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Light Direction code change


APT Fan
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Good Evening,

Hoping someone can help. So I've added lights to a shunter, the front has one white light and a red, the same with the rear. The plan was to connect the front white and the rear red to the white wire output CV49 and use the default direction value of 0 so that front white and rear red operate when the loco is moving forward. I was going to connect the opposing lights to the yellow wire output CV50 and use the default direction value of 16 so that these lights operate when the loco is moving in reverse. Its become a standard way of wiring for me as everything operates from the single light switch button.

 

I've left the F1 button CV35 in its default state operating the green wire output CV51 with the default direction value of 32 (both directions) for the cab light. I've read that in 'Shunting' mode the loco would display all four lights? So I've reconfigured the two outputs white/yellow so that they operate from the F2 button as well as the light switch. It works but only in the set direction, is it possible to overwrite the direction value to 32 when the F2 button is operated?

Thanks 

 

 

Edited by APT Fan
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On 04/07/2020 at 23:09, APT Fan said:

I've read that in 'Shunting' mode the loco would display all four lights? So I've reconfigured the two outputs white/yellow so that they operate from the F2 button as well as the light switch. It works but only in the set direction, is it possible to overwrite the direction value to 32 when the F2 button is operated?

Thanks 

 

 

You are correct in saying that in the steam era. Rule 123 says  "Engines employed exclusively at Stations and  Yards must after sunset or during fog or falling snow carry one red and one white light, both at front and rear, one over each buffer."

That means a station pilot pootling about should indeed show all four lights (but only after dark).

 

If it is running on the main line between stations, the normal rules for a train or light engine would apply - appropriate headlamps for the class of train, tail lamp on the back of the train, both lit after dark.  It is a serious safety violation if lamp on back of engine (or any intermediate vehicle) is present never mind lit if there's wagons behind it.  Signalman seeing this would be required to stop the train and have it put right.  You only want the red light on Guards' Van/last carriage, since the tail lamp on last vehicle is how the signalman knows the train hasn't divided in section.  Unfortunately not the easiest thing to automate unless your trains are fixed formation!

 

Modern rules are different - you want headlights even by day, and tail lights can flash - but still only carried on the last vehicle, and there are very few shunters left as most shunting is now done by the train engine, except in big yards and workshops.

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On 22/08/2020 at 18:34, Michael Hodgson said:

You are correct in saying that in the steam era. Rule 123 says  "Engines employed exclusively at Stations and  Yards must after sunset or during fog or falling snow carry one red and one white light, both at front and rear, one over each buffer."

That means a station pilot pootling about should indeed show all four lights (but only after dark).

 

If it is running on the main line between stations, the normal rules for a train or light engine would apply - appropriate headlamps for the class of train, tail lamp on the back of the train, both lit after dark.  It is a serious safety violation if lamp on back of engine (or any intermediate vehicle) is present never mind lit if there's wagons behind it.  Signalman seeing this would be required to stop the train and have it put right.  You only want the red light on Guards' Van/last carriage, since the tail lamp on last vehicle is how the signalman knows the train hasn't divided in section.  Unfortunately not the easiest thing to automate unless your trains are fixed formation!

 

Modern rules are different - you want headlights even by day, and tail lights can flash - but still only carried on the last vehicle, and there are very few shunters left as most shunting is now done by the train engine, except in big yards and workshops.

 

So the only solution for the lighting to be fully authentic is to use four outputs for the four LEDs. For me it would mean losing my cab lighting function as its only a four function controller. 

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If you want more functions than you've got why not take the decoder out out for use in some other loco and get one with more functions?

 

If your loco is only going to be the station pilot, all you really need is the ability to switch all four lights on&off together.  If it's also going to run light engine on the main line or haul trains, then yes, ideally you need more flexibility.  Frankly I think correct lamp practice tends to come into the "too difficult" category in 4mm, and all you can do is approximate.  It is easier to get it about right if you have fixed formation trains.  For example you could have a loco you only use for Parcels trains, so you might set it up as that headcode, at least it's right when it's attached to the train even if it's wrong running light.  The one practice you see at every exhibition that is a big no-no is showing a red light on the back of the loco whilst hauling a train - unfortunately that's the way most DCC locos are wired.

 

An O gauge layout I sometimes operate does it about as well as I see being practical.  The locos and rolling stock all have the right lamp brackets and we put cast metal lamps onto those as the rules require.  That's a tad fiddly even in that scale.  These lamps are jewelled rather than illuminated of course, but they look the part as they glint from reflected light whilst the train is moving.  Whilst you can also get such lamps in 4mm (Springside and others) I find it's far too fiddly to do more than glue them on.

 

As if this wasn't difficult enough already, perhaps I should mention another nicety of lamping rules where you theoretically want a lot of functions.  Goods brake vans showed 2 side lamps to rear as well as the obligatory tail lamp.  These were red in most circumstances, but the rules called for a white side lamp to the rear when on a slow, goods or relief line (Guard's duty to change it as needed) and removed altogether whilst shunted into a relief siding for a faster train to pass.  This was so the driver of a train on the fast line could tell than he wasn't about to run into the back of something on his own line - or indeed, in the event of a gross signalling irregularity, that he was!  They also showed a white light forwards so that the driver could look back and verify that the whole of the train was still following, as divided trains were an occasional problem with loose-coupled goods trains.  And exceptionally the Guard might even use the side lamp to show a red forward if he needed the train to stop, for example because of a hot box.

 

 

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