Adding additional lights to an Athearn "Ready to Roll"

[hon30critter]

Making your own decoder! Wow! Tells me just how little I know about electronics.

Gives a whole new angle to scratch building.

Congratulations on having the wherewithal to do it.

Dave

[gigasaurus]

Thanks Maxman. That is a good point - there's a good chance that the circuit board in my Athearn doesn't have easily accessible connections to the unused wires and (as mentioned below) I might have to break out the wire cutters if I want to have access to them.

The decoder is one I'm making myself, so I'd like to find some affordable test units that support 9-pin that will allow me utilize all the light leads.  Thanks again.

[Mark R.]

I just snip the green and purple wires from the board and wire my additional lighting right to the now individual wires with appropriate resistors.

Mark.

[maxman]

gigasaurus

I bought an Athearn Ready to Roll GP60M - it came with front and rear lights. I know the 9-pin harness supports two more lights (green and violet wire) but I don't know where on the printed circuit board to tap into these 2 wires (so I can get 2 more independent sets of lights).  I imagine they would be getting power from the blue wire, and complete the circuit with the other two wires.

Does anyone know where on the circuit board I tap into these wires wires (or perhaps link me to a tutorial on how to add additional independent lights)?

Much appreciated

 

Normally any information on what wires support what is included with the decoder you purchase.  The decoders I've seen with the 8-pin plugs seem to have additional wires that are used to connect to those additional lights.  I don't know what the 9-pin harness decoders look like.

 

I'd be curious to know if the fact that the light board you have on your loco has a 9-pin harness socket attached actually means anything.  If the loco light board is designed without the added functions in mind, I'm not sure that you'll find the required traces on it.

 

I did find this youtube video about installing a 9-pin decoder into an Athearn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpaMT5UbZcY  

[gigasaurus]

I bought an Athearn Ready to Roll GP60M - it came with front and rear lights. I know the 9-pin harness supports two more lights (green and violet wire) but I don't know where on the printed circuit board to tap into these 2 wires (so I can get 2 more independent sets of lights).  I imagine they would be getting power from the blue wire, and complete the circuit with the other two wires.

Does anyone know where on the circuit board I tap into these wires wires (or perhaps link me to a tutorial on how to add additional independent lights)?

Much appreciated