Bachmann class 105 with Gaugemaster DCC26 decoders

[sharpshooter]

Hi Folks,

 

I have just been lumbered with a Bachmann Class 105 and two Gaugemaster DCC26 decoders that I have been tasked with fitting for a friend.  After the usual struggle to get the body off the power car wihout breaking any of the detailing, I fitted the first chip only to discover that there is no DCC control of the interior lights.  F0 seems to turn on all lighting and on closer inspection of the chip, the wiring harness from the 8pin plug to the white socket that fits the decoder only seems to contain 7 wires and pin 3 (Aux1) is left empty on the 8 pin plug.  There are two loose wires (green/purple) hardwired to the chip, so I guess the only option is to extend the loose green wire and solder it back to the empty pin on the plug.  I'm just puzzled as to why the interior lights come on with F0 when there is no physical connection at present to the aux feed on the decoder plug.  The reviews of the decoder seem favourable and it is quite compact, but it is hardly a plug and play solution if you need more that two functions.

 

Can anyone assist in confirming the above will work, or have had similar problems with the missing fuction wire.

 

Cheers in advance

 

Rich

[beejack]

The problem is not with the chip used but due to Bachmann not giving separate control over the interior lights on the Class 105

[sharpshooter]

The paperwork with the 105 states that the interior lights can be controlled using F1.

 

I have now managed to solder the missing green wire back to the vacant pin on the plug...popped in my chip tester...all worked well until I reversed the travel direction for the trailer car and the chip promptly died and now shorts the programmer.....Think I may need to go back to using a Bachmann chip.

 

Not impressed with Gaugemaster at present

[beejack]

oops stand corrected.  

Just checked and it's the derby lightweight that has no separate control on the interior lights.

 

Personally I won't use anything other than the Lenz chips.  I have blown countless Hornby, dcc concepts & gaugemaster chips but I haven't blown a single Lenz chip.

[beejack]

This has niggled me all weekend and I hope you haven't spent too long trying to get the interior lights to work on F1 as they definitely are not wired to work on function F1.   

 

I'm was sure I was correct but as you say the paperwork clearly states that F1 turns the interior lights on. Then I suddenly remembered, there was a printing error in the instructions.  Quite a few posts regarding this on other forums.

 

I don't have a layout at the moment (I'm in the "building" phase) so I'm not running any stock at the moment and I bought my DMU's a couple of years ago and they have remained boxed for most of that time.

 

So ensure what I was thinking was correct,  I thought get my rolling road out and double check everything.  My Class 105 is factory DCC fitted so should be set up correct.  the Class 101, Class 108 and Derby lightweight all had decoder fitted by myself.

 

Results:

The Class 105 & Class 108 interior lights come on with running lights on F0 , F1 makes no difference.  

The Class 101 has a switch underneath to switch the interior lights off or on but they also only come on with the running lights on F0

With the Derby Lightweight the interior lights come on as soon as power is applied, they are not functioned controlled at all, but the running lights are operated on F0

 

The only way to get the interior lights to work on their own function would be to rehash the circuit board.

[sharpshooter]

Hi beejack...thanks for helping me maintain a degree of sanity over this.  Gaugemaster decoders were swapped for Bachmann to maintain compatibility and as you rightly say, there is no control over the (feeble) interior lights using F1.  Another strange anomaly was the fact the the Bachmann instructions advise to change the running direction of the chip in the trailer car to swap the FWD/REV lighting around, but this again was found to be wrong.  The decoder socket was marked with pin numbers, but these appear to have been painted over in the factory and the chip would only work if fitted the opposite way round to the way the pins were initially marked. So after reversing the running direction before the chip was fitted, it had to be removed and set back to normal running.  I assume Bachmann have fitted the socket the opposite way round, so that the decoders will work as "plug and play". I would also guess this would make any loco address reprogramming simpler, as both cars could be placed on the programming track at the same time with no adverse affects to the lighting.

 

Thanks again for the confirmation with your DMU's

 

Rich