During my first 'wired' decoder install where I had to mill a pocket for a Digitrax DZ126T decoder I didn't like how much space the stock lightboard took above where I was going to install the decoder. I felt if I could replace it with something smaller I'd have more space for the decoder and the wiring going to and from the decoder. My goal was to make a new lightboard that would work on installs like these and would take up less space and also provide a point to pickup track voltage for the decoder. I ordered some .021 printed circuit board and cut it with some tin snips to the shape above. If you file some copper off the bottom of the board where it slides into the frame half's you will find that it will slide into the frame where the stock lightboard does. You end up with the LED resistor, the LED and two pads that the decoder can be wired to for track voltage pickup. You can vary the intensity of the LED with the value of resistor you solder to the board. The narrower lightboard gives you more room to run the wires to and from the decoder and also provides a place to pickup track voltage for the decoder. Above you can see a similar lightboard was made for the front of the loco and if you don't have the front and rear lights on at the same time you don't need a resistor on that board as shown above. You could also cut traces and such and keep the old front lightboard. I'm happy with the results and will make more for future decoder installs as you can make them in 15 minutes or less. I've put more pictures and more detailed instructions on what I did on my web site here..... http://1fatgmc.com/RailRoad/Decoder-1/page-1.html Sumner
Thanks Jim and I'd like to thank all the others out there that have put their decoder installs on the internet, especially Brad at http://n-scale-dcc.blogspot.com/. His and others have been a huge help to me. I also added the following to my internet page hoping that it makes it easier to see how useful this smaller lightboard can be in wiring the decoder. It gives you more room for wiring and a common easy to wire to location for most of it. Sumner
