MTH Y6b conversion to TMCC led question

The class LED's for the MTH locomotives as well as the tender markers, are 2mm ceramic Lumex LED's.  Sadly, they're now out of production, so the only way I know of getting them is ordering the set from MTH.

MTH CC-0000061 Green Marker Wiring Harness

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The class LED's for the MTH locomotives as well as the tender markers, are 2mm ceramic Lumex LED's.  Sadly, they're now out of production, so the only way I know of getting them is ordering the set from MTH.

MTH CC-0000061 Green Marker Wiring Harness

Ok, thanks. May just keep the red.... or is that a no no for being prototypical?

Nothing is a no no in modeling.

Well, red isn't prototypical for the class lights, but there's nothing to say you can't use them anyway.

"Regular" trains didn't have their markers lit. White would be the first choice of color, followed by green, Red, no no no!

Jim, my trains always have a trailing section following, so I use green.

Yea, im just putting the red back in. 

So I worked on installing the new firebox leds and the cab light. What do you think? May dim down the cab led a bit.

Cab led

Hard to say from videos, but it's easy to change intensity, just add a little more resistance.  With the Super-Chuffer, the cab light is out when moving, so I don't worry too much about fine tuning the intensity.

What did you use for the firebox flicker?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Hard to say from videos, but it's easy to change intensity, just add a little more resistance.  With the Super-Chuffer, the cab light is out when moving, so I don't worry too much about fine tuning the intensity.

What did you use for the firebox flicker?

Yea, thats what I was thinking. The super chuffer and chuff generator show up tomorrow.

I got 100 5mm yellow flickering leds off Amazon for like 8 bucks. I like that the yellow pulls down all the red on the lens that mth glued to the inside of the firebox.

Never understood why lionel uses red, when orange to yellow is more accurate to coal burning hot enough to generate steam. Im changing some of my locos to orange I think.

So, any ideas to get the bulb out to upgrade to led?

The bulb in the cab?  Just push it out from the cab side, it's in a rubber grommet.  Truthfully, for cab lighting, I typically use an incandescent bulb as it more evenly spreads the light.  For the Super-Chuffer cab light, I use a 12-18V bulb and drive it from the cab light control output.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The bulb in the cab?  Just push it out from the cab side, it's in a rubber grommet.  Truthfully, for cab lighting, I typically use an incandescent bulb as it more evenly spreads the light.  For the Super-Chuffer cab light, I use a 12-18V bulb and drive it from the cab light control output.

No this is the head light in the pics.

Sorry, I thought we were still talking about the cab light.

The headlight will be "interesting" to convert to LED.  I've done a bunch of them as that's one of the features of the Super-Chuffer upgrade.  First off, you have to take the headlight off the pilot, that involves, of course, removing the pilot first. That doesn't look like the Premier, is that the RailKing model?  Here's a Premier Y3B, the Y6B pilot and light should look the same.

You have to remove the front headlight lens.  Then I use a 3528 SMT led and solder some fine wires to it, insulate it with Liquid Tape, and glue it inside the light aligned with the headlight opening.  Then I reassemble the headlight, mount it on the pilot, and put the pilot back on.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Sorry, I thought we were still talking about the cab light.

The headlight will be "interesting" to convert to LED.  I've done a bunch of them as that's one of the features of the Super-Chuffer upgrade.  First off, you have to take the headlight off the pilot, that involves, of course, removing the pilot first. That doesn't look like the Premier, is that the RailKing model?  Here's a Premier Y3B, the Y6B pilot and light should look the same.

You have to remove the front headlight lens.  Then I use a 3528 SMT led and solder some fine wires to it, insulate it with Liquid Tape, and glue it inside the light aligned with the headlight opening.  Then I reassemble the headlight, mount it on the pilot, and put the pilot back on.

Its a premier. Sounds like a pain. The screw is hard to get to, I don't have a right angle phillips that small. If I just wanted to put a resistor on it, what value? Also would I need a 1/2 watt? Maybe leaving it till it goes out is a better option? 

Thanks

You don't need a right-angle screwdriver, the pilot comes off, and there should be a hole to allow you to remove the headlight with a straight slot screwdriver.

You can't power the incandescent bulb from the Super-Chuffer headlight output, it's designed to power ONE white LED.  That's why I developed a way to do the pilot mounted lights.

To power the 60ma incandescent 6V MTH bulb from the TMCC headlight output, you'll need a 133 ohm 1 watt resistor.  I'd also add a diode as if the engine happens to come up in conventional mode, it gets full track power and that will either kill the bulb or cook the resistor.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

You don't need a right-angle screwdriver, the pilot comes off, and there should be a hole to allow you to remove the headlight with a straight slot screwdriver.

You can't power the incandescent bulb from the Super-Chuffer headlight output, it's designed to power ONE white LED.  That's why I developed a way to do the pilot mounted lights.

To power the 60ma incandescent 6V MTH bulb from the TMCC headlight output, you'll need a 133 ohm 1 watt resistor.  I'd also add a diode as if the engine happens to come up in conventional mode, it gets full track power and that will either kill the bulb or cook the resistor.

Ok, I pulled the pilot off, looks like I can get a 3mm warm white led in there, there was a standard grain of wheat bulb in before. May have to paint the base of the led black to keep it from shining down, but it looks good. Maybe some ca glue to keep it up in the lamp housing?

The problem with the 3mm LED is it shines up and not forward.  That's why I go the extra mile with my conversions.

Don't use CA to secure it, maybe something like Liquid tape.  That will keep it in place and block the light.  The bonus is it's soft and if you have to remove the LED, you can.  Finally, the CA will cloud the headlight lens, not exactly a desirable result.