Adding ditch lights?

Good Luck,

 

I love the ditch lights and specifically seek out diesels with this feature. Make sure to post the after picture and video

Steve

I might have a set with all the wiring. I will check when i get back home.

 

Gene

The MARS light isn't the ditch light output.  This appears to be a PS/3 locomotive, is that correct?  How about the MTH product number?

 

I do have the the wiring for the Ditchlights. If you can find a way to hook them up. Email if you would like to discuss.

wheeler359@gmail.com

 As GRJ asks, what do you have? 

 

Also, do you have a DCS/TIU system or access to one?  To give you operational control over the ditch lights, the engine itself needs to be loaded with a soundset that tells the system that ditch lights are present.

 

Alternatively, I suppose you could "tap in" to an existing light circuit so that the ditch lights come on whenever the, say, headlight is on. 

 

So it depends on what you have and what kind of operational control you want - such as alternating flashing the ditch lights when the horn is active.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll do my best to answer them all.

 

Gene -I will send you an email, thanks for offering up the wiring!

 

John - This is a PS2 enginer and the number is 20-2398-1

 

Stan - I do not have a full DCS system with the TIU.  I would like to eventually have the lights flash with the horn, however my first goal is to try and hook them up and then go from there.

The ditch lights connection appear to be pins 3 and 5 of the eight pin connector.

 

You will need a sound/control file with ditch light code.

 

I presume but not certain that these files with ditch light control may need a 2meg board.

 

Just some food for thought.

You can tap into the ditch lights on the PS/2, they're on pins 3 & 5 of the 8 pin connector.  You will need to use the PV purple lead as the common for these, that originates on pin 2 of the 12 pin connector.  They're 6V incandescents, and you can use LED's with a 270 ohm resistor, the PV is the positive side.

 

The ditch lights are enabled on almost any sound file, even the steamer ones seem to have them enabled.

As the guys say, the ditch lights are connected as shown above.  What you need to do is look at your engine to make sure pins 3 and 5 of the 8-pin connector are indeed "free".  It may be hard to see as the boards are often mounted upside down.  Pin 2 of the 12-pin will most surely be taken as that's to common wire to all lights.  This common wire is usually purple and will already run to the board in your photo that has the "missing" MRS connector.

 

So assuming 3 and 5 are free (some engines use these outputs for other than ditch lights) you want to insert crimped wires as shown.  The ditch bulbs usually have the 2-pin connector on it.  So you need to find the 2-pin mating connector for each bulb.  If there are 2 free slots on the board (like the free MRS slot), I suppose you could co-opt them and run the pin 3/5 wires to the small board.  Or I guess you could leave the mating connectors "in-line" hanging freely but then you'd need to bring the common pin-2 wire to these connectors.  Sounds like Gene has the wiring for all this so that should make you life simpler.

 

At some point you will need access to a DCS system to configure your engine board to flash the ditch lights when the horn blows.  That is, if as GRJ says the ditch lights are already enabled on the engine they will probably be configured just to come on solid. 

 

Ditch light control was available from "day 1" on PS2 so I'm fairly certain you don't need the larger "2 meg" memory version.  However, you may need to load a suitable soundset via the DCS/TIU but you'll need to mess with the configuration anyway (using DCS) to configure the ditch lights to flash.

Looking up the product 20-2398-1 this appears to be a 5v system using what "looks' like a 9v battery (actually 8.4v).  This being the case I am not sure if there is any ditch light control built into it and/or files.

I'm pretty sure I've seen ditch lights on the 5V models. 

 

I checked, they will turn on and off on a RK GP-9, but they don't flash.

You can tell it is a PS-2 5V system by the VR wiring right under the smoke unit (3 thick wires).  If you add them you can always go to DCS "Controls" select Ditch Lights and turn them on or into Auto.

 

Goal would be finding a sound file that has the features.   G

I would be willing to bet that this statement is not accurate. I have several engines with 1 meg boards and ditch lights.

 There was talk about the need or lack of really, for 2 meg boards in G scale. Most older ones are 1 meg I believe, and they have ditch lights.

Thank you again for all the help guys!  I will have time tomorrow evening to pull apart my GP30 again and see if I have the 8 or 12 pin connector.  I am looking at buying the ditch lights from Atlas O, the ones they use on there GP60's...any thoughts.

Well, the physical lights can be either 6V bulbs or you can use an LED with a 270 ohm resistor on each of the ditch light outputs.  As for the physical appearance of the ditch lights, that will depend on the locomotive in question.

 

My bad, I meant the housings - not the actual bulbs.

I figured as much, that's why I added the physical appearance.  That is obviously very dependent on the actual locomotive and what you can find that closely matches the prototype.

Found some here. Not a bad price and they look large enough for you to modify for LEDs.

They say they fit an SMD LED, so there should be no modification necessary.