ERR Conversion

What exactly failed about the current electronics, it might be more expedient to simply fix the current issue?

Which ERR Commander kit are you using specifically?

1. No tach reader required, you can remove any of that stuff.  If it's bonded on the motor, just leave it if it's a problem, you can cut the wires.

2. You will need a PGM/RUN switch, but that's the only one you need.

3. There is no ditch light function with the ERR boards, so you won't have oscillating ditch lights.  The only one that has that feature is the Cruise Commander M, that's the replacement for the DCDR with modular TMCC electronics.

Thanks for posting back a few days ago (I've been away.)  So, the Atlas locomotive I'm working on just bolted when I turned on track power and touched the Cab-1 throttle.  I'm slowly putting in the ERR cruise commander to replace the TAS boards that were in the unit.  Right now I'm a bit stumped by the four wires from the lighting board at the front end.  Looks like this is the ditch lights.  I've got orange, purple, black and white wires- do you have some idea what each of these might be?  If I can get any function out of the ditch lights (even just "on") that would be nice.  Ken at ERR suggested plugging into the programmable socket on his board, just not sure which wires go in that slot vs. the "common" slot.  Thanks for your help!

Paul

You won't get oscillating ditch lights with the ERR Cruise Commander, it doesn't have that capability.  Getting them to simply be on won't be a big issue.  I don't have an Atlas here to look at, my take would be to trace out the wires to see what they power.

Many times for lighting, I just remove the existing interface boards and do the lighting to my specifications.

The symptoms you mention for the TAS suggest an encoder problem, many times those are easy to fix.  I find a lot of broken wires for encoders for TAS and MTH equipment, that's all it takes to trigger "rocket mode".

With the Cruise Commander, you have three outputs for lighting and/or "feature".  Headlights front and rear, and smoke/cab/markers on the 3rd output.  These are the same outputs that the R2(4)LC offers, as they come directly from that board.

John-

Sorry about being so obtuse here.  Bill Serratelli at Atlas identified the wires from the ditch light board for me: power, ground, front light (?), and serial.  He claims that the Atlas board will make the ditch lights flash, even though the Cruise Commander does not support this feature.  Since the lights flash with horn activation, is that possible?  In any event, how do these four wires plug into the CC board?  I have separate front and rear bulbs connected at posts 4-5-6.

Thanks Much,

Paul

If the wires are power, ground, front light, and serial, this would be my guess.

Power and ground are obvious, I'm assuming that is track power unless told otherwise.  Front Light would be the front headlight output of the CC board.  This would tell the Atlas board that the headlight is on and the ditch lights can be flashed.  Finally the serial would be tapped off pin #24 of the R2LC socket, that's the serial output data that tells the Atlas board when the horn is active.

Thank you!  I appreciate the assistance.