Athearn RTR LED


WC3026

WC3026

Member
Ok So I am trying to switch over all my Athearn Locos over to LED lights. I am starting with my one and only RTR unit. I took the wires from the blubs off of the board and took led with resistor and touched to the board and have nothing. took resistor off and still nothing. I out the bulbs back on and they light up.

What I am using for LED's are Miniatronics Tower LED's 2mm the resistor is a 470 ohm. It says 3 volts is recommended. I took the led right to the track with the resistor and it lit up and was nice and bright.

I am using Digitrax DH123 decoders. Is there something I am not doing right for it
 
If the board had the tiny 1.5v bulbs in it then there isnt enough power to light LEDs. You would have to modify the board or solder the LED wires to different locations on the board to bypass the voltage regulator.
 
So could I just take and cut the lighting wires off of the board from the plug and hook them up that way?
 
WC3026 said:
So could I just take and cut the lighting wires off of the board from the plug and hook them up that way?
Click to expand...

That is what I did today with a proto2000 today. Make sure to check the wiring diagram for the decoder. Would not want the wrong end lit will you are running.Alan
 
WC3026 said:
OI took the wires from the blubs off of the board and took led with resistor and touched to the board and have nothing.
Click to expand...
Are you certain you had the plus and minus polarity correct? LEDs will only work 1 way, unlike a lamp that doesn't care.
 
Cut away the blue common and white headlight function and taillight function wires where they come off the light board but before they go into your decoder. These wires will only be about an inch long. Basically your cutting them away from the athearn 9 pin harness but leaving them connected to the light board. Now put a piece of shrink wrap tubing over it, slide that down, twist your LED negative lead or wire extension to the white or yellow function (depends on whether head light or taillight) and wire both positive sides each LED to the blue positive common, again shrink tubing it. Now test, shrink the tubing, replace shell and run. No more burned out crappy bulbs.

Brad
 
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