Super Chuffer Install

The magnets are ideally mounted on one of the drivers, you need four of them for four chuffs/rev.  The reed switch has to be about 1/16" or less away as they rotate, and clearly the magnets need the clearance between the frame and wheel.  Also, if there is too much side to side slop in the driver you're using, you will have to shim it to keep it from causing unreliable chuffs.  The magnet is mounted on the frame so that the magnets pass by one end as they rotate on the driver.

Why would you use the MARS light simulator to light the number boards, I guess I don't understand what you're doing there.

Conventional operation with the Super-Chuffer is possible, but you have to add a large capacitor to "help" the on-board filter cap for lower voltages.  Due to the way the Super-Chuffer circuit interfaces with the rest of the electronics in the locomotive, it was necessary to have a half-wave rectification so I could have a common ground.  Doing otherwise would have cost significantly more and made the board significantly larger.

Rather than try to run without TMCC, why not just buy a used TMCC BASE1, they're commonly available for $50-60, and you can control the locomotive from the DCS remote in command mode.  Solves all the issues of running in conventional.

If from what i am understanding the Super Chuffer Board has a connection on it for headlamp and I can have the headlamp led tied to it this would open up a connection from the Mars light Board to allow a set of Small Led's to light up the Number Boards in the Nose Cone of this engine.

With this as long as my understanding is correct would allow me to totally light the nose cone of this engine and set it apart from any of the other ones out there.

Basically I am counting lighting Connections

1 Super Chuffer and Main Headlight

2 Mars Light Board has a connection for a Single Headlamp as well as the Triple for the Flashing lights. so I am figuring to connect a Led to this to light the Number Boards

I'd put a small SMT LED or two in each number board to light them, then you can still fit the lights in the proper places.  The MARS light goes on top of the headlight.  I've also used some really small incandescent grain of wheat bulbs in the number boards and secured them with hot glue.  Lots of ways to skin this cat.

The two large capacitors on the board are the existing filter caps, my suggestion is to parallel a 1000uf 35V capacitor with them for conventional operation.  You can easily connect it to the back side of the Super-Chuffer on two pins of the regulator module.  If you hold the Super-Chuffer board up, looking at the back side behind the large black block (the regulator), the middle lead to the regulator is the negative side and the right hand lead to the regulator is the positive side.  That's where you connect the external capacitor.

Thank you John

The only fly in the ointment I see with powering the number boards from the MARS light board is they only expect to power a single LED, remember that board is really tiny!  It has no excess current capability.

I was thinking more along the lines of just powering the LEDs that you used in the number boards separately from track power using a diode and resistor.

As you said my friend there are more ways than one to skin this cat

Well, I think hooking it to the MARS board may be a mistake, you need at least two LEDs for the two number boards.  I really doubt that board will light those, at least not for long.