How is this diode used, so that you do not blow the 12 volt lights in your older passenger cars in Command Control
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It blocks 1/2 of the AC current wave. So you will get about 9 volts on an 18 volt AC feed. The 1 amp is the rating of the diode. So for lighting, that works well.
You install the diode in series with the light wiring.
So these diodes are placed in the cars themselves correct ? And not from the transformer going to the track. Do you put a diode on both the positive and negative connections inside of the passenger cars ?
@Secarider posted:So these diodes are placed in the cars themselves correct ? And not from the transformer going to the track. Do you put a diode on both the positive and negative connections inside of the passenger cars ?
Do not put the diode at the transformer, in the car as you surmise. If it is AC going direct to the lamps only, the diode can go in either way and only one side of the lamp. If the lamps share a common hot lead, the diode goes before the split to each lamp, you don't need 2 diodes. If it has trucks with pickups on each going to different lamps they will require a diode too. Chassis, or another common line going to chassis does not need a diode, but technically, if there is a wire going to ground, you could put the diode in that lead and just leave the hot lead from the roller to the lamp hooked up.
How will adding these diodes affect the passengers cars, later on? if I want to run these again with a conventional transformer, instead of running them in Command control. Will the lights not get enough voltage, and not be bright enough running them on a standard ZW transformer. I have a lot of Post War trains, and a lot of Command Control trains as well. Thank you for your responce.
@Secarider posted:How will adding these diodes affect the passengers cars, later on? if I want to run these again with a conventional transformer, instead of running them in Command control. Will the lights not get enough voltage, and not be bright enough running them on a standard ZW transformer. I have a lot of Post War trains, and a lot of Command Control trains as well. Thank you for your responce.
Then, put a switch in parallel across the diode- command mode- switch open circuit, diode is the path. Conventional mode- switch is bypassing the diode- exact same as before for conventional mode.
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