Tip: Liliput S LED Light for Forward Cabin Locomotive Date:

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1 Hi All, I obtained this Liliput locomotive catalogue number L S some time ago and was disappointed that the feature of a steam locomotive with a forward driving cabin didn t have a detailed cabin with functioning light. The locomotive has a LokSound 4.0 decoder with AUX2 as a spare function. I looked at how feasible it would be to add a cabin light with driver to make the locomotive more interesting. The tender and locomotive are joined together by an electrical coupling with eight contacts. In the supplied circuit diagram for the locomotive I noticed that there were two spare coupling contacts and as I only need the AUX2 function to be wired into the locomotive I decided to upgrade the locomotive and below you can see the results. The left photo shows the added driver can be seen without lights. The middle photo shows the existing head lights on and the photo on the right shows the new cabin light which illuminates the cabin and driver. The cabin light is set up as F8 which controls the AUX2 output. An extra feature is the light will turn on only when the locomotive is stationary. 1

2 Wiring the Electrical Coupler Getting access to the electrical coupler on the tender and locomotive required dismantling enough parts to have access to the coupler contacts to allow safe soldering of the wire without damaging items around the coupler. The Engine Coupler With the locomotive body shell removed the next step is to remove the smoke unit assembly which is held in place by two screws. This photo shows the extra AUX2 wire ready to wire to the forward cabin. The next step is to carefully lift the black coupler retaining plate which will reveal the coupler and self centre spring below it. Remove the spring (red arrow) and store it to prevent lose. The coupling can now be removed. I found by dismantling the bottom clip cover of the coupler it was easier to remove. 2

3 The Engine Coupler continued I soldered a length of black ESU wire, long enough to reach the front of the locomotive to the contact solder pad at the position of the red arrow. With the wire added I inserted the coupler back onto the locomotive then reassembled the coupler by clipping on the bottom cover retaining clip. Care should be taken to insert the coupler spring next. Once it is in position carefully insert the black coupler retaining plate to hold the coupler in position. 3

4 The Tender Coupler First remove the decoder and speaker (two screws, yellow arrows). The tender body can be removed by removing four screws (blue arrows). This photo shows the AUX2 black wire fitted. I routed it over the PCB as on the underside is the motor fly wheel. To get access to the tender coupler first remove the leading wheel set by removing the wheel retaining plate underneath (three screws). Now the leading wheel set can be removed. Temporary replace the wheel retaining plate to hold the rest of the wheels in place. The last removal is two screws (red arrows) which allows you to lift off the metal part above the electrical coupler. The electrical coupler retaining plate is below and can now be removed. Be careful not to lose the coupler spring. The coupler can now be removed from the tender, taken apart ready to solder the extra AUX2 wire shown above (yellow arrow). 4

5 The Tender Coupler continued I soldered a length of black ESU wire, long enough to reach the AUX2 solder pad on the decoder adaptor PCB to the contact solder pad at the position of the red arrow. With the wire added I inserted the coupler back onto the locomotive then reassembled the coupler by clipping on the bottom cover retaining clip. Care should be taken to insert the coupler spring next. Once it is in position carefully insert the black coupler retaining plate to hold the coupler in position. Forward Cabin Light With the locomotive body shell removed the cabin interior can be removed as it is only held in by a small plastic clip at the front. I drilled two 0.8mm holes to clear the top light pipe in the top of the plastic insert. Using a PLCC2 warm white LED I soldered lengths of ESU wire to the LED and threaded the wire through the holes. The LED was glued to the top of the plastic insert. As the LED is below the window line I didn t want to see the LED when the light is off so the white plastic of the LED was painted matt black to make it less obvious from the outside. The LED can just be seen at the back of the insert Rolled IC pins were soldered to the wires for a plug as shown and the +plus which is connected to the anode side of the LED was painted white. A Preiser figure was glued in place to look like he is holding onto the wheel which is mounted in the body shell. Care should be taken not to damage the driving wheel when inserting the cabin insert into the body shell. 5

6 LED Limiting Resistor Wiring For the cabin light +plus, a length of wire is soldered to the left hand side of the R3 resistor (red arrow). The other end of the wire is threaded under the front light support and soldered to the small strip of Vero board (right photo). On the Vero board I have soldered rolled IC pins as a socket for the connection of the cabin light. The red arrow shows the +plus connection and the yellow arrow shows the AUX2 wire connection. The copper foil under the 1k resistor has been cut with a 3mm drill. See wiring diagram below. Wiring Diagram +Plus 1k AUX2 With the cabin light plugged into the socket the locomotive body shell can be carefully assembled onto the chassis and fixed in place. 6

7 Decoder Updates Once all the physical updates to the locomotive are complete it s time to update the LokSound v4.0 decoder with new firmware and to specify the AUX2 [1] requirements then map the AUX2 output to F8 function key. I used the latest LokProgrammer version and the first thing is to read existing decoder settings for the locomotive (see green arrow). Once the decoder is read I noticed that the firmware is out of date and it needs to be updated. To do this I find it is best to write the firmware update first by clicking on the red arrow. Once the firmware is up to date it s time to specify the AUX2 function output requirements. I have set a small power on delay and turned down the output brightness to a value = 3, LED mode is also set. 7

8 Decoder Updates continued Once the AUX2 output is set the F8 function key is mapped to control AUX2 with operation conditions. The condition is that AUX2 [1] is mapped to function key F8 and will only operate when the locomotive is stopped. All changes are then written as a project for LokProgrammer then the locomotive decoder is updated. ECoS and TrainController Changes On the ECoS I edited the locomotive Properties and added the F8 function key and it is shown in the locomotive control window. 8

9 ECoS and TrainController Changes continued In TrainController I edited the locomotive functions and added F8 with Cabin Light 2 icon which is shown in the Train Window right. This project turned out to be a straight forward upgrade to include the forward cabin light with train driver and all the steps required to make it work. I have supplied the colour and B&W graphic bmp files for the ECoS and L S.yra for TrainAnimator in the following _files.zip.yra As always enjoy your model trains. 9