I have a Athearn Genesis F unit that has less than 2 hours on it and already has two burned out bulbs. Although Athearn has promised to send me replacement bulbs, I wanted to know if others have had similar problems?
I run them with a MRC tech-4 350 power pack that puts out 30VA and 18.5 VDC to the rails.
Athearn suggested possibly adding some resistors but was no help in helping me figure out what size.
I also plan to upgrade to DCC in the coming year and am unsure what to do about the lights then also.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Jeff
Adding resistors is only necessary when converting an F unit to DCC. You may have a defective locomotive. Send Athearn an email and ask for a return authorization.
Frank Eva
Digital Railroader
http://home.wi.rr.com/frankeva/
i have had the same problem with my genesis locos to. i have 2 sd 70m’s in santa fe colors and the ditch lights have burned out several times. i run command control via dynatrol. it is an analog system that draws from track voltage through a receiver in the unit. i am not to happy with the way it runs either. unfortunately i have no idea what is causing the problem.if you come up with any ideas please post them in this forum. thanks bob
Ah! Another person having a problem with those stupid 1.5v bulbs!
I’m in the process of getting an SD70 lights wired w/a DCC system. The best solution i’ve come up with so far is 250 ohms of resistor in series with the bulbs. Buy the miniatronics bulbs instead of Athearn replacements-much cheaper.
S Oehme