Fox Valley ES44 GEVOs - Brightening The Ditchlights

[MetroRedLine]

I have a first-run Fox Valley ES44AC GEVO and it has a moderately-bright headlight and two extremely dim ditchlights. A local hobby shop had a bunch of modern locos on consignment sale, including a few FVM GEVOs, but they all had the same problem as mine. I've communicated with a few other FVM GEVO owners online who told me their ditchlights are nice and bright. Either they are liars, or I'm just bad luck.

Anyone know how to brighten the ditchlights on the GEVOs? I've emailed Fox Valley about this and they just plain ignored me.

And even more, anyone know how to remove the shell? They don't seem to come off at all.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Matt @ FVM has a backlog of messages due to his child having a serious medical problem. I've sent him a few messages in the last three months but I'll just be patient since I know he's focusing on priorities.

About the ditch lights, I'll have to check mine to see if there is a difference. I know that some early models had a dull orange color to the LEDs. I know those were upgraded to brighter ones but I'm not sure if they changed the ditch light pipe design/color/etc.
-Ryan

[ryan_wilkerson]

And even more, anyone know how to remove the shell? They don't seem to come off at all.

It's a bit tight and there is an under-walkway trim piece that sometimes stays with the shell, sometimes it tries to stay down with the fuel tank. If the shell hasn't been removed before, it'll be tight. Just work carefully and work it up alternating from the front and back.

[milw156]

Anyone have suggestions about how to get a Gevo shell apart to facilitate flashing ditchlights?
Rick

[MetroRedLine]

Matt @ FVM has a backlog of messages due to his child having a serious medical problem. I've sent him a few messages in the last three months but I'll just be patient since I know he's focusing on priorities.

About the ditch lights, I'll have to check mine to see if there is a difference. I know that some early models had a dull orange color to the LEDs. I know those were upgraded to brighter ones but I'm not sure if they changed the ditch light pipe design/color/etc.
-Ryan

Sorry to hear about Matt's child's health problem, but I did not email him recently, this must have been about two or three years ago when I bought the loco, never got a response. I did bring up a damaged metal wheelset issue a couple years before that, and he responded promptly and mailed me a replacement wheelset.

[jereising]

I have locos from about every run.  The shell is typically very difficult to remove the first time.  I grind a bit off the "pimples" on the chassis which makes them come off easier.  I always take the fuel tank off first, and then simply continue to apply pressure until the shell lifts.  And yes, watch those sides carefully,  it's a beautiful jigsaw puzzle the first couple times.

The early runs used fairly dim yellowish LEDs but I replaced them all.  A bit of surgery was necessary to get standard LEDs to fit the light board (which does not get changed to convert to DCC) so all mine are pretty bright.

Also the ditch light pipe is separate from the headlight pipe, make sure the LED is properly aligned to hit them both. 

Since the pipes are separate it should be fairly easy to fit individual SMT LEDs to each, but you will need something other than the standard DCC decoder to handle this.  Fortunately neither of my prototype roads uses flashing DLs.

[peteski]

Sorry to hear about Matt's child's health problem, but I did not email him recently, this must have been about two or three years ago when I bought the loco, never got a response. I did bring up a damaged metal wheelset issue a couple years before that, and he responded promptly and mailed me a replacement wheelset.

Um, after your clarification of the timeline I would say that the original email was either lost somewhere or was ignored for some reason and you'll never get a response.  Matt did reply promptly to the other email you sent.  It might make sense to resend your question (once Matt's personal situation improves).

[jagged ben]

Watch out if you've got one with a lower rear headlight!   You need to remove the top of the radiator section first, and disengage the rear light pipe from the shell first with some tweezers or such, before removing the shell from the chassis.    The light pipe is shrink-tubed to the light board and needs to stay with it, but is also press fit into the shell and will break if you pull the shell off first.   Those are later runs though. 

[OHCR 4218]

I have found that a slight bend in the position of the LED effects the ditch lights. Try pushing it down slightly. Haven't had this problem with the SD70ACe. The GP60s lights are far worse, the rear don't even look lit unless viewed from straight on.

[jereising]

Yeah, the 60s are not the best.  But it was pretty easy to put some LEDs in the housings...

[ednadolski]

Yeah, the 60s are not the best.  But it was pretty easy to put some LEDs in the housings...

Jim those LEDs look great!   Only prob is, they outshine the headlights...  might be good to do the headlights too (at least on lead units in a consist).

Which LEDs did you use, and did you add the leads yourself?

Ed

[jereising]

Those are 0604.  Were I doing it today I would use the Ngineering Nano in super white...I soldered my own leads.  One you get the hang of it, easily done...

The photo makes them look brighter than they really are.  In person, they're pretty close to the headlight. 

[peteski]

Those are 0406. 

0604 (SMD) LEDs  (looking for 0406 SMD LEDs might not be very fruitful). 

[jereising]

Fixed.  Thanks for the correction, Peter...

The nanos BTW, look to be about half the size of the 0604 - I got some with a future project in mind, then wished I'd used them on the 60s...Ngineering has some strange methods of size comparison.  I'm thinking if they did an apples to apples comparison they'd sell a lot more nanos. 

[peteski]

Fixed.  Thanks for the correction, Peter...

The nanos BTW, look to be about half the size of the 0604 - I got some with a future project in mind, then wished I'd used them on the 60s...Ngineering has some strange methods of size comparison.  I'm thinking if they did an apples to apples comparison they'd sell a lot more nanos.

Nanos are 0402 SMD LEDs. (0.040" x 0.020").
Smallest LEDs now are 0201 SMD (0.020" x 0.010")!  I have some but haven't had the ballz to try soldering leads to them. 

The SMD size nomenclature is really handy as it actually describes the LED packge's outline dimensions (as you can see by the above examples).  So, following that, 0805 is 0.080" x 0.050" and 1206 is 0.120" x 0.060".  See the pattern?