So I was looking at the bulb replacements, and found that they are LEDs, so the forward marker lights on the smoke box are red, I think green would be more appropriate right? Question is, are these 1.5mm leds? And where to source green ones? Or just put the red Back?
Thanks
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The class LED's for the MTH locomotives as well as the tender markers, are 2mm ceramic Lumex LED's. Sadly, they're now out of production, so the only way I know of getting them is ordering the set from MTH.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:The class LED's for the MTH locomotives as well as the tender markers, are 2mm ceramic Lumex LED's. Sadly, they're now out of production, so the only way I know of getting them is ordering the set from MTH.
Ok, thanks. May just keep the red.... or is that a no no for being prototypical?
Nothing is a no no in modeling.
Well, red isn't prototypical for the class lights, but there's nothing to say you can't use them anyway. 
"Regular" trains didn't have their markers lit. White would be the first choice of color, followed by green, Red, no no no!
Jim, my trains always have a trailing section following, so I use green.
Yea, im just putting the red back in.
So I worked on installing the new firebox leds and the cab light. What do you think? May dim down the cab led a bit.
Cab led
Hard to say from videos, but it's easy to change intensity, just add a little more resistance. With the Super-Chuffer, the cab light is out when moving, so I don't worry too much about fine tuning the intensity.
What did you use for the firebox flicker?
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Hard to say from videos, but it's easy to change intensity, just add a little more resistance. With the Super-Chuffer, the cab light is out when moving, so I don't worry too much about fine tuning the intensity.
What did you use for the firebox flicker?
Yea, thats what I was thinking. The super chuffer and chuff generator show up tomorrow.
I got 100 5mm yellow flickering leds off Amazon for like 8 bucks. I like that the yellow pulls down all the red on the lens that mth glued to the inside of the firebox.
Never understood why lionel uses red, when orange to yellow is more accurate to coal burning hot enough to generate steam. Im changing some of my locos to orange I think.
So, any ideas to get the bulb out to upgrade to led?
The bulb in the cab? Just push it out from the cab side, it's in a rubber grommet. Truthfully, for cab lighting, I typically use an incandescent bulb as it more evenly spreads the light. For the Super-Chuffer cab light, I use a 12-18V bulb and drive it from the cab light control output.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:The bulb in the cab? Just push it out from the cab side, it's in a rubber grommet. Truthfully, for cab lighting, I typically use an incandescent bulb as it more evenly spreads the light. For the Super-Chuffer cab light, I use a 12-18V bulb and drive it from the cab light control output.
No this is the head light in the pics.
Sorry, I thought we were still talking about the cab light. 
The headlight will be "interesting" to convert to LED. I've done a bunch of them as that's one of the features of the Super-Chuffer upgrade. First off, you have to take the headlight off the pilot, that involves, of course, removing the pilot first. That doesn't look like the Premier, is that the RailKing model? Here's a Premier Y3B, the Y6B pilot and light should look the same.
You have to remove the front headlight lens. Then I use a 3528 SMT led and solder some fine wires to it, insulate it with Liquid Tape, and glue it inside the light aligned with the headlight opening. Then I reassemble the headlight, mount it on the pilot, and put the pilot back on.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Sorry, I thought we were still talking about the cab light.
The headlight will be "interesting" to convert to LED. I've done a bunch of them as that's one of the features of the Super-Chuffer upgrade. First off, you have to take the headlight off the pilot, that involves, of course, removing the pilot first. That doesn't look like the Premier, is that the RailKing model? Here's a Premier Y3B, the Y6B pilot and light should look the same.
You have to remove the front headlight lens. Then I use a 3528 SMT led and solder some fine wires to it, insulate it with Liquid Tape, and glue it inside the light aligned with the headlight opening. Then I reassemble the headlight, mount it on the pilot, and put the pilot back on.
Its a premier. Sounds like a pain. The screw is hard to get to, I don't have a right angle phillips that small. If I just wanted to put a resistor on it, what value? Also would I need a 1/2 watt? Maybe leaving it till it goes out is a better option?
Thanks
You don't need a right-angle screwdriver, the pilot comes off, and there should be a hole to allow you to remove the headlight with a straight slot screwdriver.
You can't power the incandescent bulb from the Super-Chuffer headlight output, it's designed to power ONE white LED. That's why I developed a way to do the pilot mounted lights.
To power the 60ma incandescent 6V MTH bulb from the TMCC headlight output, you'll need a 133 ohm 1 watt resistor. I'd also add a diode as if the engine happens to come up in conventional mode, it gets full track power and that will either kill the bulb or cook the resistor.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:You don't need a right-angle screwdriver, the pilot comes off, and there should be a hole to allow you to remove the headlight with a straight slot screwdriver.
You can't power the incandescent bulb from the Super-Chuffer headlight output, it's designed to power ONE white LED. That's why I developed a way to do the pilot mounted lights.
To power the 60ma incandescent 6V MTH bulb from the TMCC headlight output, you'll need a 133 ohm 1 watt resistor. I'd also add a diode as if the engine happens to come up in conventional mode, it gets full track power and that will either kill the bulb or cook the resistor.
Ok, I pulled the pilot off, looks like I can get a 3mm warm white led in there, there was a standard grain of wheat bulb in before. May have to paint the base of the led black to keep it from shining down, but it looks good. Maybe some ca glue to keep it up in the lamp housing?
The problem with the 3mm LED is it shines up and not forward. That's why I go the extra mile with my conversions.
Don't use CA to secure it, maybe something like Liquid tape. That will keep it in place and block the light. The bonus is it's soft and if you have to remove the LED, you can. Finally, the CA will cloud the headlight lens, not exactly a desirable result.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:The problem with the 3mm LED is it shines up and not forward. That's why I go the extra mile with my conversions.
Don't use CA to secure it, maybe something like Liquid tape. That will keep it in place and block the light. The bonus is it's soft and if you have to remove the LED, you can. Finally, the CA will cloud the headlight lens, not exactly a desirable result.
Yea, I was thinking of popping out the lens and see if I can get a 3 or maybe 5mm led to fit. It would replace the lens.
Making the corner in the back it tricky. If you do try that, I recommend a 3mm flat flangeless LED. As I wanted to keep the look of the stock headlight lens, that wasn't an option for me.
If i use the smd led, how did you get the lens off?
That's the kind of LED I use, but I buy them unsoldered in a tape.
Well, if it has lighted number boards, I use an X-acto knife and gently pry one off. Then I push the other one off. With them out of the way, you can then push the lens out from the back.
If it doesn't have lighted number boards, it's a bit harder, you have to work in the lens from the front with the X-acto or use something like a crooked dental tool to push from the back up through the hole the bulb fits into.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:That's the kind of LED I use, but I buy them unsoldered in a tape.
Well, if it has lighted number boards, I use an X-acto knife and gently pry one off. Then I push the other one off. With them out of the way, you can then push the lens out from the back.
If it doesn't have lighted number boards, it's a bit harder, you have to work in the lens from the front with the X-acto or use something like a crooked dental tool to push from the back up through the hole the bulb fits into.
Great thanks.
Got the super chuffer, I was wondering if I could use the existing encoder tape that MTH uses? Or am I to use yours?
Thanks
Any black & white strips will work as long as they're in decent shape.
Thanks
Weird thing happened with the smd LED. Supplying it with 3vdc from a bench top power supply, its dim but on, put a 470ohm resistor and 1n4003 diode on the positive and connected to the 18vac lionel power supply and nice and bright. I was worried that the 3vdc the super chuffer puts out may not be enough..... off the 18vac power supply, i get 4vac and 1.4vdc at the led. The bench ps was at 3vdc. Measured with a calibrated fluke process meter.
Any ideas? Seems weird.....
The Super-Chuffer puts out 5V through a 100 ohm limiting resistor. Of the hundreds shipped, there have never been an instance of a problem lighting a standard white LED. Remove the diode and resistor and the LED will light just fine. Note that you MUST provide an input headlight signal on pin-3 of the S-C to tell the S-C when the headlight should be on. This normally comes from the TMCC R2LC headlight output.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:The Super-Chuffer puts out 5V through a 100 ohm limiting resistor. Of the hundreds shipped, there have never been an instance of a problem lighting a standard white LED. Remove the diode and resistor and the LED will light just fine. Note that you MUST provide an input headlight signal on pin-3 of the S-C to tell the S-C when the headlight should be on. This normally comes from the TMCC R2LC headlight output.
Is there a way to provide that headlight input to test it on the bench before i put the pilot back together?
Thanks
Sure, just connect almost any voltage up to around 20 volts the pin-3 the headlight input to the Super-Chuffer. It accepts positive or negative or AC voltage to indicate the headlight should be on. Obviously, the LED anode is wired to pin-4 of the S-C and the cathode of the LED to ground on the S-C.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Sure, just connect almost any voltage up to around 20 volts the pin-3 the headlight input to the Super-Chuffer. It accepts positive or negative or AC voltage to indicate the headlight should be on. Obviously, the LED anode is wired to pin-4 of the S-C and the cathode of the LED to ground on the S-C.
Ok great, then I could use the 5v output to the chuff generator?
Its weird, the lamp housing on the Y6b has side number lights, but the casting is solid behind them..... you'd think they would open them up to have them lighted, cost cutting I guess.....
Yep, you can use the +5V from pin-10 to pin-3, that will turn on the lighting output.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Yep, you can use the +5V from pin-10 to pin-3, that will turn on the lighting output.
The two schematics you have in the Super-Chuffer manual, does the first one give me all the options of the Super-Chuffer like idle smoke when stopped?
What the difference between the two?
Yes, either gives you the options described in the Super-Chuffer document.
The second wiring diagram is to illustrate additional things you can add to enhance the operation. The Chuff-Generator and the 2-level smoke control are extras that are not part of the Super-Chuffer basic package.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Yep, you can use the +5V from pin-10 to pin-3, that will turn on the lighting output.
I must have damaged the led with heat, still dim
No, you just don't understand how Rule-17 lighting works! The headlight is dimmed when stopped, and bright when moving.
What is wired to pin-5 of the Super-Chuffer? Are you using a Chuff-Generator or a mechanical chuff switch? If the Super-Chuffer sees chuffing, the headlight will be bright.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:No, you just don't understand how Rule-17 lighting works! The headlight is dimmed when stopped, and bright when moving.
What is wired to pin-5 of the Super-Chuffer? Are you using a Chuff-Generator or a mechanical chuff switch? If the Super-Chuffer sees chuffing, the headlight will be bright.
I ordered some of the smt units from Amazon, 100 for $7 isn't bad. Besides, the warm led doent seem right for a headlight.
The led I pulled off has damage, I used a heat gun to remove, dont have an smt heat pencil.
As I'm putting the Y6b together, I'm wondering about the rs2.5 board. It has inputs for a chuff switch, is it required? Or will chuff data be provided by the serial input like I hope?
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