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Post by trra51 on May 22, 2022 5:39:51 GMT -8
I have converted many of my Athearn locos with bulbs to LED's. I used either an ESU direct replacement board or a decoder buddy and 21 pin ESU decoder. I recently purchased an Athearn DCC ready loco with LED's. I installed a 21 pin decoder and speaker in the locomotive. Every thing works fine but the led's are very dim. Is this normal? Do I need to replace the motherboard?
John
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 22, 2022 7:06:10 GMT -8
I am assuming that the LED's were of acceptable brightness before you started your work.
Two thoughts:
Perhaps you now have, for some reason, two resistors in series for each of the LED's.
and/or
The ESU decoder can dim an LED. Perhaps that is somehow activated. The maximum brightness can also be adjusted.
Ed
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Post by trra51 on May 23, 2022 6:07:17 GMT -8
Ed
I checked everything. No dim function and brightness set to default. (value of 31). I then did a side by side comparison of the Athearn loco along with a Scaletrains, Atlas, and Intermountain. The Athearn is the dimmest of all and I believe it is at its brightest. I guess I am spoiled by the better lighting from the other manufacturers.
John
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Post by nebrzephyr on May 23, 2022 8:47:27 GMT -8
Interesting, A few months ago I converted 2 Athearn GENESIS engines with factory light board and factory LEDs to DCC. The "brightness" was as bright as other engines I had converted to 0402 SMD LEDs.
Was this a RTR engines? Could that be the difference?
Bob
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Post by trra51 on May 23, 2022 13:22:39 GMT -8
No. Athearn Genesis GP38-2. All factory. I installed an ESU Version 5 21 pin decoder and Scalesounds speaker. I have 3 Athearn locos due soon.
I'll see how they work out.
John
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 23, 2022 13:23:09 GMT -8
John,
If it's the Athearn LED's, they should stay the same non-brightness when you take the electronics out of the equation. I suggest you run the LED's with just straight power (and the appropriate resistor). If they brighten up when you do that, it's the electronics. If they stay not-bright, it's the LED's.
Ed
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Post by edwardsutorik on May 23, 2022 13:31:59 GMT -8
I bought three GP38-2's.. They're from the next to the last delivery, announced in 2019. They are sound equipped.
I opened the box and pulled the loco out. Plopped it on the track. The brightness looks fine to me. Not what I would call dim.
Haven't done ANY programming on it. Yet.
Ed
Edward Sutorik
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on May 24, 2022 5:14:05 GMT -8
While not 100% conversant on decoder buddies, I believe that they’re available with different resistance values for light outputs, MAYBE you have a situation with the onboard resistance values?
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Post by nebrzephyr on May 25, 2022 6:41:07 GMT -8
snip [...I recently purchased an Athearn DCC ready loco with LED's. I installed a 21 pin decoder ...]
Just to clarify, are you saying you are using the factory Athearn light board, or did you replace it with a Decoder Buddy. Might make a difference.
Bob
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Post by trra51 on May 25, 2022 8:50:02 GMT -8
Bob
Just to clarify. When I say dim I mean they are dimmer then other mfg's. This is a factory unit, no board replacement just a 21 pin decoder added. I have upgraded athearn locos with bulbs to led using either a decoderbuddy or a direct replacement ESU board and decoder with pico size led's from Evan Designs and I have been very happy with the results.
John
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Post by nebrzephyr on May 25, 2022 11:00:25 GMT -8
John, as I stated in an earlier post I have done the same thing you are doing, also with ESU 21 pin decoder and had no problems with "dimness". I have no clue other than maybe bad LEDs from the factory.
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Post by NS4122 on May 25, 2022 11:07:34 GMT -8
I have noticed some variation in Athearn LEDs. I have an Athearn Genesis LED equipped SD70 that had dim headlights, but bright ditch lights and rear headlights. I ended up replacing the headlight LEDs with two LEDs from a pack of Athearn 3mm LEDs that I had purchased for other projects. They are as bright as the ditch lights and now look great.
To help diagnose if you have a bad mother board or dim LEDs, I would suggest applying 3 volts from a battery source to the LED connections on the board. If they appear brighter then you might have a defective light board.
One other tip that I have found helpful is to paint the sides of the headlight lens silver. This makes the light from the LED reflect back into the lens and prevents the color from the surrounding housing from tinting the lens output.
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