Hello all...
I just finished installing a Soundtraxx DSD replacement PC board DCC decoder which is basically a duplicate of the original Stewart board in an Alco Century 630.
Some of the major disappointments are that you can see the PC board edge and the speaker through the cab windows and the selectable class lights (red, green and YELLOW?- no white!) are barely detectable even in the dark.
The idle sound is nice, pure Alco, and I like the way the engine sound "lags" behind the throttle setting. Nice horn, too. When will the Tsunami Diesel sound be available!!!
But the major modification needed is that the headlight is practically non-existant... and a poor yellow-green color at that. Has anyone tried to improve the headlight on these locomotives? If I just try to solder a "golden glow" or white LED in place of the yellow one will the resistance values be the same? I'd hate to mess up the Soundtraxx board.
As I recall my FT's have the same setup but I haven't gotten around to installing decoders in them yet.
Thanks, ED
Ed,
If the current LED or incandescent lamp configuration in you Century is anything like what was on my Stewart FT, the lamp wasn't even close to the front headlight lens. The wires weren't long enough and the light "aimed" at the bottom of the nose section.
On my FT, it took me about an hour or two to figure something up. What I ended up doing was to drill a #32 (0.116) hole in the back of the single front headlight lens for a 3mm golden-white LED. I didn't clip down the LED leads at all because they provided the leverage and stiffness I needed to push the LED up into the nose section, into the lens. I just used a 1K resistor.
Ed, does the Stewart Century 630 come with a light rod? If so, you could use black heat shrink around the head of the LED and "slide" it onto the light tube to help concentrate the light through the lens better.
Hope that helps...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Hi Tom
Thanks for your insight! What Stewart, and in turn, Soundtraxx uses are tiny surface mount axial led's pointed UP on the board aimed at light pipes with 45 bevels to bend the light forward.
Even the tiny classification lights are supposed to light but about the only effect you get is colored light shining in the cab and hardly any light out the front. There's a foam gasket that's supposed to keep light spillage to a minum. Like I said, my main beef is that the number boards and headlight are lime Jello colored!
I think I'll try to aim a 3mm white or golden-glo bent to aim forward and see what kind of luck I have with that. If I wire anything directly to the cab where the headlight is it would make it painful to get the body shell off. I just hate the thought of trying to solder to those microscopic surface mount pads!
Thanks again, ED