Installing a Mars Light

[Coupe633]

I have searched but have not found anything about actually connecting the LM3-S to a Mars Light. I see in the RailPro downloads there are several types of Mars lights and am not sure exactly what they mean but I think that depending on the light installed in the locomotive will determine which effect you want to use. There are Mars Dual Sync Rev2, Mars Rev2 and Mars. Some locomotives depending on brand will have two bulbs or LED's while others may just have a single bulb or LED and the electronics will do magic to simulate the effect alternating between two bulbs.

I have a couple Proto 2000 E Units that have a head light and a Mars light. I am not sure how to connect the wires from the LM3-S to the wires on the Bulb.  The Head light (top light) it has a black wire and a yellow wire. This should be fairly standard on connecting this to the LM3-s with one of the wires connected to the blue neutral wire on the LM3-s.

The lower Mars light has a blue wire, a red wire and a red wire so I must assume that because there are three wires one is the neutral and can be connected to the LM3-S blue Neutral wire. The other two (unsure which ones) will pulsate or switch on and off alternately giving the effect of a mars light. I am not sure which wires would be connected to which wires on the LM3-S.

Seems that the Head light would connect to the White wire on the LM3-S like I have done on other Non-Mars light E units. That leaves me the Yellow, Green and Violet wires on the 9pin. Which light effect would I want to use for this type of wiring arrangement and which wires do I use?

I am not entirely sure that the Bulbs are LED's.
 Not being an electrical engineer I am not entirely sure how the LED would perform the Mars function like it has two separate bulbs. Should I replace the lights with LEDs and is there a special LED that allows for the Mars Light to function?

I appreciate any help in this seemingly complicated wiring and as I convert more and more of my locomotives to RailPro I have learned quit a bit.

[G8B4Life]

A cursory search suggests that the mars light in the P2K E units you have with three wires is in fact a dual filament globe, the blue wire being the common (remember, in DCC and RP universes positive is the common, not neutral). It also appears that you might have early models that are not DCC ready with a DCC socket.

If you have an early model I'd suggest watching this video as it may give you some ideas (If it were me I'd just rewire the whole thing, does yours match this?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvhAxTQtQTI.

It really will all come down to how you want to wire the models; the circuit board in the E units has the circuitry to mimic the effect of a mars light with the dual filament globe and you could possibly use it if you really wanted but you'd need to make sure that the power it provides to the globes is within capability of the LM's output. Most people would replace the globes (and board) with LEDs.

Rings Mars effect is for doing that mimicry with single LEDs (even the dual), a single LED is what you'd use in this case.

As for which wire to use on the LM, it doesn't matter, besides blue of course you can hook up to any of them because with RP you tell it what colour wire does what.

- Tim

[Coupe633]

Tim I very much appreciate your comments and explanation. I was not sure what kind of stock bulb Lifelike used and now I know it is a dual filament globe and I watched the youtube link video which provided additional explanation and visuals. I had searched on the RailPro Users Group but did not find anything and wasn't sure what to look for to get the explanations on any third party sites. It does make sense now to simply replace the stock globes and install LEDs. 4 of the 5 Proto 2000's are early runs and the fifth has the 8 pin DCC ready socket but I am pulling all the boards anyway and hard-wiring the modules in. I have some LED's on order and will follow up here on the results in a couple weeks when I finished now that I know what to do.

[Coupe633]

Almost three years in the making but I am finally back at it with my Mars lights and wanted to follow up with what I learned. I had three E and F units that had Mars lights and finally got back to figuring all this out. Unless there are two bulbs for the Mars light and you can replace it with a single LED, you would just connect it up just like any other headlight. The Mars light options will work for either a single or double bulb Mars Light but you most likely would need to download the function from the Ring site and copy that into your loco. It really isn't as hard to do as my first attempt almost 3 years ago as I didn't understand it very well. I got all three locomotives set up with a Mars light and they do look very nice when activated. It was a little difficult trying determine which light on an F or E Unit was the Mars light for that particular prototype. C&NW E6 and E7 Proto 2000 both have two lights. I couldn't find any data on which one was the Mars light for the E6 so I chose the lower light to be the Mars light and the upper as the headlight. Same for the E7. It is that time of the season to be in by the fireplace installing modules into the next batch of locos that have been sitting for too long. Each one is different and I learn a little bit more each time I complete an install but lighting can be the more difficult of the process since there can be multiple tiny LED's to work with. My era is transition era so I don't have all the ditch lights to worry about. I am finally getting the hang of all this and keep my dremel handy.

[gregeusa]

Probably not a solution for everyone, but I "made" a mars/gyralite for a Z scale loco by having 3 leds next to each other (horizontally), and wiring the outer 2 to ditch lights.

It actually projected a beam that swept from side to side, and could be seen also on the track. Just an interesting result. (of course in Z scale it was surface mount leds)