I have a MTH 20-2176-1 F3 that I want to convert the front and rear As to LEDs. How should I go about it? Wire the lights in series and connect them to the light board? Attached is a few pictures. One is the rear A with all lights attached, the other is a gutted powered unit to show the bracket where the lights attach and the light board itself.
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Trainlover9943 posted:I have a MTH 20-2176-1 F3 that I want to convert the front and rear As to LEDs. How should I go about it? Wire the lights in series and connect them to the light board? Attached is a few pictures. One is the rear A with all lights attached, the other is a gutted powered unit to show the bracket where the lights attach and the light board itself.
Does the set have directional lighting?
Sid's Trains posted:Trainlover9943 posted:I have a MTH 20-2176-1 F3 that I want to convert the front and rear As to LEDs. How should I go about it? Wire the lights in series and connect them to the light board? Attached is a few pictures. One is the rear A with all lights attached, the other is a gutted powered unit to show the bracket where the lights attach and the light board itself.
Does the set have directional lighting?
For the headlights, yes. I'd love to do auto cab lights and lighted class lights too.
The light board puts out 6VDC, so if you put a 220 ohm resistor in series with the headlight LED's, that will do the trick.
Auto cab lights will require additional logic, I'm assuming you want them off when moving and on when stopped?
The number boards are the same as the headlight, 6V from that lighting board. You can do those the same way with a 220 ohm resistor for each number board LED.
The class lights should already be LED, they are powered from the red connector.
gunrunnerjohn posted:The light board puts out 6VDC, so if you put a 220 ohm resistor in series with the headlight LED's, that will do the trick.
Auto cab lights will require additional logic, I'm assuming you want them off when moving and on when stopped?
The number boards are the same as the headlight, 6V from that lighting board. You can do those the same way with a 220 ohm resistor for each number board LED.
The class lights should already be LED, they are powered from the red connector.
Awesome! Thanks! For the cab lights you are correct. With the class lights, I have to add them since the model didn't come with them, but it's good to know where the plug goes. What are the connectors that go in the plugs? JST?
This may not have a bearing on your conversion, but once upon a time I converted a Lionel GP38 from 3 regular bulbs to LED's. This is a 6-38239 KCS conventional control from 2012. The LED's had rectifiers, and after the conversion the electronic e-unit no longer worked properly. You had to interrupt power several times to get it to work. I would rather have the e-unit work properly vs. the LED's, so I converted it back to the regular bulbs that came with it. I originally cut the wires coming from the board, so it was simple to change it back. The e-unit now works like new again. Electronics can be tricky!
Ron, this conversion runs no risk of changing the behavior of the boards.
Matt, the connectors are the Molex Mini-SPOX Connectors
gunrunnerjohn posted:Matt, the connectors are the Molex Mini-SPOX Connectors
Cool. I'll get some in case I need them.
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