My passenger cars with interior lighting and std wheel pickup on a DCC layout flicker when the train is running. When the train stops, the lights are steady. All contacts are clean and have been running less than one month.
There has to be a flicker free wiring circuit for HO DCC passenger car lighting -- yes, no?
Only some type of battery powered lighting such as the Easy Peasy from Rapido Trains of Canada eliminates all of the flickering. As long as you're having to rely on clean track, wheels, and pickup wipers, you're going to have flickering lights.
From a Google search for flicker free passenger lighting DCC. It is amazing what you can find with a Google search.
http://www.dccconcepts.com/index_files/DCCflickerfree.htm
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Looks like they did it right, too, current limited the input via a resistor and diode so charging that big cap won't cause a huge inrush current and make DCC systems think there's a short. Somewhere in the file section of the Digitrax and NCE Yahoo groups is a circuit by Mark Gurries which is basically the same thign with a smaller capacitor, and a voltage regulator. Capacitor prevents flicker, a diode and resistor in the input limits charge current to the cap but allows it to supply full power to the regulator and load.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
A couple fellows in our club use them with no issues.
One fellow installs them in passenger cars for a LHS nearby which also gives us a 20 percent discount on items stuff we buy there.
Rich, thanks for posting that link. Impressive information. I'm hoping that I won't need to take this route with the Miniatronics passenger car lighting kits. However, it's good to know that this option is available.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
You mentioned " Easy Peasy " lighting, Can this battery lighting system be made to work on non-rapido passenger cars?
Don't beg for things, Do it yourself, Or else you won't get anything "-Adrock Thurston-Eureka Seven.
ye olde engineerMy passenger cars with interior lighting and std wheel pickup
What do you mean by "std wheel pickup?" I have some Rivarossi cars that I equipped with Walthers lighting kits. The kits have replacement trucks which transmit rail power through the wheels and the sides of the trucks to screws at the top of the truck, which hold the side frames to the plastic center section. These screws brush against metal plates in the car floor and carry the power to the lights.
It's not a very good system. I had to cut down the truck bolsters to get more solid contact between the screws and the body plates, which worked well for a while, but now only one car is reliably lit. One of these days, I'll just run a thin wire from the screw to the plate and be done with it.
These cars, by the way, are all-wheel pickup. Some lighting pickup systems only draw power from one rail from each truck. I've got some like this, but oddly they are much less prone to flicker than the fancy all-wheel ones. There's something about a simple, solid, wired connection that beats "clever" systems every time.
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I built my own version of the one offered by dccconcepts from an old MR article for my cabooses and it works great ! It will stay lit for a good three minutes after removing it from the rails (using two LEDs).
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Would you care to share the circuit, or the issue number of the MR article?
I used the two different MRR Index search links and found some results but too much the post.
Search yourself. You will get some possibilities. A couple mention flicker free.
A long time ago, I installed the ole' Athearn wiper style pickup/lighting kits in my passenger cars and hated the constant flicker of the lights. I found it best to keep things simple and easy , I installed a small battery box from Radio Shack and an on/off switch.....no more flicker. If you use LED's, a couple of AAA's will last a loooong time. You could also put the battery box in, say the RPO car and run small ga. wire to each of the cars. To make them able to seperate, use small electrical connectors. I found some good ones in my MicroMark catalog.
unless I read wrong (and thats possible) there's a schematic of a flicker circuit @ the flicker free web site posted above,I was seaching around the site and came accross a do it your self unit,with parts from radio shack its on the page of DCC concepts called "light &led advise" way down near bottem...Jerry
That's one awesome product they have there. Precisely what I've been looking for my Walther's consist. I have been installing Walthers kits in their streamlines and can't stand the flickering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will contact them to see if the can sell board only at a discount.
I've already started to take steps to eliminate flicker by soldering contacts to the Walthers light kit and putting slide connectors on the other end so I can simply attach them to Walthers lighting pegs for reliable connection. That made things better a little.
Rapido kits are not really suitable for Walther's cars because oh how difficult and tricky it is to open their roofs. I don't like batteries either.
I have brand new clean "everything". Installed lighting kits...immediate flickering. The problem is the vertical flags that wipe the contact strips in the chassis. They do not make consisent contact. It has nothing to do with dirty track or wheels...in this particular case. You can lightly rock the car from side to side and produce the flickering or press down lightly and eliminate the flickering. I do not have a solution. I do not want to add a capacitor and filter the DCC signal on the track.
I just ordered very small surface mount (SMD) full wave bridge chips that I will mount in the cars with a cap on the LED side to avoid any affect on the track signal. Just an experiment.
If you are working with Walther's cars and their trucks, consider backing out a couple of the screws ( 1 1/2 turns or so). This will improve the contact to the chassis. Also, you may want to try "puffing up" the contact box, by folding up some tape and inserting it into the metal contact "box". This will improve to pickup as well. If these tactics do now work, then move on to adding caps.
PHARMD98233 If you are working with Walther's cars and their trucks, consider backing out a couple of the screws ( 1 1/2 turns or so). This will improve the contact to the chassis. Also, you may want to try "puffing up" the contact box, by folding up some tape and inserting it into the metal contact "box". This will improve to pickup as well. If these tactics do now work, then move on to adding caps.
I do something similar to the Walthers passenger cars with Walthers light modules. I cut 1/8" to 3/16" strips (variable width is ok) from Woodland Scenics Support (foam) Panels and then snip off pieces just long enough to fit under the metal electrical pickup wipes on the chassis underside. You will probably have to put a number of these squeezed in there to get enough "lift" from the wipes. The foam is spongy enough to give some resilience to the wiper, kind of like a leaf spring with a shock absorber/damper. I also file down the screw heads on the trucks a little so they make better contact with the wiper surface. After running these a while the weight of the car may deform the foam a little. Just add another piece of foam. Only occasionally, usually on a sharper curve do I get any flicker. Even then it's only a "blink", and then back on continuously. Looks more real to me. Could have been a momentary power outage in that one car just like what might have happened on a real train.
Do not loosen the screws on the truck frames. It may allow the truck assembly to become misaligned.