Operating Woodland Scenic Just Plug Vehicles from MTH AIU.

You can use 14V AC Accessory power instead of the 110V "wall-wart" adapter.  The trick is finding the 2-wire connector that plugs into the Light Hub.  WS recommends using a "Connecting Cable" to make a 2-wire cable that connects to your train transformer.

As for the lighted vehicles, a Light Hub output is a 2-wire cable to each vehicle.  For AIU control, the idea is to cut one of the 2 wires and put an AIU ACC port in the path.  In other words, if you have a wire going from point A to point B, cut the wire in the path and put each side of the cut into an ACC port as shown in diagram.  Now, when you turn the AIU ACC Port on or off, the connection between point A and point B is closed or opened - essentially behaving like an on/off switch but under DCS remote control.

When you try to cut/splice wires you will find it handy that WS also sells an Extension Cable Kit which have "joiner" connectors to allow extending wire lengths without soldering.  WS sells spools of cable too.

Finally, each Light Hub has a so-call CTRL port.  Again you need the magic connector (e.g., from a Connecting Cable) but you can run the 2-wires from the CTRL port right to an AIU ACC port.  In this case a single AIU ACC Port will control (on/off) all 4 Light Hub outputs at once.  Of course you can choose to use less than 4 of the Light Hub outputs.

Thanks for your reply Stan. I understand what you've explained and just need to get a couple and try. I was uncertain of where to break the connection for AIU control. Still not 100 percent sure about reducing the voltage. I think I read that they only require 3 volts. I need to read some more. speperak

speperak posted:

Thanks for your reply Stan. I understand what you've explained and just need to get a couple and try. I was uncertain of where to break the connection for AIU control. Still not 100 percent sure about reducing the voltage. I think I read that they only require 3 volts. I need to read some more. speperak

You could run from their Just Plug Power Supply/Light Hub outputs into the AIU correct? The light Hub may reduce the voltage as IIRC their wall wart is 24VDC. Sounds like a nice project.

speperak posted:

Thanks for your reply Stan. I understand what you've explained and just need to get a couple and try. I was uncertain of where to break the connection for AIU control. Still not 100 percent sure about reducing the voltage. I think I read that they only require 3 volts. I need to read some more. speperak

The Light Hub performs the voltage reduction.  It has 4 separate outputs with individual knob control to adjust brightness.

BobbyD posted:

speperak posted:

Thanks for your reply Stan. I understand what you've explained and just need to get a couple and try. I was uncertain of where to break the connection for AIU control. Still not 100 percent sure about reducing the voltage. I think I read that they only require 3 volts. I need to read some more. speperak

You could run from their Just Plug Power Supply/Light Hub outputs into the AIU correct? The light Hub may reduce the voltage as IIRC their wall wart is 24VDC. Sounds like a nice project.

Right.  There are 4 outputs per Light Hub.  You could run each output to an AIU ACC Port and have individual remote on/off control of 4 vehicles by using 4 ACC Ports.

The Light Hub most definitely reduces the voltage from the wall wart.  Relevant to O-gauge operation, the Light Hub allows you to use AC Accessory power from a train transformer.  In addition to reducing the voltage, you need to convert AC voltage to DC voltage (which the Light Hub does).

You could simply cut one wire from the wallwart to the light hub and connect to the AIU accessory port as Stan described. Then when you turn the circuit on with the DCS control, all vehicles attached to the light hub will operate. No extra parts required! 

Rod

Thanks much for all of the replies. I feel that I have a lot better understanding of my options. I am going to try a few vehicles and see how it goes. thanks speperak