It turns out you can...

[wm3798]

put a headlight in an Arnold S-2.



But so far, only in the back.  We set the CV to let this one burn constantly in both directions.

The scientists in the Laurel Valley Back Shops are still working out the kinks of getting one in the front.
Lee

[Philip H]

So could you graft a surface mount LED to the shell and just use it as part of the electrical conductioin?

[wm3798]

I'm toying with cutting a trench down the nose of the thing, using the metal shell as one conductor, and running a wire under the frame somehow.  I'm toying with 1.8 mm LED's.  It'll take a hell of a hole, though, to house the LED. (The 1.8 refers to the round projection, but the base is about 3 mm square).

Ideally, there'd be a casting of the nose that would allow a simple cut the trench, install the light, re-install the plastic casting... a little putty, little paint, make it something that it ain't.  All the electronics fit handily in the cab, so it's just a matter of communicating with the nose somehow.  There's also the issue of the mounting screw in the front that holds the shell to the frame...  That could be replaced with glue, but would make future maintenance tricky.

Now that I think of it, I have an RS-1 shell that could provide the donor nose parts...  Hmmm.  Better order some more LED's.

Lee

[wm3798]

Took a look at the shells.  Very compatible.  It will take some precise milling on the nose of the switcher, but I figure if I cut just behind the front edge of the grills on the sides, then use the grill frame from the plastic shell, that would hide most of the seam.  I'd only need about the depth of the Atlas headlight lens, so it's very do-able.  Resolving the frame mounting screw is the key.  Wires can be easily run below the walkway deck.

Lee

[MEC_FAN]

Hi Lee,

Found this link awhile back, down on page 5 it shows how to do the headlight lighting. Between Jon and I we got about 8 of these things to do eventually. Interested to see how you get'er done.

MEC

http://trainweb.org/nrmrc/dccconv/ars2.pdf

[Chris333]

Didn't some of these come with a working front light?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Nope, just DCC. The headlight hole is only a few mm deep. If you drill further, it would open up the frame/shell above the springworm and throw it out of alignment.

[sizemore]

Try using one of these guys with a 720ohm resistor, it's what I'm going to use for my S2.

http://tcsdcc.com/public_html/Zen/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=20_32&zenid=5eab7ba0ae91b6aaf2ebf21de0017701

I'm sure you could find them cheaper than retail. I picked up SM resistors on Amazon of all places.

The S.

[central.vermont]

So Lee, any progress to show?

Jon