I just finished putting together an Athearn RS3 and am very unhappy with the headlights. The bulbs are rated at 1.5 volts, yet it takes a good three volts on DC just to get them to glow ! Is this normal ?
This is a DC unit (no decoder) and I want the bulbs, not LEDs.
Mark.
I have two of the Athearn RS-3 engines. One runs fine, the other not so good, the gears are noisy and clunky. Hope yours runs well.
The Athearn bulbs are notorious for poor performance and premature burnout. I replace them on my Athearn and Athearn Genesis engines as soon as I get them with Miniatronics bulbs.
Here is a link to the miniature bulbs:
http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=1_1
Here is a link to the subminiature bulbs:
http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=1_3
Don’t forget to add resistors to these low voltage bulbs.
Rich
If your loco has a board with diodes, then the 1.5 volts shouldn’t need a resistor as that would be a constant lighting circuit. I prefer the diode vs resistor approach since that gives you the most constant lighting unless you want to use transistors. If it uses the diodes, getting close to 3 volts from the track makes sense to get the lights to glow. Each diode has a voltage drop of about .7volts.
Richard
Does this loco have a 1.5 volt constant lighting circuit? The bulbs should be bright enough before you get to three volts but it has been some years since I used locos with the 1.5 volt constant light circuit.
Rich