TCS FL-2 on DC

[D400]

Hi there,

 

I'm in the process of fitting a TSC FL-2 to a wagon to control a flashing tail light which I have set up as using the "strobe" effect. I wish to use the wagon on both my DCC installation and my father's DC installation - and I expected the decoder to be able to do this.

 

However, when running on DC, the light pulses very quickly and about half the normal brightness - not the effect I want at all. When set as a steady light it performs fine on both DCC and DC.

 

Am I missing something here? Is what I am trying to do a non starter?

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Bruce

[newbryford]

Is it related to the voltage available on DC?

 

Have you tried emailing TCS? I've heard that their service is very good.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Edwin_m]

That's very interesting, as a UK tail light should flash twice per second and the FL2 on DCC only flashes once per second. Maybe I should try feeding mine with DC?

 

There's also a cunning circuit somewhere on the Internet where someone connected a small normal LED in series with a flashing LED which was entirely obscured by black paint, the whole being fed via a rectifier, smoothing capacitor and ballast resistor. The flashing LED only draws significant current when it is switched on, so the ordinary LED flashes in sympathy!