N Atlas Gold 8-32BWH (& 8-40BW?) Rear Light On with Only Track Power?

[tehachapifan]

Recently acquired an Atlas Gold N Scale 8-32BWH and have been playing around with different sound files (not crazy about the stock sound file). I have a new file I like loaded, but I've since noticed the rear headlight comes on with only track power. I can't say for sure if this was happening with the original file or not (comes on pretty dim, so hard to notice). Can't find anything amiss in the LokProgrammer as far as mapping goes. Thinking perhaps the idea was to have the front numberboards come on with track power, but they got the wrong LED wired up. Curious if anyone else who has the new gold version of this model (or perhaps the 8-40BW) has the same issue or not. Additional note, there seems to be two LEDs on the rear of the board and only one of them is staying on.

[peteski]

Which ESU decoder did they use?  From your description it sounds like it is custom made for this loco.  Or is it a standard nano with E24 connector?

In the LokProgrammer you should be able to figure out how the rear headlight is mapped. What if you disable the rear headlight AUX output?  does the light go dark?

[samusi01]

It could also be how the functions are set up in the table. There are LEDs all over the boards and they allow some features like continuously illuminated number boards if one has the various functions set correctly.

[tehachapifan]

Which ESU decoder did they use?  From your description it sounds like it is custom made for this loco.  Or is it a standard nano with E24 connector?

In the LokProgrammer you should be able to figure out how the rear headlight is mapped. What if you disable the rear headlight AUX output?  does the light go dark?

I believe the decoder is an ESU 58721 LokSound 5 Micro Direct as can be seen here (3rd pic from the bottom)....

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/atlasdash8.html

So far, I've been unsuccessful at determining where this LED is mapped.

It could also be how the functions are set up in the table. There are LEDs all over the boards and they allow some features like continuously illuminated number boards if one has the various functions set correctly.

Right but, with regards to ESU products, I'm not aware of any board-mounted LEDs that can be set up by the end user to come on with track power only. I'm thinking this is either some kind of short, or a decision was made to make an LED always powered through some kind of circuitry outside of what can be modified with a LokProgrammer. If it is the latter, my guess is this LED was intended to be for the numberboards but it ended up being at the wrong end of the board. Still, if this is indeed the 58721 board, I'm not sure how this separate circuitry was accomplished.

[peteski]

If it is 58721 (looks like in the Spookshow's photo), then looking at my write-up each end of the decoder has 4 LEDs on it.



Which specific LED stays on all the time? Since the above image shows which AUX function connected to each LED, you can try totally disabling that AUX output in LokProgrammer. If the LED comes on even then, then yes, the decoder has a problem.

[tehachapifan]

Ok, think I have it figured out thanks to your pic and labeling! I hadn't realized until now that these boards have as many LEDs as they do. I'm pretty sure the pre-5 predecessor to this board didn't have near as many (6, I think) and I figured this was the same layout. So, admittedly, I hadn't taken the shell off until now because I thought I knew the layout. Wow! there's 10 LEDs on this board! At any rate, the LED in question was the one labeled as AUX7. Interestingly, AUX7 was mapped to "power pack control", which is a selection I've never noticed before now. Now it makes sense that it was hot off of track power and the sound file I used wasn't set up to accommodate a 10 LED board.

[peteski]

Ok, think I have it figured out thanks to your pic and labeling! I hadn't realized until now that these boards have as many LEDs as they do. I'm pretty sure the pre-5 predecessor to this board didn't have near as many (6, I think) and I figured this was the same layout. So, admittedly, I hadn't taken the shell off until now because I thought I knew the layout. Wow! there's 10 LEDs on this board! At any rate, the LED in question was the one labeled as AUX7. Interestingly, AUX7 was mapped to "power pack control", which is a selection I've never noticed before now. Now it makes sense that it was hot off of track power and the sound file I used wasn't set up to accommodate a 10 LED board.

Yes, Russ, the V4 version of this decoder had fewer LEDs,  If you visit my write-up I actually show both versions side-by-side for comparison.  See

So the misbehaving LED only showed  up after you replaced the original sound project.  That makes sense. I'm glad you were able to resolve the problem, and that is was an easy software fix (not a damaged decoder). 

Power Pack Control is for using with ESU's Power Pack keep-alive modules., Those have 3 leads The extra lead, if configured properly, is used by the decoder to disable the Power Pack while the decoder is being programmed.  The Power Pack Control has to be assigned to a logic-level AUX output in order to work properly.