In order to do flashing ditch lights in TMCC command mode, I believe you'll have to decode the serial data stream. Certain ERR TMCC products have a 5V logic output when the horn is blown, sadly the Cruise Commander is not one of those products.
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Originally Posted by roberttrains925:
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
John did you ever further investigate the ditch light circuit idea? i have a TAS Ditch light cricket new in the box that i am about to install in a engine and would like to have more ditch light circuits for some other engines in my roster.
Do you have the TAS documentation for that unit? I'd like to see what they did to sense the horn to trigger those. I believe I have a way, but I haven't gone that far yet. I'd probably base mine on a prototype that ERR did some time back that uses serial data to trigger the ditch lights. I was hoping they'd release that unit as it solves the problem, but I don't know where that is at this point.
i posted in on the manuals form... it is called TAS "AD20B ditch light circuit
Thanks, just curious as to what they say about that one, it's one of the TAS documents I don't have.
As I suspected, they do indeed use the serial data to determine when the horn is blowing.
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Thanks, just curious as to what they say about that one, it's one of the TAS documents I don't have.
As I suspected, they do indeed use the serial data to determine when the horn is blowing.
i wonder of there is a way to pull off the serial code form the ditch light board itself. i will post a picture of the board front and back for you to look at
Why not just use the ditch light board? I'm sure they protected the code so it can't be read back.
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Why not just use the ditch light board? I'm sure they protected the code so it can't be read back.
i will
You know Lionel used the both AD20's in their early engines with ditch lights.
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You know Lionel used the both AD20's in their early engines with ditch lights. Take a look at our web page and click on video. I installed ditch lights in my grandsons Williams F3.
Bill
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That's great Bill, I didn't realize that you could buy a separate board from Lionel. For a stand-alone install, the separate board would be perfect, and there are even instructions. In looking closer at the TAS instructions, I see that they even say it's a Lionel board, color me surprised! Had I been more observant, I would have noticed that.
In looking at the TAS instruction sheet, you'd think it would have been easier for them to grab all those lines from the RailSounds audio board, they're all there.
I have one of these, I'll have to hook it up and give it a try.
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
That's great Bill, I didn't realize that you could buy a separate board from Lionel. For a stand-alone install, the separate board would be perfect, and there are even instructions. In looking closer at the TAS instructions, I see that they even say it's a Lionel board, color me surprised! Had I been more observant, I would have noticed that.
In looking at the TAS instruction sheet, you'd think it would have been easier for them to grab all those lines from the RailSounds audio board, they're all there.
I have one of these, I'll have to hook it up and give it a try.
just tried to probe the lionel parts department on how many they had on hand they at least have 600+ of them in stock
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
That's great Bill, I didn't realize that you could buy a separate board from Lionel. For a stand-alone install, the separate board would be perfect, and there are even instructions. In looking closer at the TAS instructions, I see that they even say it's a Lionel board, color me surprised! Had I been more observant, I would have noticed that.
In looking at the TAS instruction sheet, you'd think it would have been easier for them to grab all those lines from the RailSounds audio board, they're all there.
I have one of these, I'll have to hook it up and give it a try.
Be warned Do not try to grab the 5vdc from the new railsounds boards i inquired about this when i was researching on this TAS install on new rail sounds boards from ERR. The new boards do not support external power if you try you will kill the railsounds board they suggested you get a 5vdc external voltage regulator.
The new RS5 boards don't have a common ground, so basically nothing but track power can be connected to the frame or power. Since they use a bridge rectifier, there is no DC common like the older stuff. When I did my Super-Chuffer, I added an opto-isolator on the chuff output to support those boards. Nothing coming out of the new RS5 boards has a frame common. The serial data goes into the board through an opto-isolator for that reason.
I was talking about railsounds lite I have not tried rs 5.5 or 5 or even 6
The ERR RS Commander is now a RS5 board, that's what I'm talking about. I'm not sure what is on the RS Lite board, but I'd be VERY careful.
I do not believe so John i just bought a new rail sounds board form ERR a couple weeks ago and it shipped and looked like this here is the manual it shows the picture
http://www.electricrr.com/RailSoundCommander.htm
Now i have a modern legacy ac6000 and have fried the rail sounds board before and ordered a replacement board form Lionel and they called that same board that err is selling a "RAILSOUNDS LITE / DIESEL / LEGACY AC-6000" if you want to look it up your self the model is the Santa Fe AC6000 6-28339.... attached is the Lionel part photo
I believe lionel rail sounds 5 boards similar to the rail sounds 4 board from looking at my legacy FEF 844 sound board which i know is rail sounds 5.5 form the part brake down. I have been looking at trying to find the red hazard lens for it and a smoke element.
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Robert, if you ask Jon Z., a guy that should know, he says the ERR RS Commander is based on RailSounds 5. I do know that the new RS Commander MUST have a totally isolated chuff input, and I suspect that board you have has the same restriction.
I just worked on a scale Blue Comet Legacy engine, comes with the same board. Since this is an $1100 scale engine from 2012, I suspect the board is pretty current. This is the same board as is in many of the newer Legacy steamers.
Trust me, you do NOT want to ground any pins coming out of that board.
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Robert, if you ask Jon Z., a guy that should know, he says the ERR RS Commander is based on RailSounds 5. I do know that the new RS Commander MUST have a totally isolated chuff input, and I suspect that board you have has the same restriction.
I just worked on a scale Blue Comet Legacy engine, comes with the same board. Since this is an $1100 scale engine from 2012, I suspect the board is pretty current. This is the same board as is in many of the newer Legacy steamers.
Trust me, you do NOT want to ground any pins coming out of that board.
i mis under stood the last post and Apologize. Yes i would agree that the new board is most likely based form rs5. I also agree that you really do not want to to anything to the new stuff especially sense i don't know the outputs on that board and i really do not want to find out.
As near as I can determine, the only thing that accepts the common AC frame ground is the serial data, that's for compatibility with the other boards like the modular TMCC and the Cruise Commander. The chuff, speaker, and switches should all be totally isolated.
Someone mentioned the TAS SAW board of which I have several installed. I checked one of the boards and it does have ditch light outputs. The engines I have them in are older style that don't have ditch lights. That board also has extra controllable outputs such as marker lights and number board lights. These are controlled by doing an AUX1-AUX2. This opens the keypad to 9 extra functions- 1,2,3 smoke level - 4 marker lights on/off, 5- number board lights on/off, 6- firebox on/off etc. Marker lights when on follow engine direction. Also headlights are dim until engine moves and then the headlight comes on full for whatever direction engine is moving.
I just found this thread and I have a couple of questions about using the AD20 board so I hope GRJ or another 'Guru' can help me.
- Would I do damage by using R2LC pins 19&20 for the 5vDC+ input to the AD20?
- Are the oscillating light outputs from the AD20 designed for incandescent bulbs or LEDs?
Since this thread was first posted I came up with a circuit for alternating ditch lights for a Williams Amtrak Genesis. I just used a 555 timer thats triggered by the feature code pin on the R2LC. Its manually triggered by Aux1 8 (off) and Aux1 9 (on). Pretty simple actually. Not so simple is finding the circuit sketch I came up with. Don't hold your breath.
Pete
Very helpful - thanks
If you look at the new Electric RailRoad Sound Converter, it has outputs for flashing LED ditch lights triggered from the TMCC serial data, and it only cost $25. The ditch lights are connected to the LED connector.
Thanks John,
I couldn't see any reference to ditch lights (or even an instllation manual) on the ERR website so I'll reach out to ERR.
They don't mention it at all, but I have some of the early units and they have ditch lights. If, for some reason, the current production doesn't have the ditch light feature, I have the code to load to do ditch lights, in fact I posted it in the TMCC/Legacy documentation thread. The schematic diagram of the board is also posted there. I also have the PIC development stuff to be able to load updated code, I'm modifying the code in one to do whistle steam in a TMCC upgrade, it's just been on the back burner for a while.
The connector labeled PGM on the top is the interface to the PIC FLASH loader.
