Hope I placed this in the right forum. I recntley purchased two Kato AC4400 these come with the ditch lights and look great on the track. I want to install the DN163K1B so I can use them on the DCC Layout. Digitrax do no make any mention as to if the ditch lights will work after the decoder installation. Perhaps some soldering and wiring may be required and would like to know that going in. I was wondering if anyone has completed the installation of this "Plug and Play" board in a AC4400 or SD70 Mac and what if any modifications were required to keep the ditch lights working.
It's true "plug and play". I just replaced the light board with the decoder and all lights work! Jeff
I too have ordered the DN163K1B for my AC4400s (and my Dash 9s). They are plug and play in that you replace the light board with the new decoder. The headlights and the ditch lights are all "light-piped" up to the led on the decoder board. So they will all illuminate. That particular decoder has a ditch light flashing effect, but to do that I believe you will need to wire in either 2 new incandecent lamps (as Digitrax recommends) or 2 new LEDs specifically for the ditch lights. Someone thought that you could simply cut the light pipe inside the shell and mount the LEDs or Lamps to that. That way you don't have to try to fit one directly in the ditch light housing outside of the locomotive.
This decoder will work. As BNSF said, the decoder replaces the light board so all light functions will light as they do now. It you want flashing ditch lights, etc. you'll need to cut the light tube and add seperate bulbs or LEDs. The DIgitrax manual goes into good detail on how to do it for the Kato P42 so, I assume they might for this decoder as well.
Owen, As others have noted, it depends on what you want the "ditch lights" to do. If you want them constantly lighted, the decoder does that automatically thru the light tube. If you want alternating ditch lights, you have to alter the light tube and replace with separate lights or LED's. Harold
all my 60 ac4400 have the dn163k1b installed. ditchlights work fine. unfortunately digitrax seems to have some serious quality control issues with the dn163k1b. some of the decoders had the led's soldered the wrong way, loose motor contact tabs and a few other things. from the 100 dn163k1b i ordered i had to return 10.
I've been reading..and re-reading this post for the past week... and going... "sure would be nice to have flashing lights..." (ooo... more lights! i'm a light-fiend) I found this page on digitrax's website: http://www.digitrax.com/manuals.php search for ditch, and it has a schematic on how to put the lights in and soldering locations and such. as well as resistance and what lights you can use.
well, i did it. It was by far the most complex project I've done so far, considering I'm not too good with a soldering iron...and coffee jitters don't help much! First of all, i cut the light pipe out for the ditch lights (after that was no going back) Secondly, had to drill out the existing housing where the little ends of the pipes went into the shell. I used 1.2mm 1.5v lamps from miniatronics. they went right in. Then used just a touch of glue to hold them in place. Then it was a matter of being very quick with the soldering iron (and very careful!) touching some old decoder wire onto the pads on the decoder, wiring in the resistors (470ohm 1/4 watt), and wiring it up. Then of course, shoehorning all of the wires in (some are way too long... but if its not broke, i'm not going to fix it) all apart on the bench making sure it worked before i soldered and shoehorned the wires in.. short movie (dark, but you can see the pretty lights!) http://dynomite.ath.cx:8080/albums/album-rr-ditchlights/p4100003.mov
Very cool Todd! Thanks for posting the movie. OK, here's my question, when you removed the light pipe, did it break and that's why you had to drill out the existing housing? or, did you have to drill it out to get the lamps in? and if so, what did you ream it out to (or what size drill did you use).
nope, i sawed the pipes going down to the ditch light area. The new lights were *slightly* too large for the existing openings, so I reamed them out with the smallest bit I had (twisting the sucker by hand, but wasn't a hard job). I more or less eyeballed the drill bit by holding it up to the bulb, because I couldn't read the size stamped onto the bit itself. I don't know how to explain the part.. but it looks like the "housing" around the stock ditch lights.. where they stick out a tiny bit? those were about the exact size of the new bulbs. Hope that helps a bit.
Great work Todd. I'm glad to see using 470 ohm resistors worked. The closest Radio Shack to me only had those in stock and, I'm a little nervous in using them.
Same deal for me, 470 was all they had. on the digitrax pdf, they mentioned anything above 100 ohms would work. but the 470s work nice, and they seem as bright as the LED headlight. lets just hope the lights don't burn out too fast, not wanting to go in and replace them anytime soon, thats for sure.
Like the ditch Lite modification. I will have to try that. That is when I can find a supplier who can provide the decoders. I have been waiting over 4 weeks foir the LHS to supply, however I have heard that these decoders are still 4 weeks away from backorders.
