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LED advice (for display shelves)

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So I have this plan for my new-and-improved hobby room.  I'll be using adjustable shelving brackets so I can reconfigure my display shelves however I please.  My goal is to have lighting installed underneath each shelf so it will shine down on the cars below.  I'll be able to flick a single switch and my entire display will come to life.  The basic idea is that I can turn my display setup into some cool ambient lighting when I'm working in the hobby room or reading my Kindle there.

I've worked out how to supply power to each shelf from a single common source and how to add individual toggle switches in case I want to turn the lights off on any given shelf, if for example there's nothing beneath that shelf worth shining a light on.

So, being quite happy with electrical wiring in general but totally new to LED lighting, my questions are as follows:

What sort of power should I use?  I can hook up a 12V DC adaptor to the mains or run from an old 7.2V NiMH pack.

Can anyone advise how many LEDs and what type I might need under each shelf to highlight the car below?  By "shelf" assume "big enough for a single 1:10 buggy".  My shelves are angled so I might have to install the LEDs in reflectors to get the light to shine on the car and not on the wall.

Any advice on the best colour LED to use to make the cars look good in the dark?  I think pure white might be too harsh so I'm considering a softer colour, maybe yellow or orange like street lamps.

Has anyone used colour-changing LEDs and how hard are they to configure, as I'll be custom-wiring them?  If they have to be run from a controller board then I could install that near the power source and run all the bulbs from one controller...  Right..?

I have some cars with lights already fitted.  I'm considering having an option to hook the light unit up to the master power source when the cars are shelved, so the car lights come on when I turn the display lights on.  Will the LEDs in, for example, a TLU-01 kit, take 12V?  Will the TLU-01 controller take 12V or will it go pop?  This isn't a be-all end-all, I doubt I'll use car lighting much as the lights will shine out of the display and across the room, which might annoy me.

 

Thanks all :)

 

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Maplin do some LED strips for shelf lighting in either white or multi-colour and also do some flexible stuff on a roll - fairly sure they are mains powered.

You can find similar items on ebay a lot cheaper. 

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I got some of the 240v maplin ones for under unit lighting in the kitchen, they work really well and can be joined up.

Another option is the 12v led strips used by some of the ,plastic fantastic, car crowd. Cheap enough and can run them off a 12v laptop charger. I use those in my shot blast cabinet.

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I got some strips from Banggood.  Extremely cheap so ordered up a few options to try.  The RGB multicolour strips with the wireless remote might be a good option for you.  Also, don't battery power them. 12V adapter or, as in my case, USB plug on the end of the strip.  My room has powered USB sockets on all the mains points so I can just plug it straight into the wall.  Here's what the 'sodium yellow' you mentioned may look like, as I have it installed now.  This shelf is 3.5 metres long and is lit to silhouette the cars, rather than downlight them.  Crap picture, sorry.

20171222_212233.thumb.jpg.e833647e4b29062f15603c59746ec3c7.jpg

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Fantastic @LongRat, thanks :) that's pretty much exactly what I've got in mind.  RGB option sounds great, I already have a wireless RGB bulb in the 240 overhead which gives a variety of great ambient glows depending on what mood I'm in and being able to match that with the shelf lighting would be awesome.

I had hoped to be further along with my shelves by now but wife and baby have both been ill so the hobby room is still very much a WIP.  Also due to re-thinking my space options and giving a little more to my wife (we now share the same hobby room with a curtain across the middle :D )  I will no longer be doing the adjustable shelving options, so I don't need to worry so much about how I supply power.  I'll just run any cables behind my twin-slot rails to keep them hidden.

There's a Maplin branch close to where I work now, I might investigate some options in there soon.  I'll probably also do a conventional LED install in some 1:10 scale streetlamps that I quite fancy making :D

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1:10 street lamps with orange LEDs would look fantastic - go for it!

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Used to do all kinds of fancy DC lighting got shelves/diorama, 12-24V depending on what powersource available - halogen transformers are cheap for good current. Incandescent will run off low voltage AC too. 

These days it's easier to standardise everything to USB 5V and plug into a powered USB hub or a high current USB supply. 

Any LED light kit that runs off RX voltage will run off USB volts fine.

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