Virgin Pendolino Lights

3684 Views 6 Replies 2 Participants Last post by FredPluto, Jan 22, 2009

FredPluto

Discussion Starter · Jan 14, 2009

Hi I am back again with another minor problem that has me Totally Stumped

The Pendolino Lights were working fine and switching over when the direction of travel was changed.

Then the coupling on the dummy car broke so it was out of service for a few days, I got a new coupling fitted and all was well (I thought).

Then I noticed that the Lights are both white when travelling in one direction, then when I change direction both ends show red lights.

Before the front was white and the rear red, and both switched over when the travel direction was changed.

I know that the engine and dummy both have dcc modules, but even when I set them on the track seperatley the lights wont reset to the origional operation.

I have tried both engine and dummy the opposite way and also both pointing in the same direction to try to reset the lights but no joy

I also reset the Hornby DCC controller and reset my locos addresses to different numbers but the DCC module in the Dummy car seems to have retained the information that makes the lights work incorrectly.

All Suggestions and cures Welcome

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neil_s_wood

· #2 · Jan 15, 2009 (Edited by Moderator)

My best suggestion is to cut out the Hornby decoders and replace them with ones that work.

I installed a Lenz gold in the power car which improved performance completely.

My dummy car is awaiting a replacement function decoder so that I can redo the lights in it. The pre-installed decoder just stopped working at some point so I have no lights at all in there.

The Hornby decoders seemed to do erratic things that they were not instructed to do.

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FredPluto

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 15, 2009 (Edited by Moderator)

OK Thanks for that Neil

I am wondering whether to open the car disconnect the DCC Module and then reconnect it to see if it will reset.

Problem is I have fingers like bananas when it comes to fiddly bits

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neil_s_wood

· #4 · Jan 15, 2009

Hi Pluto, if you're not confident about what your doing then it might be worth considering getting someone skilled to do it for you. Have you a local model shop that does decoder instalations?

cheers

Neil

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FredPluto

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 15, 2009 (Edited by Moderator)

Hi Neil,

I fitted a Decoder to my Mallard @ the weekend, and that was so fiddly it left me extremely exhausted after three hours of fiddling to get it all back together

The Lubrication Assembly dropped off of the body after I had disconnected it from the chassis / wheel (they don't make em like they used to) and it was magnifying glass and tweezers time to get it back into place (why cant they make the hidden details a bit bigger for older eyes n fingers ?)

Anyway I found that the pendolino body popped off really easily unplugged the decoder plugged it back in again tried it same problem

After having a look at it I decided BOOM OR BUST to swap over the wiring for the red n white lights (Dead easy pull off push on clips and bent wires held together on PCB) Initially the lights were working fine and as they should be.

The red is red when its supposed to be and the white is white when its supposed to be

Then Disaster struck, the LH RH side running lights are fine (white), the red light is fine, all operating and switching correctley the main central main Headlight Light died, after about 3 minutes running the loco.

I assume that the current draw for the three white led's and the current draw for the single red led are different and somewhere either in the decoder or on the PCB something died due to me switching over the wiring.

But the main thing is we have red when it is supposed to be red and white when it is supposed to white (minus 1)

My next problem is to try to work out if I need to buy a new PCB, I already know the decoder is crap.

I love your Blog and Videos by the way Neil, My Daughter wouldnt go to bed till she had seen all of the videos, and now she wants more carriages

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neil_s_wood

· #6 · Jan 15, 2009

Thanks Pluto.

I haven't got as far as replacing the pcb yet but will do as I want to redo the lights with led's. The red has gone on the power car so that is non functional at the moment. Most of my efforts so far have been to get it running, which has been a struggle but it now does run fairly smoothly.

My Hornby decoder was wired in so I had to hardwire the lenz in.

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FredPluto

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 22, 2009 (Edited by Moderator)

This is a strange one, The layout was turned off for a couple of days and when we fired it up the lights were all messed up again.

So I undid the changes I had made to the wiring earlier in an attempt to get it to work correctly, and Hey Presto all works PERFECTLY, including the headlight that had stopped working.

So it would appear that if the light sequence gets messed up on the Pendolino, the best bet is leave it alone and it will sort it self out.

I have no idea how it did it (The DCC Decoder) or why, but all lights work 100% now

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