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My wife bought me the Broadway Limited Thunder and Lighting as a gift. It is really cool. There are two modes: Manual…Push the button and you get Thunder and Lightning. Hold the push button switch for two seconds and you get a flash for manual mode, push again you get two flashes for automatic mode. Automatic mode gives you random 90 second rain storms.

          I hooked the wires that go to the momentary switch to the momentary side of a port on my Lionel SC2, which is programmed for Accessories. I was hoping to hit the AUX1 button on my Legacy Cab2 and trigger the thunder etc., but the SC2 momentary contacts are too slow. The Thunder Lightning device goes into the manual or auto mode. Is there something out there that I could hook up to the SC2 and trigger a faster momentary action ? Thanks

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I  always found that my SC-2 performed sluggishly or erratically.

I remedied this by running an earth ground wire near it. (Just a length of stranded, copper wire that has one bare end wrapped around the water pipe in our basement.

This improved the reliability and reaction.

Also, are you using the Legacy remote to activate the SC-2? I I ask as I believe it has a "route throw rate" adjustment but that shouldn't come into play here.

If the SC2 triggers to slow, how does a SS speed it up?  Sounds like it's the initial trigger that's the issue, not the duration.

Single-shot may not be the right name, and it may not be a 555, but I’m imagining a circuit that outputs a short discrete pulse upon transition of an input from high to low (or vice versa), and does not re-trigger until the same transition occurs again.

Since I am imagining someone else doing it, it seems like a very easy job.  

Of course it could be done simply with a microcontroller, but I was wondering if there's a discrete solution that would avoid needing a 5V supply.  On the other hand if you need a DC supply at all it may be just as easy to use a microcontroller.

Last edited by Professor Chaos

I am not very familiar with the SC-2 by any means but I would think there would be a way to get it working to where it would trigger it but again I’m no expert. On the other hand I have a Accessory controller I developed that would take care of you in this situation. It’s not all that special it’s based from a 556 timer but I like to think it’s pretty well thought out, could be a little overkill but it would work if nothing can be done with the SC-2 drop me a email (I’m my profile) if interested

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There are some circuit ideas here and here for generating a shorter pulse from a longer one.

However, they are intricate enough that if I were trying to do it, I'd just use an Arduino microcontroller to detect the SC2 signal and trigger your device for whatever time period you need. You can get small US-sourced Arduinos for $5; less from China.

Depending on how your momentary button is wired, the Arduino might be able to trigger it on its own; otherwise the Arduino could close a relay that would trigger your device.

if you have a DZ-2001 data wire driver the Arduino could even read a command over the serial line directly without involving the SC-2, but that's a little more complicated programming.

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