I'm fabricating various light board replacement PCBs to simplify DCC installations, and I need to determine the mounting holes to attach them to various locomotives. I want the mounts to be as universal as possible. The available to me locomotives aren't enough to judge the mounting requirements for many locos, and even if I had the locos to measure, the operative word is measure......trying to accurately measure locations an accident waiting to happen, and actual dimensions would be preferable. The boards I've designed work with 8 or 9 or 21 pin decoders, and include places to mount the resistors needed for LEDs, and also active amplifiers to change logic level signals to driving LEDs directly for the 21 pin versions. They also have places to attach keep alive devices, AND will have a jumper to allow disconnecting the keep alive(without removing the shell if the body has the ability to access the center of the loco). The external connections to lighting can be simply disconnected if needed. This project is open source, including schematice and Gerber files to make the boards yourself, but I'll probably sell the boards with any surface mount components already attached. Prices should be less than $5 shipped, but will require soldering for the LED resistors and connectors for external connections.
