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Hi, all. Love this forum, been lurking and learning from you all for ages. But, I finally have a question I can't find answered in any searchable threads.

 

I recently gutted an MTH proto 1 Big Blow and installed a Cruise Commander w/ Railsounds. Works amazing. My problem is, I want to install bi-directional red/green LED's for marker lights. I purchased these:

 

http://www.modeltrainsoftware....directional-led.html

 

My first attempt using the three leads for the common and front and rear light outputs fried the cruise commander. I have a feeling I need a diode inline somewhere, but I'm at a loss. New ERR Cruise board is in and everything is working again. But, I still have the itch to put these marker lights in. Anyone with any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

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When I have used these I wire them in parallel with the headlight and tailight.

Take the pair installed in the front class light location and determine which red wires give you green color. Then hook those two red wires to the headlight terminal. Hook the other two red wires on those same LEDs to the taillight. In forward you should get green and reverse they should turn red. 

Wire the ones in the rear of the engine in similar fashion. The black wire goes to common. It appears from the pictures that resistors and maybe diodes are already soldered in the red leads under the shrink wrap.

 

Pete

Here's an example of all the lights you'd ever want to add.  This is how I wired my RMT BEEP with the Cruise Commander Lite, the full CC has the same R2LC light outputs and would work the same way.  Although there is extra stuff that you won't need, you can see what you will need from this diagram.

 

Important note:  You'll see that these are common anode 3-wire R/G LED's, ground is positive for the lighting outputs, so the traditional common cathode R/G LED's won't work for this application.  I believe the ones you selected would not function as they have diodes in the leads, and I'll bet they used the more common (and usually cheaper) common cathode R/G LED.

 

 

BEEP Locomotive Lighting Schematic

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  • BEEP Locomotive Lighting Schematic
Last edited by gunrunnerjohn

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