Rapido FP9A Lights Help!

[oldmuley]

I just purchased two Rapido FP9a's, both straight DC models. My plan was to install my own decoders using Digitrax DH163's. Last night I pulled one of the molels apart and attached the decoder using the standard 9-pin connector. When I put it on the track, and used address 03 it seemed to work fine. So I programmed the decoder address to use the road number, and then I moved the engine back to the main track. Almost immediately I heard a small "pop" and a whiff of smoke came up out of one of the light board LED's. A few seconds later there was another "pop" and another curl of smoke, this time from the ditch light LED's. Strangely enough the front and rear headlights worked fine. The engine also seemed to run fine otherwise. I've never installed a decoder using a standard 8 or 9 pin connector and had a problem like this. Did I miss something? It would seem odd that I would have had to install a resistor somewhere. Now I'm nervous about installing the decoder in my other engine.

[Mark R.]

I'd be contacting Jason at Rapido regarding this. The manual clearly states, to add DCC, simply plug your decoder into the 9-pin plug. There is no mention of needing additional resistors for after-market decoders.

Mark.

[oldmuley]

I already sent them a message- just waiting to hear back.

[oldmuley]

So last night I decided to try a different decoder in my other FP9a. Sure enough, upon activating the ditch lights and number board lights, both popped and the magic smoke came out. I'm confused as to why everything would work fine on DC with the dummy plug installed, but not a decoder- unless of course the resistor that runs to the lights in question is on the dummy plug itself.

I ended up pulling out the circuit board and I'm going to try and follow the traces to see what's up.