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Backup light config bit

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  • Member since
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  • From: Oreland PA
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Backup light config bit
Posted by UncBob on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 6:43 PM

Do Tsunami decoders have a CV or a config bit that controls the lights

 

Just wired a decoder into my PROTO 2-10-2

Programmed it

Set the long address

The engine goes forward and reverse OK

Hit the headlight and it comes on in forward and goes off in reverse

 

BUT the backup LED doesn't come on in reverse

Checked the wiring and LED with a continuity checker and they are OK

LED comes on with one polarity and off with the other

 

Is there some CV that needs to be set to some value

I would think factory default would have it enabled

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 7:06 PM

The default settings of the decoder should turn the rear light on in reverse.  My guess is that the LED is wired backwards.  It's a DC voltage, and if you wire the LED backwards it won't work.

I assume you have a resistor in the circuit, like you have for the front light.  If you forgot the resistor, the first time you turned it on the rear LED may have flashed briefly, but if so, it's now a Darkness Emitting Diode, or DED.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by UncBob on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 7:16 PM

Resistor is in the circuit

I wired the blue LED wire to the Tsunami Blue wire and the white LED wire to the Tsunami yellow wire

 

Unless PROTO is not using the rear blue correctly it should be OK

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Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 7:33 PM

UncBob

Resistor is in the circuit

I wired the blue LED wire to the Tsunami Blue wire and the white LED wire to the Tsunami yellow wire

 

Unless PROTO is not using the rear blue correctly it should be OK

As was said, LED's are polarity conscious. Did you reverse the connections to the LED?

Also, use your meter and check for 12 vdc at the blue and yellow wires when in reverse.

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.

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Posted by UncBob on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 8:05 PM

I checked and I had the 12 volts so I bit the bullet and cut the wires and wired the rear LED blue to the decoder yellow and the rear LED white to the decoder blue

OK now

Doesn't anybody adhere to the color coding standards or maybe the solder at the factory got the LED soldered in wrong ( most likely )

 

 

 

 

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Posted by UncBob on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 8:22 PM

Now that that is settled I have to find where to mount the speaker

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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:00 AM

UncBob

I checked and I had the 12 volts so I bit the bullet and cut the wires and wired the rear LED blue to the decoder yellow and the rear LED white to the decoder blue

OK now

Doesn't anybody adhere to the color coding standards or maybe the solder at the factory got the LED soldered in wrong ( most likely )

 

I always test the wiring connections before soldering the connections.

Before you cut wires next time, use a desoldering braid from Radio Shack to remove the solder and free the wires.

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:11 AM

I keep a 9-volt battery at my workbench, along with a 1K resistor.  I use the battery to test every light I install, whether it's in a locomotive, a passenger car or an illuminated structure.  With the resistor, I can test LEDs and mark their polarity.  Since I only buy 16-volt bulbs, the battery is good to get a glow out of them and prove their working.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by UncBob on Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:36 AM

I should have gotten the sound version even though I only had DC at the time since they can run DC mode but didn't think I was going to become a PRR fan and include their trains on my layout

My 2-10-2 was  originally for my display cabinet of steamer types but now I want it as part of my PRR engine lineup

I did convert a  Bachmann 2-8-4 non sound ( my Freelanced RR )but the speaker installation was a snap

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Posted by rrinker on Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:46 AM

 It's not the first time a manufacturer had an LED "backwards" per color code. Byproduct probably of making it directional for DC, just wire it the opposite way of the headlight and it will automatically come on only in reverse, then someone thinks the colors need to be swapped too. Forget if it was on here or elsewhere, I think it was an Atlas loco, when the deocder was installed, no light. Tracing the circuit board, the LED was backwards relative to the color code.

                    --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:52 AM

Heck, I have encountered the motor wires screwed up so that out of the box the loco moved in reverse instead of forward and vice versa.

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by Drew4950 on Thursday, March 8, 2012 12:13 PM

Decoders are different. I recently installed a Digitrax decoder in a Kato RDC car. It was a drop in decoder. When finished I found the lights worked backwards. When going forward the tail lights lit on the front end and when going back wards the head light lit up. It was the same for each end of the car. I searched these forums for an answer but finally found it at the Digitrax website and discovered I could change a couple of CVs so the lights would work properly. I had to dig for this information and it gave me another lesson in programing CVs. Next I hope to speed match a couple of E8s.

 

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Posted by rrinker on Thursday, March 8, 2012 4:49 PM

richhotrain

Heck, I have encountered the motor wires screwed up so that out of the box the loco moved in reverse instead of forward and vice versa.

Rich

 That's REALLY common, particularly on older diesels where some roads ran long hood forward and some ran short hood forward. Every single one of my Proto 2000 GP 7's is 'backwards' if I just match colors, despite the fact that more ralroads ran the long hood forward than ran them short hood forward. The crew figures all faced the wrong way too.

                            --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, March 8, 2012 5:22 PM

rrinker

 richhotrain:

Heck, I have encountered the motor wires screwed up so that out of the box the loco moved in reverse instead of forward and vice versa.

Rich

 

 That's REALLY common, particularly on older diesels where some roads ran long hood forward and some ran short hood forward. Every single one of my Proto 2000 GP 7's is 'backwards' if I just match colors, despite the fact that more ralroads ran the long hood forward than ran them short hood forward. The crew figures all faced the wrong way too.

                            --Randy

rrinker

 richhotrain:

Heck, I have encountered the motor wires screwed up so that out of the box the loco moved in reverse instead of forward and vice versa.

Rich

 

 That's REALLY common, particularly on older diesels where some roads ran long hood forward and some ran short hood forward. Every single one of my Proto 2000 GP 7's is 'backwards' if I just match colors, despite the fact that more ralroads ran the long hood forward than ran them short hood forward. The crew figures all faced the wrong way too.

                            --Randy

Aww geez, that is just nuts.

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Posted by wjstix on Friday, March 9, 2012 2:03 PM

rrinker

 richhotrain:

Heck, I have encountered the motor wires screwed up so that out of the box the loco moved in reverse instead of forward and vice versa.

Rich

 

 That's REALLY common, particularly on older diesels where some roads ran long hood forward and some ran short hood forward. Every single one of my Proto 2000 GP 7's is 'backwards' if I just match colors, despite the fact that more ralroads ran the long hood forward than ran them short hood forward. The crew figures all faced the wrong way too.                    

I suspect model manufacturers have thousands of chassis & motor units assembled at the same time and in the same way, and then attach them to the completed body shells of the various railroads they offer the engine lettered for. So all the chassis are wired with the same "front". Even companies like Atlas who are very good about having crew men facing the front (whether that's the long hood or the short), they don't re-wire the motor so the engine runs in "reverse" of the normal wiring of the chassis. In DC it doesn't really matter, in DCC, you install a decoder and change CV 29 by one number and it's resolved.

Stix
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Posted by rrinker on Friday, March 9, 2012 2:57 PM

 I'm sure they don;t go to all teh trouble to make each oen different. I was mainly jsut notign my experience - and find it somewhat funny in this case sicne the MAJORITY are wrong with the crew facing the short hood and the wirign set up to run short hood forward, fo rthis particualr model of locomotive. There'd be fewer road names 'wrong' if they set them up to run long hood forward. Not true necessarily for every loco model, dependign on era, and then there's always the ones that ran BOTH ways with dual controls. I'd feel lucky if even a highly detailed brass mdoel came with the wiring set up the proper way - though Athearn did get the RS-3's right.

                      --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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