Ah,,,that makes sense to me... thanks for clearing that up.. incidently,, my cam (Soundtrax cam kit) and chuff works great... my one concern is that the sweap is very delicate (prone to breaking I would think) and I'm not sure that all that work for setting up the cam disk, and sweap is worth it.. the loco does look and sound more realistic with the cam sycn... expecially moving slowly... I have it in a 4-8-4 bachmann Niagra that I just converted to DCC (first one) have a test track setup (see my other threads) and am planning on making a small shelf roundhouse, turntable and service facility..maybe like 3' x 6' I'm limited to room in my hobby area..... joeg
Non-directional means the function will come on regardless of the locos direction. You would set something like a rooftop beacon this way, so the light could come on in either direction.
The way it's now working is right, with F0 on, the light in the directional of travel will come on regardless if the loco is moving or not. If standing still with the backup light on, if you toggle the direction but not move the throttle, the front light should come on. There are other settings you can experiment with (don't worry about the phase ones with headlights - those are there for alternating effects like ditch lights, if you want ditch lights to alternate back and forth, one has to he phase a and the other phase b. If they were both phase a, they'd flash in unison. Phase a is on when phase b is off and vice-versa).
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Well I tested it... and read up on cv61 (which controls lights) rather confusing since I really don't understand what non-directional lights are... but my cv61 was set to 01 which I believer I set trying to fix the intial issue... I now set it back to 00 which is default... however... when I go forward,, headlight comes on,,, when I go reverse..backup light comes on... when I stop,, whatever direction it was going in,,, that headlight stays on. ie, go forward,, headlight on,,stop,, headlight still on.. go reverse,, backup lite on, stop.. backup light still on. I can turn either light on or off by pressing f0... so not sure if this is operating correctly.. but its operating how I like it... I'm now happy that I've installed the wiring correctly and everythings working... next up.. believe it on not is that I installed a cam disk on one of the drivers... its wired in... but am now going to install the wire sweap and change the programming... we'll see how that goes... but my lighting situation seems to be working fine for me now... thanks Randy and others for the advice... joeg
It's an option with Digitrax decoders to set a function to operate with a button AND only when moving, or only when stopped, etc. But that's not the default. So perhaps the CVs that control the particular lighting effect for F0F and F0R got changed.
I'm not at home right now and I'll need to verify exactly the sequence and if what I said was right... all I know is that the lights didn't respond at all... then once I went forward and used f0, the lights went on... I did notice that the headlight stayed on when I came to a stop... and that the rear light worked also when selected for reverse... it may be that I had to activate f0 by going forward or backward at least once... then the lights worked fine... on and off.. using f0 . When I get home... I'll re test and see exactly what the sequence is... joeg
The headlights only come on when the locomotive is moving??? That's a bizarre feature. The lights on my decoders are accessible whether the locomotives are stationary or moving.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Success !!! after reading your suggestions.. I looked more into not having something turned on.. and found my understanding of the f0 was not correct..
seems that I was hitting f0 on and off when the loco was stopped..thus getting no lights either way... I read somewhere that the headlights only work automatically if loco is moving so I ran the loco forward.. hit the f0 and headlight went on... (didn't hit f0 anymore) and when in reverse the backup light came on... so actually everything is working fine.. I don't have a Tsunami sound decoder.. but your suggesting that something is turned off lead me to do more research... thanks very much.. another problem completely solved... joeg
Have you hit F5 to turn the dynamo on? I had the same problem with the factory Tsunami in a Bachmann Heavy 4-8-2. Once I turned on the dynamo (generator) and got "electricity" for the lights they worked. CVs 49-51 control the lighting effects.
You can find the users guide here: http://www.soundtraxx.com/manuals/tsunamisteam_users_guide.pdf
Lighting effects are on page 33. This same issue about drove me crazy. The Tsunami that is factory installed in the Bachmann locos is a little less capable then the ones you install yourself.
Jeff
No they're not running backwards.. just don't light at all..except for the little blip when turning on system.. I'll reset the decoder and see... but I"m confused about the f0 if i hit the 0 button on dcs51 are lights supposed to come on? not sure what the f0 means,,, us there a CV to have lights work automatically?
Randy knows what he's talking about.
You do have the LEDs wired up the right way? Blue + goes to the anode, the white or yellow with resistor (doesn;t really matter which side the resistor is on, just that there is one) got to the - cathode. +-->|-- -
Default should be simple directional lights controlled by F0. You might try a reset ont he decoder. That's how it should be out of the package, if you want dimming and other stuff then you need to make some CV changes. They aren't backwards, are they (rear light on when running forward, front light on when running reverse) are they?
Hi everyone... I've sucessfully hardwired my first decoder SDH166D to a 4-8-4 Niagra... all functions work perfectly, motor, bells, engine sounds, etc.. however.. the headlight and backup lights don't work... I'm using 0402 leds with resistors and tested them before soldering them in.. the rear led blips when I power on the track... so I seem to think its wired.. however when forward or reverse.. the lights don't come on.. the F0 doesn't seem to activate anything either..
Blue is the +,, and white/yellow are the functions with the resistor.. Before I unsolder and take apart all the light wiring... I'm asking if there is any CV values that I'm missing to activate these lights..?.
My test track has a Zepher Dcs51 and I also have a PR3 hooked up... Ive been checking all the discussions.. and seem to be at am impass... hate to take everything apart if its related to a CV programming issue.. any suggestions would be appreciated... thanks in advance joeg