Perhaps this has been covered but I did a search and didn’t find anything…
I recently converted to DCC! Man, do I love it! Why did I wait…
My question is I have a dozen or so Walthers passenger lighting kits installed. They were for DC and although they light OK on DCC there is that 60hz. “singing” from the AC track power. Can I convert these lighting kits to DCC. Remove the capacitors, etc.? In the future I’ll buy the DCC lights but I’d like to modify my existing ones to be DCC “friendly”.
ALSO does anyone have any hints as to improving the contact from the little, cheap metal tabs at the car end where it contacts the rivets on the pc board of the light kit? Solder does not take well at all to the plating on the tabs. I tried to solder jumper wires to no avail…
Thanks! Ed
I would remove the capacitors and replace them with resistors. Problem might be in determining the bulbs voltage. This link might give you some ideas to convert existing cars. Allan Gartner has a great site with lots of info. About half way down the page he talks about passenger cars.
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/gorhlite.htm
Sorry to post so soon again, but I knew I had this bookmark that may help too, just had to find it.
I’ve got the Walthers/Rivarossi cars with Walthers lighting installed. I am running DCC and do not have any “singing”. I have also added LEDs to the circuits for additional lighting and have had no problems whatsoever.
The only thing that “sings” on my layout is one non-decoder equipped engine when I put it on the track and program it to 0.