Colinw62 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Rather than high-jack the Athearn thread of a similar topic I thought I'd start a new thread as it is a different manufacturer. I've recently obtained some Proto 2000 Geeps (GP9, GP20, GP38-2). The GP20 came with a Lenz Silver Direct fitted but the lights didn't work. I removed the body and converted the loco back to DC to check the lights by removing the chip and re-fitting the lighting board - all worked OK on DC. I then converted it back to DCC, rotating the the 8 pin DCC plug in the process because I thought the lights didn't work on DCC because the plug was in the wrong way. Sure enough the lights worked - momentarily, then I realised the LED "Bulbs" had blown no doubt due to the voltage via DCC. I'm a bit puzzled though because the enclosed instructions just said to remove the lighting board and insert a DCC chip to convert, there is no mention of the possiblity of blowing the bulbs. When I got the GP38-2, I notice that the instructions with this loco suggest replacing the LEDs when converting to DCC. Has anyone got experience of converting Proto 2000 locos to DCC and any suggestions on what to do about the lights? Cheers Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corax67 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Hi Colin - the Proto 2000 loco's use 12v grain-of-wheat bulbs rather than LED's and DCC voltage is too much for them so they tend to blow. There is a huge amount of stuff on the net about this if you Google "Proto 2000 DCC light replacement" but the main gist of it all is that you will need to substitute 12v LED's for the existing incandescent bulbs. I have chipped a fair few Proto 2000 loco's in the long distant past, before the problem was really noticed in earnest, and we used to just reduce the light output CV on the decoder and they seemed to hold together OK but now I would definitely replace the bulbs to be safe. A useful article on lamp replacement modification is here http://www.bevteccom.co.uk/Rail/DCC/P2K_GP38-2.html Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 A dodge if you don't mind different decoders is that Digitrax does a bespoke board replacement one for most proto, that has one* controlled light output for each end which has suitable resistors on it to keep the original lighting - replacing that way is a doddle on most proto. * Must stress the one set of light outputs - the GP38-2 has two pairs of bulbs as it comes with separate working number board lights - I just removed the number board ones in mine, but you might also be able to move both bulbs to the same function I guess or add an external resistor for those? The board will work as designed for GP7/9/18/20/30 SD45 SD60 and so on. Not sure about other Proto models or whether the post-Walthers versions are different though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colinw62 Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 Thanks for the replies so far, both really helpfull with links to usefull information. I've had a look at the Digitrax DCC Chip and also found something similar from NCE and a gudie on TCS website too. As always, the answers are out there! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. ColinW62 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stock_2007 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 The one thing I can not work out about PROTO 2000 is they can fit what I can only think are l.e.d's in their H10-44 loco why not in all their new locos all this loco needs is a chip and its away ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Proto have always been a bit leftfield in terms of electrics - why did they change circuit boards they installed in nearly every run? Why do the different boards all seem to affect running speeds in slightly (or even vastly!) different ways? Why did their loco's end up with a lead with a socket on instead of a board with a socket on? Nice loco's, but if you compare with something like Kato, or Atlas, or Athearn where you can take the lid off any modern loco, predictably find what is nearly always the same board and be pretty sure it will work like you expect, Proto have never been that predictable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted February 9, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 9, 2011 Proto have always been a bit leftfield in terms of electrics - why did they change circuit boards they installed in nearly every run? Why do the different boards all seem to affect running speeds in slightly (or even vastly!) different ways? Why did their loco's end up with a lead with a socket on instead of a board with a socket on? Nice loco's, but if you compare with something like Kato, or Atlas, or Athearn where you can take the lid off any modern loco, predictably find what is nearly always the same board and be pretty sure it will work like you expect, Proto have never been that predictable. I've had some that the enclosed leaflet diagrams bear no resemblance at all to the circuit board inside the model. Always worth keeping though for one that does look like it! Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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