Ok so I’ve got my b’mann connie converted over to battery power. I’m using the g-wire, qsi with the NCE g-wire cab. My question is I have no controll over the front light on the loco. No rear light right now need to make a trip to radio shack for a replacement. I’m using a 6 volt incandescent in front and it just stays on all the time, I can’t turn it off. Is there a cv value that I need to change to be able to turn it on and off.
how much current does it draw? You might have damaged something. Is the light directly wired to the QSI, no dropping resistor?
Connies come with a LED headlight. How did it get a 6v incandescent?
You also could be having the situation where the unit is set up to be on in forward and dim in reverse, that is a typical setup in the QSI, but with the incandescent, it might not be noticable to be dim.
You need to read the manual on how to change the CV for lighting control for the front light. I hesitate to give you a “formula”, understanding the settings would be a good idea.
Regards, Greg
I replaced the Led with the incandesent, I fried the Led on accident and had the other bulb laying around, but yes hooked directly to the decoder no dropping resister. I’ll have to check tomorrow what the current draw is. Which manual should I be reading the one on QSI’s web site for the magnum isn’t very detailed one the light issue. I have been on your site and used your instructions to get the BEMF/ auto chuff programing to sound right to me.
Thanks Pete
Pete:
DCC decoders basically “give” full track voltage to the function outputs…
You have to limit this output as appropriate.
For LEDs, it is simple, since they are current limited devices, so you calculate a dropping resistor, and it limits the current to the LED.
For incandescent lamps, it’s actually much harder, they are voltage limited devices, and you cannot limit the voltage with a resistor, except in a very coarse sense, so you either need a bulb that works at track voltage (preferred) or add a voltage regulator circuit that provides the appropriate regulated voltage for your bulbs and then control the regulator with the decoder (not a great idea)
If you look at the decoder specs, they give you the max current on the lighting “outputs” which is usually around 100 ma… a 6 volt bulb on over 6 volts will almost surely draw too much current.
I hope this helps explain things.
I don’t know which manual on the QSI site tells you about current limits, should be in the little manual that came with the board.
Regards, Greg