91
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Transferring custom projects between HC’s
« Last post by Jim Agnew on April 16, 2025, 05:36:29 PM »Is there a way to transfer a custom project from an HC2 to an HC3?
Recent Posts
92
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by CPRail on April 16, 2025, 03:43:28 PM »To clarify, I did not add the resistors on the board, that is how it came. I added the 1KΩ resistors in line with the LEDs as per the below photo. Maybe I have too many resistors in play?
I note that the board I have in my loco is NOT what the Athearn P/N shows as being...
Maybe I have dud LEDs. Now that I soldered the 1KΩ resistors to them, is there a way to test the LEDs without them being hooked to the loco? Can I connect them to an AA battery, like one can do with an incandescent bulb?
I note that the board I have in my loco is NOT what the Athearn P/N shows as being...
Maybe I have dud LEDs. Now that I soldered the 1KΩ resistors to them, is there a way to test the LEDs without them being hooked to the loco? Can I connect them to an AA battery, like one can do with an incandescent bulb?
93
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by gregeusa on April 16, 2025, 03:21:32 PM »usually the common wire is blue... let me look at the manual:
ok, blue wire in the diagram:
https://ringengineering.com/RailPro/Documents/LM-3Instructions.pdf
so 1k should be fine, I guess I could not see that some of the lines on the resistors were brown, not black... it would be very good to test the resistors with an ohmmeter to be sure, they sure looked black...
have you tried the decoder with the leds connected but not the motor?
Greg
ok, blue wire in the diagram:
https://ringengineering.com/RailPro/Documents/LM-3Instructions.pdf
so 1k should be fine, I guess I could not see that some of the lines on the resistors were brown, not black... it would be very good to test the resistors with an ohmmeter to be sure, they sure looked black...
have you tried the decoder with the leds connected but not the motor?
Greg
94
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by CPRail on April 16, 2025, 12:01:03 PM »Hi Greg,
Ask and you shall receive!
The resistors come up just behind a bunch of diodes on the board. I've marked the resistor connection and where the headlights connect (this is the "front" of the board - gyralites are connected to the "rear" part of the board with a similar setup). I've also circled the resistors.
Resistors I attached to the LEDs are 1KΩ - I used the same resistors when wiring up my Rapido B36-7 and it works fine.
I'll have to measure what is coming across those resistors.
For the common, where is the best place to measure?
Ask and you shall receive!
The resistors come up just behind a bunch of diodes on the board. I've marked the resistor connection and where the headlights connect (this is the "front" of the board - gyralites are connected to the "rear" part of the board with a similar setup). I've also circled the resistors.
Resistors I attached to the LEDs are 1KΩ - I used the same resistors when wiring up my Rapido B36-7 and it works fine.
I'll have to measure what is coming across those resistors.
For the common, where is the best place to measure?
95
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by gregeusa on April 16, 2025, 11:54:28 AM »update, I could not see the pictures when replying...
OK, your components hooded the the LEDs are resistors, not inductors...
they have 5 bands, so they are precision.. what is hard is to read the sequence, since the tolerance band is not the typical gold or silver (of course since they are high tolerance, i.e. 5% or better)..
brn-brn-blk-blk-brn (100 ohms) (cannot read the other way, the first digit cannot be 0, i.e. black)
so 10 ohms times 1 = 10 ohms...
if that is right (measure with meter), no kidding you have the wrong resistors!
what is the common voltage? (not mentioned) but if 12v, then ohms law gives you 1.2 amps!
Greg
OK, your components hooded the the LEDs are resistors, not inductors...
they have 5 bands, so they are precision.. what is hard is to read the sequence, since the tolerance band is not the typical gold or silver (of course since they are high tolerance, i.e. 5% or better)..
brn-brn-blk-blk-brn (100 ohms) (cannot read the other way, the first digit cannot be 0, i.e. black)
so 10 ohms times 1 = 10 ohms...
if that is right (measure with meter), no kidding you have the wrong resistors!
what is the common voltage? (not mentioned) but if 12v, then ohms law gives you 1.2 amps!
Greg
96
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by gregeusa on April 16, 2025, 11:45:39 AM »OK, just checking we are on same page. from april 7
you replaced all the original incandescents with LEDs, and you added resistors.
(no value was given for the resistors!)
in the same post you say the LEDs were not hooked up when you tested with a meter...
right here, those resistors on the board overheating without the LEDs connected makes no sense whatsoever...
if this is true, if you have the right resistors that connect to the function outputs, your board is damaged..
I think we need pictures of the board, with the "resistors" circled and verified what they are connected to..
Greg
you replaced all the original incandescents with LEDs, and you added resistors.
(no value was given for the resistors!)
in the same post you say the LEDs were not hooked up when you tested with a meter...
right here, those resistors on the board overheating without the LEDs connected makes no sense whatsoever...
if this is true, if you have the right resistors that connect to the function outputs, your board is damaged..
I think we need pictures of the board, with the "resistors" circled and verified what they are connected to..
Greg
97
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by CPRail on April 16, 2025, 11:38:00 AM »Here are the results (see photos). The grey items on the bottom of the board sure look like resistors to me, but I'm not an expert - I only play one on TV. One location is marked R1.
All running was done on test rollers as I don't have a continuous loop of track. Throttle was set at 75% for all tests. Load was set to about 25-30% on the HC. There was a 5 minute cooling period between the first run (in reverse) and the subsequent run (in forward). I removed the shell immediately after each running test to check temps.
Test 1 was 15 minutes in reverse, headlights/gyralites were off.
Test 2 was 20 minutes in forward, headlights/gyralites were on.
After Test 1 the grey resistors where cool to the touch, the LM was slightly warm.
After Test 2, the front grey resistor was rocket hot (headlight), the rear was uncomfortably warm (gyralites), the LM was noticeably warm - you could feel the heat from the outside of the shell.
While you can see the LM temperature increasing, I suspect if I had an actual load and was able to let it loop, it would increase faster.
Next steps?
All running was done on test rollers as I don't have a continuous loop of track. Throttle was set at 75% for all tests. Load was set to about 25-30% on the HC. There was a 5 minute cooling period between the first run (in reverse) and the subsequent run (in forward). I removed the shell immediately after each running test to check temps.
Test 1 was 15 minutes in reverse, headlights/gyralites were off.
Test 2 was 20 minutes in forward, headlights/gyralites were on.
After Test 1 the grey resistors where cool to the touch, the LM was slightly warm.
After Test 2, the front grey resistor was rocket hot (headlight), the rear was uncomfortably warm (gyralites), the LM was noticeably warm - you could feel the heat from the outside of the shell.
While you can see the LM temperature increasing, I suspect if I had an actual load and was able to let it loop, it would increase faster.
Next steps?
98
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by CPRail on April 15, 2025, 08:15:38 AM »Sorry guys, we had the first really nice days of spring here on the weekend (FINALLY), so no train activity due to being outside enjoying the weather! Of course, it was gloomy and snowy all day yesterday in punishment. Mother Nature is a harsh mistress...
I'm doing the tests tonight and will update in the morning.
I'm doing the tests tonight and will update in the morning.
99
RailPro Specific Help & Discussion / Re: UPDATE on Lights causing LM-3S to overheat?
« Last post by kellanphil on April 14, 2025, 10:09:39 PM »What was the result?
100
Finished RailPro Installation Examples / Re: Athearn SW1500 Install
« Last post by Espeelark on April 12, 2025, 04:54:48 PM »So I took CPRail's advice and went ahead and got a speaker from Scale Sounds systems.
From what I can tell, it appears to be just narrow enough to fit inside the shell. With the speaker connections on the underside, I got to thinking about how I would route the speaker wires top-side. I could go forward and then up and wrap them around the speaker to go aft, or, go aft and come up right behind it. I didn't like either of those two options so I created a third. I filed two slots into the side of the speaker to route the wires up. I used CA adhesive to glue them into the slot. Here's what that looks like.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Here's what the speaker looks like temporarily installed onto the chassis.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
With the speaker in place there will still be space between it and the underside of the shell to allow the wires from the headlight LEDs to run aft to the LM-3S module.
Still lots of space issues to reconcile to get everything to fit. Working on that.....
From what I can tell, it appears to be just narrow enough to fit inside the shell. With the speaker connections on the underside, I got to thinking about how I would route the speaker wires top-side. I could go forward and then up and wrap them around the speaker to go aft, or, go aft and come up right behind it. I didn't like either of those two options so I created a third. I filed two slots into the side of the speaker to route the wires up. I used CA adhesive to glue them into the slot. Here's what that looks like.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Here's what the speaker looks like temporarily installed onto the chassis.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
With the speaker in place there will still be space between it and the underside of the shell to allow the wires from the headlight LEDs to run aft to the LM-3S module.
Still lots of space issues to reconcile to get everything to fit. Working on that.....