DCC directional lighting in the Seven Stars Cruise train

[David McC]

I have just received my Kato Seven Stars Cruise Train.  Under DCC both the  white and red lights are illuminated in the end cars.

Has anyone figured out how to wire in a lighting decoder to make these lights directional under DCC control?

 

For now I have just opened up car 7 and put black tape over the white light "lightpipe" so that only the red shows and turned off the lights in car 1.

Not an elegant solution but it works.

[gavino200]

50 minutes ago, David McC said:

I have just received my Kato Seven Stars Cruise Train.  Under DCC both the  white and red lights are illuminated in the end cars.

Has anyone figured out how to wire in a lighting decoder to make these lights directional under DCC control?

 

For now I have just opened up car 7 and put black tape over the white light "lightpipe" so that only the red shows and turned off the lights in car 1.

Not an elegant solution but it works.

 

As far as I know this model is DCC ready. It should have a little door that opens, usually on the underside of the cab, that will accept a Kato FL12 function decoder.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10119649

 

Both lights are lit, because the DCC current alternates in both directions, causing the directional lights for both directions to light up, if you don't convert it with a DCC function decoder. Currently it is configured correctly for DC. It's not defective.

 

Most Kato trains (EMUs with two cabs) take a Kato EM13 motor decoder in the motor car. and a Kato FL12 function decoder in each cab.

Edited January 20, 2019 by gavino200

[katoftw]

Yup dcc ready. Open the little door on the bottom of the car and slide in the FL12 decoder.

[David McC]

Gavino and katoftw,

 

I have done several DCC ready Kato units, this is not one of them. 

The separate diesel loco uses a DN163K0d decoder

There is no door for a drop in decoder in the end cars ( I wouldn't have needed to ask if there had been 🙂 )

The cars are equipped with an on/off switch but the light board isn't decoder friendly as far as I can tell.

There are also no references in the instructions to install a decoder in the cars.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by David McC

[Kiha66]

Can you please share a picture of the on/of switch you mention?  On most kato dcc ready train the switch slides out and is replaced with a decoder.  Being able to see the switch location will let us know if this train is of that type.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Kiha66

[katoftw]

 

Enough said...

Edited January 22, 2019 by katoftw

[Kiha66]

Thank you Katoftw.  Sometimes kato does almost too good of a job and the hatches are very hard to spot.  This type of installation was well documented by a member a number of years ago so rather than my bumbling attempt I'll just link his work.  Once you get the hatch off just replace the slide switch with the fl12 decoder and it should work as intended with directional lighting.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by Kiha66

[chadbag]

OK, I was able to install FL12 in both the cab cars on the 7 Stars train.   Programming the address was a royal PITA on 2 of the 3 I did (I also did on FL12 in my Shiki-Shima as a test since I was having a real problem setting the address on the second FL12 on the 7 Stars -- ended up not being train specific).

 

The above link was helpful in deciding how and in which direction to insert them.

 

[David McC]

Thanks to those who helped with this, especially Katoftw.

 

I didn't have the instructions with the FL12 decoders and would not have thought to pull out the switch tab.

I was able to program the FL12 using an NCE PowerCab.  The trick I found is to have a couple of other lit cars or a locomotive on the track with the end car as my NCE system had trouble reading just the end car decoder.

 

For car No. 1, I set CV64 to 01 which mapped the light on/off control to Function 3 but left them directional, as I wanted to be able to turn the lights off independently from the locomotive (F0), car No. 1 has the same address as the locomotive. 

 

For car No. 7, I added 1 to the value of CV29 to reverse the lighting (I used a long address so the value is 39, for a short address it would be 7), and again gave the car the same address as the locomotive.  The lights are directional and on/off is set to Function 5.

 

chadbag - The same CV29 values as I used on car No. 7 can be used to reverse the lights on the rear end of the Shiki-Shima. 

Both end cars just need to be the same address as the motor unit.

 

Once I knew where and how to put the decoders into the end cars it was an easy install.

As I mentioned above a Digitrax DN163K0d decoder is a direct drop in for the locomotive with NO modifications.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2019 by David McC
Additional information and clarification.

[chadbag]

Yeah. I got them both done, both ends. Both 7* and Shiki-Shima.   You don’t need to do directional stuff in CVs if you flip the FL12 around like in the post showing how they go in.  

 

My problem is programming a long address in the FL12.   I was using my D&H programmer, as well as CV programming on a programming track on the DR5000 and also using the NCE Powercab.  Did not want to take.  I think I finally figured out the trick (when using the D&H programmer) and will post about it the next FL12 I put in (maybe this weekend).  

[EdF]

I put all 3, motor and heads on the track to program the address, there needs to be enough load, and fl12s by themselves are not always enough.

[chadbag]

That is typically for reading I thought.  Writing is usually not the problem?

 

In my case, my programmer has a step called "write (long/short) address".   It has a field for  both short and long addresses and a radio button for which one you want to set.   But it actually writes both the short and long addresses and then updates CV29 to turn the one on you specified.   This works with most decoders I've tried but the FL12 had issues.   When I put a long address in and select long it was not working.   But if I put the long address in the field, but select the short button, and then manualky update (write) CV29 then it seems to work.   Had success with the last couple I did.  Will try again with some more in my N700A this weekend now that I got my DH05 decoders for the EM13 boards. 

[David McC]

On 2/7/2019 at 7:45 PM, chadbag said:

You don’t need to do directional stuff in CVs if you flip the FL12 around like in the post showing how they go in.  

 

I didn't know that, I thought they only went in one way.  Thanks!

[chadbag]

1 minute ago, David McC said:

 

I didn't know that, I thought they only went in one way.  Thanks!

 

Yeah this explains it