Typically with athearns you would get the TSU-GN1000 EMD645. . That part is made to replace the Athearn board. It is also set up for running the 1.5 volt headlights on the Athearns. Since you have the TSU1000 I would suggest doing as cacole noted, or remove the old board entirely. You will probably need to install resistors in series with the lights to prevent burning them out.
Good Luck
Springfield PA
Did you remove the Athearn constant lighting board that is in the locomotive, or just plug in the decoder ? It sounds like the light board is overloading the decoder and causing its internal circuit breaker to turn it off.
If the locomotive had two decoder sockets (one NMRA 8-pin and one JST 9-pin) the dummy plug must be removed from the second socket when you plug in a decoder, or a short circuit can develop.
Hi all I hope some one can offer some help. I recently installed a TSU 1000 in a new Athearn RTR SD40T-2 and that was hard enough as there is not alot of room. I programed it with my PR3 and Decoder pro that was a breeze!!!!! But for some reason I get very sluggish drive operation ( start stop start stop ) but this only happens WITH THE LIGHTS ON. If the lights are off the loco will start and run very smooth.??????
Not sure whats going on but I did notice that when the lights are on the light board in the unit is pretty hot, should I remove it and wire the decoder in my self with resistors for the lights?
Any help.
Thanks
Troy