4-4-0 spectrum wireing colours

[Tom Gray]

I bought a 4-4-0 with dcc on e-bay and the circuit board has land's on the under side burned.  I want to up grade to a sound decoder but the colour of the wires are incriptive.  Is there a wiring diag with the colour code listed any where?

[richG]

The first photo is the engine upside down.


The second is with the connectors laying flat.


Make sure you have a multimeter to verify connections. The front tender truck picks up on one side. The rear truck pickups on the other side. The trucks can swivel 360 degrees so do not let a truck swivel that much or you will get a short with both loco and tender connected together on the track. That has happened to a few people.
I installed a Micro-Tsunami in my 4-4-0. I used a 680 ohm resistor which is stll ok for an LED. The LED is a little brighter than using a 1k resistor. A 1k resistor gives you about 9ma. The 680 gave me about 15.5ma current. Max for an LED is 20ma.

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DON'T forget a 1 k resistor for the LED headlight if you hard wire the decoder, no PC board.
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Rich

[Tom Gray]

Too late I burned out the led....is it difficult to replace?

Tom

[richG]

Hi Tom

Sorry to hear that. As I remember it the two LED leads are connected inside the smoke box to a couple sockets that have the two headlight wires. You can pop the headlight off by pulling up and the LED wires disconnect. Re seating new LED wires is not possible as the two connectors inside the smoke box are not held in place. I had to remove the smoke box front which is not easy.. The front has delicate flanges. It has been over a year since I did this conversion. I used a 1.6mm white LED with a couple dabs of Polly Scale Railbox Yellow. painted on. Gives a nice yellow light.



The LED I had did not have long enough leads so I snipped the leads off the burnt LED and soldered the leads to my new LED.
I have been a electronic tech/machine mechanic for many years so I enjoyed the challenge. it is not for everyone.
I have since pressed the LED leads firmly to the back of the headlight and painted them.

Rich

[Tom Gray]

Mine has the newer round head light...and you are right there are two wire leads comming out the rear of the lamp then bend directly down to the boiler...Ill wait till I get my decoder and lamp befor i change them...I have been a computer tech since 1966 and at 70 it aint so easy to solder tiny things.

Tom

[richG]

Hi Tom

I know what you mean about soldering small stuff. I have the same problem. I use an Optivisor which helps a lot.
I had the small headlight but used a MDC old time headlight that I modified to keep the loco looking like my Roundhouse steamers.

The Spectrum has 61 inch drivers. The Roundhouse has 66 inch drivers. Not as much detail as the Spectrum.
Look closely and you can see the LEDs. The downside of using LEDs when the headlight is off. I have to find a way to "glaze" the headlight lenses. Even a clear LED can be seen when the headlight is off.
With 1.5 volt lamps you usually do not have the problem.

Rich

[NevinW]

The first photo is the engine upside down.


The second is with the connectors laying flat.


Make sure you have a multimeter to verify connections. The front tender truck picks up on one side. The rear truck pickups on the other side. The trucks can swivel 360 degrees so do not let a truck swivel that much or you will get a short with both loco and tender connected together on the track. That has happened to a few people.
I installed a Micro-Tsunami in my 4-4-0. I used a 680 ohm resistor which is stll ok for an LED. The LED is a little brighter than using a 1k resistor. A 1k resistor gives you about 9ma. The 680 gave me about 15.5ma current. Max for an LED is 20ma.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DON'T forget a 1 k resistor for the LED headlight if you hard wire the decoder, no PC board.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rich

Is that the same wiring sequence for the 4-6-0? -  Nevin

[richG]

Hi Folks

I admit I made some mistakes with color wiring. Sorry. Doing two different engines at the same time. Sometimes I have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time.

I have gone over the 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 three times to make sure this is correct.
The first is the present wiring on MY 4-4-0. It is a little different than the 4-6-0 because I replaced the LED in the 4-4-0 and forgot to verify polarity. Too much trouble to pull the smoke box front and change it. I used a 680 ohm  resistor to simulate the carbon arc lamps in 1900 which were so bright, they could blind an oncoming locomotive crew. The current is about 14ma. Max for many LEDs is 20ma.

Spectrum 4-4-0 wiring.


Spectrum 4-6-0 wiring. The 1k resistor gives a dimmer light. 9.3ma. The LED wiring was not worked on.


Again, sorry for the mistakes.

Rich

[Tom Gray]

Sounds like we have been riding the same rails..I too have the MDC 4-4-0 and the 4-6-0 along with some IHC's....I gave up on gum years ago.  Thanks a lot for the help.

Tom

[richG]

Hello Ton and group

Today I was reminded what Yampa Bob mentioned about Spectrum tender wire colors.
I bought my 4-4-0 very shortly after they were released. After installing a DSD-100LC decoder, I realized the Micro was a better decoder. Unfortunately the tender wires were a little short so I ordered a new set from Bachmann.
I dug the original set out of the junk box and here is the color scheme. The four wire connector colors are different.


Rich

[Yampa Bob]

Rich
I edited my drawing for the tender wiring by adding a note at the top "USRA Medium" in response to a question from a member about to which tender it applied.  The new drawing is in this thread on the third post.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,7136.0

Again, feel free to use the drawing anytime at your discretion.

[richG]

Hi Bob

The link takes me here.     
E-Z Track Turnout Parallel question

Rich

[Yampa Bob]

Ooops, scroll up again, I had the wrong one on the clipboard.

I've had a busy day, copying and pasting. 

[richG]

Hi Bob

Thanks, I have that one from you already. What I was thinking of were colors, as not all the four wire connectors have the same colors. The two wire colors have remained the same.

Rich