LED headlight upgrade for older run DCC ready K4's

[jdmike]

Changing over the dim headlight bulb in your DCC ready K4 is very simple evening project.  You need 1 Miniatronics 3mm Yelglow LED lamps and a 470ohm resistor.   I removed the light bulb from the front PC board with my soldering iron and replaced it with the LED.  I then cut the black wire back in the firebox area that feeds that board and spliced in the 470 ohm resistor into that line.  If you position the LED in the same basic spot that the light bulb was, the boiler shell will go right back on the chassis without any issues.  Now you can enjoy a much brighter headlight in both DC and DCC mode.   If your going to be running just DCC only, I would suggest a 1K ohm resistor instead of the 470, that way if someone bumps or runs the track voltage on the high side, the LED will be ok.  I run on both analog and DCC and find the 470ohm works fine with DCC track voltage set at 12vt.   Cheers   Mike