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Hey guys, I am installing ditch lights in my 2 Athearn P42's, numbers 55 and 10. I have a problem, the lights won't light up. I am using a Digitrax DH163P decoder with 6 functions, 1 and 2 are for the ditch lights. The bulbs are miniatronics 1.5 volt 40mA incandescent bulbs. I am using 470 Ohm resistors, but I feel they might be to big. Can anybody help with this, when I instal the resistors, the lights don't light up, wihtout the resistors, the lights go bright, then burn out. Help would be greatly appreciated
hey i did this on the same engine, #10. i too used the same incandescent bulbs and same sized resistor. just make sure your wiring them correctly--one lead of each bulb to each resistor and then from your resistor to the decoder.
I wired them with one wire from each bulb to a resistor, then attach the resistors to function 1 and 2 of the decoder, the other 2 wires are combined and placed on the common (positive) spot on the circuit board. And I tried both a 270 and a 470 resistor, and the lights won't light up.
I wired mine to a QSI decoder with p42 sounds. One of the things i just remembered is that the athearn light board is not powered for the ditch light functions. so you have to solder your own power wires from the light board to the function wired on the decoder. if you look closely at the green and purple wires coming off your athearn light board, youll notice that they dont go anywhere (they have no outlet). you can use these two wires to power you ditch lights by splicing/cutting them, solder them to the 5v supply line from your decoder for ditch lights (it was the red wire off the QSI).
I guess what i am saying is that you might not be getting power from the light board to these ditch lights. I could be wrong...
hey check out this you tube video, i used is as a guide...
Alright, so I just spliced it from the 9-pin connector ,the green and purple, but 1 question, does it matter what way you place the resistor?? I don't think it does, it should already detect which way the power is coming from
So what about this, still using 470 Ohm's, connected 1 each to one wire of the bulb, but cut the 9 pin connector green and purple, and attached them there. common wire soldered to extra common pad which is built in to decoder. I am not able to test this, no DCC system at my house, its at grandparents.
