RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion
Rapido B36-7 Decoder Mapping
CPRail:
Okay photo time!
If this worked there should be 6 photos attached:
One each top and bottom of the Gyra-lite board in the shell
One each, top and bottom, of the Main 21 pin board in the loco
Finally, 2 shots of the X12 wires - I traced them and they go to the rear Gyra-lite.
Pardon the tweezers in the shots, I needed something to hold the boards in position to take the photo.
While I would love to have both front and rear Gyra-lites, I only need the front ones. I have no operational need for the front red emergency light, but if I can make it work, why not?
G8B4Life:
Hows your soldering skills? It's doable to keep the existing motherboard and use a 21pin adapter but you've got some work to do and the only outputs the adapter can power is the headlights and the front ditchlights (depending on the adapter you have).
It's as I thought. See all those little items labelled Q1 to Q8 on the bottom on the motherboard? those are the transistors to "amplify" the logic level outputs from the Loksound decoder to make them capable of driving LEDs, lamps etc. It appears all the resistors are on the motherboard as well. This is a plus and a negative. Negative because we can't use them with the adapter and plus because we can easily bypass them.
What you will need to do is for each item in the table that has a logic level output is (ignore the transistor in the table, I was just guessing which transistor was for which output):
Unsolder the wires between the pads between the little boards (on the chassis) and the motherboard and solder on a wire from the LM to the pads on the little boards. You'll need to put a resistors inline as well. U+ will need to be connected to the blue wire on the 9 pin harness.
Table 1 : Rapido B36-7 - LokSound Auxilliary Outputs
OutputOutput typeProgrammed effectTransistor (guessed)DCC mappingX1PowerDitchlight Type 1 (alt phase)F6 - Ditchlights (Front)X2PowerDitchlight Type 1F6 - Ditchlights (Front)X3LogicDimmable Headlight 1F11 - Class lights (Rear)X4LogicDimmable Headlight 2F19 - NumberboardsX5LogicDimmable Headlight 3F11 - Class lights (rear)X6LogicDitchlight Type 14F6 - Ditchlights (Rear)X7LogicDitchlight Type 1 (alt phase)5F6 - Ditchlights (Rear)X10LogicOscillating Headlight6F17 - Emergency lightX11LogicGyra light7F13 - Gyra light (Front)X12LogicGyra light8F13 - Gyra light (Rear)
or, as much as I really don't want to say you might be able to use a decoder buddy from nixtrainz and use the adapter with that and scrap the factory motherboard all together.
You could also, if you feel macho enough just make a new "motherboard" from plain PCB or stripboard and go from there.
-Tim
CPRail:
Hey Tim,
After reviewing your message and looking at the pics again, I'm thinking that soldering change plan is beyond my skill set. Heck, I'm amazed every time I can get a loco to work on RailPro.
I'm okay soldering, but fiddling with teeny wires is my nemesis. There's a reason the 4 Rapido SW1200RS units I've converted to RP don't have any working lights.
Also, I must be the only person on the planet who couldn't figure out how to use a Decoder Buddy, so I'm guessing that's not an option.
I'm using what I believe are TCS 21 pin-9 pin harnesses (I got them from Bill). Could I use any of the function wires on the 6 pin side to connect to the wiring going to the Gyra-Lite board? I'm okay with severing the connections from the 21 pin motherboard to those wires and hooking them up to the 6 pin side, even if I have to wire in a resistor. There's enough room to do that kind of work.
G8B4Life:
Hey Ian,
Sorry, I totally missed your reply! Anyway, yes, what you asked is what I said you'll need to do.
I don't know which version of the TCS 21 to 9 pin adapter board you got; the old version just has pads for the 9 pins but the new version has a whole bunch more pads. If you have that version just ignore all the extra pads as we can't use them.
So, on the 9 pin side the adapter will power the front and read headlights, and should also power the front ditch lights (Output 3 and 4 on RailPro). For everything else this is what you'll need to do:
On the gyra board that attaches to the chassis (not the one in the shell) unsolder/sever the X8/X10, U+/X12 and X11 black wires and solder an output wire from the 6 pin to each. A resistor will likely need to be soldered inline to each of them.
If you have a multimeter / voltmeter you should test the U+ red wire on the gyra board to see if there is connectivity or any resistance between the pad on the Gyra board and the blue wire on the adapter board (just put the harness on the motherboard without the LM attached). This is the common and it should be straight through with no interference.
Hope that's all explanatory enough.
- Tim
CPRail:
Hi Tim,
Okay, sounds easy enough. Just need to have enough time where the bravery/insanity levels are to attempt it. Maybe this weekend.
Of course, She Who Must Be Obeyed may have other plans...
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