tinned copper wire (uninsulated) 22 swg £0.15 per metre

Heat Shrink tubing

F236-342 6mm diameter shrinks to 2.5 mm diameter (black) £3.78 per metre.

Terminals, sockets and connectors

	F103-963 socket 2 pin black £0.19 Also available with wires soldered to it. Please state length and type when ordering. Pins are on 2.5mm centres (= 1.2 inches to scale).
	F177-128 black 3 hole socket (3.5") £0.66 Drill a 7mm hole and push-fit with glue to secure. Replicates a 15 Amp round-pin plug socket pre- 1960s.
	F149-849 terminal block 12 way £2.09 Shown half full size
	F105-364 terminal block 3 way deluxe £1.90

Bulbs and holders

	GOP2640 11mm MES screw 12v bulb (= 5.2") £0.26 Bulb current = 0.2A so 7 bulbs need 1.5Amps
	F549-496 MES 10mm bulb holder, solder tags (=4.7") £2.37
	F328-170 5mm T1 1/2 LES screw 12v bulb (=2.35") £1.09 Bulb current = 0.04A so 36 bulbs need 1.5Amps
	F549-484 LES 5mm bulb holder, solder tags (=2.35") £1.48
	F329-216 6mm Bi-pin bulb 14volt (=3") £1.46 Bulb current = 0.08A so 18 bulbs need 1.5Amps
	F526-940 3mm, T1 Bi-pin 12v bulb (=1.5") £1.79 Bulb current = 0.06A so 25 bulbs need 1.5Amps
	F527-002 Bi-pin T1 3/4 lampholder suits either Bi-pin bulb £1.64 Solder pins.
	H18-1147 white 3mm bulb + 150mm wires H18-1150 orange 3mm bulb + 150mm wires H18-1148 red 3mmbulb + 150mm wires H18-1149 green 3mmbulb + 150mm wires £0.47 each Bulb current = 0.065A so 23 bulbs need 1.5 Amps
	LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes) Colourless (off) high brightness green (on) 10p each Red LED 8p each Z-3981 White LED 5600mcd, rounded 5mm lens Extremely bright! 20' angle £3.49 each F623-738 Yellow LED with rounded 5mm lens Extremely bright! 8' angle £0.99 each F623-672 Red LED with rounded 5mm lens Extremely bright! 8' angle £0.99 each F623-763 Green LED with rounded 5mm lens Extremely bright! 8' angle £0.99 each 1k Resistor (required to run LED off 12v dc) 2p each
The magnified picture shows the polarity of an LED. The larger "anvil" shape is negative. The other wire is positive. F557-973 illustrated
	F557-950 red LED with flat-ended "stalk" to fit a 2mm hole £0.20 each F557-973 yellow LED £0.18 each. Ideal for model train lights.

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Power supplies

H02-7343 Deluxe Regulated d.c. Power Supply 1.5 Amp (see picture). Voltage switchable from 3 volts to 12 volts d.c. Ideal for dimming lamps and/or extending bulb life. £24.95 This PSU will run a maximum of: 7 x GOP2640 10mm MES screw bulbs or 18 x F329-216 6mm Bi-pin bulbs or 25 x F526-940 3mm, T1 Bi-pin bulbs. Also suitable for mini drill. Use the rotary voltage switch to control speed!

BATTERY No mains power?This 12 volt sealed rechargeable battery is just what you need. You can run your lights and electrical accessories for hours between charges. It is small and not very heavy. Ideal for powering your Dolls House at the Exhibition. 12 volt rechargeable battery £24.95 You can use the H02-7343 Deluxe Regulated d.c. Power Supply as a charger or you can buy the 12v Charger for £10.95

Fuses and Fuse Holders

	Fuse Holder with 5 Amp fuse (30mm) £0.50 Can be used with above power supply to improve safety - reduce risk of fire.
	Other fuse values available

Batteries

	BT00085 PP3 zinc chloride 9 volt battery £1.13 each
	BT00092 AAA zinc chloride battery £0.60 for two
	and next size up (no picture...) BT00078 AA zinc chloride battery £0.48 for two - that's less than 25p each!

Switches and clips

	F584-010 clip £0.14 Self-adhesive. Use it to hold wires in place where they are out of sight.
	CPSW-Z101/Z on/off switch £0.78 Drill a 4.5mm hole in wood (max thickness 8mm) and screw directly into hole or drill a 6mm hole (max panel thickness 5mm) and use nuts provided. Rated at 2.5A/12vDC or 1.5A/250vAC
	PCB-SW on/off switch £0.50 can be push-fit with glue into a 6mm diameter hole. Rated at 2.5A/12vDC or 1.5A/250vAC

Copyright ©1999 Martin Pickering
Version 1.1 updated on 3/5/99
This file may be downloaded for private and personal use but NO part of it may be published in any form without the prior permission of the author.