Understanding Large Scale Socket pinout? (aka LED's on Climax?)

Started by mtrcycllvr, July 23, 2020, 04:51:11 AM

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mtrcycllvr

Greetings!  Working on a fairly newish generation of Climax.

Using the LSS adapter board and battery only input.  I can get the train to move, the cab and firebox flicker, sound, but I CAN"T for the LIFE of me, get either the front or rear headlight to work.

What's the secret, please?

I'm using a "RailPro RS-3G" decoder, super simple install, but how am I supposed to get the LED headlights working?   I can't find a modern DCC Climax Schematic online anywhere, so I'm really shooting blind.

VERY EXPERIENCED with electricity, etc..

On the LSS adapter, pins/labels of interest are:

LED - ?  where what does this do?
B+   ?    when I hook up a battery, the positive side shows up on the L rail input, but nothing here - what is this for?

Lots of "FUNCTION" labels, which I suspect are "locotmotive specific" connections of all sorts - PERHAPS my solution lies here someplace?


Thanks so very much for your time!

Sincerely,

Eric



mtrcycllvr

After much experimentation and a MUCH CLOSER examination of the LSS adapter board, I have found my solution, and of course, it was quite simple...

The key is this: The loco has to be powered up, and Battery+ is not REALLY battery+ until you jumper it to the LEFT RAIL.

When I first examined my adapter, I missed parts of some labels that were rubbed off a bit and hard to read.

There is clearly a F-LED and R-LED pin, and these turn out to be the CATHODE END of the headlight and rearlight LED's that are ALL READY wired with load resistors.  Nice!

So, with the LOCO ON, grounding either pin will cause the corresponding light to turn on.  This works PERFECT with all current technology "Open Collector" outputs, which just make a connection to ground when on.

Mere moments to finish the installation and validate the theory!

Thanks for reading, good luck in your upgrades!

-ET-