Firebox of Bachmann 4-4-0 large scale

[Götz]

Hi folks, I have purchased a beautiful Bachmann 4-4-0 large scale steam locomotive, rewired and fitted with an ESU Sound Decoder 5XL. Everything works fine! But the firebox does not work (connection to AUX1 and AUX2). Who can help me??
Greetings from northern Germany! Goetz

[Fred2179]

Who can help me??

I'm not sure I can help, but let's start with terminology. I am assuming you are referring to the flickering fire effect inside the cab of the loco?
To see the firebox (which I did not realize was flickering in the loco I was working on,) you have to open the firebox doors, which is tricky. I assume you have done that?
The flicker effect is from the PCB02 behind/underneath which is usually attached to the power feed from the track. Do you have the 4-4-0 DCC wiring drawing?
I have always assumed that the flickering firebox PCB worked directly off track power. It might be that your AUX1/2 assume logic levels and are not providing enough voltage? I am not a DCC user, so my apologies if this is of no use.

[Greg Elmassian]

If I remember correctly, half the circuitry is on the flicker board, and there is some on another board which might have been removed or damaged.

Did you read George Schreyer's stuff on this? Basically the bible.

Greg

[Götz]

Thanks Fred, thanks Greg for your thoughts!
I've figured out the reason now. The firebox was supplied with flicker electronics by the Bachmann DC decoder, which I replaced with an ESU DCC decoder. Apparently he doesn't have this special setting. But it also works well without a glowing firebox, which should only be active when filling the combustion chamber anyway.
Greetings from northern Germany! Götz

[Greg Elmassian]

Yeah, could not find the exact flicker circuit, but here is the shay... there is no independent control of the LEDs and you need to power the circuit with 9 volts... clearly hooking a decoder "output" would not supply 9 volts but just pull it to ground, not what would work.