train lights before and after dcc conversion

[ewing railroad]

i just put a sound decoder,supposedly a bachmann replacement item,in my ho 4-8-4 class j engine,when i ran it on dc,lights worked fine ,added dcc ,now no lights,what happened?it is a spectrum model,do you have to change the bulbs and if so to what? HELP Jim

[richg]

All the DCC locos I use, I have to turn on the lights myself. Once turned on, they switch between front and rear depending on the direction I select.

Rich

[Jerrys HO]

ew

I believe Richg is trying to say is... function 0 turns the lights on and off.
In DC control you had no control but now you do!

Jerry

[HDiedrichs]

Well did you actually wire up the light? Also was it an LED or lamp? If its an LED you may have to drop it down in voltage since you can't tun 12 volts straight through a 2 volt LED. If you have a 2 volt LED and a 12 volt output on the controller then you need a 1k ohm resistor to drop that down or you'll burn up the LED.

If you press function 0 and the lights don't come on then either you did not wire the lights OR you burned out the LED when you first turned it on. If its a bulb then you can just wire it directly since most lamps can handle the 12 volts.

The bulb that came with the engine should be fine and no replacement needed. Was the engine DCC ready when you got it and you merely plugged in a controller?

[ewing railroad]

thanks for all the help,this morning,i rotated the 8 pin plug 180 and guess what!!!! i have lights!thanks again,a nice engine now sounds and looks great.   Jim

[richg]

thanks for all the help,this morning,i rotated the 8 pin plug 180 and guess what!!!! i have lights!thanks again,a nice engine now sounds and looks great.   Jim

That is quite common from all the forums I belong to. The plug and socket are clearly marked as are the wire colours on the decoder.

Rich

[Jerrys HO]

thanks for all the help,this morning,i rotated the 8 pin plug 180 and guess what!!!! i have lights!thanks again,a nice engine now sounds and looks great.   Jim

Great job I had forgot all about that one.
At least you did not have to press 0 for them to work or 2 for English .

Jerry