Hornby sound Class 56 Article

[tractor_37260]

Hi all

Quick plug Latest issue of Model Rail (Sept 147) includes my article on improving the Hornby sound fitted Class 56. It covers function controlled independent tail lights / new cab lights with posable (stay open cab doors) and the fitting of a bigger ported Bass reflex speaker. Any questions, please ask.

This issue of the mag has a number of articles on DCC lights and sound, a good read for all DCC modellers.

Ken

[Tony Walker]

Ken, Great article, we could do with some more of these articles, especially showing how to get independent tail ligts. From your article, I did the tail lights last night on my sound 56. I have already converted the lights on the sound class 31, as that appears to be wired the same.

 

What I can't understand is why these sound locos are wired one way, yet the non sound locos are wired differently. You have to do a lot more work to get independent lighting on these locos. Perhaps one day we will get full independent lighting on all diesel locos, but I'll not hold my breath!

 

Thanks Ken, keep these type of article coming, Tony.

[tractor_37260]

Ken, Great article, we could do with some more of these articles, especially showing how to get independent tail ligts. From your article, I did the tail lights last night on my sound 56. I have already converted the lights on the sound class 31, as that appears to be wired the same.

 

What I can't understand is why these sound locos are wired one way, yet the non sound locos are wired differently. You have to do a lot more work to get independent lighting on these locos. Perhaps one day we will get full independent lighting on all diesel locos, but I'll not hold my breath!

 

Thanks Ken, keep these type of article coming, Tony.

 

Hi Tony

Thanks for the kind comments. As well as the sound fitted 31, the tail lights mods should also work on the sound 60, but possibly NOT on the sound fitted 50's, as they appear to have been wired wrongly ex factory - or at least on some of them, the lights don't work correctly directionally.

Hornby 21 pin sound fitted locos are more DCC friendly, the lighting circuits being positive common. On the NON sound 8 pin locos, the lighting LED's are wired negative common, and possibly some clever electronics ? on the main circuit board allows normal 8 pin decoders to work the lights as normal. Problems then arise when you attempt to alter the wiring to give inde tail lights. It is possible with some work, but much easier to junk the std lighting boards and replace with Express Models versions to get fully independent lights.

I really don't see any reason why DCC sound fitted locos with a four function decoder ex factory, do not come with function controlled tail lights, unless of course one function is used for cab lights. Until recently, only 2 of the four avail lighting functions were used. Eventually hopefully....................

Regards

Ken

[Piemanlarger]

As well as the sound fitted 31, the tail lights mods should also work on the sound 60,

 

Anyone found out yet?

[Tony Walker]

Anyone found out yet?

 

The Hornby sound locos all share the same circuit board and the LED's are wired positive feed. The class 31, 56 and the 50 are wired so you can disconnect the negative wire and connect it to the third or fourth outputs of the decoder via a resistor and away you go. The class 60 is also the same, so it's that simple. The hard part of the job is connecting a wire to the third or fourth output on the base of the 21 pin plug. If you need more details let me know and I'll get a few photos for you.

 

Plus, with the sound 60, you can also disconnect the negative wire from the night lights and wire them in via a function decoder, so you have independent day and night front lights. Again, I've already done this to my sound 60, but you need plenty of functions on your dcc system, to cover all the sound functions on the class 60 plus all the light options if you wire them all independently.

[Piemanlarger]

The Hornby sound locos all share the same circuit board and the LED's are wired positive feed. The class 31, 56 and the 50 are wired so you can disconnect the negative wire and connect it to the third or fourth outputs of the decoder via a resistor and away you go. The class 60 is also the same, so it's that simple. The hard part of the job is connecting a wire to the third or fourth output on the base of the 21 pin plug. If you need more details let me know and I'll get a few photos for you.

 

Plus, with the sound 60, you can also disconnect the negative wire from the night lights and wire them in via a function decoder, so you have independent day and night front lights. Again, I've already done this to my sound 60, but you need plenty of functions on your dcc system, to cover all the sound functions on the class 60 plus all the light options if you wire them all independently.

 

 

If you could do photos that would be great,

 

Thanks

[Tony Walker]

If you could do photos that would be great,

 

Thanks

 

I'll see what I can do over the weekend, Tony.

[Piemanlarger]

thanks

[Tony Walker]

Class 60 Lights.doc

 

Not sure if this is good enough for you, but if you get stuck, let me know. Tony.

[Piemanlarger]

Thanks Tony, much appreciated,

 

simon

[Gallows Close]

Not sure if this is good enough for you, but if you get stuck, let me know. Tony.

 

Hi Tony,

 

Any chance you could explain the re-mapping. As I understand it (from the ESU manual) I would loose two sound functions in order to have AUX 1 and AUX 2 mapped to a separate button each... The CV values seem straightforward enough, and I was planning to map the tail lights to F15 (fwd & rev).

 

Many thanks - especially for the photograph,

 

Chris

[Tony Walker]

Chris, I mapped my tail lights to F11 and F12, I thought the short horns were a waste of time. Plus, in adding the day/night headlights as well, it meant I needed six functions to cover all the lighting options. If you want to set the tail lights to F15, with the reversing option, then you need to set CV's 231 and 234 to either 4 or 8. Set 231 to 4 and 234 to 8 initially and see what happens. I'm trying to get my head around the reverse action, as you need F15 to operate the tail lights on both forward and backward options. If that sets things up then leave it, obviously, but otherwise reverse the values - 231 to 8 and 234 to 4. Whatever happens then it will work, but you might need to reverse things if you get headlights and tail lights on at one end only. Any problems let me know and I'll try to find out what's wrong. Tony.

[Gallows Close]

Hi Tony,

 

The modifications have worked a dream. The whole job took just around one hour including testing (playing really) at the end.

 

In the end I opted for your idea of F11 and F12. For anyone interested I have obtained from Hornby (Kenn at DCC Help) a list of the default CV values for the ESU decoders in their sound locos, and I also have a table with the modified CVs I have used - Any takers?

 

Cheers,

Chris.

[Tony Walker]

Hi Tony,

 

The modifications have worked a dream. The whole job took just around one hour including testing (playing really) at the end.

 

In the end I opted for your idea of F11 and F12. For anyone interested I have obtained from Hornby (Kenn at DCC Help) a list of the default CV values for the ESU decoders in their sound locos, and I also have a table with the modified CVs I have used - Any takers?

 

Cheers,

Chris.

 

Chris, Glad it all worked out for you. The sooner that manufacturers start to think DCC lighting the better! Mind you, it would give us nothing to mess with on a rainy afternoon at the weekend would it. It will be interesting to see how the Bachmann class 70 is wired, as there is a comment about full function lighting on this one. Tony.