12-08-2012, 12:54 PM
jwb Wrote:...I'd be interested to see what you do with the lights on Athearn GP38-2 bodies, since I'll have several in line for work now.I am afraid I will be of very little help with those engines because I did never convert one of those drives with lights to DCC due to the/my motor issue we discussed yesterday. But the CSX GP38-2 has a fixed electric connection between the motor and the frame. You MUST isolate the motor! Failure to do so will cost you a decoder :o
However I did some conversion with other Athearn RTR and converted the lights to LED.
I used two 1/2" long pieces of fiber optics from one side and a LED from the other side in shrink hose. The two fiber optics go through the light holes and the LED gets connected via a 1.5kOhm resistor with blue-white/yellow wire. The blue wire is "plus" and needs to be connected to the anode (longer wire) of the LED.
Reinhard