# Athearn RTR LED



## wc3026 (Aug 20, 2012)

Ok So I am trying to switch over all my Athearn Locos over to LED lights. I am starting with my one and only RTR unit. I took the wires from the blubs off of the board and took led with resistor and touched to the board and have nothing. took resistor off and still nothing. I out the bulbs back on and they light up.

What I am using for LED's are Miniatronics Tower LED's 2mm the resistor is a 470 ohm. It says 3 volts is recommended. I took the led right to the track with the resistor and it lit up and was nice and bright.

I am using Digitrax DH123 decoders. Is there something I am not doing right for it?


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

They are directional, if you hook them up backwards they will not work, And word of caution, it takes a millisecond to fry an LED without the resistor in place.


----------



## wc3026 (Aug 20, 2012)

Thank you for the reminder NIMT!!! I made sure I had the right way lol

Well I took one of my other athearns a blue boxer and hooked it up on there. same decoder and it worked so I am guessing for the RTR I will have to take the lighting wires off of the board for it to work.

And these tower LED's are a perfect fit fit right in the hole and just barely stick out on the rear end, the front I can still leave the little lens thingy in there!!!!!


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Sounds like your working with the RTR boards that are used for the lower voltage lamps, 1.5 volt. 
Most of the RTR adapter boards also use diodes to control direction and that will sometimes effect how the LED's work.
Yes the 2mm LED's work great, some holes are actually 1.4 mm I turn 2mm LED's down to fit the holes.
Oh and I do sell LED's for a heck of a lot cheaper than Miniatronics!


----------



## wc3026 (Aug 20, 2012)

Yeah they dont quite fit but I found a drill bit and reamed them out a little bit. They were a little loose but I heat shrinked them toether to help with the light bleeding out and they fit nice and tight cause of the holes being just a touch apart. I got my one Blue boxer done and it looks SO MUCH better but I noticed that the LEDS pulse a little bit. could that just be dirty wheels and track?

Back to the question at hand can I just bypass the board then?

I only have 4 locos at the moment so buying a lot of them isn't a big deal I got ten of the miniatronics for 11 bucks i think so I can do three of my locos that are running one is out waiting for the decoder to get back from digitrax


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Yes the pulse is probably dirty track, and an economy decoder, they will both do that.

Yep just bypass the board.

I sell 2mm and 1.8mm LED's for $.36 with resistors right now.


----------



## wc3026 (Aug 20, 2012)

OK good I can get to work on that one now!!!!!!

Are they the Tower style or just like a regular LED?


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Both the 2mm and 1.8 mm are tower type, the 1.8mm is a shorter tower.


----------

