DCC 44 ton Wiring help

[kamerad47]

I have a dcc 44 ton ,I 'm attempting to put a led becon on it ,but because this has bidirectional lighting the led works only one way because of the polarity is there a constant 15 volts that you can use on the bachman decoder???

[rich1998]

Miniatronics has 12 volt ligth bulbs that ar 2.4mm in diameter. Don't know what diameter the beacon fixture is that you have.

I have used 1.5 volt, 1.2mm light bulbs with a constant light circuit. I put the light bulb in a Details West RB-106 rotary beacon fixture.
Below is a link to a constant light circuit for use with DC powered locos for 1.5 volt lamps. Carefully read the details.

http://www.mrollins.com/constant2.html

Lex

[Nigel]

I have a dcc 44 ton ,I 'm attempting to put a led becon on it ,but because this has bidirectional lighting the led works only one way because of the polarity is there a constant 15 volts that you can use on the bachman decoder???

If you do not want to control the beacon at all, just wire it up to the track - you may want to put some dropping resistors in series.

Bachmann's DCC Equipped motive power uses a very basic decoder with limited functionality.  I am pretty sure you will need to replace the decoder if you want more functions than the already used in the model.

[kamerad47]

I was making a beacon out of a  Miniatronics blinking yellow Led light but with the directional lighting it only works one way in dc ! Does there decoder let the lights to be turn on all the time  in dcc

[rich1998]

You can use a Digitrax DZ143 decoder that has four functions. One Function is front light, another function is  rear light, a third function  can be programed to flash like a beacon. Remember, there was no switching of front and rear lights with direction change in that era. That is a model railroader thing.
You can  do that with a DZ125 decoder that has only two functions and cost about ten dollars less. Tie the front and rear lights together. Use the second function for the beacon.

http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=2450056&cat=149&page=2

http://www.digitrax.com/prd_mobdec_dz143.php

Search through the Litchfiled site and do some homework. Store the links.
If you run this DCC equipped loco on DC, the beacon function will notwork. It has to be programmed with a DCC controller. The Digitrax decoders do have DC/DCC capability. I have tried tham.
Below is what i did. I used the 1.2mm, 1.5 volt light bulb. It fits inside the yellow plastic dome.




Video is a little dark though.



Lex