I recently installed a digitrax decoder in an athearn sd 70 mac and it works great except i cant get the rear or front lights to work i checked the wirin numerous times and reprogramed a few but cant seem to get it to work.
conrail92,
Check to see if your bulbs are still good. Depending on the original voltage of the headlight bulb used in your older Athearn BB- either incandescent or LED - you might need to solder in a resistor.
Also, the output might just be very, very weak. I have a couple of Proto 2000 S1 switchers that have incandescent bulbs in the front and back and it’s barely perceptible on DCC.
Tom
P.S. conrail92, I’m going to overlook that last line in your signature. No reason to make a personal statement about me…[:)]
Tstage, do you always read the fine print? In that vane, I have found THE LORD has been allowing me to create my own paths in HO. I think 1:1 is the smallest scale he works in.
[#ditto] on the resister. If the bulb was a factroy installation for DC operation, the voltage from the decoder could be too high, thereby blowing the bulbs.
Well that’s [2c]
Well, this worked a few days ago on the General Discussion forum…
If this is your first DCC engine, are you aware that you have to turn the lights on and off? Activating Function 0 will toggle the lights on and off, and then the locomotive direction will determine whether the front or rear light is on.
On my Lenz system, I turn the lights on by simply pressing the 0 (zero) key. I don’t know how it works on yours. RTFM (Read The Fine Manual.)
Art,
As far as your question, no, not always. However, when your last name happens to start a new line of something, then I notice. [:)] And, thankfully - yes - whether we realize it or not, the Lord deals with all of us 1:1.
Tom
Probably one of two causes:
1- as mentioned above, make sure you hit the F-0 button a time or two to turn the lights on.
2- if that doesn’t work, open the shell back up, remove the decoder (assuming you used a “plug and play” decoder with the built in 8-pin plug), rotate it 180 degrees, and plug it back in. IF you put the decoder in backwards, the train runs fine except it goes forward when you tell it to go backwards, and the lights don’t work.
K ill double check ont he decoder being backwards
BTW: it isnt a BB loco
i just rotated the decoder with no effect on the lighting… and i tested the lights and they to worked. But not with the decoder installed