Part 3 - And there SHALL be light!
Before we were so rudely interrupted by Parts 5 and 6, I'd stalled out in need of some small diameter shrink tube. When I make a joint between wire, resistor, LED lead, I like to pull a bit of shrink over the joint to prevent potential shorts. If you can remember to snake it on the wires in which it will be needed, it's a great and simple way to insulate.
I shrunk around the resistor tied to the blue output (common +) for the lights.
I then estimated how long my leads would be between that resistor and the light locations (front and rear) and added a little for potential adjustments and install play (no more than an inch or so). Soldered to each positive lead on each LED and then combined those two onto the other end of the resistor and shrunk around that joint.
I then followed each path (front and rear) with the white (front - wire) and yellow (rear - wire), cut to the same length and soldered each of those ends to the - lead of each LED. Shrunk over the - leads. Wah lah....
I then installed the decoder to the harness, turned on my DCC system, crossed me fingers.... and everything worked! Light on, light off, front light works when I press "Forward", rear light works when I press "Reverse".
I next did a test fit of each LED in each light box (front and rear), and I'm happy with the results. The rear number boards looked great since I'd removed the old black number boards with the white lettering - I'll do the same for the front cab before reassembly.
Finally, I did some cleanup on the wire runs to minimize the potential of incurring the wrath of the motor. Used bits of electrical tape wrapped around the groups of wires and joined to itself.
DC to DCC coversion is now virtually finished, and I'll vault over to starting the paint outs and decal installations to make this a real D&H locomotive.
Before we were so rudely interrupted by Parts 5 and 6, I'd stalled out in need of some small diameter shrink tube. When I make a joint between wire, resistor, LED lead, I like to pull a bit of shrink over the joint to prevent potential shorts. If you can remember to snake it on the wires in which it will be needed, it's a great and simple way to insulate.
I shrunk around the resistor tied to the blue output (common +) for the lights.
I then estimated how long my leads would be between that resistor and the light locations (front and rear) and added a little for potential adjustments and install play (no more than an inch or so). Soldered to each positive lead on each LED and then combined those two onto the other end of the resistor and shrunk around that joint.
I then followed each path (front and rear) with the white (front - wire) and yellow (rear - wire), cut to the same length and soldered each of those ends to the - lead of each LED. Shrunk over the - leads. Wah lah....
I then installed the decoder to the harness, turned on my DCC system, crossed me fingers.... and everything worked! Light on, light off, front light works when I press "Forward", rear light works when I press "Reverse".
I next did a test fit of each LED in each light box (front and rear), and I'm happy with the results. The rear number boards looked great since I'd removed the old black number boards with the white lettering - I'll do the same for the front cab before reassembly.
Finally, I did some cleanup on the wire runs to minimize the potential of incurring the wrath of the motor. Used bits of electrical tape wrapped around the groups of wires and joined to itself.
DC to DCC coversion is now virtually finished, and I'll vault over to starting the paint outs and decal installations to make this a real D&H locomotive.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows