The light bricks that are included with the holiday sets are really a nice touch to brighten up the buildings. However, my problem with them is that one must keep pressing on the brick to keep it on. I was wondering if anyone out there had come up with an easy way to keep the light on continuously. I have tried several ideas of my own but nothing that I was satisfied with. I have assembled all of my holiday sets together and it would be a nice display to be able to turn on all the lights at once.

The light bricks that are included with the holiday sets are really a nice touch to brighten up the buildings. However, my problem with them is that one must keep pressing on the brick to keep it on. I was wondering if anyone out there had come up with an easy way to keep the light on continuously. I have tried several ideas of my own but nothing that I was satisfied with. I have assembled all of my holiday sets together and it would be a nice display to be able to turn on all the lights at once.

Didn't one of the winter sets have the light brick on a hinge so that the button could be rotated against something to keep it on? Something like this:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6134

(and its counterpart). Put the light brick on top of that. You can put a technic axle or pin on the light brick's button to make it easier to jam it up against something and keep it on "permanently".

If you want to consider methods other than the light brick, I've seen people rigging up their own wires and LEDs and that's quite effective.

I've had this problem, too. I think the lights would look nice all lit up by themselves.

An alternative:

Power Functions Light

Power Functions Battery

Then run the wires under some bricks, and connect your buildings. You can then light your buildings and if you use the remote control and IR sensor, you can turn them on/off remotely, and dim them, too.

Locutis

I've moved this to LEGO General Discussion, since this pertains to other themes, too.

I don't have a decent solution, but add me to the list of people who found the need to keep pressing the button a total pain..... presumably it's for safety reasons, or to stop the battery from being used up within 5 minutes, but it still makes the addition of a light brick completely pointless IMHO. And it adds additional expense....

D.

For the non-purist, the problem is easily rectified with a little bit of sellotape to hold the button down. For a Lego only approach, you could take a look at the mechanism in the Creator 5893 off-road power set, it's used to hold a winch brick on but the principle should work with a light brick too.

I have been thinking of this having just fitted one to a railway station I am making. I thought about just having a 1X2 brick to put in front of it holding a short technic axle in place, then move it to turn the light off. Not very elegant but all I could think of.

Does anyone know how long the battery will last for in the light brick if it is left on, will it die very quickly or last a few hours?

Does anyone know how long the battery will last for in the light brick if it is left on, will it die very quickly or last a few hours?

It is just a tiny little watch battery. It should last for a few hours, but I can imagine you will have to change it out probably every day or two if you want to run it for a couple hours a night.

If you do want to do this, I would suggest buying these batteries in bulk very cheaply at one of the Hong Kong gadget retailers that sell these batteries VERY cheaply.

You can buy 100 of these batteries for $3.22 including shipping here:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/cell-batteries-lr41-ag3-100-pack-61

It would probably cost that much for one or two at a local retail store. If you have never bought from DX, do know that it will likely take a couple of weeks to receive your items from Hong Kong, but they are a very reputable company and I've placed dozens and dozens of orders with them over the years without a problem

Edited September 27, 201113 yr by Yucca Patrol

If you could make a hinge of some sort which would press something against the brick to hold the button, that would probably work. It would probably be easier to use something like LifeLites or the LEGO PF LEDs. You could also use other LEDs, but it might be hard to find them in the exact size to be LEGO compatible. If you use your own LEDs, you could also make a circuit to make them flash or change brightness or other things (You might be able to do this with LifeLites, I don't know for sure)