Interested in lighting up MOCs and sets with tiny LEDs, but not really interested in spending time soldering..
So I would be looking for pre-made starter kits/set kits and ideally with nice expand-ability.
I investigated a bit and found vendors called "Brickstuff" and "light my bricks", but those are both US or Australian based.
Are there any sellers for Germany/Europe?
Is there some sort of a standard/market leader emerging?

Also what are folks using for power? The USB connector method per LED and then a hidden USB powered hub/power supply or battery based? Seems battery based would be quite a waste if we are talking lighting up 5+ different MOCs/sets but then 1x USB connector per light is also nuts it seems.

Thanks for any hints!

I use Brickstuff lighting LEDs. They are very small. They are primarily a USA based company, but they may have resellers in Europe.

You can check out their offerings at Brickstuff.com they seem expensive, but there is no soldering involved and there fit LEGO models very well.

IHTH

Andy D

Wire-wrapping is a quick and cheap option if you're not into soldering.

Do-It-Yourself LEGO LED Light by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

Depending on the power requirements and availability, I like to use AC to DC adapters. Otherwise, it's rechargeable batteries.

If you don't want to solder, do that ^^. If you want it a little more permanent, use some heat shrink tube over the top.

As to USB vs battery, what is the application? Still or moving? You can use a simple phone charger power bank (essentially a rechargeable battery with a USB socket) and get many hours of LED time from it, whereas you'd need a 5V -> 9V booster to run a train from it and it wouldn't last too long.

Thanks for the replys guys! Main application would be pretty much static in a display case.
(My son has the Lego highspeed train and we MIGHT want to put some lights in that in the future, but in the here and now, it is all static models.)

That is why I am thinking USB hub-power, but still would only want 1x USB connection per model, not per light.

Depends what you are willing to pay. For a budget option, you can stick a 3mm LED into a technic brick hole and they fit perfectly. Bend the wires behind, wire wrap and heat shrink them to a resistor and connect in parallel. You'll need a resistor for each LED.

For a 5V power bank, you might get away with 2 LEDs in each parallel section in a mixed series/parallel circuit depending on their colour / forward voltage.