I have four of the new Kato SD45's equipped with the TCS K1D4 decoders that run great, but the lights are blue. Anyone have a solution to this? It seems to be caused by the light bar, but I am not certain. Maybe a combination of decoder and light bar? Could painting the lenses do the trick?
John, Have you removed the hood? In a couple of my Kato EMDs, the LEDs that provide the light are the newer bright white LEDs that put off a blue-ish tint. I did a complete replacement of the Kato electronics when I installed AT type decoders and used warm white LEDs. Never Mind! That decoder is a drop in for N scale. Sorry about that. The TCS site says it has super bright golden white LEDs.
The headlight, number boards, and windshields are all one piece so it looks like I'll have to cut it up a bit. Maybe a razor saw and slip in some plastic or paint. I wonder if some translucent paint on the light bar would help?
Wouldn't it be easier to find some sort of film to filter the "blue" source? I'd try something like Kapton tape right over the decoder's light before trimming and replacing the Kato plastic light pipe (if that's what you meant.)
http://www.trainweb.org/girr/tips/tips7/white_led_tips.html http://home.comcast.net/~abrams_railroad/WhiteLEDs/WhiteLEDs.html http://www.richmondcontrols.com/WhiteLED.html Enjoy!
I never thought of using Kapton tape. I'll try that. Dou you think a transluscent paint would work? I was attempting to avoid soldering on the board where the LED is, but I may just do it. So far I cut the windshields off the light bar and glued back into the opening, and painted the rest of it black. Now the light through the headlights and number boards are not quite as bright, but still good, and the cab is not lighted so brightly.
Tamiya makes several transparent paints. originally for lenses on lights. The colors include red, blue, amber, green and smoke. You want the amber. Or you could use glass paints available in art and craft stores.
Thanks. The local RC shop has Tamiya and hopefully the required color. I am also planning to acquire a few more units and was thinking about how to deal with the number boards. The source http://www.shellscale.com/numberboard page.htm I have are decals and say not for use as lighted boards. Might not look to bad though because I run while the layout lights are on anyway.
I was just looking at John Sing's solution using a printer. May just do that instead to keep the number boards lighted.
