This year Märklin have released a coach which has included LED lighting with a currentconducting close coupler (single pole)

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1 Hi All, Over the past few months I have been working at a steady pace to install LED lighting in my passenger coaches. The coach lighting must have LED lights to reduce power consumption on the layout and be digitally controlled. Below you can see the finished results. The coaches aren t designed to allow coach lights to be used as there isn t any provision to mount a collector shoe and a ground (masse) contact so I decided to use homemade lighting strips (yellow LEDS for a softer light for earlier eras) and power the LED light strips via 2 pole Märklin conducting couplers (see details page 5) and power the coaches via a relay in the locomotive. View above shows a red coach from the set and a green This year Märklin have released a coach which has included LED lighting with a currentconducting close coupler (single pole) 1

2 Led Lighting Vero Board Strip Below is the layout of the Vero board with 6x yellow (0603) LED s and the 2x 1k current limiting resistors. The edge of the Vero board had a narrow foil that was suitable for mounting 0603 LED s. I cut all wire lengths to 80mm. 115mm The thin foil was cut with a sharp blade at the locations shown. The gap is approx mm. The 0603 yellow LED s are soldered across this gap making sure the orientation of the LED is as shown below. There is an insulation gap (red circle) which is most important. Wiring Diagram Coach LED Lighting (typical) +Plus -Neg 1k 1k First Coach Flicker Suppression (if required) Locomotive Connection ~ ~ +Plus 100uF 25V -Neg The first coach suppression circuit is only required if the power that is coming from the locomotive is the track supply switched by a relay. 2

3 Position of LED Lighting Strip Above, I used hot melt glue to hold the LED lighting strip in position with the LED s positioned close to the centre line of the coach. You will also notice the wires are soldered close to the two fixing pillars of the coach body. Above I drilled two 1.5mm holes shown with red circles in the top and bottom view of the coach interior. The holes are located near the corner of the large seats and must be on the same side of the centre line as shown. The wires are inserted through the drilled holes of the coach interior and the interior is inserted into the coach body pulling the wires carefully all the way through. 3

4 Now insert the wires through the chassis on the same side of the coupling springs that the holes in the coach interior appear. The wires must on the same side as shown by the yellow arrows below. Fit the coach body with interior being very careful not to dislodge the coupling springs. Tip: - Make sure you match the coach body number with the chassis number and that the interior suits the white window arrangement of the coach body. I encountered three interior types. Position of the Coupling Hooks For the male coupler left, I orientated the plastic hooks in the up position and for the female coupler right, the plastic hooks were orientated in the down position. It is important to be consistent so that the coaches can be coupled together in any order. The couplers work well and are easy to couple and uncouple. Opinion Time Märklin should include these couplers in the catalogue as lighting accessories with a lower price. These 2 pole couplers should replace all single electrical couplings as there is less chance of damage when coupling the coaches together. Underside view showing the blue (+Plus) and black (-Neg) wires held together with a small length of heat shrink, without applying heat to allow for free movement of the wires when the coupling moves. Ensure the wire colours are wired to the electrical couplers on the same side as the example above. 4

5 Märklin 2 Pole Electrical Couplings The Male Connector is The Female Connector is E E Each connector comes wired with 10cm length of wire and a 2 pin connector at the other end (see red circle). The connectors clip apart and the wires which are quite stiff can be exchanged for more flexible wire at the length you require. Wiring Diagram Locomotive (typical) +Plus F0f Front Lights Decoder F0r Aux1 Rear Lights Cabin Lights 2 Pole Coupling Aux2 Coach Lights 5

6 Wiring the 2858 Set For the older style 2858 set I used the same method to install the LED light strips in the coaches and because of the metal Relex couplers I chose to make a homemade plug and socket connector from rolled IC pins and have the plug and socket rest on top of the couplings as shown above. The coach LED lighting is powered direct from the locomotive lights. Well lit coaches just scream out to be populated, and yes I have started painting little Preiser figures. 6

7 4316 Baggage Car Märklin produced this baggage car with rear red lights. I decided I would improve the looks further by adding coach lighting and to be the power source for lighting an entire train with controlled lighting from an ESU LokPilot FX v4.0 decoder mounted in the baggage car. F0 controls the red rear lights, F1 controls the baggage car lights and F2 controls the train lights connected to the baggage car. The FX decoder can just be seen in a vertical position with the door open. 7

8 4316 Baggage Car LED Lighting I added Vero board lighting strips as shown above. The small PCB on the left provides a connector for the two pole conducting coupler and has one yellow 0603 LED and the blue dotted line is a link across foils. The large PCB has three yellow 0603 LEDs with a 1k current limiting resistor. Two 1N4148 diodes are for the red rear lights provided in the car. The FX decoder is directly wired to the lighting strip PCB s and is in a vertical position. The LED lights should be tested before using hot melt glue to hold the light strips in the coach roof. Rear Lights F1 = Aux1 F2 = Aux2 F2 +Pole F1 F0f F0r Wheel contact spring FX Decoder Using clear thin plastic I bent a U-shape support glued with hot melt glue to hold the decoder in a vertical position and also prevent a short circuit with the ground/masse wheel socket (black arrow). The wheel contact springs must be carefully inserted on each side of the coupler centre return spring and position over the raised plastic spring support (red arrow), sorry no photo taken. Make sure the spring contacts are on the same side of the wheel axle. Carefully insert the interior detail over the contact spring then the single rolled IC socket can be soldered to it (black arrow). Now the coach body shell can be fitted once the current conducting coupler connection plug (blue arrow) is plugged into the socket on the small PCB ensuring the white markings match. The ground/masse from the decoder is plugged into the single socket (black arrow) and the collector shoe with a single rolled IC pin on the end of the wire is plugged into the single socket on the large PCB as shown. 8

9 4315 Baggage Car LED Lighting Märklin produced this baggage car without any lights. I decided I would improve the looks by adding rear red lights, coach lighting and to be the power source for lighting an entire train with controlled lighting from an old Märklin decoder mounted in the baggage car. The decoder can just be seen in a vertical position with the door open below. F0 controls the red rear lights and F3 controls the baggage car lights and the train lights connected to the baggage car. For this LED lighting upgrade I had to drill holes in the body of the coach, manufacture a collector shoe mount and wheel power ground feed contacts. The 4316 baggage car is on the left and my modified 4315 baggage is on the right. 9

10 4315 Collector Shoe Mount Before anyone asks why I had to make a collector shoe mount the Märklin collector shoe on the left isn t made any more. I used a plastic Faller station platform joiner which I cut down to size to fit a standard Märklin 7185 collector shoe. At the base of the right hand pillar I drilled a 4mm diameter hole to fit over the axle retaining clips. The pillar heights were adjusted so the collector shoe mount was just clear of the axle to prevent any drag. Note the Märklin collector shoe for the 4316 baggage car does rest on the axle and creates some drag. You will also notice that the pillar has been filed at an angle to fit over the axle retaining clip (red arrow) Using an off cut of the plastic joiner I cut a mounting plate size 22x5mm. With the metal weight and coach interior removed I then drilled two 1,2mm holes through the mounting plate and chassis. Next I drill two 2.5mm holes in the weight as clearance holes for the 7599 K-track screws. With the plastic mounting plate held in position with the screws I inserted the coach weight over the screws then using my Dremel I cut the screws to be flush with the top side of the weight. The pillar on the left for the collector shoe mount was adjusted so the mount was level. The two plastic parts were now glued together with gel super glue. With the collector shoe mount removed from the coach the last process was to cut small indents into the plastic mount to match the mounting tabs of the collector shoe making sure the collector shoe is centred over the axle as shown. With the shoe tabs bent in place I soldered a 50mm length of ESU black wire to the tab (blue arrow) and at the other end of the wire a rolled IC pin is soldered and insulated with heat shrink. Finally I painted the light coloured plastic a matt black. 10

11 4315 Wheel Ground Power Feed I constructed a wheel contact spring as shown from an old coach ground spring to match the real Märklin spring on the left and although it worked it was too thick for the coach body to sit flat on the chassis. I found an easy solution for the wheel ground power feed. First I cut the PCB from a destroyed 7549 point motor into a small rectangle then I tinned the copper foil before using gel super glue to glue it to the chassis as shown. The reason I used this method is that the PCB is very thin so I could maintain a very low profile on the chassis base without it being seen. You will notice I have wrapped a thin solid copper wire around the axles a few turns then twisted the wire back on its self (red arrows). The axles must be able to turn freely. I then soldered the other ends of the wires to the small PCB. Finally a wire is soldered onto the PCB and feed through the hole under the axle to make a ground connection inside the coach. This method works very well and if I have to replace the wire it is very easy to redo without having to dismantle the coach. Note I also added the axle wires to the 4316 baggage car to increase wheel ground contact. Because I use s88 track detection only one wheel per axle is the ground pickup. This has helped to improve the ground pickup of the coach Decoder The wire colours on the left except the green wire are the original Märklin wire colours. The green wire is the connection point for the undocumented F3 function that I tested. I removed all the thick Märklin wires and used ESU wires required for the project as shown right. 11

12 4315 Rear Red LED Lights Drill two 2mm diameter holes at the location shown. Use a 3mm drill to chamfer the holes by a small amount. Two small SMD red LED s were wired in series and tested before fixing into the drilled holes. With the SMD red LED s disconnected from the test arrangement above I used a very small amount of gel super glue to glue the red LED s into the drill holes. Using thin black card I masked the LED s and held the card in place with hot melt glue see right photo below. The angle of view for the LED s is increased by the chamfered holes. No red light can be seen within the baggage car. The collector shoe springs were quite strong so I added a small lead weight held with hot melt glue to help maintain wheel contact on the rails at all times. 12

13 4315 Baggage Car LED Lighting For this baggage car I decided to add a flicker suppression circuit using a diode bridge and a 220uF 50V capacitor. You will notice the wiring arrangement differs from the 4316 baggage car (see page 8). I added Vero board lighting strips as shown above. The small PCB on the left provides a connector for the baggage car lights and has one yellow 0603 LED and the red dotted line is a link across foils. The large PCB has three yellow 0603 LEDs with a 1k current limiting resistor. Two 1N4148 diodes are for the red rear lights with a 1k current limiting resistor for the added red rear LED s and the red dotted line is a link across foils. The decoder is directly wired to the lighting strip PCB s and is in a vertical position. The LED lights should be tested before using hot melt glue to hold the light strips in the coach roof. Coupler Rear Lights 220uF 50V ~ ~ +Pole F0f F0r F Decoder The diode bridge and capacitor arrangement is a tight fit as shown. The orange arrow shows the location for the F3 and ground connection for the decoder connection. The red arrow shows the location for the coupling connection. The yellow arrow shows the location for the coach lighting connection. All sockets and plugs are marked with a white dot for correct connection. 13

14 Photos Bonus Time The bonus file thunder_box.zip (107Kb) contains the following *.yra files for TrainAnimator. As always enjoy your model trains. 14