Digitization of Piko engines: G1206 and Traxx BR186

I have several Piko engines that are frequently present in configurations running in the north of France: G1206 and Traxx BR 186.

G1206 VFLI

The typical configuration is this G1206 VFLI with unloaded flat freight cards:

Piko released this engine as 97719:

I used an ETF G1206 also from Piko to try out inputting the decoder. Here's the engine running on DC:

I purchased Piko 56403 Smartdecoder 4.1 to digitizale those engines: 

The only thing to pay attention to is the way to plug the 8-pin connector - the orange is on pin 1.

On the circuit board of the engine, there is usually an indicator for pin 1 as circled in red below:

Just need to replace the "fake" decoder with the real one:

And here's how the machine is running in digital:

Traxx BR 186 Railpool

Another typical engine running in the north of France is the Traxx BR 186 Railpool:

Piko released this engine - or very similar - as 59952:

I used an HLE 2813 also from Piko to try out inputting the decoder. Here's the engine running on DC:

And here's how the machine is running in digital:

ESU lighting for passenger cars

 After my previous post, I did a bit more research and came across those two videos:

I found the neon effect, the red taillights, and the control of sections to be very valuable. The lighting kit has its own decoder, so compared to the previous solution, this allows for much more features.

List of components

ESU has several items for interior lighting:

• ESU 50708 - Digital LED lighting strip "warm-white"
• ESU 50709 - Digital LED lighting strip "yellow"

• ESU 50710 - PowerPack for LED lighting strip
• ESU 50707 - Power wheel pickup for LED lighting strip

• ESU 50705 - red taillights
• ESU 50704 - "warm-white" cabin light

By default, the ESU 50708 and 50709 come with red taillights, so ESU 50705 could be interesting for fret wagons. Both ESU 50708 and 50709 have an AUX output, which means that that decoder could control the driver cabin light with ESU 50704.

Power wheel pickup

ESU 50707 seems to work quite well, but there are alternative solutions. Probably, the easiest one is from Miniature Passion with kits specific for each type of cars:

• MP906 & MP906-2 for LS Models Corail cars
• MP902 for Roco UIC and Vitrains VB2N

Another option is explained in this video.

Digital LED lighting strip

The English documentation is here. I found the documentation a bit complex, and using the LokProgrammer makes it actually very easy. Here's what I've done to have the "Neon" effect"

I did the same adjustment to each group of LEDs and uploaded the settings into the decoder.

Here's a summary of the functions to call:

• F0 F0 turns on the red rear light (direction of travel)
• F1 switches the external load (AUX1)
• F2 switches all the LEDs together
• F3 switches the LEDs 1-3 (group A)
• F4 switches the LEDs 4-5 (group B)
• F5 switches the LEDs 6-7 (group C)
• F6 switches the LEDs 8-9 (group D)
• F7 switches the LEDs 10-11 (group E)

Here's the neon effect on my LED strip:

The next step is to decide between yellow and warm-white and then to mount those into my passenger cars:

• Lima & Jouef RIO Nord-Pas-de-Calais
• Trix & Märklin TEE
• Vitrains VB2N Nord-Pas-de-Calais
• LS Models Corail +
• Lima & Os.Kar M4 and M4m
• Electrotren TEE Talgo
• Models World MW1802
• LS Models Corail + Carmillon
• LS Models I11, I10, and I6
• Models World MW1702
• LS Models DB Sleeping cars
• LS Models M6

DIY lighting for passenger cars

I've been doing some research on how to add lighting to passenger cars. I'm working on adding lighting to my Z24500 Nord-Pas-de-Calais and I'm not fully satisfied. Here's what I've found so far:

• https://brochard-yves.pagesperso-orange.fr
  
• LS Models - Corail cars - here
• LS Models - I11 cars - here
• Vitrains - VB2N cars - here

The required materials seem to be quite easy to get:

• List
• LED strips from here or here
• Power pickup - here