ripgp30 Hi Maxman there are no wires going to the ditch lights, there is a plastic light going from the headlight down to where the ditch lights are located, that's why I don't know where to attach the brown an green wires. Thanks ripgp30
Hi Maxman there are no wires going to the ditch lights, there is a plastic light going from the headlight down to where the ditch lights are located, that's why I don't know where to attach the brown an green wires.
Thanks
ripgp30
These are light pipe, they must be cut and a LED/Bulb glue to them. Or, discard these plastic tubing and insert LED/Bulb in their respective holes. Once LED/Bulb are installed follow the instructions the above gentlemen's gave you.
Is it a Kato SD80 by any chance?
Jack W.
Oops, sorry, I didn't see this post. What do you mean "plastic light"? Is this a light conducting plastic or fiber optic tube? Are there actually any bulbs in the ditchlights, or do they get illuminated from the headlight? Are you saying that the ditchlights are lit when the headlight is on, and dark when the headlight is off?
If they are illuminated from the headlight, then there is no way that they can flash independently from the headlight. You would need to modify the internals of the loco to install separate bulbs or leds in the ditchlight housings.
Maybe a photo of the loco w/o shell would be helpful.
By the way, what scale and manufacture loco are you working with?
ripgp30 Hi Maxman, there is a brown and green wire but what do I solder those wires to,I know I am stupid but this is my first time installing a sound decoder so thanks for bearing with me.Thanks waiting for reply
Hi Maxman, there is a brown and green wire but what do I solder those wires to,I know I am stupid but this is my first time installing a sound decoder so thanks for bearing with me.Thanks waiting for reply
You need to take a look at the instructions Jim B. referenced. Look where it says "light effect programming chart for CV 118/119". It says "use the brown and green wires for the accessary light functions, along with the blue wire". There is also a little wiring diagram to the left of that paragraph.
JIm B. can probably confirm this, but it looks to me that the brown wire goes to one ditchlight and the green goes to the other. Coming from each of those two ditchlights you will need an additional wire that connects someplace where the existing blue wire connects. I don't know what the decoder looks like physically, but maybe they have some sort of solder pad that is common to that blue (what they are calling common) wire. If not, then I think you have to make a splice joint into the blue wire.
Note the comment concerning resistors to be used if you are using leds or 1.5 volt bulbs.
Also with leds, you need to know which is the positive and which is the negative lead. If Jim B. is following this thread, he'll probably chime in with some better advice.
The blue decoder wire has to go to both ditch light bulbs (or LEDs). The green and brown wires would each go to one of those bulbs with a resistor in the line to limit the current draw; however, I'm not so sure about the color coding of your decoder because brown is usually reserved for a chuff sensor on a steam decoder, not a light function. But MRC doesn't follow NMRA color coding in all respects.
If the green and brown do both work as a light function, you would then need to program them to be alternating ditch lights. Function mapping is not necessary unless these wires are not meant to be used for lights.
According to the instructions that Jim referenced, function 3 (F3 on your controller) should control the ditch lights. Also according to that instruction, the ditch lights should flash when you activate the horn.
But even though you say this is a plug-in decoder, it appears to me that there should have been two extra wires, brown and green. The wiring diagram shown with the instructions indicates that these are supposed to go to the accessory lights, which in your case would be the left and right ditch lights.
So the question is did you re-wire the ditchlights to go to these wires? I think you have to do this to get things to work as you wish.
Also, maybe it is just semantics, but what I understand function mapping to mean is that if for some reason you want one of the functions, horn for example, to be operated by one of the function buttons other than whatever the usual function button is, you would re-map the decoder functions. That was why I referenced the Tsunami instruction above. If you look at the chart on the page I said above, you'll see that some functions can be "remapped" from one button to another, and others cannot. Again, it is my impression that some decoders do not support function remapping. I see nothing in the linked MRC instruction that indicates that any of the functions can be remapped.
Hi Jim, I have done all of what you suggest an still cannot get the ditch lights to flash, I am new at programming a sound decoder an some of it is a little confusing. The decoder is one of their new decoders 16 Bit Universal EMD 710 # 1613 plug in. I am trying to install it in a SD 80. The thing that is stumping me is the function mapping, don't known what they mean by output numbers. Where are they located ? Any help will be greatly appreciated . Hope to hear from you. THANKS Jim
I looked in Decoder Pro(the easy way to do this), but they have no listing for a 1613 decoder at this time. However, I did find a link to the manual here:
http://www.jimsmodeltrains.com/userguides/MRC1611-2-3-4-5-6.pdf
I hope this helps - If you need further assistance, I would suggest you contact MRC Product Support. If you do not have JMRI Decoder Pro(free download), I would highly suggest it. You will need to NCE USB attachment for you Power Cab so that Decoder Pro can access your DCC system.
Good luck with your MRC decoder. They have been known to have a high 'defective' fall-out rate. I do have one of their drop-in decoders for my Atlas Genset - works fine. All of my other sound decoders are QSI/SoundTraxx/Digitrax.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
From what I've read about function mapping, the first thing you need to do is determine if the decoder you have supports it. One of the recent MR DCC corner articles had function mapping as the subject, and the implication there was that all decoders don't support this.
The paperwork that came with your decoder may have some information concerning whether or not you can function map.
As an example, Tsunami diesel decoders do allow function mapping. They give you a chart as to what can be mapped where. See page 27 of http://www.soundtraxx.com/manuals/Tsunami%20Diesel%20Technical%20Reference_1.13.pdf
Regards
I, am trying to program a MRC sound decoder #1613. I am trying
to program the ditch lights to activate when horn is activated,how do I know what output number to push to make ditch lights work. I am using a NCE Power Cab, Need help through whole process.