Connecting LEDs To DCC Board Function

[alloboard]

LED's have two wires positive and negative. When I connect  a ditchlight LED to a function, should I connect the positive and negative wire to F1+ or the positive wire to F1+ and negative wire to F2+. What is the difference between F1+,F2+ and F1,F2

[rrinker]

 The pads labelled Fx+ are the "blue wire" positive lead for each function. An LED and resistor woudl go between F1 and F1+, with the longer wire from the LED going to the + connection (or, the lead by the flat side of the LED goes to the negative, the pad labeled with just F1. F1+ goes with F1, F2+ goes with F2 and so on.

F0F+ and FOF are for the front light, the DH165A0 has the resistor built in. Same with F0R and F0R+ for the rear light. F1/F1+, F2/F2+, and F3/F3+ do NOT have reistor so you need to add them.

                                               --Randy

 

[alloboard]

How many volts does the Digitrax DH165A0 put out for functions?

[rrinker]

F0F and F0R are already limited on the DH165A0, no resistor needed. F1, F2, and F3 need resistors. It's not a pain to solder a resistor in series with an LED, use some leftover decoder wire to solder to the decoder itself. You need a fine point low power soldering iron so you don't get solder across multiple pads creating a short and frying the decoder. 25 watts with a fine point CLEAN tip and maybe a magnifier lamp or an opti-visor type of thing so you can see what you are doing. It's not difficult but if you don;t have much experience soldering don;t attempt this as your first soldering project. Don;t forget some small heat shrink tube to insulate the connections from the wire to the LED, LED to resistor, and wire to resistor. Also, each LED gets its own resistor.

                                     --Randy

 

[Hamltnblue]

 As noted earlier, Always read the manual.  Usually the wiring is spelled out there. 

[jbinkley60]

 

From the manual... 

 Function Outputs on the DH165A0

The DH165A0 is set up at the factory to control six function outputs. The DH165A0 is configured to control the forward-headlight F0F/white lead and reverse-headlight F0R/yellow lead for directional lighting. These two headlight function leads are current regulated for LEDs or lamps, with factory setting of approx 15mA, with no resistors required. Cut the ADJ link to increase headlight current to approx 30mA- see fig 4.

Functions F1 (Green), F2 (Violet), F3 (Brown) and F4 (White/Yellow) are full track voltage and can be used by soldering a wire from the pad for the function you wish to use to the lamp (or other function) you wish to control. The wire colors indicated are the standard color code used in the industry (you can use any color you like). These colors are important if you plan to use function remapping.

CAUTION: When adding function wires, be very careful that the wires you add do not come into contact with any other pads or components on the board where they might create a short circuit.

[alloboard]

I really appreciate all the help you have provided me regarding the decoders.