Ditch lights

[Graham54]

Looking for advice for auto ditch lights on horn.  Have tried to install with no success.  When finally installed will ditch lights activate every time with horn or is a separate button required for horn to operate without lights.  My HC1 has ditch lights on button 4  and  horn on 5.  User manual is a bit short on information on how to achieve this function.  Any feedback would be appreciated.  Graham.

[KPack]

Hi Graham,

From the HC-2 manual:

Auto Ditch Lights on Horn
This option will cause the ditch lights to start cycling for some amount of time after you
press the horn button.

The above button pictures (shows horn first, then ditchlight button)  must be used for this option to work. Also, you can setup a
button for each independent ditch light (as type On/Off). If you setup buttons to
independently control the left and right ditch lights, then these buttons MUST be located
after the Ditch Light Button that is setup for the Ditch Light Effect. For example, if the
Ditch Light button with the ditch light effect is in button position 4, then the Ditch Left and
Ditch Right buttons must be in locations 5 and 6 or higher.

Horn button first, then ditchlight button, then separate buttons to turn the ditchlights on/off.  Sounds like you have your horn after the ditchlights and it should be the other way around.  The buttons are more than just pictures....they have code written behind them and are programmed to do certain things when they are placed in certain orders, for example auto-ditchlights on horn.  Set it up like it says in the manual and you shouldn't have any issues.

-Kevin

[G8B4Life]

Ah, glad I'm not the only one to fall for this trap.

Seeing as Graham has a HC-1 I decided to read the HC-1 instructions and then the HC-2 instructions to see if it might have said anything different, which it didn't, but to be fair Graham is right, the instructions are a bit sketchy, to quote:

"The above button pictures must be used for this option to work."

Not anywhere does it say the horn button MUST be in a slot before the ditch button. I think this is an instructions oversight that should be bought up with Ring. In fact I will send them an email. I know we like helping people but not every user if a part of this forum.

- Tim

[Alan]

I love my RailPro system but will be the first to admit the documentation (and web site for that matter) are not the best. Tim would do well to hire a freelance technical writer on a per job basis.   

[G8B4Life]

Boy, would I have looked like a fool if I had sent that email to Ring, I just did a test and the horn button position, whether before or after the ditch light button, didn't matter.

Graham,

Let's work through this methodologically.

I'll post some not so great photo's along the way.

As posted earlier, you must use this button for the horn and the Ditch light (flashing) function button must be before any buttons that turn the ditch lights on.

The ditch light (flashing) function button must be set up to the correct function wires the ditchlights are connected to.

In the photo of the ditch light button setup below, I have the ditch light function in slot 12, indicated by the slot coloured green. I have the button to turn the ditch lights on individually in slots 13 and 14. They are wired to the green wire and purple wire respectively. Note the setup of the button. You must use the exact button picture for this to work.



On one the advanced setup screens, you must enable the "Auto Ditch Lights on Horn" function. I don't know if this the same setup screen on the HC-1 as the HC-2.  If you haven't enabled this function you'll need to.



Hopefully, this will get you up and flashing when you sound the horn.

- Tim

[KPack]

Good to know that it doesn't matter where the horn button is.  I don't run flashing ditchlights (BNSF doesn't in real practice) so I really haven't had to mess around with this. 

-Kevin

[Graham54]

Thanks to those who replied, I now have everything working correctly.   The answer was enabling ditch to work off horn on a different page something I have missed over the last 4 years.  old and blind  with nothing much in the manual about this page.  I have also installed horn on button 16 that functions without ditch flashing.      Regards Graham.