# Bachmann F40PH adding blinking strobes?



## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

I would like to add blinking strobes on the roof of my Bachmann Spectrum F40PH NJ Transit engine. I am using a Digitrax SDH164D. 
1. How is this accomplished? 
2. Do I need to find blinking LED's or will the Digitrax decoder be able to make the strobe effect with it's CV settings?
3. If it's the settings which CV's need to be adjusted?
4. How should they be wired...ie in series or in parallel?
Thanks in advance.
-Art


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

First off, you can simply using blinking LED's and wire them to any convenient power source. If you want to control them with the DCC controller, power them from an aux output that is controllable. I don't know if the DCC encoder has a blinking capability, some Lionel TMCC controllers do, and some don't.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

Gunrunner, I do want them to be DCC controlled and I have a few unused leads on my decoder I just wasn't sure it it's done with blinking LED's or if the controller can do this. It really ticks me off that your buy a decoder and they only tell you what 1/10 of the CV's actually do. I understand that many people will only use the common CV's and they don't want to print an 80 page manual but there *should* be an online PDF for each controller that goes into further detail on the outputs of the decoder and what *all* of the CV's do....end rant 
-Art


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, there most certainly should be complete documentation. 

FWIW, I have the same gripe about the ERR TMCC stuff. They don't document the characteristics of some of the outputs, and when I complained in an email, the response was that anyone that was using the boards should be able to measure the outputs!  OF COURSE I can measure the outputs, however, I shouldn't have to if it were documented correctly! In addition, since I'm sitting looking at a bare board and doing the wiring for it before installation, I just might not have a board to measure in working condition yet! Oh, and the lighting outputs were negative in respect to ground, something that I really didn't expect, another "fact" that would be nice to know before the fact.


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

You can easily set the CVs of that Digitrax decoder to the proper values for a blinking or strobe effect. It is all done by the decoder. I will get my book out tonight and see the exact CV's you need to change for it to work like a strobe for the effect output that you want to use. Tell me is it just one or all effect outputs you want to have the blinking? I belive it is in parallel that they be wired as to keep the positives with the positives and the negatives with the negatives as LEDs will not work correctly if their positive is switched to a negative.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

gc53dfgc said:


> You can easily set the CVs of that Digitrax decoder to the proper values for a blinking or strobe effect. It is all done by the decoder. I will get my book out tonight and see the exact CV's you need to change for it to work like a strobe for the effect output that you want to use. Tell me is it just one or all effect outputs you want to have the blinking? I belive it is in parallel that they be wired as to keep the positives with the positives and the negatives with the negatives as LEDs will not work correctly if their positive is switched to a negative.


Someone on another forum suggested this:
_"Ok each LED for the strobe will have to be wired seperate. Set one led/function to single pulse strobe and the other LED/Function to Double Pulse Strobe and you will have a prototypical flash pattern for the units".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnuwXS3e-rA_
It really looks perfect in the video. Unfortunately he did not tell me how to set the CV for the strobe effect. I was thinking I would use the violet lead for 1 strobe (set at single pulse) and the green lead for the other strobe (double pulse) . These leads are unused at this time. I only want those 2 leads to strobe.
Thanks for your help.
-Art
__________________


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Art,
Yes you need to wire each LED to a separate output wire, green and violet.
All the specs and wiring and setup can be found here.http://www.digitrax.com/manuals.php and here http://www.digitrax.com/pdfdocs.php
I use a computer to set all the CV's so I'll shoot from the hip on this one and just give you the pages out of my book.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

NIMT,
I played around with the CV49 (front light effects). I got the single and double strobe effect to operate on the headlight. Now I have to buy some mini LED's and wire them to the green and violet wires and mount them to the top of the shell. The pages you posted are exactly what I needed. It looks like this will be a pretty simple job. A few holes in the shell for the lights, some resistors for the strobes and some additional soldering. Radio Shack does not have LED's that are small enough so I may have to buy online. Thanks for the help.
-Art


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Well I was about to get the CV you needed but Sean beat me to it like normal so best of luck getting the LEDs to strobe like you want them to.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Art,
I use 3 mm yellows for the strobes, they look pretty much to scale, I use a little larger resistor to tone them down slightly.
You can also buff down the surface with a piece of sandpaper and even flatten the top for a newer strobe look.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

NIMT,
I did a trial run with a spare LED. I temporarily wired it to the Violet lead and the common ground with an inline resistor. F2 operates the violet lead but it also blows the horn. How do I resolve this?
-Art


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Art,
Please call me Sean, NIMT is my business.
It's called function remapping.
http://www.digitrax.com/ftp/remap.pdf


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

OK Sean,
Got my Violet test led working with double strobe remapped to F4. Now the horn still blows on F2. All is good. Now I can buy some LEDs and some more resistors and mount them to the roof. Thanks for your help, I never would have figured it out on my own :thumbsup::thumbsup: I'm sure I will have more questions as I move forward.
-Art


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

OK Sean,
Got My violet remapped to F4 with double strobe and my Green lead remapped to F3 and single strobe. SWEET! Thanks again.
-Art


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Thanks Art!
I do like to help when I can!
Sound and DCC can get a little tricky.
But it's cool when it all works out!


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

NIMT said:


> Sound and DCC can get a little tricky


Yes Sean, it was a little tricky, mostly because I am new to DCC and I never tried that before. I am thankful I bought my NCE power cab...makes programing pretty simple. 
Radio Shack does not carry 1.8mm LED's so I ordered a 50 pack from Amazon.com as well as some resistors. It's pretty cool to figure this stuff out. I really never thought I would be able to do this myself 2 days ago. Now that I will have a good supply of LED's I may have to add one to my Bachmann GS4 SP Daylight (has no cab light).

-Art


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It's amazing what you can do if you just take a stab at it.


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Glad that is all worked out for you Art, hope the addition to the cab light on the GS4 turns out just as well for you.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

*Video testing LED's*

I took a short video with my cell phone of my F40PH wired with some yellow test LED's. You can't really see the engine but the blinking strobes are clearly visible. When the 1.8mm white ones come in then I will mount them on the 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOyeybPofI
shell. 
-Art


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

It looks good Art, what exactly is the point of having one on a single strobe pulse and the other on a double?


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

gc53dfgc said:


> It looks good Art, what exactly is the point of having one on a single strobe pulse and the other on a double?


In the prototype the strobes have a random off and on appearance. If they are both set to single or double pulse they lose that random look. This is where I got the idea from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnuwXS3e-rA
-Art


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Art,
I too like the random idea.
Here is another option to try too.
To set up two alternating double pulse strobes on the green and violet function outputs controlled by turning on both F1 and F2 program CV51 to a CV value of 037/x25 and program CV52 to a CV value of 053/x35. This is an example of using the alternate effects phases A & B.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

NIMT said:


> Art,
> I too like the random idea.
> Here is another option to try too.
> View attachment 11343


Sean,
I used F3 and F4 (F1 is horn and F2 is bell). I programed Violet CV52 to 36 and Green CV51 to 37. I tried your suggestion and the results look exactly the same. I am always up for suggestions though. Now I am itching to buy another Bachmann Spectrum F40PH undecorated so that I can repeat the process and paint it in the DRGW Ski train paint scheme. LED's are due to arrive in 2 or 3 days.
-Art


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

*Strobes Completed Video Attached*

I finished installing my blinking strobes in my Bachmann Spectrum F40PH NJ Transit engine last nite. Here is a video of how it looks. I am very happy with the results. The horn sounds terrible with my camera phone. It sounds way better for real. 

I need a little help, when I drilled the holes in the shell I was a little off. Now I need to fill the missing plastic. I was thinking about automobile body filler. Any other suggestions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ykEsI9v_E
-Art


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Does it have a factory paint job? If so you might want to just get some washers and use them to fill the gap and also make strobe bases, Paint them first, then install with a drop of CA.


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

NIMT said:


> Does it have a factory paint job? If so you might want to just get some washers and use them to fill the gap and also make strobe bases, Paint them first, then install with a drop of CA.


Sean,
Yes it has a factory paint job. The roof is unpainted (just black plastic) I don't know if the sides are paint or decals but that does not matter. I was gonna try automobile body filler then sand flat with ultra fine sand paper. Then either apply paint or maybe a black sharpie. I used a drop of CA to hold the LED's in the roof holes. They wont be moving anytime soon. I was hoping to get some tips from TJ.
-Art


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

I believe if you could find the right sized spacers (cylinders with holes in them) they would work as bases very well and look very realistic. You could also get some piping from your LHS that is the right size and cut it down to the right size which will in essence be the same as the spacer would and give it some depth compared to a plain washer.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Art,

Re: your holes. I assume they're small, so I think any filler will work fine. The more lightweight, the better, in order to "work" the filler down flush. By "work", I would first try masking off the area around the hole (as thin tape as possible), and then trowel on/in your filler. Let it dry, and then remove your tape. If it's a lightweight filler (I'm thinking drywall joint compound, maybe), you should be able to very lightly sand it flush with the surrounding surface ... without damaging the surruonding surface. And, joint compound is water soluable, so you could even forego the tape part ... let dry slightly over-built, and wipe flush with a moist q-tip. Dry again, and then cover with a dab of matching paint, thinned, perhaps.

I'd shy away from auto body filler, at first thought ... only because I think it might be a bit too dense to sand flush without abrading the surrounding area.

No "exact science" here ... just initial thoughts on my end.

Cheers,

TJ


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Artieiii said:


> I finished installing my blinking strobes in my Bachmann Spectrum F40PH NJ Transit engine last nite. Here is a video of how it looks. I am very happy with the results. The horn sounds terrible with my camera phone. It sounds way better for real.
> 
> I need a little help, when I drilled the holes in the shell I was a little off. Now I need to fill the missing plastic. I was thinking about automobile body filler. Any other suggestions?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ykEsI9v_E
> -Art



Love it! That looks great! :thumbsup:


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

I used auto body filler and sanded it before it was completely dry (about 15-20 min). It was still a bit soft so it sanded nicely. I touched it up with flat black spray paint that I sprayed into a paper cup and painted with a small brush. Looks really good. I also installed an LED in my Bachmann GS4 SP daylight's cab. I may want to paint the interior with something lighter than black so it shows up a bit better but not sure yet. Thanks for all the help.
-Art


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Good deal, Art!

TJ


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