Gyralite Circuit

Looks a lot like a circuit I took out of a K-Line for a command upgrade.

Have you seen the ngineering.com MARS light simulators?  That's what I use when I want a good looking MARS light.

Dear Bob

I also found these circuit on the internet, some worked some did not work. I did try contacting the via e-mail and no reply. Note that some of these circuits are over twenty years old and you can not get some of the parts because they are obsolete. I am not try to discourage you but if you want to roll your own it might or might not work. Some of the premade stuff is good I have spend good money on a flasher unit and later found that I could built it for a quarter of the price if not less. This is a great place to start your search any Mars Light or any other electronic upgrade or roll your own. I have not built one yet it is on my honey do list it just has not been numbered yet.

John

I had looked at ngineering.com previously.  Thanks for the reminder.  

Their Super Mars light is the effect I want.  They actually use 3 nano LEDs in the headlight fixture to simulate the side to side sweep of the light.  The video is very impressive.  Even the single LED version has an impressive effect.  They are reasonably priced as well.

Their units require 6-18V DC so a rectifier and probably a voltage regulator will still be needed.

Back to the original question:   Will the Triac on the TMCC board be able handle the voltage regulator, Mars circuit, and the original incandescent headlight.   I could convert the headlight to LED if that is the tipping point.

Also, what is the AC voltage output of the TMCC board headlight controller?

Bob

Kris

I have played around with some of the many 555 flasher circuits on the web.  Most work, some don't.   A few leave off the current limiting resistors, so if you just blindly build the circuit you fry your LED!  I found some that do the LED fade up and fade down, but I only ever found one circuit that does the fade with alternating LEDs, and it did not work.  It looks like  the ngineering.com folks figured it out.

Bob

As someone who has "rolled his own" for LED passenger car lighting based on what gunrunnerjohn has posted, and NOT buying his LED kits, I've inquired about adding MARS lights to PW F3 A units.

grj has always recommended buying the Ngineering MARS light kit; and that's what I'll do.  Yeah, if I spent the time figuring out the components and circuits, I'd come out a few $$$ ahead; but, there are more important things to do.

The light triac has plenty of power for this application, the MARS simulator just adds a 15-20ma maximum additional load.  You can do the job with just a diode and a capacitor from track power, that will give you around 14 volts DC.  Truthfully, I add a regulator to drop it to 6-7 volts, just because the little regulator on the board is pretty tiny, and I don't want to push it that hard.

The output of the headlight triac is half-wave track power in command, and full track power in conventional.  Note for command that it's negative in respect to frame ground, something you need to keep in mind.

I've fired the three-LED one up on the bench and I love the effect, but I usually use the single LED model as it does a great job and vastly simplifies the installation.  You have to have a good sized headlight lens for even small chip LED's for the 3-LED version.

Thanks, John. 

I'm going to go with one of the ngineering boards. 

So if I'm using the TMCC output, I could use a diode, capacitor, and regulator chip to supply the Mars light board, and I would be ok running either conventional or command, correct?  

Bob

Correct, as I said, just make sure you wire the circuit with the negative to the light output and the positive to the frame ground.

Dear Pingman

Very well stated, we are trying to have fun with our trains and run them for our enjoyment. 

I'm thinking about a new board for diesel engines that will have many of the items that people are looking for.  Flashing ditch lights, MARS light, cab light control, rule-17 lighting, etc.  It's still in for formative stages, but I think it might be a nice upgrade board to have.

John, I like this idea, but please keep in mind there are some S gauge guys using TMCC/Legacy so small size is really  important to us.

Ray

I make the boards as small as possible, but there are some tradeoffs.  One that increases the size is I use a socketed DIP processor instead of a surface mount.  I do that so that in the event that a software upgrade is required or simply desired in the future, you don't have to rip the whole board out, difficult if it's soldered in.  Instead, you can just pop the processor out and replace it with the new one.  I suspect the board would be similar in size to the Super-Chuffer, 1.1" x 1.2" x .6".  Is there any more critical dimension for fit?  It could be a bit longer and narrower, for instance.

John, The board size you state should work in most all S engines except perhaps a Baldwin switcher with a Mini 2 and sound.

thanks

Ray