lionel NKP 779 Berkshire, Mars light operation and 4 chuff upgrade

Looking at the manual for that locomotive it states it’s supposed to be on all the time. If I was guessing I imagine the DCDS run it. I could be wrong. I’d start with trying a simple reset. Looks like the reset code is 74 for this locomotive

Thanks for the comment Zachariah.  I did try the reset tonight and it didn’t seem to change anything.  

When looking at other’s online videos of the same engine, theirs also appears to have the same issue with the headlight when traveling forward.  I think the next step is probably to take it apart and confirm the wires for the Mars light board are landed in the correct position based off of lionels wiring diagram.  If any one else has corrected already corrected this on the engine, it would be great to hear from you.

Thanks!

Answered your e-mail. I imagine it is meant to only operate in reverse.  Like the MTH FEF with red mars (non flashing). G

Here is a link to a  companies website called ngineering. They produce lighting simulators including a very nice mars simulator. They are very easy to wire up and would give you the mars light all the time.

NGINEERING WEBSITE

@GGG posted:

Answered your e-mail. I imagine it is meant to only operate in reverse.  Like the MTH FEF with red mars (non flashing). G

A Mars Light is not intended to be illuminated when in reverse. Quite the contrary, it is supposed to provide an additional level of warning when moving forward.

A real Mars light used a motor to oscillate the light beam in a figure-8 pattern. To someone standing near the track, the effect was that of a flashing light. The light would appear to "flash" as the moving light beam passed over you.

Watch the beginning of this video to see what it looks like from lineside:

In our models the light beam does not actually move, but the effect of the flashing light beam is well simulated by the electronic circuit that drives the light.

I think the hardware is already there to make this work, I just don’t understand the limitations to Lionel mother board.  Currently pins 7 and 8 go to the Mars light ( another circuit board dedicated for the Mars light) where pins 3 and 4 go to the headlight (incandescent) .  If I new both pin sets (7/8 and 3/4) were designed to provide 5 volts and that pins 3/4 were also capable of driving the load of the Mars and the headlight, that seems like the easy fix.  I just don’t have knowledge on the Lionel hardware.

Mike

I am not sure who might  see this thread, but I do have a video of a real Mars type light (I think it may have been a competitor to Mars), that I captured from being displayed and operated at a train show.  Enjoy...

Please don't shoot vertical video! I'd like to see the whole scene, not just a narrow strip down the middle of the screen.

Always hold your phone horizontally when you shoot video.

Mike, Lio TMCC is limited to 3 outputs besides couplers.  You had directional lights, and the selectable output (smoke, cablight, or diesel strobe).  That is it.  So everything else with a light is usually non controllable from track power or a cv board.  Later on they added LED / firebox off the motor control boards, and then ditch lights.

This one looks a little different in that it uses a trigger of some sort which I believe is reverse light.  Look at the R2LC outputs in the reference section.  1-24 pins.  Then do a continuity check from Mother board wire to the pin on the R2LC.  G

@Hump Yard Mike posted:

Thanks for the comment Zachariah.  I did try the reset tonight and it didn’t seem to change anything.  

When looking at other’s online videos of the same engine, theirs also appears to have the same issue with the headlight when traveling forward.  I think the next step is probably to take it apart and confirm the wires for the Mars light board are landed in the correct position based off of lionels wiring diagram.  If any one else has corrected already corrected this on the engine, it would be great to hear from you.

Thanks!

Theres an issue with the "new to you 779". The mars light  should function in forward on these.

The headlight goes out in reverse on earlier( pre-2005?) TMCC stuff. Maybe the leads for the mars and headlight are reversed? If thats possible. I wonder if you contacted Mike Reagan at Trainworx: mreagan@twtrainworx.com  if he could shed some light on this.

(not my video)

I got curious and fired mine up. As far as I know it's operating correctly, or at least as Lionel intended.

The MARS, headlite, cab lite and markers all power up with track power, as expected. The MARS is on and oscillates continuously whether stopped, forward, or reverse. It does not shut off with the headlite Aux 2 button, but the headlite does. All else is normal TMCC.

These are a really nice engine and run just great. Congrats on your purchase! Hope that helps.

Rod

That nice video clip of 765 that Rich posted is awesome, and the real Mars really is an eye catcher.

Rod

Here are a several interesting YouTube videos I found showing the inner workings of single lens Mars Lights including the 765'a actual one being worked on and in action.

I did some playing with this tonight.  If cycle between direction a few times I can get it to have both the headlight and Mars light on in forward.  Then when in this state, if go to reverse, I have to cycle a few more times to get both lights on again in forward.  Is this a helpful clue to what might be going on here?

It looks light your headlight goes out when in reverse, just as it should. Kind of a mystery why it takes several cycles for the mars to work, but when it does it looks just like the one on my 779. Gotta be an issue with the mars board. I wonder if the mars gets a serial data signal from the r2lc to fire it up? Seems unlikely but who knows. Can you trace the wires back from the mars board and see where they connect?

Rod

I thought I would provide an update on this.  I did replace the Mars board and it is working good now.  I appreciate all the help and suggestions from others.  I am still very new to the Lionel TMCC/Legacy world and learning the correct terms and how things work in the engines.

I was impressed as the Lionel delivery time on the part was about a week.   It is tiny board.

I learned allot for this project.  Hoping some one might be able to explain the serial bus thing to me.  Inside the engine I see a cluster of wires, wire nutted together, that look blue and grey, which appear to go to track power.  There is another cluster of wires, wire nutted, that are mostly brown where one of them goes to Mars light, another to the smoke unit, another to the 8vac ac regulator and to the r2lc, i assume this would be the serial bus?

While I had this apart, I also put a reed switch on it to get my 4 chuffs.  I also learned a couple of lessons while doing this.  I think I would take the front pilot truck off going forward before taking the top off again as it easily bang into the cylinder heads and I did not realize that was happening until it was too late and will need some touch up paint.  

I wanted to use the  lead wheel on the rear truck as it was exactly 1/2 the diameter of the driving wheels for triggering the switch.  I made two attempts at mounting reeds switch.  The first one was parallel to the wheel axle, much cleaner and worked great on the bench, but not so much on the layout as it seemed to skip.  I created another mount where it was perpendicular instead and had similar issues.  

After about to give up on this,  I looked closer and found the issue to be the wheel I was wanting to trigger off was not really on the rail, and being lifter up by the screw holding the truck to the engine.

I loosened the screw a bit as you can see In the above photo and you can now see daylight between the truck and screw head.   All seems good.  I will need to get a spacer or something more permanent for this.

Here is a small video of it running.  It stops just next to its caboose waiting for a visit to the paint shop.  This caboose should look very close to the caboose the real 779 is on display with now when I am finished with it.

Thanks!

Mike