Express Models Voyager 220 light kit

[AAC657]

Having a nightmare with these lights trying to get them to function properly has anyone ever fitted these successfully?

I have a Loksound V4 sound decoder in the power car & using Lenz Standard V2 decoders 4 Function in the front & rear car for the lights. All wired up per the instruction sheet just no clue what to change to get them working as they should.

 

The instructions are no good at all as far as how to change CV values etc.... for a novice.

The lights are working/switching on all kinds of buttons at the moment which is no good at all.

I cannot use F1 or F2 for the lights as the sound decoder needs these for the engine & horn sounds. I'm just completely lost with this I'm not even bothered about having switchable day/night lights I just want them to operate as they normally do using the directional button if possible.

 

Any help would be much appreciated

[Scottish Modeller]

Having a nightmare with these lights trying to get them to function properly has anyone ever fitted these successfully?

I have a Loksound V4 sound decoder in the power car & using Lenz Standard V2 decoders 4 Function in the front & rear car for the lights. All wired up per the instruction sheet just no clue what to change to get them working as they should.

 

The instructions are no good at all as far as how to change CV values etc.... for a novice.

The lights are working/switching on all kinds of buttons at the moment which is no good at all.

I cannot use F1 or F2 for the lights as the sound decoder needs these for the engine & horn sounds. I'm just completely lost with this I'm not even bothered about having switchable day/night lights I just want them to operate as they normally do using the directional button if possible.

 

Any help would be much appreciated

Hi there,

 

I've done a couple of these and had similar problems programming the lights.

 

In the end - DecoderPro and Sprog to the rescue...

 

This is when all those ticky boxes presented by DecoderPro through a Sprog make things a lot easier!

 

I know - this doesn't help if you don't have one or access to one.

 

We gave up trying to do the programming with the Lenz and other command stations.

 

That does not explain why you have lights coming on with 'all kinds of buttons' - most unusual.

 

Thanks

 

ps - Have you discovered that you can remove the whole light cluster?

Once you get them out it's easier to fit the lighting kit and test it out of the body instead of struggling to get all the components in the right place whilst juggling the body with our non existant third hand!

[Griffin Road]

I seem to remember the trick Phil and I used was to number the motor operating decoder with one number and the two function only decoders with another . This worked fine and we did two sets worth .

 

So for instance

 

Motor decoder ( sound one ) 220

Light decoders ( both ). 2201

 

Remember the lighting sets are ' end specific ' as per the instructions .

 

 

However as Phil and you indicate - they were an absolute nightmare ( first time ) . We then read the instructions twenty times and came to the above conclusion .......

 

M b

[AAC657]

Thanks guys yeah i have the sprog & decoder pro not hooked it up yet to have a play around. 

the problem i have is trying to figure out what CV number is for the lights & what value they need to be to get them working on F0 & F1 as independent controls.

its not CV51 as the instructions say, CV51 on the lenz V2 is for braking.

I did think the easiest way to have these working is to give the sound decoder its own address & then have the 2 lenz decoders on a separate address, its a hassle but at least it would all work without having to switch the engine sound off & on all the time just to change the lights,

 

to give you an idea how the lights are working at the moment,

 

I'm using the dynamis controller so it has its own light button which is obviously F0

 

to switch the lights on  I use the light button/F0, to switch front car from day to night running I have to press the directional button. I think its the right direction then left direction to go back to day running.

To switch to rear car I have to press F2 but also have to turn off F0 so the front car lights go off but leave on the red markers

to switch between day & night lights for the rear car I need F3 for that, the thing that's confused me is why is the night time lights on the front car is being controlled by the directional button?

 

 

Regarding the sprog & decoder Pro is it better to program each car on its own or have both end cars on the programming track at once? I remember when I had the 2 pendolino Alstom end cars on the track it confused the sprog & all kinds were happening when trying to program the sound decoder & Hornby decoder.

[Scottish Modeller]

Thanks guys yeah i have the sprog & decoder pro not hooked it up yet to have a play around. 

the problem i have is trying to figure out what CV number is for the lights & what value they need to be to get them working on F0 & F1 as independent controls.

its not CV51 as the instructions say, CV51 on the lenz V2 is for braking.

I did think the easiest way to have these working is to give the sound decoder its own address & then have the 2 lenz decoders on a separate address, its a hassle but at least it would all work without having to switch the engine sound off & on all the time just to change the lights,

 

to give you an idea how the lights are working at the moment,

 

I'm using the dynamis controller so it has its own light button which is obviously F0

 

to switch the lights on  I use the light button/F0, to switch front car from day to night running I have to press the directional button. I think its the right direction then left direction to go back to day running.

To switch to rear car I have to press F2 but also have to turn off F0 so the front car lights go off but leave on the red markers

to switch between day & night lights for the rear car I need F3 for that, the thing that's confused me is why is the night time lights on the front car is being controlled by the directional button?

 

 

Regarding the sprog & decoder Pro is it better to program each car on its own or have both end cars on the programming track at once? I remember when I had the 2 pendolino Alstom end cars on the track it confused the sprog & all kinds were happening when trying to program the sound decoder & Hornby decoder.

Hi there,

 

It sounds to me like you should get the DecoderPro and Sprog set up as a priority.

 

Once you do - you can read the chip and see what functions are allocated to what effect.

 

That will be a lot easier than trying to go through the CV's manually looking for the ones you need.

 

Then - once you have all the current CV's saved, you can start to change things.

 

My initial reaction to what you have said above would be to do a factory reset - just in case the programming has become corrupted.

 

Programming the thing...

 

First thing is to have both ends on the track at the same time - you won't be able to read or program the motorless car on it's own.

 

When doing this I program whatever is needed for the unpowered car first - then take it off the track and program the power car on its own.

 

I use the same loco number for both ends.

 

This way the unpowered car should have it's light functions correctly mirroring the power car ones.

 

After doing both the power and unpowered car - put both on the main track and see if you have everything doing what it should do off the function buttons.

 

You can use the Sprog as a command station for this with no swapping of wires.

 

Open up a New Throttle in DecoderPro, input the correct loco number, hit the Power button and you should be able to control the train and go through the functions.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Ask more questions if you need to......

 

Thanks

[AAC657]

Thanks pal.

well i think the express kit has failed, cannot get the lights to work at all now on both ends, i have tested the 2 decoders in a different train to rule those out & they work perfect so im assuming the PCB has issues all soldering is accurate.

I reset both decoders but nothing works with the light kit. I'll get a new set ordered & start again. Will try them with the decoder pro & see if i can get the function buttons moved around. if i get stuck i'll let you know

[tarifa]

Unless you are prepared to remap the V4 decoder to match the function outputs of the Lenz decoder you will have problems.  Consider using a LokPilot Fx decoder or function only unit.  This will give you at least 15 function outputs much easier to match the V4 functions and achieve day and night running.  When I fitted sound and lights to my Voyager, initially I tried using Lenz Gold and Zimo MX64 to drive the lights in the rear car, both 4 function decoders with no success.

[RAF96]

I found with the Express Model lighting kits (various ones) that they were overloading my decoder in that there were 5 lights running, a headlamp, 2 markers and 2 rear leds and this was more than the limit on my basic decoder (probably 5 x 20 mA = 150mA versus the decoder 100mA limit per function output), so I had to splice in a 1k ohm resistor into the blue wire to tame it all down.

 

This even sorted out my dead lights TTS decoder as well. Although it has not got self protection of the function outputs the motor protection must have been shutting it down. With the extra resistor it all works fine now, motor plus directional lights plus cab lights.

 

So I reworked all my Express Models kitted locos the same way, regardless of the decoder.