Kato FR11 car interior lighting decoders?

[pedro]

There was a brief thread back in 2011 here about these decoders for interior lights that are made by Digitrax for Kato, but apparently nothing since. I’m curious if anyone has used them recently with Kato passenger cars and lighting kits that are designed for them. Specifically, is there any functionality other than on/off and transponding? (It doesn’t appear so, but documentation is sparse) I’m looking for solutions to dim the lights to eliminate the nuclear glow that the Kato lighting kits provide out of the box. I don’t believe the decoders are strictly necessary for DCC use, but allow one to turn the lights on/off.


Conversely, anyone try using the Zimo equivalent to the FR11? (MX605) These are the same form factor, but it’s hard to decipher the specs which seem to cover a myriad of decoder models.


Finally, is there some easy way to simply add a resistor to dim the stock Kato LED that comes with the lighting kit, and avoid the expense of decoders altogether? *although these are not terribly expensive, ~$9 ea if ordered x10 at Plaza Japan.

[peteski]

The newest version (Rev.2?) of Kato lighting kits uses a constant current diode (not a resistor) to control the brightness.  The diode provides constant current (LED brightness) for a range of voltages.  Yes, these are safe to use in DC and DCC.

Personally I think the brightness is acceptable. After all, it is only a single LED and a special light conduit which diffuses the light for the entire length of the car. Tp be honest, with the advent of tiny LEDs. I prefer ligthts which use multiple LEDs on the light s trip.

But if you want to decrease brightness you could install an extra series connected resistor. Since the resistor will limit the current to less than what the constant current diode regulates, it will pass all the resistor-limited current tot he LED.

The original FR11 decoders were made for Kato by Digitrax.  I played with one few years back and it functioned as expected.  I don't recall if it had solder pads for additional functions. I doubt it. Not sure if it even has a dimming feature for the lights, but my experience with Digitrax decoders in general talls me that they do nto handle LED dimming well.

Again going by experience, ZIMO version (if capable of dimming) would handle that function better.

While I like DCC, to me it is sort of waste of money to have DCC controlled lighting.  But others might find it useful.

ESU sells multi-LED lightning strips which have a decoder built in.  If I wanted to control lights in my coaches, I would likely go that route.  Not as easy as plug-n-play like Kato, but I think the lighting would look better.  Have not tried them yet.

Here is the decoderized one (for $24) https://sbs4dcc.com/products/esu-50708-passenger-car-lighting-kit-warm-white-digital-set.html
And no decoder (but has brightness adjustment) (for $20) https://sbs4dcc.com/products/esu-50700-passenger-car-lighting-kit-warm-white.html
 

[pedro]

Good information, thanks Peteski. Until now I have not experimented with passenger car lighting. I’m leaning towards just installing the (cheap) Kato light kits and see how I like it before going the decoder route. There are YouTube videos showing simply adding a small piece of electrical tape above the LED helps tame the “hotspot” at the light end of the diffuser.

The ESU product is intriguing. The same quandry exists with the FL-12 decoder for the cab cars too. ZIMO offers their version of that too. And Kato has an “FL-12N” that supposedly has a dimming function for the headlight. Experimentation ahead… luckily these are all relatively inexpensive options.

[greenwizard88]

I've installed the FR11's in a few of my Kato passenger trains. They're very basic decoders, they have an on/off, and that's about it. Definitely no dimming, and if memory serves me correct, you can only map the on/off to one of a few button options.

If I didn't have a fleet, and was starting off, I'd skip the FR11's and use just about any other decoder.

I will say though, that the FR11's play very nicely with the 20-211/2 lighting kits, and as long as you're OK with a nuclear reactor powering your lights, the entire setup is very easy to install.