PS2 Marker/Firebox Glow Options

Not sure this is part of what you are looking for, but, GRJ designed a small pcb with some 200-220 ohm surface mount resistors and 3mm flicker leds that work pretty good on 3-5vdc.  I bought some to play with.  The boards came from OshPark at $1.20 per batch of three, shipped.  Here’s a short video.

Fellas, for reference, MARKERS are on the rear of an engine or train, traditionally red as they “MARK” the position of the end of the train, the front lights are CLASS lights, they indicate what job the train is doing, ie; scheduled run, extra, etc. etc,….red MARKER lights on the tender of a steam locomotive would only be illuminated if the engine was running light, ( no cars etc,.) thus indicating the tender is the END of the train, and “ MARKING THE END OF THE TRAIN” …..markers mark, ….class lights classify ….easy to remember…..

Pat

@harmonyards posted:

Fellas, for reference, MARKERS are on the rear of an engine or train, traditionally red as they “MARK” the position of the end of the train, the front lights are CLASS lights, they indicate what job the train is doing, ie; scheduled run, extra, etc. etc,….red MARKER lights on the tender of a steam locomotive would only be illuminated if the engine was running light, ( no cars etc,.) thus indicating the tender is the END of the train, and “ MARKING THE END OF THE TRAIN” …..markers mark, ….class lights classify ….easy to remember…..

Pat

That’s makes sense. I was going by MTH’s terminology since there are front green and rear red “marker” light outputs on the board, both controlled by the “marker” softkey in DCS. They also call them that in their upgrade kits. I’m assuming MTH may’ve simply not known that.

In any case, I want to know what LEDs (other than the stock MTH ones) can be run off the “marker” outputs on the PS2 board.

Now that you’ve said this though, I may make the rear marker and front class lights have independent control of one another.

@TedW posted:

Not sure this is part of what you are looking for, but, GRJ designed a small pcb with some 200-220 ohm surface mount resistors and 3mm flicker leds that work pretty good on 3-5vdc.  I bought some to play with.  The boards came from OshPark at $1.20 per batch of three, shipped.  Here’s a short video.

Could this theoretically be rigged to run off one of the 6v DC outputs of the PS2 board?

@jaketrainz posted:

That’s makes sense. I was going by MTH’s terminology since there are front green and rear red “marker” light outputs on the board, both controlled by the “marker” softkey in DCS. They also call them that in their upgrade kits. I’m assuming MTH may’ve simply not known that.

In any case, I want to know what LEDs (other than the stock MTH ones) can be run off the “marker” outputs on the PS2 board.

Now that you’ve said this though, I may make the rear marker and front class lights have independent control of one another.

I believe Lou ( Lou1985 ) knows how to do this…..I think he just did something like this, ….Either him or George ( GGG ) should be able to tell you,…..I’m sure they’ll see this thread……

Pat

@harmonyards posted:

I believe Lou ( Lou1985 ) knows how to do this…..I think he just did something like this, ….Either him or George ( GGG ) should be able to tell you,…..I’m sure they’ll see this thread……

Pat

Are you referring to running other (white) LEDs off the PS2 marker outputs? Again I’m wanting white (not red) LEDs to shine through existing red lenses on the tender.

My plan for the latter part involving independent control is to just modify the sound file using Mark DeVecchio’s ADPCM program and use either the “number board” or “aux light” softkeys for the green class lights.

@jaketrainz posted:

In any case, I want to know what LEDs (other than the stock MTH ones) can be run off the “marker” outputs on the PS2 board.

Any bog-standard 20ma LED will run off the marker outputs.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Any bog-standard 20ma LED will run off the marker outputs.

Okay, this may be where my lack of series/parallel wiring knowledge shows, but if I want to run two LEDs wired off the same output like the stock MTH ones, do I need different LEDs or just need to wire the 20ma ones a specific way? Pictures for reference.

Just wire the two in series, job done.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Just wire the two in series, job done.

Okay, thanks. As I'm looking at these stock MTH harnesses, I notice an orange jumper wire from the marker 2 pin to the LED power. Since I'm making custom harnesses, is this jumper required if a second marker is not being used? Just wanting to cover all bases.

Apparently it's required, it's standard on the harness, I've never tried taking it off to see what happens.

Just out of curiosity what model are you attempting to upgrade using what components/harness?

Even MTH could not tell me why the jumper is used.  Diesel did not use it.  But I guess in steam with only one marker output being used it was installed.

PS-2 used series markers.  The old PS-1 engines had parallel markers.

For use of LED of the bulb outputs you can select the resistor you want based on how many LED you will drive and in what method. Series or parallel.

For a flickering firebox you will need a circuit to do the flicker.  Remember you only have one light line to a PS-2 engine based on 10 pin harness and board in tender.  The MUX gets you one other control.  G

Another point on a flickering firebox.  If you use flickering LED's, they need a PURE DC to function.  Any unfiltered chopped or PWM DC source will not work for a flickering LED.

@GGG posted:

Even MTH could not tell me why the jumper is used.  Diesel did not use it.  But I guess in steam with only one marker output being used it was installed.

PS-2 used series markers.  The old PS-1 engines had parallel markers.

For use of LED of the bulb outputs you can select the resistor you want based on how many LED you will drive and in what method. Series or parallel.

For a flickering firebox you will need a circuit to do the flicker.  Remember you only have one light line to a PS-2 engine based on 10 pin harness and board in tender.  The MUX gets you one other control.  G

I’m actually doing a custom upgrade placing the board in the engine rather than the tender. I’m making custom wiring harnesses. I have another post about getting the required connectors, parts etc. My plan is to take advantage of this and use the extra lighting outputs. Tether will be an MTH universal one that is custom wired as well. Using an old 5v steamer (with board in engine) and the old PS2 diesel upgrade kit manual for reference.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Another point on a flickering firebox.  If you use flickering LED's, they need a PURE DC to function.  Any unfiltered chopped or PWM DC source will not work for a flickering LED.

That’s good to know. Is there any flickering circuit that can accept the PWM directly from the PS2 board outputs?

Edit: Or is there a circuit I can make to drive a flickering LED that can be controlled (on/off) from one the PS2 light outputs?

@Lou1985 posted:

Just out of curiosity what model are you attempting to upgrade using what components/harness?

I’m making custom harnesses as I asked about in a previous post. I’m modeling the upgrade after the early 5V PS2 steamers that had the board in the engine rather than the tender. This way I have access to more lighting options. On this specific model, I actually have more room in the engine anyway than the tender. As for the model itself, I plan to do a grand reveal post and maybe a video once everything is done.

@GGG posted:

Even MTH could not tell me why the jumper is used.  Diesel did not use it.  But I guess in steam with only one marker output being used it was installed.

I'm glad I'm not along.  I figured it was in the factory harness so I'd leave it.  Never questioned why it was there.

@jaketrainz posted:

I’m making custom harnesses as I asked about in a previous post. I’m modeling the upgrade after the early 5V PS2 steamers that had the board in the engine rather than the tender. This way I have access to more lighting options. On this specific model, I actually have more room in the engine anyway than the tender. As for the model itself, I plan to do a grand reveal post and maybe a video once everything is done.

You can pretty much copy the diesel wiring harness if you're mounting the board in the locomotive.

@Lou1985 posted:

You can pretty much copy the diesel wiring harness if you're mounting the board in the locomotive.

That’s basically what I’m doing. I wish they still sold the contents of the PS2 diesel kit, minus the board and battery. Then I could just use those harnesses and modify as needed. The volume pot, speaker, coupler, and backup light are in the tender. I’m custom splicing a universal PS2 10 pin tether for these connections.