KATO 10916 0r 10917 TGV Duplex - get illuminated or not?

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hi everyone, sorry to ask about a non Japanese train question on this forum but there are alot of helpful folks on here  .

 

I am debating on getting the Kato 10916 non illuminated vs 10917 illuminated?  Does any one have the illuminated set? Is it worth the extra $70-$80 for illumination? Do the lights flicker at all?

 

Once again thanks for your help.

 

Spiff

[Nozomi4ever]

Hi everyone, sorry to ask about a non Japanese train question on this forum but there are alot of helpful folks on here  .

 

I am debating on getting the Kato 10916 non illuminated vs 10917 illuminated?  Does any one have the illuminated set? Is it worth the extra $70-$80 for illumination? Do the lights flicker at all?

 

Once again thanks for your help.

 

Spiff

 

Hi. Personally , I think that there 's advantage and disadvantage...

Advantages:

-Able to see through the interior clearly.

-It brights up the train in dark and makes it looks attractive.

Disadvantages:

-N-gauge is quite small to install Interior lighting and you can't really see the interior clearly.

-You need to be careful on installing interior lighting as the coaches are small and need special attention on not to hit on the crucial equipment in the model.

[to2leo]

You have to consider 6 Kato LED sets cost $35 US... and that's not including installation.

[Sir Madog]

Illuminating the interior of passenger trains makes only sense, if you plan to do night-time running of your trains and your layout is properly illuminated as well. You may want to consider to "populate" your trains, as a fully lit, but empty train looks a little awkward. I have to admit, though, that this is less of an issue in N scale than in HO scale.

 

LED lighting is less prone to flickering and if your running on DCC, it is not an issue at all.

[KenS]

I don't quite agree with that.  A train with lit windows looks good even when the lights are on.  It's not as spectacular as a lit train in the dark, but it's still worth adding lghts even if you don't plan nighttime operations.

 

I don't have any info on the specific train SS asked about.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Thanks for the replies. I am assuming that the 10917 is advertised as illuminated so the light kits would be factory installed. 

 

 

Spiff

[Bernard]

I do like cars that are illumunated especially if you decide to put passengers in them, but there is a situation that can effect it...an auto-reverse unit.

 

I have an auto-reverse unit on my layout for my Tram line that works on light sensors. When I decide to dim the lights around my layout to get the full effect of the illuminated cars, the auto-reverse unit won't work and my Tram flew off the track.   

[clem24]

I dunno, even with LED I find lights still flicker, and that's a huge distraction. I am also considering even removing the factory lights from the Kato Super Hitachi and Hida sets. About the only trains that I would actually consider lighting up might be the Tomix Shinkansen or VSE with the power conducting couplers.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have a Via car set that flickers which is very annoying. I was hoping that new technology would prevent the flickering. After what clem24 posted I don't know now. I wonder if I should change my order?

 

Spiff

[Bernard]

I have a Via car set that flickers which is very annoying. I was hoping that new technology would prevent the flickering. After what clem24 posted I don't know now. I wonder if I should change my order?

 

Spiff

 

Spiff - do a "once over" and clean your track....see if this helps the "flicker problem."

[Spaceman Spiff]

Sadly I don't have my own layout track. I'm using club track and it is pretty clean.  I had heard before that capacitors my help.

 

Spiff

[KenS]

Sadly I don't have my own layout track. I'm using club track and it is pretty clean.  I had heard before that capacitors my help.

 

They can, if you are using the right kind of LED lighting.  The power draw of bulbs or larger LEDs may be too much for the capacitor you could fit in an n-scale train.

 

I did this and wrote it up for a Kato EMU, which uses their LED lighting kit. However, the Kato kit uses a tiny surface-mount LED with about 1/4 the power requirement of an ordinary LED and 1/10 the power requirement of a bulb. My circuit also uses a rectifier (to provide a single polarity to the capacitor to charge it) and a resistor (to limit the charging rate to avoid tripping circuit breakers on DCC systems).  I should note that it's still only a prototype, as I'm working on the right way to solder the bits together without a circuit board (and I got distracted by other projects). It did work quite well.

 

Kato's problem appears to be the way they use flexible metal strips under the car body and two pieces of brass strip that slide in and rests atop those.  The main strip flexes as the trucks under it ride over the track (this is intentional and part of the car's suspension), and that causes intermittant contact.  A capacitor can store power to cover a short interruption due to that, dirty track, or a gap at a switch (although Kato typically picks up power from both trucks, which limits the effect of track problems). 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I ended up getting the illuminated Duplex and so far it has been ficker free.  :)

 

Spiff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

What's the decoder board look like? Is it a 6 pin?

[Spaceman Spiff]

Hi there, the board accepts a DN125IN NEM 651 decoder.

 

 

http://www.digitrax.com/prd_mobdec_dz125IN.php

 

 

 

Spiff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Sweet!

 

See my EUN651 thread on how to do directional lighting with DCC.

 

Now I can run multiple TGVs on one line.

Thanks!