DCC locomotive lights & wires

[Prestonpig]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but I can't find it by searching. I love the lighting effects with DCC, and I have added ditch lights and beacons to many of my locos. Unfortunately, I can't figure out an effective way to route the wires from the decoder to the resistors and lights without ending up with a bowl of spaghetti, especially when the decoder and/or some lights are mounted to the frame and some are mounted to the shell. Either the wires get caught in the mechanism, or they hang out the bottom of the shell; If I make them shorter they are then too short to allow easy shell removal for servicing or changing bulbs, and quick disconnects haven't proven to be a solution for me. Please share any tips, articles, or videos you know of to help me clean up the spaghetti!  TIA, PP.

[BigDaddy]

to the forum.

I've only done a handful of installs and I haven't figured it out yet either.  I recall that some people mentioned using micro plugs for the lights, but in the pre DCC locos, there is not much room for wires let alone plugs.

[tstage]

PP,

One thing I would get, if you don't already have some, is Kapton (polyamide) tape.  It comes in a variety of widths but I prefer 3/8".  It's thin (0.002"), it's strong, and it's great for taping down wires to chassis or shells, as well as insulating the backside of a decoder.  I've found it's a great aid for routing unruly wires for the very same concerns you have.

Tom

[RR_Mel]

What I’ve been doing is using my go to glue, Amazing Goop.  I lay out the wires (30 gauge) where they need to go and when I’m happy with the routing I put a small dab of Goop and let it set up for about 15 minutes then press the wires into the glue.  I normally glue all my wiring to the shell and use micro connectors to connect to the frame or decoder.

 

For my passenger cars I glue a male plug to the rear wall of the shell using CA.  When it is firmly attached to the wall I glue a matching female connector to the frame.  It takes a bit of patience (which I have very little of) to get the proper alignment but it works very good and beats having pigtails all over the place.  All of my shells slip on very easily without any special alignment during assembly.

 

I also use the same technique in my diesels but not in my steam.  The diesel shells come off easily where the steam can be a problem with alignment.

 

The picture of my Drovers caboose below shows some wiring glued in place.  Couldn’t find a picture of a diesel.

 

 

The Athearn heavyweight car below shows the shell to frame connectors.

 

 

 

The female connector on the lower right is the mate for the male shell connector.  When the shell is placed back on the frame the ceiling LEDs are connected to the frame.

 

 

 

This works great on my diesel shells too.  I’ve been doing it this way for about 10 years and I’ve never had any problems with my wiring.  Using a liberal amount of Goop will let you remove the wires without any damage just by pulling on them, too much Goop and the insulation stays and just the copper comes out.

 

These are the micro connectors that I use.  I keep a bunch of single and double row strips in stock, I use them for everything imaginable on my model railroad.  They work very good and they are cheap off eBay.

 

 

The link below is one of my posts my blog on micro connectors.

 

 http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2017/12/december-15-2017-micro-connector-update.html

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[BigDaddy]

Mel

Haven't used mine yet, but I am getting close. You do remove them from the plastic before you solder, don't you?

 

[BNSF UP and others modeler]

@ Mel,

Do you think you could post a pic of that caboose in operation? I would really like to see the kind of effects you can get doing that.

[RR_Mel]

Henry

 

No.  Just be quick, if you over heat the pins the plastic will melt.  I keep a can of soldering paste handy and that makes the solder flow quickly.

 

The only thing I pull a pin for is to reverse them for polarity protection.

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[rrinker]

 Before they closed up, Ulrich Hobbies had a small PCB with 6 surface mount resistors attached that took up very little space. You just attached the decoder wires to one side, and the actual lights to the other. I don't know if anyone had picked up making a similar device, but even if surface mount isn;t for you, a small square of perfboard could make a convenient tie point using regular through hole resistors. 

 The other optioon would be to use a decoder that plug in to a motherboard, stip out the factory board and install the motherboard, attach the lights to the various terminals on the motherboard, and plug in the decoder. This does NOT have to be a sound decoder.

                                     --Randy

 

[gmpullman]

Prestonpig

Unfortunately, I can't figure out an effective way to route the wires from the decoder to the resistors and lights without ending up with a bowl of spaghetti, especially when the decoder and/or some lights are mounted to the frame and some are mounted to the shell.

Hi, PP 

You get spaghetti. I get a rat's nest!

LL_E8_DCC4 by Edmund, on Flickr

At the moment I'm installing a TCS WOW sound decoder with added keep-alive capacitors in a big, heavy but roomy Life-Like E8. 

Here's a photo when I was doing the initial "look-see" to figure out what would go where.

LL_E8_DCC by Edmund, on Flickr

The white rectangle toward the right is a strip of styrene I made up to help bridge the drive shaft and universal. On top of this I'll mount the decoder and keep alive.

I didn't bother to shorten too many of the wires because I have plenty of room to play with inside the E8 carbody. Tom's suggestion of the Kapton tape is spot-on. It is handy stuff for decoder installs.

I recently bought this assortment from Amazon. https://tinyurl.com/y8qya58h

I used a pair of ESU cube speakers with their adaptable housing. Small but plenty of sound. The design of the E8 provided a nice "shelf" just behind the cab for mounting one of the speakers and you can see the other one at the rear with the legs I glued on to it to straddle the truck gear housing.

Up front I have LEDs for a Gyralight, headlight and a pair of very small SMDs for number board lights. I could have grouped all the common + wires together to save space but, again, in the E8 it wasn't really necessary.

LL_E8_DCC2 by Edmund, on Flickr

Here's how everything is stuffed into the chassis. The black masking tape is temporary. I'll replace that with more Kapton tape. As Randy says above, there are dedicated boards, such as the common Atlas Form Factor type that help by making the track, motor, light and speaker solder points as close to the intended point-of-use as possible but these boards aren't always available for every locomotive.

I have done a few installs on Athearn Genesis locomotives and they can be a real pain since so many of the lamps are mounted to the shell.

I saw a recent photo of, I believe it was the Genesis SDP40-F, where they finally used bronze contact fingers mounted to the chassis that engaged a board for the lights. THAT is a welcome addition to their design as it eliminated a lot of wiring to the lights. 

Hope that helps, 

Regards, Ed

 

[RR_Mel]

BNSF UP

 

My layout is out of order pending my control panel overhaul but I have a post on my blog about the Drovers caboose.

 

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/2016/06/june-26-2016-caboose-lighting.html

 

I don’t run my logging trains very often and the Drovers is usually being towed by a Shay.

 

 

 

Mel

 

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

 

[Prestonpig]

Wow - some good ideas here, and I really appreciate the advice!

 

PP

[BNSF UP and others modeler]

Thanks, mel! I might have to try that!

[hon30critter]

Hi Prestonpig:

I understand your dilema. My first few installs were a mess. As I gained experience I got better at keeping things straighter but I still end up with some wires that look messy. I strongly reinforced the suggestion to get some Kapton tape.

At one time there was a modeller on the forums (whose name I will not mention for various reasons) who built wire looms out of styrene. IIRC, he would glue small strips of styrene with wire sized notches cut into them to the frame or the motor. Sometimes he made 'L' brackets to mount the looms. They weren't large but they did a good job of keeping wires away from the gears and motor shafts.

The downside to his method was that the looms take up some space. If there is little room between the shell and the chassis/motor they won't work.

Based on my own experience I would make a couple of suggestions:

- resist the urge to cut the wires as short as possible. Others have already mentioned this. If you run into a problem and have to reinstall the decoder, you may have to replace some of the wires on the decoder if they are hard wired. Soldering to those tiny pads is not something I want to try first thing in the morning!!

- Do not use CA to secure the wires! It is fast and easy but it will never come apart.

I have one tiny critter where I shortened the wires to the minimum because there was no extra space, and I CA'd them in place. Guess what? The decoder has died! Fixing the wee beast may require that I replace the shell. In other words, take out the drive system and start over again from the beginning.

Dave

[rrinker]

 Actually, i Do try to cut my wires short to keep the mess to a minimum. But my era and road has just the headlights, no extras - and 9 pin decoders hve the front and rear lights plus an extra two wires (purple and green). I tend to cut the purple and green off pretty short. No point not to - if the decoder goes (knock wood, 15 years in and no decoder failures yet), I just unplug it and install another 9 pin decoder. if for some really oddball reason I want to go back and use those extra functions, a 9 pin harness is cheap. In my smaller locos I used TCS MC2 decoders, which have a small plug - if the decoder fails, I can swap another in, although that does limit me to the same type since no one else seems to make a decoder with that 7 pin connector.

 A little extra wire is no big deal, just fold it back on itself and secure with some kapton tape. But to leave the full length of the harness from the decoder PLUS the full length of whatever wires are already in the decoder is just asking for something to get tangles in the drive train. For stripping decoder wire, I usually use a thumbnail, and if I have them cut off short, I hold the end by the connector with a pair of needle nose pliers so I'm not pulling against the connector or the solder joint on the decoder. Enough room to strip enough to wrap around a resistor lead plus hold the heat shrink is all you really need.

                                    --Randy

 

[fmilhaupt]

rrinker

 Before they closed up, Ulrich Hobbies had a small PCB with 6 surface mount resistors attached that took up very little space. You just attached the decoder wires to one side, and the actual lights to the other. I don't know if anyone had picked up making a similar device, but even if surface mount isn;t for you, a small square of perfboard could make a convenient tie point using regular through hole resistors.

 

Acculites carries resistor boards like that.

My usual technique for putting decoders into diesels that have lots of different lights is to mount the decoder and the lighting wiring into the top of the shell. Then, I use a harness with a four-pin connector to bring the track power from the frame and pickups up to the decoder and the motor output back down to the motor. This reduces the amount of loose wiring considerably.

This works very well for diesels where all of the lights can be mounted into the shell.