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Watching the two new locos I bought climing the helix the other day. I noticed I forgot to shut off the head light in the second unit. The number lights looked great all lit up in the dark of the helix. Than I though I'll light all the number lights on all the units. Now finding a way to do it. I looked at the Atlas user's manual and it had a drawing of the accessory outputs C and D. It said use these outputs for adding accessory such as ditch lights. Than I thought you know what I'll add ditch lights to the head unit to. So I added the ditch lights today. Their controlled by CV 53, 54, 55. of the Atlas HO Dual-Mode 4 Function Decoder. The attached photos tell a little of how it's done.
Hi Ken
It's OK. I did it in kind of a hurry. It's one of the two $45.00 engines I bought at the Big E. For me it's back to work tomorrow 40 stories up in the freezing cold. Anyway I should have used smaller wires and at least put back the walkway plate that's misssing. That would have hid all the wiring you might see. Our club's meeting is coming up, which is at my house. We need every engine to be in working order if possible.
CV 53
Bit 0 - 1 = Output C Blinks if on
Bit 1 - 1 = Output D Blinks if on
Bit 2 - 1 = C & D work as Ditch Lights
CV 54
Bit 0 1 = Output controlled by F1 and so on.
I had a sound unit in the consist when I started taking photos. I set up the lights to work off F1 but when I hit F1 the lights came on and the bell in the sound unit started ringing. So I went back and set up the lights to work off F2. This time when I turned on the lights the horn in the sound unit started to blow. I said to myself what is this. I set the lights up to work off F3. When I turned on the lights the coupler crash started to repeat itself over and over. I can see I'm not going to win at this. So I took the sound engine out and I'll have to figure this out another day.
Hi Josh
I took about 12 photos of the engine. The nine head on views I took were so bright they blinded the camera. I tested the voltage at the C & D outputs it read 11 volts. The white leds came with 460 om resisters they said were good to 15 volts. Their bright!
CV 53
Bit 0 - 1 = Output C Blinks if on
Bit 1 - 1 = Output D Blinks if on
Bit 2 - 1 = C & D work as Ditch Lights
CV 54
Bit 0 1 = Output controlled by F1 and so on.
I had a sound unit in the consist when I started taking photos. I set up the lights to work off F1 but when I hit F1 the lights came on and the bell in the sound unit started ringing. So I went back and set up the lights to work off F2. This time when I turned on the lights the horn in the sound unit started to blow. I said to myself what is this. I set the lights up to work off F3. When I turned on the lights the coupler crash started to repeat itself over and over. I can see I'm not going to win at this. So I took the sound engine out and I'll have to figure this out another day.
Ken
Since I jumper all my engines together mostly 4 at a time I use the same address for the four units. I'll still jumper them together because if one's drawing power there're all drawing power but I'll give them all a new address and run them all in the same consist. This way the sound unit won't interfere with the ditch lights control. As far as the number lights go I think I just may paint over the headlights of the 2nd and 3rd units so that only the number boards are lit. When I worked as an engineer for the Penn Central back in the seventy I don't recall if the number boards were lit on all the units or not. I do know when you passed a tower they wrote down the train number, what time you passed , and the engine numbers. So to make it easier for my tower guys I'll light'um up.
Hi Trucula That's why they call'em Ditch Lights. They light up ditches.
Their Miniatronics White Leds 3 VCD up to 15 VDC, when used with 560 ohm resistor included.
Hi Trucula That's why they call'em Ditch Lights. They light up ditches.
Their Miniatronics White Leds 3 VCD up to 15 VDC, when used with 560 ohm resistor included.
Wow thats a deal!...I gotta get those!...they'll look great coming out of the tunnel, if it doesn't blind the camera as you said before. LED are super bright allot of tail lights are going to that on trucks on the highway and show trucks...Thanks for the info!
Looks and sounds good all at the same time. but man it's a b**** to programme, no lock on the Lenz decoder so I made a little plug to disconnect power while programming the QSI.
Wow thats a deal!...I gotta get those!...they'll look great coming out of the tunnel, if it doesn't blind the camera as you said before. LED are super bright allot of tail lights are going to that on trucks on the highway and show trucks...Thanks for the info!
I wired one to the C output and the other to the D output. I programed the C output to the F2 key and the D output to the F3 key. I guess if I pressed F2 then F3 they should alternate back and forth. After I eat I'll go down and see what happens.
Looks and sounds good all at the same time. but man it's a b**** to programme, no lock on the Lenz decoder so I made a little plug to disconnect power while programming the QSI.
Well they work and they look great. I'm going to start working on a video tonight after I get the 4 unit's function keys set up correctlly. It going to take place on the S curve at Janesville not to be confused with Jamesville, NY. Jane is my wife's name.
When I worked as an engineer for the PC back in the 70's some times you would catch the Pacific Fruit Express crossing over in front of you. A 100 car refrigerator train from Cal. It came down the Hudson line. At MotHaven it would make a sharp left hand turn, then would wound it's way accross the four Harlem line tracks, then immediately make a sharp right hand turn through a bunch of tunnels a mile long and on to Hunt's Point Market. The produce center for New York City. That's why I have that big S turn on my layout.
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