Majer_C

The Approach Lights are out when the semaphore signal is ON and light up when the signal is OFF. If the next signal is at red the Approach Light shows Yellow and if at Yellow then the Approach Light is Green (in a three aspect territory). As soon as the semaphore signal is replaced the Approach Lights are extinguished. To achieve these controls using DCC, I needed a decoder with a relay to switch the Approach Lights on and off. Having looked at what's available I selected the DCC Concepts AD1-HP intended to switch stall type point motors. Unfortunately the Relay output only stays energised for about 5 seconds, although the relay remains in the last state commanded. To overcome this problem I studied the PCB and worked out that by cutting the track with the timer circuit and bypassing it with a wire going from the contact straight to the output terminal, achieved the desired result. Needless to say this mod invalidates the warranty. The signal now has two decoders with the same address - one for operating the semaphore motor and the other the AD1-HP to switch the Approach Lights on and off. The Approach Lights piggy back off the Decoder for the next signal.

The attached photo is of Three Wells West UP Advance Starters - with Approach Lights fitted as this is the interface from a Semaphore area to a CLS area. The DCC interface is interesting - I can elaborate if anyone is interested?

I have one blue and one brown 5 Bel and have fitted Loksound decoders to both. Starting with the brown version - I used a Loksound 4 decoder with Oliviers EMU sound. This works smoothly but does not work the lights which are connected to the AUX 1 output (green wire to pin 3) unfortunately AUX 1 isn't used by Oliviers. I solved this problem by doing some surgery to the PCB. The Blue 1969 version has been fitted with a Digitrains EMU Loksound 4 decoder. This worked the interior lights and headcode OK. Unfortunately the train performance is poor with sudden surges when starting and stopping. I tried a Howes EMU decoder and that behave the same. The Oliviers decoder worked OK (but not interior lights). I also tried a TCS decoder which worked smoothly and controlled the lights. This seems like a back emf issue - I'll try removing the motor capacitor if I can find it. Anyone else had this trouble?