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Yeah, I think you're right - that's probably a choke coil. I still think those two dark yellow caps are probably for a keep-alive, and now we seem to be getting more reports that once the wheels are clean, drop-outs pretty much disappear. I remember that Matt Hermann told me at the National Train Show in Indy that there WAS some keep alive on-board. I'll bet those two caps are it (and maybe the third cap on the right of the two as well), and that would also explain why there was no obvious connection for an external keep alive.Well, my curiosity got the best of me. I ordered one of the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern ones so I could take a close look at the board myself. Sigh . . . John C.PS - I also posted a set of questions about the board to the Yahoo LokSound list. I'll let folks know if Matt gives me some answers, including confirming that the Aux3 and Aux4 pads will work for additional lighting; why there seems to be an LED on the bottom back of the board (I don't think there are rear ditch lights, are there?), whether there is keep-alive on the board itself, and whether there are pads to add external keep alive.
why there seems to be an LED on the bottom back of the board (I don't think there are rear ditch lights, are there?),
Norfolk Southern for sure has front and rear ditch lights. They put them on nearly every rebuild they do and order new engines with them. The problem is that NS has a hodgepodge mixture of lights below the main decking like IM has them and lights in the "frog eye" mount that sticks above the decking. Rear lights seem to be most often above the deck while the front can be either. Possible due to whatever ancestry of the unit. NS has units originally bought by N&W, Southern and Conrail.I'm not sure what other roads do the same.Of course, that doesn't mean the IM models come with front and rear. The pictures posted for the NS model seem to only have front ditch lights.There is another run schedule with the NS Horsehead scheme and that implied there might be front and rear ditch lights.
I'm going to start a new thread on this decoder. There's information in this thread that might get lost for those looking to add lights, etc.The other board poster has now confirmed that there is also a third LED behind the REAR LED under the black tape. He can't get this one to come on with any of the function buttons, but I'll bet that's a programming issue - that LED is probably not assigned a function button as the decoder comes from the factory. Does anyone know if the rear bottom LED comes on when the front ditch lights are activated (perhaps if the locomotive is operating in reverse?).@mu26aeh To have alternating ditch lights, you'd need separate LED's for each ditch light; then there is a way to program the auxiliary functions for those LEDs to have them alternate on/off. But there are obviously enough lighting circuits on this board to have done this, even for models that have both front and rear ditch lights. And that still leaves two unused (I assume) Aux outputs for other things. John C.
I wonder why no one has just called ESU directly with their questions?
Ah . . . well, that's useful (where did you find that phone number, by the way? I've searched for it before and never could find a listing for it, and it's not listed in the English manual - at least, not the version I have).Did you talk to Matt or someone else?John C.
It's on their website http://www.esu.eu/en/contact/
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Topic: Intermountain SD40-2 (Read 103961 times)
