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In this day and age, how is it possible not to have a wiring diagram, product spec, or plan to produce a very expensive train set.

I have contacted everyone I know at the company, and can not, or will not get an answer to a simple question.

"What controls the cab lights in a Acela engine?"

The connection comes from the mother board, on red and black wires to the board above the engineers head.

Someone must know the answer to this question.

Last edited by choochoopaul
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Not sure this is the answer you seek, but the original wiring diagram posted on LionelSupport shows, on page 1, a "circuit board for cab illumination" towards the top right in the attached PDF copy of that page. Wiring goes back to the Motherboard as you say; I assume that the control for on/off is there.

I also assume that this was a unique motherboard specific to this model - rather like the original TMCC Veranda motherboard that had the sound and smoke controls on it. As both the Acela and the Veranda are listed in the latest catalog as Legacy versions, presumably Lionel has had to re-engineer their operating features - but that does not mean that anyone still there knows how the original ones functioned. But I agree that you'd think that would be part of the knowledge bank.

https://www.lionelsupport.com/...34_AcelaSetallWD.pdf

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Last edited by Hancock52

Hey there ChooChooPaul, bring those pentagraphs down some.  Hancock linked you up with a nifty wire schematic that should answer your questions.  That black and red wire you ask about on the light board could actually be power from the motherboard.  It swaps over to blue / yellow along the way through non-board mounted connection.  The other connector appears to contain all of the signals to turn on/off head light, marker lights, ditch lights and dash lights.  That is coming from DCDR-S board.  See markup below.

   

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  • mceclip0
Last edited by Steims

Screenshot 2021-04-20 201133Hey Steims,



The board with the two LEDs is mounted above the engineers head. The connections to the mother board are position 2 and 3 from the left. Positions 4 and 5 are for the step lights. They work as they should, on at rest, off any speed.

I have changed the mother board, the radio board (Code 13), the DCDR motor control board, programmed the engine with (Eng. 26 -SET - Eng. 26 - Aux1 - 7 -6).

The lights above the engineers head will NOT turn on at rest.

I hope you now understand the problem.

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Images (1)
  • Screenshot 2021-04-20 201133
Last edited by choochoopaul

OK, now we get you Paul.  This is a straight input to the cab light board from the mother board.  Could be connectors at either end, connector in the middle, loose pin, burnt out LEDs, bad motherboard.  Since you swapped out the motherboard already scratch that.

Might double check the pins you suggested.  I see pins 3 & 4 are for cab lights.  Pins 5 & 6 for step lights.  Can you do a voltage check across 3 & 4 to see if MB is sending voltage to cab light board?  If yes, then check the pins on cab light board for same voltage.  If no, then start pinpointing connection/wiring along the way.

I have never worked on a Acela but I can certainly appreciate you fixing yours.  I would want this unit running perfectly too. 





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  • mceclip0

You also may want to re-check the radio board code 13.  I would check each individual TRIAC on the radio board.  I have had replacement code 13 boards with a bad TRIAC straight from Lionel.  I doubt this is the problem, but I would verify in any case as I am not sure how this card would control the cab lights, but...

The only other thing to check would be the head light circuit board.  But here again, it looks to be just a pass through board.  So that being the case, its back to actual cab light circuit board and its LEDs.  Is there any way to see if that works independent of any other items?  Maybe a 3 volt DC directly connected to this board???  Any one else have an idea how to test this board independently?

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