N scale "What's on your workbench?"

Mark Watson Oct 28, 2009

  1. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    Well I decided not to close down shop after all. I tackled a job I have both wanted to do and dreaded at the same time. I have a Kato HB-E300 that I have wanted to make DCC for a while now. And now it is! This was a fun one to say the least, but I have one minor issue and that’s the LEDs are both on at the same time and only in “forward” which is actually reverse at the moment. It looks like tomorrow is JMRI time to see what’s going on.

    For those who don’t know what an HB-E300 is here’s the train I’m working on.

    3E10B813-2324-44D9-B02D-2ED9CE196272.jpeg
     
  2. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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  3. platypus

    platypus TrainBoard Member

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    What did you use for the DCC conversion? If it is the Kato FL-12 for the end units, the lighting depends on the orientation of the circuit board. If you flip it, then it should put light for the reverse direction.
     
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  4. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    These are not DCC friendly. There is no FL-12 or EM-13 that will work for this type. The board is the same board as used in the P42 locomotives but with SMD leds instead of 5mm LEDs. Unfortunately the decoders for the PM42 will not work in this locomotive. So that being said I used a DZ126 hardwired in. I don't know what happened, but after I readjusted my white and yellow leads I now get red on in reverse (how it should be) but red and white together in forward (not how it should be). I will accept the reds on in forward, it doesn't look bad. I am getting a single function decoder in a couple of days that I am going to put in the trailing car to operate the lights only. I will try again to see about getting them to work properly and if I can I can always order a new board from Kato and try again. End of the day it's a hardwire only decoder installation and it really wasn't all that bad.
     
  5. Sumner

    Sumner TrainBoard Member

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    Sounds like you did good (y).

    Since the DZ126 is only a two function decoder are you wiring say the headlight and the rear red light to one function and the rear light and red forward light to the other function? I'm not familiar at all with the loco and trailing car so don't know what the stock lighting situation is.

    If you are doing the above what have you done about the resistor value?

    Another idea would be using the....

    ESU 59826 LokPilot 5 Micro

    ... it has 4 output functions and is only a few dollars more than the 126 and even smaller. I've used it a couple times now and really like it and you would have lots more options with the lighting and/or something else.

    Sumner
     
  6. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    So the DZ126 has the blue, white and yellow wires for the lighting. I found which side of the light board was connected to the anode (+) and which was the cathode or (-) side. Then I drilled out the opposite side through board to make the top and bottom lights connected with the anode and not the cathode. I used the 561 resistor that was already on the board to provide the needed resistance, but I had to move it to the opposite side of the board. I cut the trace, moved the resistor and put the blue wire behind the resistor. At first I put the yellow wire on the bottom of the board and the white on the top but of course that was backwards, so today they got swapped.

    I also discovered that the LEDs are not biased the same way, this actually makes sense but I couldn't do anything about it as I was already too deep to make the needed changes. Next time I will do things a bit different. The way it is now I have current coming from the bottom of the board (forward light) and making it to the top and that actually biases the upper LED which handles the rear red lights. The board has this strange criss-cross path so that LEDs will be biased different based on their location. I may just have to cut a trace to fix this, I will look into it more when I get the decoder for the trailing car.

    Next time I take this engine apart I will snap a couple pics of what I did.
     
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  7. Sumner

    Sumner TrainBoard Member

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    Did the original light board only use one 560 ohm resistor to power red and white LEDs at the same time. Since they have different forward voltages I'd think they might use at least two different resistors but still not sure on how the lights are setup. I looked at the real 2 and 4 car train and it looks to maybe have two white and two red on the lead and rear cars???

    Sumner
     
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  8. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    Yea, just one resistor. I have 2 as I had to canibalize another board I have for its resistor so I could fix my little issue. If I could tell the decoder to simply reverse the polarity of the blue/white wires, this would become very easy to do.
     
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  9. freddy_fo

    freddy_fo TrainBoard Member

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    It's been a little while so my recollection is a little fuzzy but I did this mod to both a Kato RDC and one of their electric freight trains with double ended cabs. So with the light boards I cut up the wire traces to completely isolate each LED from the other and track power but kept the trace intact that connected the onboard resistor to the cathode of the one LED (I don't remember which one/color though). I then added a wire jumper to connect the anodes of the two LEDs and then ran that common point to the power (blue lead) on the decoder.
    So with that setup I still used the onboard resistor where I could but then had to add my own inline resistor to the cathode of the other LED that was no longer connected to the onboard resistor.
     
  10. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    Pretty much the same thing I did.
     
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  11. DeaconKC

    DeaconKC TrainBoard Member

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    You guys talking about decoders, and rewiring and everything...I'm over here just trying to get my DC Unitrack layout running! Show offs... ;)
     
  12. Sumner

    Sumner TrainBoard Member

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    Well when it comes to the track wiring DCC is easier than DC so we will be impressed by what you are doing :)(y).

    DCC and decoders is only as hard as you make it. Buy a loco with a 'DCC decoder installed' and you are off and running. Buy one where it will take a 'drop-in' decoder and you don't need to know or do much if you can get the shell off and you are close to off and running. Buy one where you have to put a 'hard-wired' decoder in it and now you are in a situation where you have a 'sense of accomplishment' if all goes well ;)

    Sumner
     
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  13. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Before switching over to N I bought two HO DCC. Both never worked and then I had to move out of the house. So went back to N and DC.
     
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  14. jwaldo

    jwaldo TrainBoard Member

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    Today I converted a couple of older Atlas cars to NMRA weight, MT trucks and body-mount couplers.

    The Con-Cor TOFC will need some TLC before I even get to the coupler conversion. The ride height is much too high, and the black parts of the car and trailer all need a coat of paint.

    IMG_3597.JPG
     
  15. Run8Racing

    Run8Racing TrainBoard Member

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    Shortround, I'm with you. While others are "capisitating", "resisting", playing with slide rules, soldering 14 times, I'm movin' freight and people !!!
     
  16. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    What's on my workbench ?

    My Throttle !!!
    [​IMG]

    All I have been doing lately is...running trains !


    *whoa is me sigh*
    :D:):):whistle::whistle::whistle::whistle:
     
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  17. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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  18. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    [​IMG]


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  19. sidney

    sidney TrainBoard Member

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    very nice station ....
     
  20. Sumner

    Sumner TrainBoard Member

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    [​IMG]

    I agree, well done and interesting. I won't do it now but I'd like to model the scene as one that could be 3D printed (at least most of it minus the truck which would be complicated for me). I wouldn't put the files up Art unless you said it was OK to do so.

    Sumner
     

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