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The Proto GP35 have a red Marslight in the nose, is it possible to get that working? Right now i successfully managed to have the numberboards flashing...(GP35 have 2 diods for - frontlight and Marslight in the nose, (white and blue wire).
Right now all three lights are on at the same time.
I have the NCE D13J decoder.
Thanks,Pete
Yes, you need to use one of the other function wires, green or purple, and connect to the Mars light, along with the blue wire to it (blue is the common for all decoder funtions). Then look on the decoder instruction sheet on how to set the green or purple wire to use the Mars light effect.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Ah, i see... thanks Randy.
There are no green wire at all on any pcba, so i have to figure out where to put it.
I canged CV122 to 9, as i says in the manual, how to get it back, and what was it before? (numberbord light, not flashing)
I have no clue... :/
Pete
Okay, i found something...On the mainboard there are some terminals - MARS, P7, RNUM, LNUM, and M- and M+, those terminals are not used.
So, a green wire from MARS to... hmm... The hood front lights and Mars light are on the same circuitboard with 2 surface-led's, connected with white and blue cable (circuitboard is in a small slot, not much room here).
By green or purple I am referring to the wires out of the decoder, if you have a standard NMRA colored harness. If all the wires connecting the decoder to the loco circuit board are black, it's the second one in from the edge of the decoder opposite the side that has the two motor wires. CV122 controls what that wire does - setting it to 9 makes it a Mars light but only when moving forward.
Not having one of those locos to look at, I can't say how the circuit board is arranged, but your goal is to get the negative side of the Mars light LED independent of the regular headlight and number board lights, so it can be controlled by the purple wire, Function 2. (Since the green wire, Function 1, already appears to control the number board lights. The default value was probably 0, instead of 9. That is a normal on/off function, when CV122 is 0). The purple wire would be the one closes to the edge, opposite the side of the decoder with the motor wires. Right next to the position of the green wire. CV123 controls that one, so you would make CV123 a value of 9 for a Mars light when moving forward.
Here is a couple of pic's ...
And, yes, you were right about CV122=0, thanks! :)
The upper LED's: roof headlight=center led, numberboards led left/right.The lower LED's: hood headlight=lower led, upper led is Mars.
Since CV122 had an effect on the number board lights, they much have those connected to the pad on the board that's marked LNUM, which must go over to teh decoder connection to the green wire. Otherwise nothing would have changed. Do you need to press F1 to make the number boards light up?
That front board - are there three wires comign otu of it, or just 2? If there are 3, one will be the commona dn oen will be for the regular headlight and one for the red LED. Do both light up at the same time, or does just the regualr white headlight come on on the lower board? If just the white one comes on, the Mars LED may already be wired to that tab marked Mars on the main board. Thing would be to track that and see if it goes to the purple wire coming from the decoder - if so, all you need to do is set CV123 to 8 and hit F2 - the value of 8 means Mars light without any direction modifier - ie, it does the Mars light no matter if the loco is stopped, moving forward, or moving reverse. That 9 value means Mar light but only if moving forward. Depending on your DCC system F2 may only be momentary, in the US it's usually the horn or whistle on a sound decoder and as such is only active as long as you hold it down. You can use function mapping to change the purple wire to a different F key if needed.
If there are three wires coming from the bottom board but the above doesn't work, the wire for the Mars LED is probably tied in with ones of the others. You'll have to figure out which wire it is and move it to that Mars tab.
If t already is on the Mars tab but you can't control it, it may be that the Mars ab doesn;t route to the purple wire. That unused tab for RNum might go to the purple wire - you could try moving the wire from Mars to RNUM.
Randy,
Headlight button=upper headlights.F1=both numberboards.F2=lower headlight and mars.
Frontboard only have white and blue cable.
No purple or green wire is installed.
The cable attached to MARS tab is blue, and goes to front board.
I changed the CV123 to 8, and both LED's on "front board" started to flash.
I guess... to make the MARS work like it should, i have to remove the upper LED from the front board, and mount a separate LED in that place with its own wires. And mount some "light divider" between the two LED's. And then attached the "green wire" from MARS-light to MARS-tab, and remove the "blue wire" from MARS-tab and attached that one to unused numbord tab ... ?
Blue wire stays put. If you divide the lower light, the extra wire you add for the white light connects to the same tab as the upper headlight, so all the headlights come on together. The decoder doesn't have enough functions to add yet another one to turn on the lower white light independently. You could move the wire from LNUM to the headlight tab as well and the number boards will come on with the headlight, freeing up the LNUM pad and the F1 function for the lower white light.
You might want to research the prototype and see just what sort of light package they had. Two headlights plus the Mars light is somewhat unusual. Both lowers may have been mars lights, operated indepdently - the white one for visibility such as when approaching a grade crossing and the red one when the loco was trailing or if the train went into emergency somewhere in the middle of the main. Still doesn't solve the problem of not being able to operate the whie and red independently.
Allright... got it.
One thing makes a big flaw like it is now, i mean, the lower headlight and mars could flash together, but, this loco also have classification lenses, so when mars lights is ON, the classification lights flashes also, not so cool...
Ok, i try to connect all headlights together, and maybe the numberboard, then i can have a separate red mars light. Think that will look the best in this case.
On what tab do i connect the mars llight then ?
Thanks!Pete
I did some modification, moved the blue wire from MARS to LNUM. Now the numberboards light up together with lower headlights, that will work, and now i got MARS tab free. (the mars light is now also ON together with numb/headlight) do i have to remove that LED and replace with a separate one with its own cables?
There are only 2 connections in the rear of the small board the LED's are mounted on, its a "printed circuit board", so i can't put any more cables in there...
The class lights shouldn't flash when the Mars light flashes (along with the lower headlight). The class lights are on F1 and the Mars light/lower headlight are on F2. CV122 controls F1, the class lights so settign that at 0 should make it not flash.CV123 controls F2, setting it to 8 (or 9) should make only the Mars light and lower headlight flash with the Mars light effect.
If you manage to split out the lower white light, its wire will go to wherever the upper headlight connects. The wire for the Mars light will stay put on the Mars tab, still controlled by F2.
This picture from inside the shell tells you why the classification light's flashes
And why they are "lit" when headlights are on.
Just a... spillover effect.
(it's the same with the upper headlights and the numberboards, when headlight is on the numberboards are glowing)
Gremlins...
Moved wires so i should have both headlights connected. All i got was a white flash and no more lowers headlight/mars.
Tryed with another decoder, same thing.
Main pcba looks undamaged, no burnt ic's, maybe the front led's broke?
- Learning by doing...
Nope, cant'n make it work...
What terminal did you connec thtem to? You must have bypassed the resistors, those LEDs are toast.
I really wish they wouldn;t bother with the class lights like that because they are never lit correctly. Unless those light pipes point at the white LED, then you can at least say it's an Extra. Red class lights are only for the end of the train - trailing loco in a light loco move or trailing loco on helpers on the rear. Then there's green for extra sections. Off or white are the most useful options, there are some locos that are green going forward and red in reverse, that's just all sorts of wrong. You need a lot more functions to have proper working class lights that can display all options - 2 LEDs per side, one red/green and one white, pointing in the same light pipe. Or one pair of LEDs and fiber optics instead of light pipes.
The number boards have their own LEDs - at least I see 3 LEDs in the upper part, if the outside two aren't the number boards, what are they? The middle one should be the upper headlight.
I am so glad I model an earlier period and a simple railroad where all they have are headlights front and rear, no Mars, no ditch lights, nothing fancy at all.
"You must have bypassed the resistors", that is a good assumption... yes. I moved the blue wire, but not the white.
The class lights are not that important to me, but the headlight and mars are nice to have.
I think i will do like this:Install a NCE DA-SR decoder instead, then i can ditch all the other parts and start from scratch, and use 3mm LEDs in the front with special built separator for the "light leaking". The DA-SR also have built in resistors for LEDs.
The numberboards have their own LEDs, with the upper headlight in the middle.
When looking at 3mm LEDs I noticed that there are several types of LEDs with different voltage, what would be the best choice here?
Ah, never mind... i found a lot of LEDs at my "local store" Digitrains UK.