On30 DCC on board porter - circuit board pinout?

Started by tbdanny, June 25, 2016, 09:28:56 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

tbdanny

Hi all,

I've got an On30 0-4-0 Bachmann Porter with DCC (not sound) on board, which I'm doing up with a tender and sound decoder.  To this end, I'm planning to use the original circuit board for the connections to the decoder, motor, LED, etc.  This is the board in question:


The L, R, M- and M+ connections are obvious - these are motor and pickup, respectively.  What's unclear to me are the markings in the middle.  LED- and L+ indicate that these are the negative and positive connections to the front headlight.  But at the bottom of the board, there's an extra connection, and the middle ones are labelled F-, R- and L+.

Looking at the traces on the board, it seems as though the L+ is for the common +ve LED wire, and the other two are for the front and rear light inputs from the decoder - to have them drive the LED when the loco is moving in both directions.

Can someone advise if my understanding of this is correct?

Flare

I'm making a tender with a reversing light and extra power pickup for my Porter, and came to the same conclusion as you.

I believe the decoder in question is a standard Bachmann dual-mode model (DC and DCC) and examining the electrical pathways of the board between it and the loco (the one you uploaded) shows that the directional LED wires do indeed get combined.

tbdanny

Flare,

Thanks for the reply.  After googling the circuit board part number instead of the locomotive model, I found this: http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/On30%200-4-2%20Porter_Both%20DCC-%20and%20DCC%20Sound-Equpped.pdf.  The panel on the lower right explains the pinout.