Help/suggestions for improving older motorized cars sought

[kmcsjr]

Hi all

I have a few series 113 sets. 195, 449 and 807. As mentioned in other threads, they aren't drop in DCC friendly (a minor thing I don't have DCC yet). The major thing is the poor lighting in DC.

 

1) If I converted these to DCC will the directional lighting still work? Will it be bright? Will it burn out under the constant voltage?

2) Before I open them and try to "fix them"., is there a better contol board, from a newer unit, that is available and compatible?

3) If not, has anyone fit better LEDs, so you can have light at low voltage?

 

I'm only talking abouthead and tail lights, not interior lighting. for interior lighting.... I have so many of the original LED kits. It looks like they are a challenge!

Thanks all

[KenS]

With DCC the main issue is fixing the lighting to work off a DC output from the decoder rather than off the track (as the head/tail lights generally use the polarity of the track to figure out which set to light, and DCC is both polarities thousands of times a second, so both will light).  There are a number of board-specific threads about this, and I don't have any of those trains so I can't say anything specific.  You probably should read some of the threads to get a feel for how complex it is.

 

The second aspect is voltage.  With DCC you get full voltage at all times off the decoder aux outputs, which is usually 14-16V, but can be 23 (or higher in a few cases, but 23 is the standard limit). With DC the train is usually getting 5-7V, but can get 16-18V.  Lights are probably designed to work up to around 18V, and there's likely a safety margin.  So the short answer is, you're probably safe (particularly if you have a lower voltage system like Kato/Digitrax, which uses 14V).

 

But with bulbs, the higher voltage will lead to heat and a shorter life. Whether that matters is going to depend on the individual train.  You could address that by adding a resistor, but that just changes where the heat appears (at the resistor).  The bulb will be cooler and dimmer, and the heat will come from two sources, which might help.

 

As for DC, there probably aren't any replacement light boards.  You could replace the LEDs/bulbs and resistors to try to get more light.  Some of the newer white LEDs probably put out more light than older models.  But they also take more minimum voltage to start. And that may be the problem you're seeing.  A white LED may not even light until it's getting 4+ volts, and trains run fairly fast at 4V.  With a large enough resistor to run safely at 18-23V, it's probably going to be dim at reasonable speeds. If you know you're always running on 12V systems, you could potentially reduce the resistor size, but one mistake there and the LEDs blown.

 

Using yellow and red LEDs will light at lower voltages than white (probably), but the light they put out at max may be a tenth or less that of a white LED. Color LEDs are usually 20-200 mcd (milli-candela), where white can be in the thousands. A few hundred mcd may be all it takes to look good (I've never tried headlight replacement, so I really don't know), so a bright color LED or a dim white LED may look similar and acceptable. But "acceptable" is subjective, and my definition of it may not be yours.

 

Bulbs probably work better on DC (more light at lower voltages, and the heat isn't an issue).  LEDs are better suited to DCC.

 

Perhaps someone has some better ideas, but I don't.