Building a test setup for PS1 cards

You can use the resistor and bulb if you like, it will indicate if the coupler fires.

Thanks John. For the beacon and markers, I'm figuring a 5V or 6V LED. Is the current limiting done at the board or should I put a resistor in line with those?

The current limiting is on the board for the LED outputs.  The outputs for the directional lights are 1.5V, so you'll need the low voltage bulbs for those, the voltage is too low for LED's.  I think there is only a beacon output.

Yeah I put in an order for a few 1.5V lamps and mounts for the directional light testers.

I've been able to drive a green and Red LED from both the beacon output on the top board as well as the marker output on the bottom board.

I seem to recall @GGG mentioning that the beacon flashes are driven by the chip in the top board and would vary based on the sound chip installed, but that the markers are always available.

So far, after going through 4 boards and 6 chips (RK switcher, Doodlebug, RK Torpedo, SD40, Dash-8) the top beacon output and the bottom board markers both seem to stay on 100%. Anyone know if any of those beacons are supposed to be flashing on any of those chips?

I think they do.  The engines with beacons are pretty rare, but they flash.  The yellow connector on the bottom board is the LED ouput.  G

OK one last question:  The 1.5V lamps I got for the test rig to check the directional lights are the little screw-in E10 base guys.  These say they draw 300mA.  I saw a post that mentioned the lights on the PS1 directional outputs are 1.5V 45mA bulbs (they're much smaller of course, I just thought it would be easier to build a screw-in mount on the test board).

Am I asking for trouble using those lights in the directional outputs of the board? Are they going to pull too much current for the board and it's output traces to handle?  Obviously I'm only using as a test bed, and they won't be on for more than a minute or so but that might be too long?

I suspect the 300ma bulbs may be a problem, I'd use the smaller bulbs.  They tap the power off of the power supply across a couple of diodes, I don't know what extra current bypassing the diodes might do.

OK I ordered the smaller ones.

Thanks john.