Pete 1 Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 Afternoon all. I am struggling a bit with lighting and getting my self all confused. I am hoping someone can help me out in beginners language. I have 2 locos at the moment which I would like to add lights to. One of them is the Hornby mallard TTS and the other is a small gwr basic starter kit Hornby model the mallard I’m pretty much happy with blue positive, yellow back, front white etc. Question on this is, where do I connect the wires? Do I just cut the blue in half and wire the now 3 cables together, or do I just solder straight to the blue terminal on the decoder? the second one, I believe is a 4 pin? Know I now I can’t wire into a function output or anything but can I just hard wire it in? I’m not fussed if the light is on all the time. On a side note, does anyone know if the mallard TTS can accept a seuthe smoke unit? many thanks for any replies Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 1 Posted February 6, 2021 Author Share Posted February 6, 2021 Thank you for the reply Richard, I thought the same with regards to the 4 pin, well it looks the same on google and images ha! Is there any chance of damaging anything with doing a trail and error method? In terms of the mallard. The wires go from the decoder to an 8pin plug. Do they stay in the plug/decoder and i solder on to them? Or do I take them off the plug? Does that make sense? Also my green wire (sound) is controlled by f18, I can’t go up to 25 Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John ks Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 11 hours ago, Pete 1 said: In terms of the mallard. The wires go from the decoder to an 8pin plug. Do they stay in the plug/decoder and i solder on to them? Or do I take them off the plug? Does that make sense? Under the small circuit board (remove 2 screws indicated by the grey arrows) there should pads that the 8 pin socket is soldered to This would be the best place to solder the wires to the lights The blue, white & yellow arrows point approximately to the location of the solder pads If you are not sure then take a picture of the underside of the circuit board & I or someone else will show where to connect the wires The advantage of connecting to the bottom of the circuit board is if you need to replace the decoder then the replacement just plugs in 12 hours ago, Pete 1 said: Is there any chance of damaging anything with doing a trail and error method? Short answer Yes Longer answer If you were to use a LED with series resistor (10K or more) then the likely hood of damage the decoder is less With good closeups of both sides of the 4 pin decoder it might be possible to determine which pad is the blue wire John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 1 Posted February 7, 2021 Author Share Posted February 7, 2021 Hi John, thank you for the reply. I’ve located those pads on the mallard, and I’m guessing I just correspond the pin to the pad in terms of which pad to solder on to. Does make life a bit easier and gives me a bigger surface area to solder to! I’ve attached a photo just to make sure it’s the right bit. In terms of the 4 pin one, one side it goes black, blank, blank, red. I think I need to attach the blue wire to the blank next to the red wire? On the other side it goes blank, orange, blank, grey, blank I think the forward/ white wire goes on the blank between orange and grey? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAF96 Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 (edited) The four pin only has two track feed wires and two motor feed wires so your lighting will have to be rigged separate and if you don’t mind them being on all the time take your feed from the track wires, ensuring you use resistors and reverse protection diodes. If using bicolour leds then the two colours provide such protection for each other. , but you still need the resistors. If you need them to be switched by DCC then you can solder your blue, white and yellow wires to the associated vacant pads on the decoder - compare with the decoder you have in the Mallard, as the basic decoder is the same - TTS obviously has a sound module attached. Edited February 7, 2021 by RAF96 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John ks Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 (edited) 18 hours ago, Pete 1 said: I’m guessing I just correspond the pin to the pad in terms of which pad to solder on to. Yes I've added some colours to the pads EDIT Gordon s pointed out the colours were wrong I had the black & grey mixed. the revised pic shows the correct colours & the NRMA guide for reference While the colours look to be reversed you have to remember that the NRMA is shown from the top of the plug & the circuit board is shown from the underside End EDIT The wire(colour) soldered to the pad should correspond to the colour of the wire from the decoder Regarding the 4 pin decoder I'm sorry but i cant help with that one On the side with the red & black wires are 4 diodes that make up the bridge rectifier If you can work out which is the DC side of the rectifier then the positive goes to the blue wire That was what i was hoping to tell from the pictures but they aren't clear enough to tell John Edited February 8, 2021 by John ks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 1 Posted February 7, 2021 Author Share Posted February 7, 2021 Thank you all for your advice. Very helpful. I will be trying the 4 pin tomorrow night after work and il let you know how it goes. Just waiting on some decoder wire for the mallard as the lighting cables don’t reach. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 (edited) 15 hours ago, John ks said: Yes I've added some colours to the pads (i think i got it correct) The wire(colour) soldered to the pad should correspond to the colour of the wire from the decoder Regarding the 4 pin decoder I'm sorry but i cant help with that one On the side with the red & black wires are 4 diodes that make up the bridge rectifier If you can work out which is the DC side of the rectifier then the positive goes to the blue wire That was what i was hoping to tell from the pictures but they aren't clear enough to tell John I think you may have some of the connections reversed in your diagram. May be worth checking before soldering wires to the pads. https://dccwiki.com/8_Pin_DCC_Plug Edited February 8, 2021 by gordon s 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John ks Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 1 hour ago, gordon s said: I think you may have some of the connections reversed in your diagram Gordon you are correct, I have corrected the original post Fortunately the ones i got wrong (black & grey) were already soldered to the board Thanks for pointing that out John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 1 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 Evening all. just to let you all know I’ve successfully managed to get some lights on my little 4pin model. Just compared 8pin with the 4pin as suggested and it works perfectly! Went all out and it’s got 2 at the front 1 at the back. thank you all for your help 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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