ESU LokSound v4 logic outputs

[danners430]

Evening all,

 

I had a bit of a brainwave today when designing the wiring for my multiple units. I rather would like to add quite a few (OK, a lot...) of lighting functions to my units - everything from cab lighting, interior lighting, warning / door lights, and of course multi-function headlights.

I'm planning on using four wires to simulate the air brake & reservoir pipes, and the two electrical connections that most units have - with the convenient side effect that they can be used for function control. I would, however, like to use two of the wires to make use of the pickups on other vehicles - always useful for pointwork!!

 

I'm using ESU LokSound v4s in most of my units (with more being converted), which offer 4 lighting outputs and 2 logic outputs (negligible power output). My question is, using the auto-off feature (function switches off after units of 0.4 seconds), do you folks think it reasonable to use this to simulate multiple different function outputs? The length of time the function is on can be easily read by a microcontroller, and this then translated into different lighting functions. I would simply assign different functions to different keys, eg. F0 = 0.4 seconds on, F1 = 0.8 seconds on, F2 = 1.2 seconds on etc.

 

Obviously, you could easily fool the microcontroller by rapidly switching on multiple functions linked to this logic output, but I can live with that :-)

 

Also, is this available with the four lighting outputs too? It means I could have umpteen functions, but not have the auto-off function get to a ridiculous length :-)

 

I await your replies :-)

[Nigelcliffe]

Could be done as you suggest.  But, would a function decoder in the trailer be a lot simpler ?  You can still double up the pickups across your brake hoses, that is irrelevant to the lighting outputs, and may help with pickup.   For programming, just separate the trailer from the power car.

 

As you're talking about building something with a microprocessor, I imagine you could build your own decoder for the same money.  Look up Paul Harman's DIY DCC decoder as one option (eight light outputs on the decoder if I remember correctly), or there are several Arduino based designs around the web.  

 

 

- Nigel