Ditch Lights and Athearn RTRs

[CNW 6000]

I have several Athearn RTR AC4400CWs I plan on adding ditch lights to.  The bulbs I plan on using are Miniatronics bulbs (not LEDs) that "draw the same as what comes on the loco" according to the guys at the LHS.  My question is this: where on the Athearn DCC board do I connect the wires to?  I can't find any answers on the specs/drawing that came with the loco.  I have a Digitrax DH163 chip in the locos and (if possible) want the ditch lights off when the lead headlight is dim (using CV49=x68 for "Rule 17") and on when that feature isn't active (after releasing F4).  Any help?

[cacole]

Since you obviously put the Digitrax decoder into the locomtoives yourself, don't you have the documentation that came with the DH163 ?  If not, you can download a copy from the Digitrax web site.

NOTE:  Page 6 of the Digitrax instruction sheet shows how to connect the necessary extra function wires to the decoder.

http://www.digitrax.com/ftp/dh163at.pdf 

[CNW 6000]

So if I read that page correctly...I would wire the ditch light wires to the decoder and not the circuit board in the locomotive?  That is part of what confused me.  I do have the documentation...but was confused because some of the guys at the MR club indicated that the circuit board on the locomotive's motor was where the connection "should" be made.

[CB&Q4-8-4Fanatic]

use an 8 pin plug to connect the decodeer to the circuit board. then wire the ditch lights positive lead to the tab on the locomotives circuit board where the locomotive head lights are already. then wire the ditch lights negative leads to the circuit boards function holes in the circuit board.

[WSOR 3801]

 You might have to splice into the wires on the harness that goes into the board.  You would need to splice into blue, and either green or purple.  Resistors would need to be added. 

One fellow at the club went the easy way and took out the factory board and installed a TCS A6X.  This board replacement decoder has a regulator on the board for hooking up 1,5 volt bulbs without any extra resistors.  Just solder the wires to the correct pads.  I installed one on an Atlas GP38-2, and this engine now has flashing ditch lights.  The hard part was installing the lights, wiring was easy. 

[jbinkley60]

CNW 6000

So if I read that page correctly...I would wire the ditch light wires to the decoder and not the circuit board in the locomotive?  That is part of what confused me.  I do have the documentation...but was confused because some of the guys at the MR club indicated that the circuit board on the locomotive's motor was where the connection "should" be made.

You may need to solder to the Digitrax decoder board, depending on which function outputs you are using and which exact DH163 decoder that you have.  Ditch lights typically connect to the F1/F2 outputs.  On a DH163A0 and similar, you solder to the pads on the board.  On a DH163PS and similar with a 9 pin plug you connect to the green and violet leads (blue wire common return).  I'd suggest downloading a copy of the Digitrax decoder manual.  Page 43 shows ditch light hookup.

http://www.digitrax.com/ftp/decodermanual.pdf