Atlas SDB

[Ian MacMillan]

Really stupid question

For the Altas signal system...whats the difference between the HO SDB (Signal Driver Board) and the N SDB?

[Sokramiketes]

Who cares, they both suck.   ;D

[Ian MacMillan]

Who cares, they both suck.   ;D

Well when you get all the other stuff from the Custom Signals site they aint too bad. There toolio

[Sokramiketes]

Who cares, they both suck.   ;D

Well when you get all the other stuff from the Custom Signals site they aint too bad. There toolio

Wait, you mean someone else makes a bass ackwards common cathode system?

[Hiroe]

Want to buy some extra atlas driver boards? I always roll my own, so i've got a bunch of the atlas ones laying around. (they're O, so you can complete your trifecta!)

In answer to your question, i don't believe there's any real difference in function or programming. Designing different systems for each scale seems like something atlas wouldn't bother doing. If they can re-use the same electronics for multiple scales, that's a huge savings in tooling and production costs.

[Walkercolt]

An educated guess. Each scale probably uses different current to the LED's. A good guess because "O" uses 5mm LED's that would be classified as "high-brightness", "HO" uses 3mm's (about half the current) and "N" uses surface mount LED's that may only draw micro-amps. Common cathode has some electronic advantages with stuff like "transient voltages" and saving the driver on the circuit board(sometimes) if an LED shorts-out. I'm not a big fan of the Atlas signaling system either....too much wiring for the job. My opinion, and just like a certain body orafice, everyone has one, but most of us don't want to hear it.

[Hiroe]

An educated guess. Each scale probably uses different current to the LED's. A good guess because "O" uses 5mm LED's that would be classified as "high-brightness", "HO" uses 3mm's (about half the current) and "N" uses surface mount LED's that may only draw micro-amps.

That may be, but i'll still wager that it's the same signal board for all of them. Engineer the board to run the current draw of the O signals, then package it for HO and N. There's no harm to the circuitry if the N signal only uses a fraction of the power the O board can handle.

However, the best way to know for sure might be to just call atlas, and ask.

--Drew