I have an HO Twin Light Zephyr and I am having problems with the front red light. When I use a DN142 as the decoder, the front red light works properly. It is red in reverse and out when the engine is in forward.
However, when I install the SDH 164 decoder (sound) sold by ConCor for this engine, the front red light is on all of the time, forward and reverse. I emailed ConCor and they have not responded to me.
Has anyone encountered this problem and is there a solution? Or did ConCor and Digitrax just put out a bum decoder? Thanks for your help.
Probably just the programming for the function outputs needs to be changed on the sound decoder. Check what the DN142 has for CV49 and CV50, those are the front and rear light outputs, and maybe also CV51 and CV52. It depends on which lights ConCor wired to which pins of the decoder. Both decoders support the same options for those CVs, so if you set them both the same, the sound decoder should operate the lights in the same manner as the DN142. Sounds like the probbaly have the red light hooked up to F0R, so that when you reverse it comes on. That should be the default programming of the decoder, CV49 = 0 and CV50 = 16.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried your suggestion, but no joy. The lights still work properly using the DN142 . The CV's for the DN142 # 49, 50, 51 & 52 all equal 0. The CV's for the SDN164 are also 0 for # 49, 50, 51, & 52 and the lights do not work properly.
I also tried using the value of 16 for CV 50 in the SDN164 and still no joy.
I am open to suggestions, thanks.
Just a thought- if all those values are zero, then the lights might be operating off a different set of pins in the decoder. What color are the lighting wires?
Ray
RAY,
I am grateful for any thoughts.
The 8 pin out decoder plugs into a 10 pin board. So 2 pins on the board are not used, #'s 9 & 10. The yellow wire from the decoder goes to the #2 pin on the board. From there the trace goes to a surface mount resistor and then turns to the rear and becomes P2 which heads to the rear of the train. I do not have those cars with me at this time, they are 15 miles away at the club. My guess would be that P2 goes to the rear white light of the train, which turns on when the train is running in reverse.
On the board, which is two sided, very complex and difficult to trace well, there is a yellow wire which comes off the board and goes to the front end red light. This is the light which is always on, forward and backward.
I have unsoldered the yellow wire from the board, and the red light is now out.
My best guess at this point is to attach this yellow wire from the board to the end of the surface mount resistor which the trace from P2 leads to. Doing so should give the correct light combination when in reverse, white to the rear and red to the front. If this is indeed the answer to the problem, then the board was improperly wired at the factory. Sigh!!!
This still does not explain why one decoder works and the other does not. It's not completely impossible that a decoder was miswired fromt he factory, so check that the same color wires go to the same pins on both decoders. If one works plugged in, then the other should.
Randy,
I was able to compare the plugs of the two decoders side by side under a magnifying glass this evening.
The wires to the pins are identically placed. There were no solder bridges.
I am working this weekend, so I won't be able to do any further testing until sometime on Monday.
Thanks for you thoughts.