Best Decoder For Ditch Light Effect?

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


diburning

diburning

AlcoHaulic
I am looking for a 6-function decoder with some nice ditch light effects for LED ditch lights.

I have a Dash 8-40CW with a Digitrax decoder in it and I am not satisfied with the ditch light effects (The lights don't blink. They go dim, bright, dim bright)

I've seen youtube videos of ditch lights run on NCE decoders and they look pretty nice, but I'm not sure if NCE makes a 6-function decoder (The D15SRP says 6 functions on the site, but the manual says 5 functions)

Any suggestions? How do TCS decoders do with ditch light effects?
 
I have only put them in RTR Athearns (aka no installed ditch lights), but the NCE 13SRJ is a very nice decoder and supports ditch lights. About $15/each.
 
I have used a TCS decoder with LED ditch lights and it does look better than with the Digitrax decoders(the Digitrax ditch light effects look fine with incandescent bulbs but not LEDs). I have, however, noticed an issue with TCS decoders that only shows up if you run DC locos on your DCC layout. If you are runnning a DC locomotive, when the TCS lighting functions dim, whether just dimmed like a dimmed headlight or fading in and out like a ditch light, they will sometimes have a very noticeable flicker. It is not caused by the DC locomotive, but by the "zero-stretching" used to run it, because it happens when using the zero-stretching whether there is actually a DC locomotive on the layout or not. It "sometimes" happens because it depends on how fast you are running the DC loco and which direction it is running relative to which direction the loco with the TCS decoder is facing. Again, this is only a concern if you run DC locos on the layout, but it is somethig to be aware of.
 


I'm using a digitrax dh163 with and atheran gen sd70mac. It makes the lights alternate dim/bright with a function button. Simple hook up also..
 
KCSSport said:
I'm using a digitrax dh163 with and atheran gen sd70mac. It makes the lights alternate dim/bright with a function button. Simple hook up also..
Click to expand...

Doesn't that loco use incandescent bulbs for ditchlights? It has been my experience that the Digitrax ditch light effect looks great with incandescent bulbs, but not with LEDs.
 
hamltnblue, if the decoder has a setting for LEDs, then I can't find it in the manual. All the manual said was to increase the ditch light hold rate (flash rate. The higher the CV setting, the slower the lights flash). Increasing it makes it worse. I have mine set on 3 (goes from 0-255). 3 seemed to work best. They alternate from full brightness to 3/4 brightness and back again.
 
hamltnblue said:
Is there possibly a setting on your decoder to define the output level in each state?
Click to expand...

There is a "keep alive" setting so that you can keep the output from going all the way to zero, but even with the keep alive setting set to 0, I'm not satisfied with the ditch light effect when used with LEDs.

KCSSport said:
yes, it uses incandescents.......... looks good to me............
Click to expand...

I agree that the ditch light effect looks good when used with incandescent bulbs, it's just when used with LEDs that I don't like it. There is a reason that the Digitrax decoder manual states "We recommend using incandescent lamps to achieve the most realistic lighting effects." The difference has to do with how little current it takes for the LEDs to light.

Honestly, I don't think the TCS ditch light effects are great with LEDs either, but they are definitely better than Digitrax's.
 
Honestly, how hard is it to have an LED mode so that the ditch lights are ON/OFF, OFF/ON, and repeat?

My other Dash 8-40CW does just that, but it has a QSI decoder in it. (I don't like QSI sound so I will not be putting one in the non-sound engine)

I want the D15SRP as I've seen videos of it in a Kato loco (Kato uses LEDs for their ditch lights) and they look pretty good.

The manual for the decoder says that theres 5 functions, while the site says 6, and when I sent them an email asking whether it's 5 or 6, they said it was 6. Now, that probably means that the older stock has 5, and the newer stock has 6. I don't know if I can tell just by looking at the decoder so I probably won't buy one unless I have no other alternatives.

CSX Robert, do you currently have any locos with a TCS decoder running the ditch lights? I want to see how they look.
 


I'll have to check my BLI AC6000. If I remember right that engine works great with the ditch lights. I believe it has an NCE decoder in it.
 
diburning said:
...CSX Robert, do you currently have any locos with a TCS decoder running the ditch lights? I want to see how they look...
Click to expand...

Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBbPqemipLk

The video is slightly out of focus on purpose. When I took the video with it in focus, the ditch light effect did not look anywhere near as good as it did in person. By taking it slightly out of focus, the effect looks much closer to what it looks like in person, although I think it still looks a little better in person.
 
No, they do not, but the fast flash rate makes it look realistic and the dimmest that the LEDs go on the model make the flashing look very believable.

The TCS is definitely better than the Digitrax decoder in handling the ditch lights. I might go with one of those.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top