How did i manage to set fire to my ESU 50708 coach light strip ?

[Norski]

While i have managed to finally understand how to programme my loco decoders via the ESU50210 control unit - its surprisingly easy once you a) throw all esu instructions into the bin and b) watch non paid helpful people on Youtube.

 

However, i recently purchased an ESU 50708 coach lighting strip. If i understood it correctly it had (past tense) an onboard decoder like a loco. I assumed then i would read CV1 and reset to a number of my choosing having created an accessory in the accessory tables (like my points). So i joined the two cables on the light strip to my programme track output cables. For a long time i kept on getting an error message and then finally it got very hot at one end and there was some smoke and my £20 went up in a puff.

 

I am a complete novice for accessories on my ESU50210 and i can't find anything on line to help me work out what i got wrong. Would be grateful of some advice.

 

Thanks

[Nigelcliffe]

The manuals for the lighting strips are here

https://www.esu.eu/en/downloads/instruction-manuals/interiour-lighting-sets/

 

I could understand what was said in them.    I am wondering if the red light outputs have been connected to track power, that would let out some smoke.  They look to be very close to each other at the ends of the strips from the manual diagrams.  

 

It is a "Function Decoder", which is a Loco Decoder (without any motor), not an Accessory Decoder. They are different things in DCC, so you should not be trying to add it to the Accessories list.   
As per the manual,  you can't "read" it on the programming track without adding a "load" onto the pads referenced - my suggestion would be a 200ohm resistor for their stated current loading.   It may be possible to program without the load, depends how your system responds to programming "write only" (ie. no "read").   

 

 

 

 

[Norski]

Thank you for that, it sounds like i would need to change the address to the loco pulling the coach the light strip is installed in. I would then use the function keys to trigger lighting effect. 

 

I think i could have touched the rail with the red light contact points as you suggested. All fingers and thumbs.

 

thank you - will give it a go tomorrow if i haven't completely fried it.

[Nigelcliffe]

8 hours ago, Norski said:

Thank you for that, it sounds like i would need to change the address to the loco pulling the coach the light strip is installed in. I would then use the function keys to trigger lighting effect. 

 

Possibly do that if the loco+coaches are always coupled.   Alternatively, use "consisting" to bring the coaches in with the loco when coupled, and detach when not coupled.   

There's probably more options within the ECoS' interface.  

 

Quote

I think i could have touched the rail with the red light contact points as you suggested. All fingers and thumbs.

 

If you're lucky, damage will be just to the output driving the red tail light, that may be dead but the remainder still functioning.  

 

 

[CFL]

I seem to be a bit late on this one, but on all my ESU light boards (I use the yellow version for old coaches) the first thing i do is hold the pickup wires (the two outer ones) against the board then snip through the tail light LED wires just where they join the soldering pads. I then put the board on my programming track and tweak the little screw to bring the lighting down to match the other carriages, after that assemble the light boards (I fix them with black tack) and assemble the carriage passing the pickup wires down through either the hole in the bogie or any other hole if present. I glue ESU wiper pickups into place on a bogie then when that has dried overnight I clip the wires to length, strip the ends and solder the wires to the pads on the power pickup - no need to worry about polarity as the lighting board has a rectifier. Now the sneaky bit, instead of putting a resistor on the board I simply put a loco on the programming track, IMPORTANT: note the values of the CVs you want to change of the loco. Then, put the carriage on the programming track (mine has an ESU  Lok Programmer and ESU Lokprogrammer 5.2.5 on the computer). You can then set the CVs for the coach. Afterwards do not forget to remove the coach then reset the CVs for the locomotive. I have 4 CFL long coaches but the length of my railway means I can only run 2 on 1 train, if the other 2 are in a siding and have a different CV1 then their lights will not come on when you set the coach lights to come on for the train. Incidentally I used a Dymo labeller to mark the coaches as CV1 = 1 and CV1 = 2 for each pair and put the label underneath the relevant coaches. This method seems to work, never seen any smoke so I too suspect you may have removed the red LEDs but left the wires which touched the live rails.