Lighting Effect Question - set a group of indexes to the same value

[William Brillinger]

I'm playing with the light effects editor for the first time.

Does anybody know how I can set all the index points between 75 and 112 to 25% in one go?
Or do I have to set each index on it's own?

[G8B4Life]

No easier way (just a worse way) so unfortunately no you'll have to set them manually.

I do have to ask though, why you are setting it at 25% ? Reading the name gives the word ditch but no ditch light I know of works that way.

- Tim

[William Brillinger]

Why 25%?

Now that I'm finally getting to lighting, I find that I don't like the way the lights work with the default RailPro options.

The Default RP option to setup a loco for forward movement is:
(prime mover is running)
1. Turn Front light on full bright
2. Dim the Front light
3. Turn Rear light on full bright
4. Dim the Rear light
(Get ready to move)
5. Set the Front light to Bright
6. Set on the Front Ditch lights
(Ready to move)

I want to setup the lights like this:
1. Turn on the Front Light (dim as default)
2. Turn on the Rear Light (dim as default)
(Get ready to move)
3. Set the Front lights to Bright (Head lights and Ditch lights come on Full)
(Ready to move)

I will be posting on how I configured my lights along with my install photos sometime soon.
Still working on it!

I don't need independent control of the ditch lights and I don't need them to flash on horn.

I have settled on these lighting program names:
- Hood Light ON-OFF (low) - This will set the a light output to 25%
- Hood Light HI Ditch HI - This will ramp one output from 25% to 100%, and a second output from 0% to 100%

At least that's the plan...

[KPack]

Bill - this has been on my mind for a while, but I haven't looked into the lighting editor to see how to do it.  What you are describing is how BNSF runs their lights.  I specifically want the "Hood light HI Ditch HI" ability.  All the front lights go on to full power at the same time.  I'm looking forward to your progress!

-Kevin

[William Brillinger]

@Kevin - exactly! This is for my STX BNSF C44-9W's, CN does the same thing.

I'll keep you posted

[G8B4Life]

Ok, that makes sense now, it's not specifically a ditch light thing at all which is what I took it to be.

It should be relatively easy to do, though it might be painfully slow to do it. I just did the on (25%)-off in a couple of minutes. The brightness adjust button was the help here, it adjusts the brightness of the "sample" that the index is set to.

- Tim

[William Brillinger]

Ok, I found a fairly quick way to do the adjustment.

The brightness adjust tool works on a selected section of samples, but since it increases by percentage, if there is no brightness set then increasing zero by 200% is still zero.

I found you can quickly fill in the area to be adjusted by clicking on the samples, they don't have to be the same, just fill them in fairly high. Then select that area, brightness adjust it by 200% to fill it all the way up and even it out, then re-adjust the selection to 25%

The area to be filled to 25%:


Roughly filled in:


Area selected:


Adjusted by 200%:


Adjusted to 25%:


Now to try it out! ...but first I need to wire in the ditch lights.

[Alan]

Question for a professional railroader on the forum... Assuming diesel, are the headlights and ditchlights controlled by some master switch on the control stand -or- does each light have a switch that the engineer would set individually? Does the direction of travel automatically change lights on the prototype?

[EDIT] found my answer for early diesel on page 11 & 21 of this doc https://wplives.org/wphistory_wp_documents/WP_THE_DIESEL_LOCOMOTIVE.pdf. Looks like the ProtoThrottle nailed it!

[William Brillinger]

"Looks like the ProtoThrottle nailed it!"

That's what my research said too, and thus lead me to the setup I am trying.

[G8B4Life]

[EDIT] found my answer for early diesel on page 11 & 21 of this doc https://wplives.org/wphistory_wp_documents/WP_THE_DIESEL_LOCOMOTIVE.pdf.

The GP-9 manual has a good drawing and description of the switch: https://wplives.org/wphistory_wp_documents/WP_OPERATING_MANUAL_GP9_LOCOMOTIVES.pdf. Pages 30, 31.

Looks like the ProtoThrottle nailed it!

Maybe, maybe not. It's a "depends" thing. I know they can't build a ProtoThrottle to suit all variations in EMD land but we certainly have locomotives that have nothing more than an on/off toggle switch for each headlight and a single dim/bright toggle switch that functions for both
headlights.

- Tim

[William Brillinger]

"Looks like the ProtoThrottle nailed it!"
Maybe, maybe not. It's a "depends" thing.

ok, The ProtoThrottle is a great happy medium.

[Alan]

Point being the lights should not change because you changed direction of the loco. They should change because the engineer changed the light switch position. For all you prototype operating guys. 

Myself, I'm just thankful the lights come on at all!

[G8B4Life]

ok, The ProtoThrottle is a great happy medium.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing the ProtoThrottle, I think they've done a magnificent job, even if it doesn't completely match what the EMD licensee did here. I always wanted a throttle like that but unfortunately they were too late to the party so to speak, If they had come out with it before I chose RP it could have been a different story on which controller I have today, though I'm sure I'd be frustrated by DCC's inferiority.

- Tim