Anyone add ditch lights to BLI N Scale NW-2?

[sctroy]

Has anyone added ditch lights to the BLI Paragon 4 N scale NW-2?  I would like to add both front and rear ditchers, but I'm not sure of the best way to attempt this.  The DCC board is marked N-500-G.  There are no solder pads I can see for additional functions,  although there is a very small plug at each end to connect the various wiring.  It appears there may be two unused wire slots on the plug, but adding wires to these plugs seems very iffy to me.  I could also tap into the front and rear headlight boards, but I cannot find any documentation as to whether the front and rear headlight function outputs can each handle the current load for two additional LEDs (which would need to be wired in parallel with the headlights).  I wouldn't be able to separately control the ditchers this way, but at least they would go on/off with the headlights.

Steve Troy

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[jagged ben]

May I ask why?
Did any prototype NW2s make it long enough to get retrofitted with ditch lights?

I mean, you can do what you want.  Just remarking why you may not find anyone else who has done it, and why BLI wouldn't have provided for it.  Also in my experience BLI is not known for making models as if the modeler would ever want to modify them (or even perform maintenance).

Hopefully others have or can point to more knowledge about the decoder.

 

[sctroy]

May I ask why?
Did any prototype NW2s make it long enough to get retrofitted with ditch lights?

I'm modifying an Erie Lackawanna model into NSHR 446 (technically a SW-8, but close enough).  NSHR added front and rear ditch lights to all their SW units.

Steve Troy [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[C855B]

The Paragon 4 board may have pinouts for ditch lights on one end of the board, but there's no easy way to determine that since BLI does not supply wiring diagrams. Big caveat there, however, is making a huge assumption that the P4 board is common among their N scale diesel models, and the ES44 uses the same board as the NW2. FWIW, the ES44 board supports front ditchlights only.

If it were me I'd toss the P4 board (many of us do so) and find an ESU LokSound decoder to your liking. Not a drop-in by any means, but you know you'll have suitable light function outputs.

And I agree with Ben - BLI is not especially known for supporting the modeler community. What you see is what you get, and heaven help you if you want to color outside of the lines.

[jagged ben]

I'm modifying an Erie Lackawanna model into NSHR 446 (technically a SW-8, but close enough).  NSHR added front and rear ditch lights to all their SW units.

Steve Troy (Attachment Link)

Good answer!   . And good luck.

[jdcolombo]

Agree with C855B.

If you want ditch lights, get rid of the Paragon decoder and get a Loksound.   The Loksound Nano might fit, depending on the thickness you have available.  There are also LokSound board decoders that might fit, but you'll have to measure.

Ditch lights with the LokSound are no problem. 

John C.

[Jim Starbuck]

Interesting…

I model the occasional switcher and this is the first time I’ve seen one with ditch lights.
The only thing that comes to mind to use the Paragon 4 is to cut the wires on the cab light and extend them forward and wire them in parallel with the headlight. F0 would then turn both on.
Use the rear light leads at the decoder and parallel all four ditch light LEDs there. If I remember the P4 allowed independent function mapping. Then map the ditch lights to a vacant function key.
It’s a very simplistic approach and there isn’t any control other than on/off.
I’m not familiar enough with the P4 programming to know if the directional part of that can be turned off. If not, this approach wouldn’t work anyway.
I replaced the Paragons in mine with LokSound Nanos.
Ebay seller CMR Products offers nice 3D printed porch mount ditch light casting that I believe will accept a 0402 LED.
Just an idea,
Jim

[sctroy]

Interesting…
The only thing that comes to mind to use the Paragon 4 is to cut the wires on the cab light and extend them forward and wire them in parallel with the headlight. F0 would then turn both on.
Use the rear light leads at the decoder and parallel all four ditch light LEDs there. If I remember the P4 allowed independent function mapping. Then map the ditch lights to a vacant function key.
It’s a very simplistic approach and there isn’t any control other than on/off.
I’m not familiar enough with the P4 programming to know if the directional part of that can be turned off. If not, this approach wouldn’t work anyway.
I replaced the Paragons in mine with LokSound Nanos.
Ebay seller CMR Products offers nice 3D printed porch mount ditch light casting that I believe will accept a 0402 LED.
Just an idea,
Jim

Just to be clear - most of my sound locos are ESU, so I'm quite familiar with them.  I got this NW-2 on a clearance sale (rather cheap) and I thought it would be neat to modify it and add ditch lights at low cost.  I'm not going to spend more on an ESU decoder than I spent on the engine.  It actually runs and sounds just fine.  I think I can piggyback off the headlight LED boards if the circuit will handle two extra LEDs - I'll see if BLI will tell me the current rating of the headlight functions.  If I can't control the ditch lights separately from the headlights, and can only have them come on with the appropriate headlight, that will be fine.  If I can't add them at all, then I will have them nonfunctional.  I was going to use CMR 3D printed lights and 0402 or smaller LEDs.

I was just hoping on a long-shot chance that someone else had already done this and could recommend a course of action.

Steve Troy

[Jim Starbuck]

Just to be clear - most of my sound locos are ESU, so I'm quite familiar with them.  I got this NW-2 on a clearance sale (rather cheap) and I thought it would be neat to modify it and add ditch lights at low cost.  I'm not going to spend more on an ESU decoder than I spent on the engine.  It actually runs and sounds just fine.  I think I can piggyback off the headlight LED boards if the circuit will handle two extra LEDs - I'll see if BLI will tell me the current rating of the headlight functions.  If I can't control the ditch lights separately from the headlights, and can only have them come on with the appropriate headlight, that will be fine.  If I can't add them at all, then I will have them nonfunctional.  I was going to use CMR 3D printed lights and 0402 or smaller LEDs.

I was just hoping on a long-shot chance that someone else had already done this and could recommend a course of action.

Steve Troy

This is an interesting project. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[sctroy]

This is an interesting project. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

So do I!

Steve Troy

[jdcolombo]

If you're OK with just turning the ditch lights on and off with the relevant headlight, then wiring them in parallel with the headlight should work fine.  Most white LEDs pull less than 10ma of current at full brightness; two ditch lights and a headlight would be about 30ma, which should be well within the tolerances of any lighting circuit.

John C.

[sctroy]

If you're OK with just turning the ditch lights on and off with the relevant headlight, then wiring them in parallel with the headlight should work fine.  Most white LEDs pull less than 10ma of current at full brightness; two ditch lights and a headlight would be about 30ma, which should be well within the tolerances of any lighting circuit.

John C.

You, sir, are correct.  I can hook up two additional LEDs to each headlight circuit and they work in tandem with the headlight.  BLI has confirmed that won't damage anything.  Here's the interesting thing with the Paragon 4 in this particular switcher - when stopped, both front and rear lights are on dim.  When moving, the light in the direction of travel goes on high while the opposite light goes out.  So, when stopped, the ditch lights will be on dim in both directions, but when moving, only the ditch lights in the direction of travel will be on.  I can definitely live with that.  The other option is to turn on "Pro mode lighting" (set CV128=1) where F0 will turn on front light/ditch lights and F3 will do the same for the rear lights.  F7 will dim the lights.  I might try this and see if I like it better.

So now to wait until the ditch light castings arrive so I decide which LEDs to order (either nano or pico size).  Until then, I've stripped off all the Erie Lackawanna lettering (using Solvaset and microbrushes) and will work on applying my NSHR decals.

Steve Troy

[sctroy]

Well, it took me a while to complete this project.  After giving it much thought, I decided to bite the bullet and replace the Paragon 4 with a Loksound 5 Nano so that (1) I could control the ditch lights independently and (2) so I could get the correct horn for this loco.  I also crammed a TCS KA-N1 keep-alive in there.*  I used Evan Designs "Z" pre-wired LEDs - these are unbelievably small and bright!  I bought ditch light housings from CMR products on ebay.  When buying "Z" LEDs and these ditch light housings, order TWICE as many as you need as you will probably ruin a few, like I did.  They are very fragile.

Using a #65 drill to open up the ditch light housing, I was able to glue the LEDs in from behind.  Lucky for me, the actual #446 doesn't have blinking ditch lights when the horn sounds, so I was able to wire the ditch lights in series along with a 15K ohm resistor (these little LEDs are extremely bright - even with a 15K ohm resistor, I still had to set the ditch light brightness to 50%).  I used the original headlight boards, and a 1.5K ohm resistor worked fine for these.  I also removed all the factory wires attached to the various AUX solder pads and used the thinner wires attached to the LEDs to gain a little breathing room.

I put the front ditch lights on AUX1 and the rear on AUX5 and disabled all the other AUX outputs so nothing could short out anywhere by accident.  I remapped the front ditchers to F5 and the rear to F6 so my NCE throttles can display when they are turned on.

This little guy runs and sounds just great, and I'm very happy with how it all turned out.

Steve Troy

* - it may be a good idea to do all the programming with the Lokprogrammer before connecting the keep-alive.  If not, you could possibly scramble the decoder (or so I've heard).

[tehachapifan]

Looks good!

[sctroy]

Sounds good, too!