have had this loco for many years and installed a Soundtraxx decoder and replaced the headlight bulb with a led just after I bought it. Have never been happy with the lack of brilliance however. The led is located in the smoke box and it appears that a small light tube goes from it to the head light. Short of installing a led or bulb in the headlight itself, which I don't really want to do, are there any suggestions to improve this situation ? Thanks in advance to any replies.
Open the tender and check the resistance value of the resistor on the PC board. About Ik is usually normal for LED's.
Use an online resistance calculator for parallel resistors to bridge another resistor across the present resistor or replace with a 1k resistor.
A 1k resistor will allow about 9 ma though a 20 ma resistor which many find sufficient.
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.
Just saw the post on K4 headlights. May find the answer here.
Sounds to me that, he wants it brighter than it is, so he needs a smaller Ohm resistor to accomplish that.
The K4 thread is about getting the shell off mainly.
Frank
Another option would be to use a super-bright LED instead of a standard one, but the Bachmann light pipe is going to restrict light transmission no matter what LED is used.
Cacole,
I totally agree about the light pipe issue.
I have three of the Spectrum DC only 2-8-0's and with all the detail on them, I left the headlight alone.
I am the one with the K4 issue on the other thread, but I replaced the light board and installed a 1K resistor for the headlight (LED) and it is much brighter. I had intended to put a SMD in the hole behind the headlight but it didn't seem to come out easily and I didn't want to damage anything, so I opted for the 1K resistor. I haven't tried this on the 2-8-0's (I have 3 of them) but I think it would give the same results.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!